Happiness is the Lodge 12 inch, 6 quart camp oven, for when the shtf or anytime

There's your regular one, and your deep one. I bought the regular one on deep discount this summer, heh heh, for when the shtf, since I plan to shelter in place. The thing comes ready to go right out of the box, pre-seasoned in the factory. I'm breaking it in inside first, with a few recipes for breads, beans, and roasts before I use it outside on charcoal. For a hoot give a look at the Backwoods Gourmet YouTube Channel to see what using this type of equipment is all about. That Florida boy knows his stuff.

Happiness is Lodge's Round Cast Iron Grill Pan and matching Round Grill Press

If you're square, buy the square one and matching rectangular press. :-\

I chose the round one because the lid from my ancient dutch oven fits the round grill pan perfectly.

It's for the times when you don't want to fire up the charcoal grill for a hamburger, or when you want a panino and you're too cheap to buy an electric grill press. 

Happiness is my daily scrambled egg in butter in a little cast iron skillet

OK, sometimes I use olive oil instead of butter, but butter tastes the best.

1. Heat a small iron skillet (6.5 inch) on medium for about one minute.

2. Meanwhile whisk one large egg in a proper mixing bowl until frothy.

3. Add a splash of milk and beat some more.

4. Add a generous teaspoon of butter to the pan.

5. Once thoroughly melted and coated add the egg mixture.

6. Cook until the egg sets around the edges, back off the heat to low, and push the egg once across the pan with a fork from one side to the other.

7. Allow the egg and butter mixture to pool back and set around the edges again and repeat until done to your liking (I like mine a little underdone and glossy, but not runny). The egg shouldn't stick one bit if you're doing it right.

Lazy Peasant Bread

Usually when I make the European Peasant Bread recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, I make all the loaves right away, one in a greased non-stick loaf pan and two in greased Pyrex loaf pans, and freeze them after slicing. Why? Because I'm a lazy bum and those are the only pans I own, and I need bread to make lunches in a hurry most mornings.

I like their version baked on a stone with water steaming beneath in a broiler pan, but I'm also adapting the recipes to satisfy the sandwich tastes of a ten year old, not the artisanal desires of his dad. But even at that, the high moisture dough method is still hard to handle without the refrigeration step, and dividing the mass into two, let alone three, is not easy.

So I got to thinking. Why not use a different type of pan, a big one, and bake a giant loaf? Since the lady of the house makes the pizza every Saturday in four cast-iron skillets of varying size, I asked myself why not bake the bread in my greased 4 quart cast iron dutch oven by Lodge?

Another stroke of genius, I dare say. The bread popped out of the thing after the requisite 35 minutes at 450 degrees F looking like a cake! And the really cool thing is you have wonderful crust, but less of it, just perfect for sandwiches for a youngster.

The recipe requires 1.5 T yeast and 1.5 T salt, dissolved in 3 cups lukewarm water in the bowl of the KitchenAid Mixer, to which you add .5 cup whole wheat flour, .5 cup dark rye flour, and 5.5 cups unbleached all purpose flour, using the scoop and scrape method to measure. Once it's all in, I let the mixer work at it for five minutes on setting two, after which you can plop the whole thing into a well-greased camp oven or dutch oven and let rise for an hour or so, covered with a thin flour sack dish towel, and bake.

The result is pictured below. Enjoy!