Dutch Oven Sausage and Potatoes and Roasted Pineapple (4 Star)

Yesterday we went "camping" (just a super quick evening trip up the canyon for dinner) and we made our favorite dutch oven meal. It is our very favorite, and to be honest, I've only made one other meal in the dutch oven because we all love this so much that there hasn't been much incentive to try anything else. So here it is, Sausage and Potatoes. It is amazingly simple.

Dutch Oven Sausage and Potatoes

2 pounds of your favorite sausage, sliced into chunks if it is links (I used my homemade Sweet and Spicy Sausage this time. I've also used different kinds of Aidells sausage with awesome results. The sausage can either be raw or pre-cooked--this meal cooks long enough to cook raw sausage through and pre-cooked works just fine, too.)
15-20 peeled and diced medium potatoes
1 large onion, chopped
1 stick of butter (margarine=blech, butter=awesomeness)
1-1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt (to taste)
1 teaspoon pepper (to taste)
6-8 quart dutch oven (I can't remember what mine is! But one of those two, I think.)
50-60 charcoal briquettes

Heat the briquettes in a pile as per charcoal briquette instructions. When they are ready, place about 20-25 coals in the place you plan to cook with the dutch oven, enough to cover the bottom of the oven. Place the oven on top of the coals and allow to heat for several minutes.

When hot, put 2-3 Tablespoons of the butter into the dutch oven and swirl it around. It should sizzle. Dump in the onion and stir around a bit. Then put in the sausage and break it up if it is loose sausage like I used. Allow it to heat and sizzle a bit and then dump in the potatoes. Sprinkle on the salt and pepper and cut the rest of the butter into small chunks on top.



Place the lid onto the oven and put enough briquettes on top to cover. We had about 30 on top. Allow to cook for 15-20 minutes, then lift up lid and stir. Break up any large chunks of sausage, if necessary, and be sure that it is cooking properly. It should all be sizzling along nicely. Replace the lid and give it another 15-20 minutes to cook and then check. Cook longer if necessary. Ours was done at this point, the potatoes nice and soft. Give it a stir and serve.



This makes a fairly large amount, but we put it away so easily that we ate about 2/3 of it, leaving a little for the next day. Even my most pickiest boy had seconds.

Why does food cooked in a dutch oven in the woods taste so amazingly awesome? I think there's more to it than just slow, even cooking. Cast iron dutch ovens are like magic. So is a campfire in the woods.



Oooh, baby!



We tried something new this time--we roasted pineapple over the fire. We just used plain pineapple cut into spears and skewered on a roaster and roasted like hot dogs until they were a little blackened.



They were so good, even without any sauce, and a great accompaniment to the sausage and potatoes. We were thinking that for next time it would be fun to try a fruit kabob comprised of pineapple, banana, and peach, roasted over the fire. What do you think?