Working my Mushroom Dogs

I have had a couple of successful outings with my three mushroom dogs this spring and I will tell you about one of my adventures into the woods for this wonderful treat.

Loaded the dogs up and headed to the woods yesterday to see if we could find a batch of mushrooms. I hadn’t had my mushroom dogs out over the Winter for much additional training so I wasn’t sure just how well they would do on this first outing. 



They certainly were ready to go and took off on the hunt before I could even get a beer opened. In a few minutes, Herman started barking and I knew he was on to a patch of these wonderful delights. I got to him and picked up a couple of the small grey sponge mushrooms that were kinda dried out. By now my other two dogs were barking and both of them were onto some of the bigger yellow sponges. By the time I got these picked, this old fellow was tired so we quit for the day. We did have enough for a couple of breakfasts. 







It wasn’t a big batch but some of them were quite large. It hasn’t been a very good year in my area for mushrooms.

Jan got the mushrooms cleaned and sliced up and put into a salt water filled bowl and then they went into the fridge for their overnight stay. 



Got the mushrooms out this morning and rinsed and dried them off and they were ready to be breaded and fried.



Used a egg and milk wash and then flopped them around in a mixture of flour and cornmeal with salt and pepper. 



They did fill two large oval plates after the breading.



Got a black iron skillet hot and fried this treat up and got them ready for our breakfast.





I fried up and egg and then some hot spicy breakfast sausage and along with a piece of toast, got ready to eat this wonderful breakfast. 





Jan ate hers straight up with nothing but the mushrooms for her breakfast.

It just doesn’t get any better than this!!

Had the dogs out again and did find another batch of these wonderful morsels. My point dog did need some additional work as he sure gets lazy over the Winter....kinda like his master!



Got them cleaned and into some salt water for their overnight stay.



Got them breaded and ready for the black iron skillet.



Looking good...



Most likely my last batch of the year as season is about over. 



This is one great breakfast. 

Meatloaf and Cheesy Potatoes on the Cobb Grill

I loaded the small charcoal basket on my Cobb grill full with some Ozark Oak lump charcoal and lit the fire.



As soon as it was about ready, I placed my three tin foil packets of potatoes around the outside of the fire and then placed my cooking grid on top. To prep the potatoes, I rolled them around in olive oil, sprinkled on some garlic salt and then cracked some fresh black pepper over them. 



I placed the meatloaf on the little cooker and turned it loose for about 95 minutes. The meatloaf was made with about 3/4 pound of burger, about 1/2 pound of sausage, some onion and bell pepper, an egg, and some crackers and spice.



The Cobb grill doing its thing. 



At the 95 minute mark, I pulled the meatloaf and the packets of potatoes. Unwrapped my quartered potatoes pieces and cut each quarter into about 3 pieces and placed them into a bowl. 



I put some small blocks of Velveeta cheese along with some pats of butter over the top of the potatoes and then back on the cooker for a few minutes. 



My cheesy potatoes ready for the plate.



Sliced up some of the meatloaf for our meal. 



All plated up.

Another test of this little 8 pound RV and tailgating grill before it goes into my camper. 

Baking on the Cobb Grill

The Cobb Grill is supposed to bake at temps up to 500 degrees if you believe all the hype on the web. For what its worth, I have never seen the grill even near these temps on any of my cooks using both lump and hardwood charcoal. The very top temperature I have seen is about 365 degrees measured at the baking surface inside the grill. This is about the low for most bread baking so I decided to give it a try.



I loaded the grill with as much lump as it would hold and when it got to about 340 degrees, I placed a pan of my favorite Amish bread on the cooker.



The cooker did reach 360 degrees and the bread did take longer than normal but it did bake it up ok.



I then tried a small boule of sourdough bread on a makeshift tin foil hearth and just like my pan bread, it took longer but did come out well.



This was enough to encourage me to try some pizza so I ordered a couple of 8-1/2" hearth stones for the cooker. That is the largest stone that I figured would work in the cooker.



For this pizza try, I maxed out the charcoal basket with a full load of Ozark Oak lump charcoal.



I fired up the charcoal and set up my new hearth stone and let the cooker pre-heat until it got to about 360 degrees as it seemed to be all I was going to get on this bake.



I took the frozen pizza right out of the freezer, unwrapped it and placed it on my peel and then loaded it into the cooker.



I figured this was probably wishful thinking but believe it or not, after about double the normal time for this pizza in my other grills, this baby did get done and from a fully frozen state.



Just before it came off the Cobb grill.





Man, this pizza is "Money".

And yes, it will bake some fine products but they will take a little additional time. Whatcha expect from an 8 pound cooker?

Making Homemade Frozen Pizza

This article will explain how I make up pizza and then freeze it for later use. We like to take the frozen pizzas with us in the RV on our outings and bake it on an outside cooker and this method does work well for us. Of course, it will work just as well in the home oven.

The size I will be making is what I would call a “personal size” pizza and I usually make these about 8 to 9 inches in diameter. Me and Jan will usually split one as they are loaded up and a half pizza will make a good meal.



One of the best methods for making the dough is in a 2 pound bread machine with a dough only cycle. Most of them are good for about 3-1/2 cups of flour and this amount will make a couple of 12-14 inch pizzas or four 8-9 inch pizzas. The secret in these machines is it uses a very small amount of heat thru out the total process and this makes for a better product than most other dough methods.

I use a standard pizza recipe although I usually add a few herbs to the dough as I feel it improves the final product.



My inexpensive bread maker will make the dough and have it ready to go in about 90 minutes.

While the machine is making the dough, I get some of the rest of the items ready.



This is 1.31 pounds of my homemade super spicy Italian sausage which is one of the meats I will use in the 4 pizzas.



I brown the meat in a black iron skillet. 



I blanch all my fresh vegetables for about 2 minutes and plunge them into cold water. Any other vegetable that comes out of a can like maybe black olives or mushrooms can be used straight up. 





My onions and bell peppers in the boiling blanch water.



My dough is ready and I cut it into 4 equal pieces.



Next step is to form it into my 4 pizza crusts. I then put them into the oven for a 6 minutes pre-bake at 375 degrees. One of the problems with the frozen pizzas is getting the dough done before cremating the stuff on top baking from a frozen state. The pre-baking really helps as the dough is already close to half done.



The crusts just out of the oven.



I brush all the outside edges with olive oil which will help with the color and browning.



I start out with a layer of sliced mozzarella cheese. Again, one of the problems with the frozen pizzas is getting the crust done right before cremating the top from a frozen state and this layer of sliced mozzarella will prevent most of the liquid from the items on the pizza from going into the crust and making it soggy which would increase the baking time. 



The pizza sauce.



My homemade Italian sausage going onto the pizza.



Next up is some onions and bell peppers.



I finish up with some shredded mozzarella and I add some smoked peppers and some pepperoni slices. 



The finished pizza ready for the freezer.



I freeze the pizza on the sheets for about 6 hours. 



They come out of the freezer and I wrap them in a couple layers of plastic wrap.



They are then wrapped again in tin foil and they go back into the freezer for future use.

I know it’s a little more trouble but these pizzas are so much better than any frozen pizza on the market. Also nice to make them with just my preferred toppings.