Simple Dinner

Last Saturday night we had only 5 adults camping so Dustin came up with something easy, good, and quick.  As you can see above and like most of the time our meals start with a couple of jalapeno peppers.  These guys had a good bit of bite to them.  I have been getting jalapeno peppers that taste more like bell peppers and have less bite to them.

Dustin went through our dry goods box and found this family size box of Zatarain's red beans and rice mix.  This stuff is great by itself but when you add some fresh peppers and some meatthat makes it pop even more.  If you are a hardcore cajun person then maybe you are better off making it from scratch.  My mother is from New Orleans so I like the fresh homemade stuff but seeing her over that stove for hours cooking then letting it rest for another hour just is not easy to do when camping.

 

Above is the sausage beeing cooked up in Dustins Ikea cast flat iron skillet.  He and I have fun arguing over cast iron care.  I use hard metal spatula's and spoons and he is more of the don't scratch the seasoning off of the pan.  Being around scouts all you see is build up of carbon so I like to nip it in the but right away.  Dustin uses milk (not fat free milk) to season his pan once he is done cooking.  He says it puts the fats back into the pores.

Look at that Red beans and rice being cooked up in a nice 12 inch skillet and the sausage simmering next to it.  The meal was ready in about 45 minutes and it was great.  Dustin was looking for more rice but I feel the rice to beans ratio was perfect.  I guess if you want more rice you can put about half a cup of instant rice with the mixture and add a cup of water with it.

I have to give it to Dustin for trying this one.  Above you see a dutch oven on a turkey fryer.  We use the turkey fryer for our giant Wok.  We have had very little rain in north Texas so we did not feel safe having charcoal around with the chance of fire danger.  Dustin made a chocolate cake/brownie mixture on the fryer by keeping the heat on low and letting it cook for about two hours.  It wasn't perfect but did make for a genious way around not having coals.