Easy favorites included in Dutch oven cookbook

A few weeks ago, I listed local farmers markets. Here are two more:

Tooele: Veterans Memorial Square, corner of Main and Vine, Fridays through Oct. 13, 4 p.m. to dusk.

Salt Lake City: Pioneer Craft House, 3300 S. 500 East, Tuesdays, 4-7:30 p.m.

Our "101" publishers are at it again.

Gibbs Smith, who brought us "101 Things to Do With a Cake Mix," followed by slow cookers, potatoes, tortillas, ramen noodles, etc., has moved on to Dutch ovens. This time the author is Vern Winterton of Lehi.

I met Winterton in 2003, when he and his wife, Barbara, chaired a Dutch oven cook-off with a special challenge — to cook a bread, a main dish and a dessert for under $20. I had a feeling that his book would be long on practical things and short on truffle oil, ahi tuna and other "gourmet" ingredients found in big-name cookbooks.

Championship cook-offs have proven time and again that you can turn out delicacies, such as stuffed lobster, from a Dutch oven. But most of us would rather try something less taxing, especially if you're out in the wild without kitchen facilities. Just hauling those heavy pots up the mountain is a major workout.

Fortunately, even the most simple Dutch oven dishes seem to taste better outdoors. The combination of fresh air and cast iron seem to add a magic flavor. My kids have raved about food they ate while camping but then decided it wasn't that great when eaten at our kitchen table.

Winterton's book has easy favorites, such as Dump Cobbler (pie filling, cake mix and a can of soda pop), and Mountain Man Breakfast — the favorite of Boy Scouts everywhere. There are also more advanced dishes, such as from-scratch Russian Black Bread, Stuffed Flank Steak, Apricot-Raspberry Glazed Cornish Hens and Strawberry Torte.

A lot of the recipes use a can of creamed soup or a packet of onion soup mix — one of my pet peeves. But I guess it's expected in campsite cuisine, when you don't have cupboards of ingredients at your fingertips.

I like that the recipes specify the oven size needed, and that the directions give both a specific temperature and how many coals go on the lid and bottom. These are helpful when you're trying to maintain a certain temperature or if you decide to cook it in a regular oven.

DUTCH OVEN STEW

1 12-inch Dutch oven

1 pound beef stew meat

1 medium onion, chopped