21st recipe created by me: Green Beans turkey giblet gravy

As with all recipes "created by me", this recipe was created by accident.

I had made smothered fresh green beans for Thanksgiving.  I sauteed some "creole seasoning"** in olive oil in a cast iron skillet.  Added seasoned salt, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder.  Then I transferred it to a crock pot, along with fresh green beans, and added some chicken broth.  Cooked down the green beans overnight.

** "creole" seasoning is in the refrigerated produce section; It's finely chopped onions, celery, green pepper, and garlic, in a container ready to use.  I hate green pepper, but in the creole seasoning, you don't really taste it.  

So when the green beans were all gone, I still had a bowl full of broth.  So I decided to use the broth to make my turkey giblet gravy.

Roast the neck and giblets in the oven at 350 degrees.  When they're done, chop the giblets and remove the meat from the neck.  

Make a roux with butter (or turkey drippings) and Wondra flour, then mix in the green bean broth.  Add more Wondra flour, and more green bean broth, until you have the amount of gravy you want.  Add the chopped giblets and neck meat.  Warm on low until it's ready.

I discovered that using the broth from the green beans made the giblet gravy taste like... green beans.

Which if you like green beans, is good.  If you don't like green beans, you won't like this.

The Lodge Cook-it-All

Pictured above is the new Lodge product, the "cook it all".

It markets itself as a combination griddle, grill, wok, pizza oven, and dutch oven.

Which it basically is.  And when I saw the video, I immediately wanted one... until I saw the price tag.  Yikes!!!

So having said that, there are some things you should know about the cook-it-all:

It's got a ring on the bottom, that lifts the pot about an inch off the ground, just like camp oven legs.  So it is not practical to use on an indoor stove.  Maybe the oven.

It's meant to be used over a campfire.  Video reviews of people who tried using this to cook over coals, showed that the results were not good, because the coals burned out inside the ring underneath.  Using a camp oven, there's enough airflow that the coals don't burn out.

For all practical purposes, if you have a camp oven (the cast iron pot with a flat lid and legs), you have 90% of the capability.  

A camp oven is primarily used as a dutch oven.  But you can also use a dutch oven trivet or lid stand, and flip the lid over to use as a griddle.  Put your pot upside down over the flipped lid, and it's a pizza oven.  While the pot is not curved, there's no reason you can't do stir fry type dishes in the open pot.

The only thing a camp oven doesn't have is the raised grill part, but you can certainly cook steaks or burgers on a camp oven lid.

It all depends on whether you think an item that can only be used over a campfire, is worth spending $130.

Personally, I'd rather something I can use over a fire, AND over coals, AND indoors.  All regular Lodge cast iron cookware can be used over fire, over coals, and indoors.

The camp ovens can't be used indoors (only over fire and over coals), but if I already have one, then I have 90% of the capability of the cook-it-all.  

I think you're better off buying the new lodge Fire and Cook stand, for cooking over a fire using most Lodge cookware.  

It's very reasonably priced, and you can use the cookware you already have, to cook over your campfire.