My wife's parents gave us a Camp Chef Ultimate Dutch Oven last Christmas, and I've been hesitant to use it because dutch ovens seem like a lot of work. I finally got around to trying it out today. I spent a couple of hours cleaning off the factory wax coating and seasoning it, though most of that time was simply spent waiting while it sat in the oven.

After a dinner of BLTs (mmm, bacon) I started some charcoal in a firepit in the back yard and began making dessert. I just tried the recipe that came with the oven, cherry soda cobbler. I dumped two cans of cherry pie filling in the bottom of the dutch oven, then added a box of yellow cake mix, poured a can of lemon-lime soda over the top, and put it in the coals. While waiting for it to cook, we roasted some marshmallows and enjoyed the break in the weather, as it had rained quite a bit earlier today.

The cobbler turned out very nicely. The cake was done perfectly, and none of the pie filling was burned to the bottom of the oven (phew!). I had something similar a few years ago when some friends made a blueberry cobbler while we were camping, and it was excellent. I had hoped that mine would be that good, and it was. Cleaning up the dutch oven was relatively easy, so apparently I seasoned it adequately. I may experiment in the back yard again a time or two before our next camping trip, but I do plan on using this while camping from now on.