Dutch Oven Delight

We've been craving some comfort food around here and I was itching at the chance to use the new dutch oven Santa dropped off this year.  And by dropped off, I mean, the one I picked up on my way home from the grocery store the other day:)  Since moving into our new house, in lieu of individual gifts at Christmas, we've been buying one "house present" that we both can use.  Last year was our camera; this year, the dutch oven.  Since my new year's resolution is cooking more, I'm planning to use it often and have heard there are so many things you can use it for.  Do you have one?  If so, what do you like to cook in it?  



It sure looks pretty sitting on the stove- especially with a white kitchen.  I chose red because the salesman said that the red and orange (flame) colors would never be discontinued, so if I wanted to build a set of same colors for the future, those are the safe colors.  Not that I'll be buying a set, but I really just thought the red was beautiful and classic.

Chili with cornbread is delicious and I like making meals that we can eat for a few days.  A guilty pleasure of mine is also chili cheese hot dogs with Hebrew National franks- mmmmm!

And by the way, here are the America's Test Kitchen magazines I mentioned in my resolution post.  They give so much information beyond a basic cookbook, which is why I really like them.

I went ahead and bought the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook too and have started reading it.  It doesn't have any color photos, but has illustrations and lots of commentary on why the recipes work. 

I read all of your comments about how you learned to cook (or not! :) and your suggestions and what works for your family.  I appreciate you sharing them and definitely plan to incorporate the "child responsible for a meal once-a-week" when that time comes.  I also loved the commenter who said she makes one meal per night and if someone doesn't like it, they can have a PB&J.  Works for me:)