Let 'em eat Stew (The Story of a CDO Addiction)....

Happy Sunday Everyone.  It's Pod here doing the blogging.  My peeps survived (barely) the first week back to school after Christmas break!!  This week is State Exams, always a fun week of school or not, according to R&T.

As my followers know, Rob belongs to a little group of camping friends who like to cook using Camp Dutch Ovens, CDO for short.  They earn awards (merit badges) for cooking all sorts of dishes, in all sorts of places and all kinds of weather too.

This is a CDO apron Rob had made.  All of his patches are just laid onto the apron for now.  Rob says it will be a "snow" day activity to get them all sewn on. 

As you might suspect, it isn't enough to just own a CDO.  They have to have all the accessories.  Such as a special stand, lid lifter, supply bucket, lid rest, trivets, CDO carrying bags, charcoal, charcoal lighter, a brush, gloves, and on and on.  Then it seems, once they have all of this, it's a shame to have only one CDO, so they should have two, three, or even more if so inclined.  

Rob hasn't yet gathered all of his CDO stuff in one place, I think he's afraid to.....

At any rate, Rob told me he was doing so CDO cooking today, so I grabbed the camera (his new one of course) and took some pictures of all the fun.

The basic ingredients of Rob's Veggie Beef Stew

Here Rob cut up the stew beef into smaller chucks than the grocery store does.  He also chopped up one onion, added salt and pepper and dried onion flakes.  All of this he coated with olive oil, stirred well, and let rest in the fridge for an hour or so before the cooking started.

Next of course, was to get the charcoal fired and cooking for our heat source.

Once the coals were ready, Rob added the stew beef,
onions, etc., and let them brown really well.  He
used a lot of coals so the CDO would be really hot for this step.

Then Rob simply added the rest of the ingredients.
Note: he did peel and cut up the potatoes before adding
them to the beef stew.  Then he arranged his coals just so,
put the lid on on the CDO, letting time and temperature
do the hard work.

Since it is a windy blustery day here, Rob simply

closed the lid on the grill to act as a wind screen.  He says he 

has plans to make one, and is in the process of

 gathering the needed supplies.

Here's a picture of the simple Beef Veggie 

Stew happily simmering away.  

Rob said it sure does smell good.

After about 2 and a half hours of cooking, Rob took the CDO off the coals, brought it inside, and let it "rest" a few minutes before serving it for lunch.

Rob served everyone and he said next thing you know, not a sound was to be heard.  Only about one small serving was left, so this was just the right amount of warm hearty stew on this cool winter's day.

Rob said this would be a camping dish for sure, especially in the cool weather camping parts of the year.

So there you have it.  Rob's Hearty Beef Stew, all cooked and eaten.  Rob earned yet another CDO patch and I got to play with the new camera and his computer too!

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-Just Pod.   

(Oh, and COOK ON!)