Expo will spark your interest in outdoor cooking

Follow your nose and look for smoke. There's lots of Dutch oven and barbecue cooking going on this weekend during the International Sportsman's Expo at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy.

On Thursday and Friday nights, amateur Dutch oven cooks will compete in semifinals for the International Dutch Oven Society World Championship. The top teams advance to Saturday's final competition for the $5,000 grand prize.

On Saturday, each team cooks a dessert, bread and a main dish. Judging begins at 1:30 p.m., and awards are at 6 p.m.

The Frostbite Challenge Barbecue Cook-Off also takes place Saturday. Six teams will begin cooking at 9 a.m. Judging begins at 4:30 p.m., and awards are at 7:30 p.m.

On Sunday, professional chefs will try their hand at Dutch oven cooking, with the judging at noon. This cook-off has an "Iron Chef" twist, as the chefs are cooking from a "mystery bag" of ingredients.

There will demonstrations and seminars throughout the expo, which can often inspire novice cooks to learn more about outdoor cooking. For instance, Rosa Sanchez of Clearfield got excited about Dutch oven cooking from watching a demonstration in 1996 at the Smith & Edwards store in Ogden. Six years later, she won the IDOS World Championship.

Tickets to the ISE show are $10 for adults and free for children younger than 12.

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Monday is St. Patrick's Day. Here's a recipe from "A Baker's Odyssey: Celebrating Time-Honored Recipes From America's Rich Immigrant Heritage," by Greg Patent (Wiley, $34.95).

NOREEN KINNEY'S IRISH SODA BREAD

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour or graham flour, plus more for shaping

3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 cup wheat bran

1/4 cup oat bran

1/4 cup untoasted wheat germ

2 tablespoons flaxseed