Here's the excuse you've been wishing for:

A good piece of chocolate has about 200 calories. As I enjoy two servings per night and a few more on weekends, I consume 3,500 calories of chocolate in a week, which equals to one pound of weight per week. Therefore, in the last three and a half years, I have had a chocolate caloric intake of about 180 pounds. I only weigh 165 pounds, so without chocolate, I would have wasted away to nothing about three months ago. I owe my life to chocolate!

well, I always say that chocolate is a complete food groups food:

1. Cocoa Butter Is a Healthy Fat
All fluid milk products and many foods made from milk
are considered part of the Dairy Group.
2. Cocoa is not a nut, but is the fruit of the cacao tree.
Chocolate is made from the seeds of this fruit.
3. Vanilla extract is a member of the Spices and Herbs USDA
nutritional food group. Since herbs are plants just like
vegetables, they are physically, biochemically and nutritionally
quite similar to leafy greens such as lettuce, spinach and kale. Yet
we typically do not eat fresh herbs in the same ways and
quantities as vegetables. And, herbs can pack in just as much
nutrition as vegetables!
4. Sugarcane belongs to the grass family Poaceae, an economically
important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and
sorghum, and many forage crops (grains).

bring on the chocolate 😋 🍫🍫🍫

condo

I just picked up a new Dutch Oven. Does anyone have a good recipe they are willing to share or I could look up?

This looks like a great board. :D

I don't have a specific recipe but Dutch ovens are great for Braising meat so I would go with an older cut of Dutch. Check the Dutch retirement communities I'm sure you could find a suitable Dutch person for braising.
Or they are great for beef stew

I use my dutch oven so much, I bought a second one. I'll send you some recipes :) Do you have any foods you avoid? Basically, though, any time you make soup, you should just use your dutch oven. It's the best, no need to use multiple pans.

I have a yummy sourdough recipe that uses a dutch oven if you're interested in baking bread.

This recipe calls for individual ramekins, but I just use my dutch oven and it's perfect every time. It's great for dinner parties when you want an easy, but fancy looking dessert. Serve with some vanilla-ish ice cream (we've even used sugar cookie ice cream) and you're good to go.

Cardamom Apple Crisp

3 small Gala apples cored and chopped
Juice of 1/2 small lemon
1/3 cup whole rolled oats
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup spelt or whole wheat flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter or hardened coconut oil
1/4 cup dried tart cherries or cranberries

Preheat oven to 375. You can brush the bottom of the dutch oven with coconut oil, I don't bother, nothing sticks in them.

In a medium bowl, toss the chopped apples with the lemon juice.

In a small bowl, mix together oats, walnuts, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and salt.

Cut the butter into a few small pieces and using your hands, work the butter into the mixture until well combined but still crumbly.

Mix the apples and dried tart cherries with half of the crumble mixture. Put in the bottom of dutch oven and sprinkle the rest of the crumble mixture over top.

Bake for 35mins and let sit for 15-20mins before serving. I bake mine with the lid on. It doesn't specify either way.

If you want this vegan, you can use weird vegan butter, it works fine, but it's sticky as heck. If you want it gluten free, use oat flour instead.

This comes from the Love and Lemon's cook book. Their website is great too. All their food is delicious.

Oh, PiggyJaunt, this sounds wonderful! I'll try it today. No, no food allergies at the moment. We can adjust a recipe even if there was. ;)

Johnsosaurus, I'd love to have a sourdough recipe. Yes, yes. Yummm

One thing we lack in this household is cooking red meat, so I'm really looking forward to mastering tender food. We do a lot of white meat cooking.

I do have a great beef stew recipe for the stove top. Can I use that in the oven, does anyone know? Oh, I did just learn that this Dutch Oven CAN go on the stove top. Hmm, not sure I want the gas to darken the outside of the pot. EEK, newbie!

90% of the time, I use my dutch oven on the stove top. I only put it in the oven for the crisp recipe. I don't eat beef, but here's one of my favorite soups to make once it gets cold. As a disclaimer, I brown the turkey in another pan, because I can't handle any kind of grease (bad stomach). You can also leave the turkey out for this to be vegetarian.

Winter Warming Tortellini Soup

1 pound cooked ground turkey
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 small onion chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
2 carrots chopped
6 cups water
4 tsp chicken bouillon granules (I use this or cubes, whatever I have on hand, but I find that the granules have a stronger taste)
1 package (10 ounce) dried cheese filled tortellini (I like the three cheese tortellini best)
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/4 tsp pepper (I actually use red pepper flakes and add more, but you do you)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese if desired

Cover and cook garlic, onion, celery and carrot in olive oil or butter over medium low heat for 10mins, stirring frequently. Stir in water, bouillon granules, heat to boiling. Add cooked turkey and tortellini. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20mins, stirring occasionally, until tortellini are tender. Stir in parsley, pepper and nutmeg, cover and cook 10 mins. Top each serving with the cheese if you want it.

I love apple crisp! I've used peaches but apples are the best.

Yes please? I will send you a message with my email if thats ok?

I've had a few request for my sourdough recipe so I'm posting it here. If anyone needs a sourdough starter I'm open to sharing some of Dumbledough but his horcrux as I call them will be sent dry so you'll need to restart him which shouldn't be much trouble. He's an active and bubbly bloke.

Ingredients:
1 cup sourdough starter (discard or fed)
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
5 cups flour, divided
2 1/2 tsp. salt

Combine starter, water and 3 cups flour (I use bread flour but you can use wheat or white depending on your mood and the loaf you fancy). Beat vigorously for 1 minute. Cover and rest at room temperature for 4 hours. Refrigerate for 12 hours.

