Serves: 5

For the last several years I've participated in a Dutch oven rendezvous sponsored by a sporting goods store. This particular store invites DO cooks to participate in a one day Dutch oven cooking extravaganza. The store purchases the groceries for 10-12 cooks. When the food is ready, store customers get to sample a wide variety of dishes! Even the year it snowed in May, cooks and customers had a great day! In addition to cooking and demonstrating, the store asks each cook to provide copies of their recipes so the customers can get the recipes of all the dishes they sample. In the course of the day, we cooks always like to take a break and visit with our fellow DO cooks. This gives us the chance to learn from each other, do some sampling, and trade recipes. Like so many times in life there always has to be one exception though. There is one among us who is first to visit everyone else to see what's cooking and collect copies of their recipes. Yet when we stop at his booth to taste the grub, and maybe pickup a new recipe or two, this particular fellow claims "executive privilege" 'cause he uses "secret ingredients" thus, his recipes are termed "secret" and not to be shared with all the others.

I was still looking forward to the first grade when Dad taught me there are certain things in life you don't share and, even at that tender age, it was OK to lie about! This new bit of information, being totally contrary to everything I'd learned in my short life up to that point, caused me to sit up and pay attention. This conversation took place on the South Fork of Toponce Creek in SE Idaho as we sat in our old Ford station wagon eating lunch before going back out to fish some nearby beaver dams. I precipitated Dad bringing up this topic when a few minutes earlier a carload of fishermen pulled up to where we were parked near the old Toponce Ranger Station and asked how the fishing was. Not waiting for Dad to answer, I promptly told these fellows, who hailed from a state that borders Idaho on the south, exactly how many fish we'd caught and what they were biting on. To say my prompt and accurate answer displeased my Dad is an understatement of the first magnitude. Dad taught me about many things in life, but this was the one and only time he said it was OK to deliberately mislead others. This practice is so common among fishermen if you look up "liar" in the dictionary, you will see a picture of a guy ready to go fishing! Anyway…

As I've made my way through life, I have learned that folks lie for all sorts of reasons. As a rookie game warden, it took me awhile to learn that wearing a badge did not prevent folks from lying to me. These lies ran the gamut from, "Honest officer, I wasn't fishing. I was just practicing casting" to somebody telling me the big bull elk in the bed of their pickup had been killed on the "East Fork of No Tellum' Creek"! I'm sure there have been entire books written about what motivates folks to mislead others so I'll not delve any deeper into that subject. But, as I learned from Dad there are occasions when it's deemed socially acceptable to deceive and mislead others. I personally don't believe that recipes and/or ingredients fall into this category. I don't perceive sharing recipes or ingredients as a breach of "national security"!

To further illustrate this point, I’ve included a story "_Expensive Lesson" with accompanying recipe that I stumbled upon while doing research for this book.

More Recipes from the Cee Dub's Ethnic & Regional Dutch Oven Cookin' Cookbook:
_A Lot Does A Good Job, More Does It Better!
_Big Pal Passes On Secnds
_Black Jack Scrambles The Eggs
_Breakfast Bull
_Cee Dub Confesses
_Cougar Ranch Patrol Cabin
_Don't Worry Pat, We Ain't To The Bad Part Yet!
_Expensive Lesson
_For A Good Time Dial 1-129-324-3297
_Getting Grub
_Helping Muffin
_If They're Whole, I Can Pick Them Out!
_Musselshell Meadows
_Seven More For Dinner?
_Tater People
_The Best Skunk Cure Recipe I've Ever Found
_The Ultimate In Ethnic Cooking
_Why Be A Camp Cook
_Why Be So Stingy?
_You Know You're...
__Acknowledgements
__Author's Note
__Dedication
__Forward
__Publisher's Note