It's been awhile since I introduced you to another one of the fantastic outdoor cooking blogs out there.  This one is unique, because it details the journey of Toni, who decided to take on a mammoth challenge and cook with a Dutch oven every day for a whole year.  I don't know about you, but that seems pretty daunting to me.  It can be difficult to get out every day for a whole month, or even an entire week.  But an entire year?  That seems like madness.   Did she make it?  To find out, check out Toni's blog  at Dutch Oven Madness or read through to the end to find out!

In late 2009, Toni decided that she needed a challenge to help her continue to learn and grow and figured that since she was cooking anyway, she might as well learn a new way to cook.  She had a couple of old Dutch ovens in the basement and determined that the best way to learn to cook with a Dutch oven was to do it for 365 days and then share that journey with everyone.  Wow!  We should all be so determined.

Toni had a challenging start since she had 4" of snow on the ground and 25 degree temps to deal with on her very first day.  That would be enough to get almost anyone to second-guess themselves. She pressed on, started with a quick and easy cobbler, shared how she cooked it, what she learned, and a review of the recipe.  She continued with that pattern the remainder of the year, sharing her challenges and successes, some delicious recipes and a review of each recipe.

I browsed through the year's worth of posts, finding some delicious sounding dishes, such as Glazed Mini Meatloafs, and Garlic Alfredo Chicken Pizza, and some interesting sounding ones, like Root Beer Chicken with Kielbasa and Pumpkin Biscuits.  I saw desserts of all kinds, breads, casseroles, vegetables, Mexican, beef, chicken recipes and just about anything else you can think of.  If you want to see a potpourri of Dutch oven recipes with pictures and explanations and a fun daily read, this is the place to go.  To get a quick idea of the things Toni cooked, check out her 1st Year page where she lists everything that she cooked on one page.

So did she make it?  Well not quite.  Illness got in her way a couple of times and she had some family health challenges where more important things took priority as they should.  Some might condemn her for not making her goal.  I do not!  It's much better to set the goal to cook every day and "only" cook 350 days or so (I don't know the exact number of days she actually cooked), than to set a goal that was much more achievable (like cooking once a week, for example) and achieving that.  The difference is cooking for 350 days versus 52!  The former is obviously a much greater accomplishment.  We should all take a lesson from that and set our aim higher.  We will achieve so much more.

I hope you'll take a few minutes and browse through Toni's Dutch Oven Madness blog.  I'm sure you'll find something to cook yourself.  How could you not?