Open Hearth Cooking
Yesterday I was feeling very pioneerish. It's the house and the cold weather, you know. Living in this log home has been my dream come true. I like history. I mean, I really like it. I was forever dressing up as a pioneer when I was kid, pretending I was heading west, forging rivers, fighting renegade Natives. Well, now I have my log home. So, sometimes I start to feel like Laura Ingalls. Yesterday I thought how nice it would be to have a fire while Ruth and I homeschooled. Our Keeping Room can get a wee bit chilly in the winter. (Could it be because I keep the house at 60* during the day??) But, we had just bunches of bigger wood. So, I thought-I'm going to chop some wood! How very Laura Ingalls of me. So, off I went to chop wood. Well, 45 minutes and a pitiful load of wood later, I gave up. I can't chop wood. I have the unchopped wood, bearing the many, many scars of my attempts to attest to that. I have found that I cannnot hit the wood in the same place twice. That makes it a bit counter productive when I'm hitting it all over the top. Chris just laughed when I told him and said that the secret was to split the wood on the first swing. (smartie pants) Well, I made my fire and it got the room nice and toasty and we finished up school and had lunch. Then, I thought, I can't chop wood, but I can cook! That's when I decided to have a pot of stew bubbling over the fire when Chris got home. The kids and I ran to the store for some stew meat (of course, I didn't have any). Then, they helped me assemble a savory stew for cooking over the fire. I then had the brilliant idea to cook some biscuits on top of the stew and viola! Dinner!
Here, the stew is cooked and I'm about to add the biscuit mix to the top. I cooked the stew over the fire using the arm, but I don't have a photo of that!
After the biscuits were dropped onto the top of the stew, I laid a bed of coals in front of the fire, then placed the dutch oven over the coals. Next, I placed coals on top of the lid which has a ridges to hold them on top. Now, the dutch oven is more like....well....an oven.
All done and ready to eat!
Grace, getting into the spirit of the meal.
Ruth, with David grabbing her from behind. Good grief!
The crew just before we ate!
Here, the stew is cooked and I'm about to add the biscuit mix to the top. I cooked the stew over the fire using the arm, but I don't have a photo of that!
After the biscuits were dropped onto the top of the stew, I laid a bed of coals in front of the fire, then placed the dutch oven over the coals. Next, I placed coals on top of the lid which has a ridges to hold them on top. Now, the dutch oven is more like....well....an oven.
All done and ready to eat!
Grace, getting into the spirit of the meal.
Ruth, with David grabbing her from behind. Good grief!
The crew just before we ate!
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