Dutch Oven Redux

Welcome to the third installment of Dutch oven week here at a glass of milk.  For those who don’t know, this week is dedicated to the lovely Cari Faye, who is soon to be a Mrs. and who will soon be learning to whip all kinds of dishes in her Dutch oven.  As soon as she figures out what it’s for.

*source

The first, and easiest dish I can think of to make in this do-it-all pot is oven baked risotto.  It’s a dump, saute, and bake kind of dish that tastes like you stood over it for hours.  It’s creamy, without being terrible for you, and you can always toss in whatever you have on hand as you become more comfortable in the kitchen.

Another super-easy Dutch-oven recipe is homemade applesauce.  Which you can jazz up, a la Barefoot Contessa, or leave plain and straightforward a la Deb.  The true benefit to making homemade applesauce is that you are now free to make this applesauce cake, which will warm you from the inside out, at your leisure.

For something a little more complicated, that still counts as a one-pot dinner, make chicken and dumplings.  Think chicken noodle meets matzoh ball soup in a classic Southern dish.  Talk about heart-warming.

And when you’re ready for a challenge, you can use your Dutch oven as a fryer!  To make onion rings.  That will knock any other onion rings you’ve ever eaten upside the head and make you wish you had never wasted the calories on them.  Seriously.  We still talk about these almost a year later.

Happy Dutch oven-ing!