Deal Alert: Lodge Logic 4 Qt Dutch Oven - Only $22.91 (Lowest $ Ever!)

Update: Deal is dead. Now priced at $45.55.

Happy Day! Get it Quick! It won't last long!

Lodge Logic 4-Quart Cast-Iron Camp Dutch Oven

Only $22.91 + Free Shipping

(This price is cheaper than both INFERIOR knock-off brands: Camp Chef and TexSport!)

I have blogged numerous times about cooking in my dutch ovens. Dutch ovens are part of my Redundancy plan. If SHTF and my electricity or gas goes out, I can always cook in my dutch ovens. I love to cook with them over my mesquite charcoal.  I have also taught my children how to start a fire in a chimney starter and cook with dutch ovens.

Wifey has perfected a homemade cornbread dutch oven recipe. And by "homemade" I mean she grinds up her own flour. This is award winning cornbread that absolutely will NOT disappoint!

So don't wait, they won't last long. CamelCamelCamel is a website I use to price check items. Camel says that this is THE lowest price these dutch ovens have ever been (Camel's history goes back to 2008.)

Let me know what you think.

~OJD

Homemade cornbread, Mmmmm.

Homemade Dutch Oven Cornbread Recipe

Cornbread is in back, to the right. Also pictured is
our dutch oven ribs, homemade pumpkin muffins with
icing and tator tots in the oven.

Cornbread is one of our favorite side dishes. It compliments everything, tastes delicious and is very filling. It only takes about 30 minutes to make in a dutch oven (and ten minutes of that is just mixing the ingredients in a bowl.) Very inexpensive for so much food!

What you'll need to make cornbread in a dutch oven:

1. A dutch oven. We use our 4 Qt shallow dutch by Lodge Logic. Brand name doesn't matter of course...at least, not unless someone wants to sponsor me? LoL! (I prefer Lodge Logic) What DOES matter is depth. You'll want to cook your cornbread in a shallow oven for a more even cooking temperature. If you cook your cornbread in a DEEP oven, it can still be done but odds are you'll burn the bottom before the top gets cooked. (Heat has to travel farther down from the top of a deep oven to reach the cornbread)
2. Heating source. We use charcoal, both lumped and briquettes. Whatever is on sale at the time. At our last purchase, we found 40lb bags of lump El Diablo mesquite charcoal for under $8. I posted the deal here and in the future will post super deals related to survival on this blog. We loaded on up on several bags at this price. I have also used plain old wood. You just have to experiment a little to determine how much ember to use.
3. Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter; melted
• 2 cups cornmeal
• 4 eggs; beaten
• 3 cups hand ground flour (we use our WonderMill); all-purpose flour will also work
• 3 cups milk
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 2 cups sugar



Half-eaten cornbread, gone in minutes!
Homemade brownies in background.

• 1 tsp. salt

Optional Tools: Lid lifter, thick leather gloves or a towel

Mix the Ingredients:

1. In a large bowl mix together butter, eggs, and milk.
2. In a separate bowl sift together sugar, cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients 1 cup at a time until well blended.
4. Spoon cornbread mixture into your dutch oven. A properly seasoned oven will not need to be greased. If you have not seasoned your oven, you can lightly grease you dutch oven and spread evenly.

Cooking:

1. Cover Dutch oven and bake using 8-10 briquettes on the bottom and 14-16 briquettes on the top. If you are using lump coal, such as the El Diablo mentioned above, break the coal into chunks. You want the chunks to fit under the dutch oven when it is placed on the coals. Place the chunks touching each other and the diameter of the chunks should not stick out from underneath the oven. Same goes for the top of the dutch oven. Generously cover the top but don't overload it. You can spot check by raising the lid from time to time and checking on the cornbread's color.
2. Cook for APPROXIMATELY 20-25 minutes or until cornbread turns golden brown. The temperature of your fire will depend on how you built your coals and how red they were before dumping them out of the chimney starter. A simple test for telling whether your cornbread is done or not is to simply stick something down into the middle of the bread. I use a fork or knife. Stick it in the center of the cornbread and push down until you reach the bottom of the oven. Then pull it out and look at it. If there is any runny or liquid cornbread on the fork/knife, then cook it a little longer. When nothing sticks to your fork/knife, and the top is a golden brown, you are done. I noticed that I can usually smell the cornbread when it is almost done cooking.

