I finally gave in and bought a real dutch oven this week. Granted I could have probably gotten away with using a crockpot for the rest of my life, but I wanted to really hone my cooking skills the old fashioned way. This Lodge dutch oven was purchased at Wal-Mart and seeing as a Le Creuset costs about 4 times as much as this version, I’ll take a chance on it. It’s cast iron with porcelain enamel. It worked out REALLY well with the ground turkey chili, and it was really easy to clean. If I want to use it in the oven (above 400 degrees), I’m going to have to wrap the knob on top with tin foil (so I’ve read). I think I’m going to make ratatouille in it next, then in a few weeks I’m going to test it with a Coq Au Vin recipe I found online.

I finally gave in and bought a real dutch oven this week. Granted I could have probably gotten away with using a crockpot for the rest of my life, but I wanted to really hone my cooking skills the old fashioned way.

This Lodge dutch oven was purchased at Wal-Mart and seeing as a Le Creuset costs about 4 times as much as this version, I’ll take a chance on it. It’s cast iron with porcelain enamel. It worked out REALLY well with the ground turkey chili, and it was really easy to clean. If I want to use it in the oven (above 400 degrees), I’m going to have to wrap the knob on top with tin foil (so I’ve read). I think I’m going to make ratatouille in it next, then in a few weeks I’m going to test it with a Coq Au Vin recipe I found online.