It’s winter time and your stuck indoors due to the weather.
Your bored and you can’t find anything to do. What do you do.
Why not take this time to go through your camping gear and
get it organized so you are ready when the weather gets nice
and it’s time to go. You don’t have to set up your tent, you can
wait for better weather to do that, why not check everything
else. Clean and check your camp stove and make sure all parts
are in it. Put new wicks in you lantern, check to make sure you
have matches or that you lighters work. Pull out all your cooking
stuff including your old mountain cast iron cookware, plates, cups
and silverware. Make sure it’s good and clean and organized so when
you head out you have everything.

After a hard day at work, nothing relaxes me more than cooking a simple
meal and having a glass of wine. You don’t have to make it complicated
to make it good. Simple can be delicious. Open your cupboard where you
keep your pre seasoned cast iron cookware and take out your skillet. Cut up
some veges, coat them with olive oil, garlic or whatever you like and cook
them over medium heat. Tear up some good bread, add a little butter and
enjoy. Not only good, but healthy.

If you’re like me, you have plenty of hooks and hangers in your house
to hang up your coats, hats and scarves. But what about outside. What do
you do when you are outside and you need to take off your jacket, sweatshirt
or other item. You put it on a chair if there is one nearby and if there isn’t, you
probably just put it on the ground where it will get dirty. So why not hang some
rustic wall mounted coat hooks around the yard. Just because they say “wall mounted”
does not mean you cannot mount them on a tree, a post or the side of your house.
It’s a lot easier to get when you need it, because you are not bending down every
time you need it. Try it, you’ll love it.

For fast easy cooking, nothing beats an Old Mountain cast iron skillet.
If you want chicken and veges for dinner, you can do it in 1 skillet. Just
brown you chicken in the skillet, turn the heat down and add your veges.
This is a great way to go unless you enjoy doing a lot of dishes. Also, by adding
the veges in with the chicken, both will have better flavor.

When camping, nothing beats cast iron cookware. That is
why it is important to take care of it. Cast Iron does not need
the special care that a teflon skillet will need because you do
not have to worry about scratching the teflon and ruining the
skillet forever. Even if you buy discount cast iron cookware,
you will want to take care of it so it lasts you many years. When
camping it is best to hang your skillets to keep them off the ground.
That way, if it rains the skillets will not fill up with water which may
cause rust. This will also keep them free of dirt and give you added
space on your cooking table.

When your camping with a big group, it’s hard to keep track of
everyone. Some are around the camp fire, some are fishing or
doing other activities. So as the camp cook, you can strain your
vocal cords yelling to everyone that dinner is ready. Save your
voice and get a cast iron wall bell. You can hold it or mount it to
a tree. When dinner is ready, just ring the bell. The sound travels
far enough and is more pleasant than yelling. Those that want to
eat will show up and your not wasting your time yelling all the time.
It’s a much more pleasant way to call everyone of dinner.

Back in the 1860′s one of the most treasured and useful
items for a camp cook on a cattle drive or a cowboy traveling
across the prairie was his cast iron pots and pans. Built tough,
cast iron lasted a long time with minimal care. Today, cast iron
is as good as ever with a large selection of pots, pans and dutch
ovens that the cowboys did not have. Seeing as you won’t have to
store your cast in a chuck wagon or your saddle bags, the skies the
limit on what you can store in your house.

Some of the best days of our lives is when we go  horseback riding with our friends in Colorado to a small river to do some fishing. We pack in small fly rods, potatoes, onions, green pepper, some oil and a seasoned cast iron skillet. When we get to the river we’ll catch some trout and cook them right there on the river. First we’ll cook the potatoes with the onion and green pepper, then we bread the trout and fry it it oil. All you need for this is a good size skillet, some paper plates and utensils. If you have never had fresh fish like this, try it yo won’t believe how good it is.

To me, nothing is more fun than cooking outdoors. You don’t have
to go camping to do it , you can do it in your own back yard. You can
dig a small pit and add your charcoal. When the charcoal is ready, simply
put your cast iron pots and pans on top of the coals and cook away. It’s a
fun way to cook and it gets you out of the house. Anything you can cook
in the house, you can cook outdoors.

If you like to do one pot cooking in your dutch oven, you really
should consider a cast iron trivet. That way you can take the meal
right off the stove or from the oven directly to the table. The trivet
will protect your table from the heat of the pot, skillet or dutch oven.
If you were to put the pot directly on your table it could discolor or
even leave burn marks on you table. Even when using the trivet, it is
a good idea to check the heat underneath to be sure your table is not
getting to hot.