Dutch Oven Learning Blog

Lesson 7 - Let's Not Forget Breakfast - Even if You Do Burn the Bacon!

Personal Learning Experience:
My instructor canceled class again this week. So I decided to go out on a limb and try cooking something we hadn't cooked in our lessons yet -- breakfast. After conducting an internet search, I finally settled on the following recipe: "Mountain Man Breakfast in A Dutch Oven." I found this recipe at:

http://50campfires.com/mountain-man-breakfast-dutch-oven/

I began by frying the bacon in the Dutch oven via my Camp Chef stove. Well, I learned very quickly (and unfortunately) that bacon can go from almost done to absolutely burnt within just a minute or two. Yep! I burnt the bacon. So, I threw that out and sent my husband to the store to buy more bacon while I tried to rid the Dutch oven of the burnt bacon flavoring. (I didn't want this burnt flavoring/smell to get into everything else I cooked.) Because I burnt the bacon, I decided to alter the recipe. So, I started over.
This time, I began by frying the sausage. I figured that the grease from the sausage would have to substitute for the bacon grease in this recipe. (In one of my previous blogs I stated that I had learned that bacon grease makes for a flavorable cooking oil substitute--unless it's burned of course.) Along with the sausage, I cooked the onion, and garlic. Then I stirred in the bell peppers and hash brown potatoes. (FYI: I used a small food processor to mince the onion and bell peppers. I did this because I like the flavor provided by these foods, but not necessarily the crunch associated with these foods. It worked perfectly.) I placed the lid on top of the Dutch oven and let it cook on a medium-low heat for about 15 minutes. After that, I poured in 12 beaten eggs and removed the Dutch oven from the Camp Chef stove. I placed 9 charcoals on the bottom of the Dutch oven and 20 on top of the Dutch oven. I let this cook for about 40 minutes. Then I added a layer of cheese on top and let it melt for a few minutes. The final product reminds me of a breakfast/quiche casserole. It tasted great. Personally, I'd give it four out of five stars. (One point deduction for it being a little too dark on the bottom--which thankfully didn't have a burnt flavor. Just more done than I would have liked it to have been.) In fact, because the recipe made such a huge helping, I took it over to my in-laws' house and we enjoyed a little brunch together. (The burnt bacon set my timing back from breakfast to brunch.)
By the way, the bacon was supposed to have been added on top with the cheese. But, I "cheated" a little and cooked this on my conventional stove top and served it as a side dish.

Learning Theory Connections:
So, I think I felt a need to "redeem" myself after last week's personal learning experience. If you recall, I was allowing for some learned helplessness, external locus of control, and negative ability beliefs to creep into my learning experience. This week, I decided to go ahead and try some new things despite not having received a prior lesson; and it worked. I can definitely see a shift to an internal locus of control and a positive application of the attribution theory in terms of ability and effort. Firs of all, I took control of several situations: 1) not having been taught a formal lesson on how to cook a Dutch oven breakfast by shifting through and selecting a recipe from a website 2) throwing out the burnt bacon and starting again and 3) altering the recipe when it wasn't working the way I wanted it to. (Yea for not giving up!)
When my husband and I took the final product over to my in-laws house to have a brunch, everyone loved the food. My father-in-law even wanted the recipe because he Dutch oven cooks all the time on camping trips. How's that for some positive feedback, praise, and external motivation? In fact, on the way home I told my husband that I thought I was really starting to get into this Dutch oven cooking thing.
In addition to this, I think that the repetitiveness of practicing cooking in a Dutch oven is really starting to create a foundation of procedural knowledge in this area. I find myself starting to think things through, like preheating the Dutch oven, remembering to rotate the Dutch oven to ensure even cooking not too mention all of the set up of the equipment--it's becoming more and more second nature to me each time I cook.