Start all the charcoal at once, away from the DO, just like you do for a charcoal grill. You can use a charcoal chimney (I do), or you can use lighter fluid, whatever you're used to. I usually start the charcoal in one of the "chicken feeders" (they used to be called oil change pans before all the oil change pans went to plastic!). You can also start the charcoal in the fire pit.
Once the charcoal is going nicely (mostly gray and very hot!) you move the briquettes using tongs. Put the charcoal for the bottom of the pan in a circle a bit smaller than the DO you're using. Then put the DO on top of the circle, placing the remaining briquettes on the top of the DO, spreading them evenly on the lid.
Note that REAL camping DOs have legs (to sit above the charcoal) and flat lids with a flange to hold the charcoal on the top. If yours doesn't have legs, you can improvise some. My little aluminum oven doesn't have legs and my husband made some "feet" for it using plumbing pipe. If the lid isn't flat, you just have to be more careful in placing the briquettes on top so they don't fall off. You can also make a collar out of aluminum foil to help hold the charcoal on the top.
Be careful about taking the lid off; it is very easy to dump a bunch of ash into the food! :-[ I recommend taking the time to move the charcoal off the top first if you don't have the flat lid. The amount of time to cook is pretty similar to an oven, and you can usually smell when it is ready ;D
There are lots of great DO recipes out there: do a web search on "Dutch Oven Recipes" and you'll get hundreds of hits. One of my favorite sites is
http://www.macscouter.com. It's cooking section has lots of good ideas and links to a number of on-line outdoor cookbooks.
Anybody else have some good Dutch Oven recipes to share?
Pam S