One of the desserts from my Labor Day weekend camping trip at Cachalot with the family: pineapple upside-down cakes, baked (in cake pans) inside cast iron dutch ovens (in other words, using the ovens as actual ovens, instead of as the cooking vessel themselves). This turned into an impromptu cooking lesson for one of the other alumni types out for the weekend who was interested in getting started with dutch oven cooking, to bring back to his own Scout troop. Pretty standard campfire cookery here: melted 5 or 6 tbls. of butter and about 2/3 c. of brown sugar per pan in the bottom of two 10" cake pans, arranged some pineapple slices and maraschino cherries in the sugary goo, then topped with cake batter. I used a boxed yellow cake mix prepared as directed on the box, but added about 3/4 c. of yellow corn meal and substituted the juice the pineapple rings were canned in for the water that the mix called for. The cake pans get placed in dutch ovens, elevated off the bottom with 3 or 4 marble-sized balls of aluminum foil to let air circulate. I shoot for about 375° in the ovens (with briquettes, that's works out to roughly 12 briquettes beneath and about 19-20 briquettes on the lid of each oven.) Took about 20 minutes to bake, rotating the lid of the oven by a quarter-turn halfway through to help keep the heat even. Often, I'll bake these directly in the oven, without the "intermediate" cake pans, which works just as well (and gets a bit more caramelization on the pineapple, which is very nice), but in a 12" oven you end up getting only one larger cake per box of cake mix. Baking two 10" cakes made it a little easier for me to portion them up to share with a larger crowd.

Karaage (Japanese fried chicken) My personal recipe. Usually I measure by eye, so this morning I tried the record the measurements I used so that I could share this with all of you. Marinade 1 1/4 - 2 pounds chicken chopped into bite-size pieces (I prefer thigh meat but Kurt will ONLY eat breast meat.. so it's your choice.) In About 1/6th a cup shoyu 1/4 tsp onion powder 1/4 - 1/2 tsp minced garlic 1 tsp minced ginger About 5 drops toasted sesame oil Let sit for up to 30mins. (30 mins will produce some pretty salty chicken. Length of marinade depends on how strong a flavor you prefer.) Pour some cornstarch In a plastic bag. When the chicken is finished marinading, toss it in the bag. Seal the bag with some air in it and shake until coated. Empty into a strainer over anther bowl to remove excess cornstarch. Fry on high heat in a little over an inch of oil. (don't crowd the pan! fry in batches if you must) Frying at a high heat will ensure that the chicken crisps up fast on the outside while the middles remain moist and tender. Be careful not to burn! Cook until chicken is medium-gold in color. Remove and drain oil/cool. Garnish with lemon slices (squirting lemon over the fresh chicken makes it unbelievably good) ENJOY!