Dutch Oven Sourdough Biscuits

Yes that is my old satellite dish. I tried to give it away, nobody wanted it. Let's see if it makes a good redneck cook-top.

I was up by 5:30 this morning to make a batch of biscuits for breakfast in my new Dutch Oven. I have never cooked with this method before so I wanted to try it on Mary and me first. They were done much quicker than the directions I had said to cook them. That was OK because I checked them at just the right time.

Some of the recipes I read said you figure briquettes at 25 degrees each, others said to use another formula. It is to use the number of briquettes equal to your oven diameter plus three for the top and minus three for the bottom, ie; 10" oven = 13 on top and 7 under. My calculations showed that to be 500 degrees, 20 briquettes x 25 degrees each. Maybe that is why they cooked quicker.

They still came out good. The recipes warn they will not be light and fluffy as it is a cowboy method. Anyway I'll try some meat another time. For more photos take a look at the previous blog: Dutch Oven Cooking

Dutch Oven Cooking

Catchin Air

This is what happens when I play with the big boys. About ten inches of air with my left front tire. It got scary a couple of times but the experienced guys didn't look worried. I had a blast and learned a lot about the Samurai too.

More Shasta Caverns

Some more of the really weird formations we saw.

The above cavesicle is around fifteen feet long. I took four images and stitched them together to get the whole thing in a single frame. You could make a nearly life size print from this.

I think chocolate/mocha and vanilla.

Reflection Pool

Click on the photo to view it larger in my Flicker photostream.

This reflection pool was especially hard to get. I finally got it by painting the walls etc. with a flashlight. There was no light in this pocket and the off camera flash just wouldn't show it right.

Don't forget to bring a flashlight.

Figure in Lake Shasta Caverns

Click on the photo to view it larger in my Flicker photostream.

Heather, Garry, and I were invited to photograph the cavern today with almost free reign. Lake Shasta Caverns is will be sponsoring a photo contest in the near future so we did a trial run today for them.

There is so much to photograph there it's almost hard to decide where to start. Some doesn't work out and some is fantastic. Obviously lighting is the hardest to figure out because of the darkness, some incandescent, and a little LED lighting.

I'm sure the guides have given this figure a name but I don't know what it is. I'll post more soon.

Note to Self

Note to self. Next time you are high centered in snow, have a bigger, not rotten handled, shovel. Had a great time up around Miller Mt. today. Met another Samuari owner and we hit the snow drifts. We each got stuck several times and had to dig out once. My old GI folding shovel bit the snow(dust). Now it's just a funky trowel that doesn't work very well.

Needless to say Mary was afretts (haha spell check does not know what afretts is) the whole time.

Pheasant

Pheasant, a photo by Jim Arnold (jga154) on Flickr.

I only saw two pheasant but neither of them cared who I was or where I was. They were in love, strutting, crowing and carrying on like I wasn't there. Usually they run!!!

When Killdeer Get Close

When Killdeer Get Close, a photo by Jim Arnold (jga154) on Flickr.

This is not a cropped shot. We were driving around the wildlife area and had this cooperative Killdeer pose with a nice background for me.

Bighead Clover

Bighead Clover, a photo by Jim Arnold (jga154) on Flickr.

The wildflowers in Ash Creek Wildlife Area were really starting to bloom. There were only a few of these Bighead Clover blooms around.