2005

Apples for the Teachers?

Idos Convention

Achieving Goals and catching the Brass Ring

I was asked to write an article about the experience of taking first place at the IDOS World Championship Dutch oven Cook off. (I asked Wendy if she wanted to write this or add something, but she said she would let me speak for her). After about 7 or eight years of competing in these cook offs, we finally won "the big one". Some would say, that we finally caught the brass ring.

After they announced that the Auxiers (who are from Orem) took second place, they announced that the winners were also from Orem. I looked around trying to figure out who else was from Orem. I couldn’t imagine that it would be us. When Doug Miller said our names, I literally fell off my chair. I caught myself (or maybe it was the hugs that I got) from falling onto the floor but almost lost my camera that was falling to the ground. To say that Wendy was thrilled is a colossal understatement. She hung the plaque on the wall as soon as we got home. We had been convinced that The Auxiers, or others, would win this year. We never even imagined that we would win. We hadn't practiced our dishes for months and in the rush of our lives, the cook off had been placed on a back burner in our minds.

Years ago, when I was cooking for our guests in the back yard, my brother came late to the dinner party and handed me an entry form for the cook off in my hometown. While looking at it, I wondered if I could hold my own in competition. I decided to give it a try. It was too late to enter that cook off that year, but I went and watched. Then we attended the world championships as spectators. Wendy didn’t want to compete at first but when I couldn’t find a partner, she decided to help me. She made it known that I would owe her "big time" but she would not come out in front. She would mix the cake and make the bread, but I would have to talk to the spectators. The following year we entered the cook off and after it ended, Wendy was hooked. It has been a down hill ride ever since.

Over the years we kept finding other cook offs to try. We won a few, and lost others, but in that first cook off, we took third because of the flip of the coin. They sent us to worlds anyway however, because the first and second place winners of that cook off had already qualified to go. We have cooked in every world’s championship (but one) since. Last year we qualified, but our recipes didn’t. We were there however to root for our friends and specifically the GWDOS members who had their recipes chosen. We were thrilled when the Auxiers won the last chance cook off and went on to do well in the main cook off. And it was great to see the Fullers also do well.

Through it all, we have had several goals in mind. Winning our hometown cook off was one of them. Gratefully, we were able to do that twice. I must admit though, that in the beginning, the thought of winning worlds held many charms. So we started planning and practicing to achieve that goal. But we noticed that while reaching for that particular brass ring, we lost sight of the fun that we should have been having. We almost quit when we realized that we were getting angry because of each other’s mistakes. That’s when we decided that having fun was the most important thing. It became paramount in all of the cook offs. Sometimes we would drift away from that resolve, usually when we felt that some of the judge’s opinions were flawed. But we would remind each other of our resolve and return

to the fun of it all.

A few years ago, I noticed that the cook off experience was having a very good effect on Wendy. She had always been a very shy and reserved person and would much rather talk to kids than adults. When I saw her teach an impromptu class on the art of making "gum drop roses" to her Dutch oven peers, I realized that my wife had changed, and it was the Dutch oven experience that was doing it. So if you were to ask me if it has been a rewarding experience, I would of course, have to answer that it has. So on Saturday March 19, After I got over the shock of winning, I walked away with a great amount of satisfaction in knowing that Wendy found great joy in the experience, and that she is becoming the person that she was meant to be.

Over the years I have been driven to achieve one thing that was always out of my grasp. I have come close many times, but because competition has always been a subjective thing, I never achieved my goal. I finally stumbled onto it though, and developed what I thought was a perfect main dish. So this year at worlds, when they told me that every judge had chosen our main dish as number one, I was more thrilled with that, then I was about winning first place. So it has been a wild ride that has been very rewarding with many goals achieved and brass rings caught.

There have been great successes as well as many disasters (A pie that fell on the ground comes to mind). We have met many friends who are like family to us. We have learned a lot from all of them. Not only lessons about cooking, but lessons about class and sportsmanship that have been precious.

This year was a little lonely for us because none of teams were cooking in cook offs when we started. Some of those cooks have retired from cook offs, most of them were there in other capacities. But I missed the old days when we cooked in the tent at Jensen historic farm in Wellsville, Utah. When a food umbrella was a necessity instead of a courtesy. Back in the days when the spectators were given a taste of the food. But it was still great this year, to cook side by side with some of our GWDOS family. Five of the teams were GWDOS members and that is gratifying. Also to cook with the others, who aren’t, but ought to be GWDOS members.