NOTE: To brown the cornbread evenly,  make sure to turn the oven and lid 1/4 turn in opposite directions every 10 minutes.

Cornbread is done when top is browned and you can
stick a fork through the middle with no gooey
batter left on the fork when pulled out.

Serve warm with honey butter (Mmmm...honey butter...hawlalallal.)  

Serves: 10-12 people easily.

Keeps fresh very nicely for days in the refridgerator. We usually put it in zip lock baggies or tupperware.








Supplies at Amazon:

Focus on Beneficial LIFE Skills

5 of 6 daughters were in cheer or tumbling
and we were WAY too busy running around.

This summer, our family is focusing more on basic skills like gardening, sewing, canning, dutch oven cooking, and shooting and less on activities that might not be of much use later in life...specifically...Competitive and Performance Cheer.

 While our girls DID enjoy the activity of cheer practice with all the cartwheels, front walkovers, backhand springs and the such, what wasn't enjoyed was the snottiness of the spoiled teammates, the overpriced add-ons (hair bows, makeup kits, shoes, cheer uniforms...and on and on and on), and the price tag waiting at the end of the season if you wanted to travel to another state to watch them compete in Nationals. Did they get exercise...yes. Did they learn a skill that would help them as adults...hardly. Don't even get me started on how much time and gas we spent driving back and forth to practice (two girls on one Competitive Cheer team, eldest on another Competitive Cheer team, 5 year old in Performance Cheer, 3 year old in tumbling).

It was a hard sell at first. Wifey was heavily involved in cheer and dance growing up. She was so good, she won Star Search (you know, Ed McMann Star Search.) She wanted her girls to feel the joy of accomplishment that cheer and dance brought in her youth. After some time, she realized that she had invested so much of her life into cheer because she didn't have anything else to do. Our girls are quite the opposite. They were turning down things left and right because they had an obligation to a cheer team, 2-3 nights each week with competitions on Saturdays. Don't forget the additional "Clinics" on the side. For an additional fee, they could get more one-on-one time with the coach to work on skills. Homework AND chores were suffering and the girls were staying up past midnight on school nights to get homework done.

Crisscross fire next to our chimney starter.

One of our choices this year was to ditch the cheer team and spend more time with the Job's Daughters group that my girls had joined right before cheer started. In 2010, they missed out on being in two parades, going to a circus, a mini beach vacation, a campout and several minor events. This year...they're doing it all! Cheer didn't end until the end of April so they missed the 2011 campout. But we're doing everything else that comes along. The Jobie girls are much more friendly, respectful and genuinely care about each other. There are frequent "secret sister" gift exchanges, numerous service projects and later this month will be a state-wide conference called Grand Session for an entire weekend, including a craft fair. My girls are excited to enter their crocheting and sewing projects. One daughter is trying to learn cross stitching from youtube to complete a pillow case.

And today, what a great day! I spent a few hours showing my girls how to start fires! YES! I showed them how to build the tee pee, criss-cross, and star configured wood fire. We used a butane torch lighter, weatherproof matches, regular lighter, and a flint rod for variety. Then we practiced two ways to put out the fire: cover it with earth and douse it with water. I hadn't thought much of these activities in the past. We were always so busy. I found out today that NONE of my girls could even start a Bic lighter. Gasp! We always told them to stay away from lighters and matches when they were younger. Obviously they did if they can't flick a Bic. Watching them create a spark from the flint rod was fun too. But slowly, they all got it ( the little ones watched Blue Clues with Mommy.)

Half eaten dutch oven cornbread and brownies

I also taught my 12 and 13 year old how to start a charcoal fire in a chimney starter for dutch oven cooking. We cooked homemade cornbread and enjoyed it with our chili dinner. Wifey also made her first batch of homemade brownies. Homemade means ground the flour and made the recipe from scratch. Mmmmm.

Yes sir, the girls are learning some useful skills this summer.  Best of all...we're doing it together, as a family.

Update: The girls brought home three medals (two 1st place and one 2nd place) for their craft projects at Grand Session!  Now they're even MORE excited about improving their skills!