Add remaining 2 cups flour (I usually use wheat or white) and salt. Knead to form smooth dough. Cover and let rise until light, airy and visible bubbles - about 5 hours. Gently deflate - I just hold the dough by the edges and let gravity stretch it out and then rotate. Fold edges into center and place folds at bottom of bowl.

Divide in half - shape into 2 rounds (or 1 long loaf or several small rounds, whichever you prefer) and place in greased bowls- glass works great. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise until puffy - about 2-4 hours - I usually let it sit in an unheated oven for 1 1/2 hours and then pull out so I can pre-heat my oven and let it go for another 30 minutes unless the loaf needs longer.

Place dutch oven in oven - preheat at 500* Leave in oven for 30 minutes. When dough is ready, add cornmeal to bottom of dutch oven. Drop your temperature to 450* and place dough in dutch oven and score - cover. I usually place my dough in the lid and use the base to cover it but it's all up to you. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove lid - continue to bake until bread is crisp looking and dome shape. Turn off oven, crack the door and allow the bread to finish for at least 10 minutes.

If you don't have a dutch oven, you can use this recipe with any cast iron and some tin foil :)

This might be the best starter name I have seen! Mine's Vincent van Dough

Thank you! His container even says "I solemnly swear I am up to no good" and then his lid states "mischief managed" and all of his discard/creations are referred to as horcruxes. This is what happens when crafting meets baking meets HP. I like Vincent Van Dough - I'm sure your starter is an artist when it comes to bread! ;)

I just found her blog, and I can’t wait to try some of these recipes in a couple weeks when we go camping.
http://thecampgroundgourmet.com/

My cub scouts make Dutch oven pizzas at camp one time, and they came out great. https://www.freshoffthegrid.com/dutch-oven-pizza/

Dutch oven cobblers are also a Scout favorite and are really easy. Basics: Parchment paper, 1 box of yellow cake mix, 1 stick of butter, 2 cans of peaches in heavy syrup, and 20? Maybe 30 coals. Order to place in Dutch oven: parchment paper to line the oven, peaches, then cake mix, cut up the stick of butter and place all around the oven. do not stir. Place lid on and wait 30 minutes?
Okay, i am going to have to go look this one up. Sorry.

These are all for a campfire Dutch oven, one with a lip on the lid and feet on the bottom.
I am sure you can modify any recipe to use In the kitchen.

I'm dying!! I texted my friend who gave me the starter (His is named Barry...I don't know why) and he is extremely jealous

Vincent does seem to prefer artisian breads, lol

I have never cooked, my husband did all the shopping/cooking, being the oldest in a military family, so these recipes will be helpful for me.

This was my mom's recipe and is my favorite comfort food. It is the only home-made food I've made since he died in May and my batch just ran out. I really need some ideas so I stop eating out. I'm getting tired of salads. Actually I could probably live on the grocery store deli's, but I haven't been to a grocery store since he died in May exc. to go to Sam's to get the hamburger for this recipe.

Bar-B-Q.

2 lb. hamburger
2 lb. ground sausage
1 can tomato soup (Campbell's)
1 can water
1 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
1 chopped onion
1/4 tsp red pepper
1 Tbsp chili powder

Brown meat and onion. Drain. Add seasonings an tomato soup and water. Simmer.

Tips. I've been buying 3 lb. hamburger pkgs and it works well because I don't care for sausage. Also I started adding a pinch of sugar. It always seemed to be missing something (probably because of the lack of sausage).

My neighbor gave me a bunch of generic tomato soup which I used in one batch and it really lost a lot of flavor. I went back to the Campbell's and it was perfect. It might need some flavor tweaking depending on your preference for spice.

Hey Now, Tri-Colored Paws!
I love my DOs. One Lodge for camping, and two w/o legs for the house. Wonderful things, DOs are...

Try these sites, just a few to get you started:
US Scouting Service Project: http://usscouts.org/cooking/cook_05.asp
Camp Chef: https://www.campchef.com/recipes/category/product-being-used/dutch-oven/
Troop 75 cookbook: http://troop75.us/files/Troop%2075%20Recipes/ScoutDutchOvenCookbook.pdf
MacScouter cookbook: http://www.macscouter.com/Cooking/docs/DOCookbk.pdf
Dutch Oven Dude: https://dutchovendude.com/

Where is the "Yum" key when you need it.

I think you need to request it here:

https://www.atlasquest.com/people/profile.php?memberId=33185

I was just thinking about you folks last night. Remember the Dutch oven I picked up two years ago and you helped me get started? Well, I finally love it, and it's become a go-to item in my kitchen. Someone said, I'd want a second one and you know, they are right! A different size would be great to go along with the first.

Thanks for the ideas and keep them coming!
Tri-Colored Paws, plus one.
Little Miss Charlene

Not the "Dutch Oven" I was thinking you were going to talk about.

🤪🤪🤪🤪

Oh, are we airing out our spouses dirty laundry now?

No kidding. I had a boyfriend who used to.... oh never mind.

One store-bought, veggie pizza
dust lightly with black pepper and turmeric
reconstitute 2 tbs dried onions before spreading on the pizza
add whichever frozen veggies or leftover veggies you might have laying around
today was corn and peas
cook according to package directions

cut and serve
I also add Panda Express Sweet Chili Sauce drizzle just before plating.

Follow me on FaceTok for more recipes

Good morning, I'm searching this morning for a good Lemon Snowball cookie recipe. Can you help? I know you can change up the recipe once you have the basic ball but that is what I'm missing. I'm hoping to add this to my holiday list of cookies.

from Ann Reardon, lots of lemony goodness.
about 3/4 of the way down is a lemon cookie recipe

https://tinyurl.com/2jbtha7n

I love these:https://www.spoonfulofflavor.com/lemon-tea-cookies/