vintage trailer rally, a potluck & dutch ovens?

Hi Sweet Hearts!!

I'm back on my final chapter of the Vintage Trailer Rally Saga & it's time for a 'POTLUCK'!

Now, we've established in an earlier post, '10 Little Things About Me', that I don't cook. So, when I heard about the Potluck long before we were at this event, I thought to myself...

Self...since you cook like crap & it's gonna be real hot & you won't have room in the trailer to make anything big enough for this size of a group...

{this was my absolute favorite!!! I had 2 helpings of it, it was like an enchilada casserole & it was delicious...thank you to whoever made this yummy dish!}
maybe you could just bring a big seedless watermelon & cut it up into nice little cubes. That would be refreshing & you wouldn't have to cook!
{my mind is always trying to come up with new ways to get out of cooking}

So it was thought & so it was done.
Now, walking over to the potluck with my refreshing watermelon cubes displayed in a cool vintage enamel frig container, I felt..."this is good, it's gonna work, this is probably the same kind of thing everybody else is bringing". Until I saw 35 of these!!!

Now, we've been to many different Vintage Trailer Rallies over the years. Maybe I was drunk, maybe I was a hermit & didn't go out, maybe I just wasn't looking, but I have never seen or even heard of a 'Dutch Oven' until this event & all I can say is WOW!

As I walked over to the tables & saw this vast array of cast iron pots filled with the most delectable smelling & looking dishes I had ever seen, I thought..."I must live under a rock or someone didn't send me the memo, cuz nobody told me to cook anything in one of these crazy pots". My watermelon looked ridiculous!!! ;(

Thus was my sad, but enlightening, introduction to the
Dutch Oven!

Now this is an art people! It goes something like this...

You add all of the ingredients of your fabulous dish into this huge cast iron, well seasoned pot. You heat up charcoal brickets & place them in a strategic way under & on top of the Magic Pot.

The general consensus is...4 or 5 brickets on the bottom & 14 brickets on the top lid.

This slowly cooks for about 1 1/2 hours in which you give the lid a quarter turn every 15 minutes or so. There is a special handle you use to turn the lid so your hands don't 'CATCH ON FIRE'!

The benefits...

You can cook a heck of a lot of food without getting your trailer hot.

You can cook everything for your meal in 1 pot.

You can even make dessert & biscuits in this same pot.

The downfalls...

I don't even think I could lift this pot. This is a 2 man show & when I say man, I do mean man. Do not attempt this alone. And I was wondering...do they make elbow length oven gloves???

Oh look, I took a 2nd picture of my favorite enchilada dish...sooooo goooood!

I have now shared with you my complete knowledge about dutch ovens, other then every single thing we tried out of one was delicious. Needless to say, this group knew what they were doing & now comes the monumental decision...do we get one?

OK, do you see how all the campers are serving themselves from this cute horseshoe bench that had all the dutch ovens on it??

My watermelon & the items brought by the other non-cookers, were sadly designated to the table where, as you can see above, not many people circled around.

Not even I circled around.

Why would you fill up on watermelon when there was so many astonishing meals to be had on the horseshoe? I didn't. So in conclusion of our Vintage Trailer Rally's Potluck I would have to say...WOW!

Loved it, stuffed myself, gorged myself, it was fantastic & fun too! We laughed, we ate, we looked at old trailers & spoke vintage trailer to each other.

The Best!

So friends, it looks like we will be looking into purchasing a Dutch Oven. I only said LOOKING. I have issues with the microwave, so this is really a huge decision for me.

Now, as you may remember the 1st night we didn't crank up the generator, but after the potluck we were fired up like the Space Shuttle getting ready to launch at Kennedy.

And just in case there are any Dutch Oven cookers out there, I will leave you with my friend Kristy's wonderful dessert recipe. {& you can even do this in a reg oven too!}

Berry Cobbler

Fresh or Frozen bag of any misc. berries

1/4 cup of berry jam to add for sweetening

1 box of yellow or white cake mix

1 cube of butter

Add the berries & jam together & place in the bottom of pan

Sprinkle the cake mix on top

Melt butter & drizzle on top

Cook for 1/2 hour or more, checking to make sure the top is brown

Soooo Yummy!!!!

Happy Trails Friends, until we meet again!