more food

Saturday noon there was a big potluck at the family reunion.

Last time we went I made an upside down pineapple cake and I was told that as long as I made that I was always welcome (the family is my son-in-law’s mother’s family, so I am a bit of a shirt tail relate).

This was to be done in my Dutch Oven, firing with charcoal briquettes.

All went well. After it was cooked I turned it out on a plate to cool. My plan was to not even wipe out the DO, but to cook the potatoes in the same DO. Lora suggested I should get the caramelized sugar out of the pot first, so we will have to wait to see how it might have tasted!

All went well in the prep. Brianna helped. She is a good helper. But I do not have a lot of experience working with charcoal and/or one of these “chimney” starter gizmos.

The potatoes cooked and cooked but they did not get done. We were a bit above 100 feet above sea level, so it was not altitude. It turned out that I did not get my charcoal properly started and the fire simply went out.

Alan, (brother to son-in-law Cliff) is an experienced DO cook, so I talked to him. The restarted charcoal did a fine job.

But the potatoes were finished an hour after the meal was over. I fully expected to eat potatoes for the next two or three meals, but word got out that there was a pot of hot scalloped potatoes, and the pan was promptly emptied.


But now, thanks to Alan, I can get charcoal burning too!