They told us that we are going to have to go back next year and defend our title. I’m not sure if that will be the case but if it is, and if we loose, I will take great pleasure in turning it over to another GWDOS member. We are going to take a year off from the cook offs so others will have a chance to qualify then next year we shall see.

We Beat the Odds!

This year, The Klondike Dutch oven Cook off was a mass of questions, Would The teams show up? Would the Judges show up? How would the weather be?

The Weatherman said that we would have clouds all day then in the evening it would start to rain. Well I am happy to announce that we had five very talented teams, the judges were very qualified, and we had sun shine all day, and mid 40 degree temps by the end of the day.

Keith was the director again this year and had been under a lot of stress with work and other things so we were wondering if it would happen at all. Wendy was the one that should be commended for all the hard work that she did.

What a great day! The day began with the cooks meeting at 9:00 and the cooking started shortly afterward. Sportsman’s Warehouse our sponsor, had many customers so we were all thrilled to be able to teach others about our passion that we call a hobby. Dutch oven cooking in Utah is something that everyone knows about. Most of the people have eaten Dutch oven cooking, a lot of them have used Dutch ovens. So it is a real thrill to have someone come and ask how do you do this or that.

Our teams represented the Art of Dutch oven well. And the friendly spirit of competition was a joy. This year we had four teams that have been invited to cook at the Worlds championships in March of this year. And one team who are of the same caliber, but haven’t had a desire to do the worlds. So needless to say, there was a lot of great food. Our novice teams had to cancel at the last minute and the juniors all had to attend the boy scouts Klondike Derby. But we had five advanced teams.

When the aromas began to waft in the direction of the passersby, we began to draw crowds. Our noses were being treated to the smells of such dishes as: Apple Pie, Peach Melba Pie, Rhubarb cake with Dutch oven Ice cream, Old Jack’s Pecan Pie, Pumpkin pecan pie with Dutch oven Ice cream. Then came the very good breads that were hard to judge. There were Italian Garlic Parmesan rolls, French herb bread, Wreath bread, Cornmeal rolls, and braided half and half. The meats we spectacular with Sweet and sour pork roast on a bed of confetti rice, Raspberry Pork loin, Crown roast of Lamb, Cherry almond Pork Roast, and Uncle Bob’s Tri Tip Roast.

What a hard job to be a taste Judge, we had Blaine Murri, Sam McCandles, and Rex from Sportsman’s Warehouse, and Rosa Sanchez who was the 2002 worlds champion. For Field Judges we had Deeann Johnson, and Steve Kingery. The Peoples choice judges were, Terry, Becky and Angie Adams, and Bill Johnson. It was a hard Job but they did their job well.

When the smoke cleared, and the ashes were in the bucket, the winners were announced and they were:

First, Ben and Debbie Auxier of Orem, Utah

Second, Carol Fuller & Steve Plett of Lehi, Utah

Third, Becky McKenzie and Brittany Alsop of Taylorsville Utah

Fourth, Carl and John Rasmussen of Kearns, Utah

Fifth, Todd and Jason Carter of West Valley City, Utah

Peoples Choice was the Italian Garlic Parmesan Rolls made by Becky Mckenzie and Brittany Alsop.

Sportsman’s Warehouse then presented an award for their choice of best dish and that was the Cherry Almond Pork Roast made by Ben & Debbie Auxier.

We need to thank our sponsors for being so generous with us they were:

Sportsman’s Warehouse, Camp Chef, Cal-Ranch Stores, Carols Copies in Orem, All the others that are always so generous, but the Director ran of personal time and didn’t get them contacted but we have listed them on this website and in the recipe book. We really appreciate them and want them all to know of our gratitude.

Thanks to Neil Humphrey who brought enough Chilcoot sour dough starter to bake bread into the next century. The cooks were very grateful and the judges too. This starter is rumored to have originated in the Klondike 1898.Thanks again Rev.

On a personal note, this is the first time since the director started doing this cook off that he received so much valued help. To the servers and gophers I want to give a great big Thank You. Jay Fuller, Tammy, Plett and J Rasmussen for serving, Wendy Fisher for taking care of us all, and Angie, for watching the booth.

Next year it may be snowing and that will be a fun time also, start planning now to be there!