Monday Musings

It's been a week.  No kitchen to cook out of, and I've learned many, many things.

Food:
1) I love my slow cooker.  I've cooked a couple of awesome meals in the slow cooker.  One was this recipe for Moroccan Chick Pea Stew that I found in Mother Earth Living Magazine.  I made a huge batch, so not only did we have enough for dinner on the day I made it, we had enough for leftovers the next day.

2) We do have a grill, and we've used that for two very tasty meals this week.  We roasted a bunch of veggies and then served those in corn tortillas one night for dinner.  The second time, we cooked up a bunch of chicken.  We had chicken for dinner one night, and enough left over to turn into Pulled Chicken BBQ a second night.

3) The fire pit in the back has been put into use.  We pulled out our Scouting Skills, and cooked up a pretty fabulous chili one night (with a strawberry rhubarb cobbler for desert), and another night we fried up a shrimp stir fry in the cast iron skillet - we sat it on top of the grate over the coals.  Wow, that was a much better dinner than it is when I make it on the stove.  Maybe the extra hot heat from the fire gave it that really extra special crunch?  I don't know, but it was awesome!

4) I picked up the makings for some awesome salads at the farmer's markets over the last week, so we were able to make several meals of very fresh salads.  I'm so glad it's vegetable season!

So, lessons learned -
Long term, I really don't mind cooking outside.  It has kept the house much cooler this summer, and less strain has been put on our air conditioner as it attempts to cool the house back down after dinner.  An outdoor summer kitchen sounds like a great idea.  You know, families used to do this back before the advent of air conditioning, there was always a stove on the back porch, or a separate kitchen.   Both of my Grandmothers kept wood fired stoves on their back porch for summer use!  I need to revisit this idea!

If your kitchen is going to be out of commission for weeks, make sure you arrange this to happen during the summer months, when cooking outdoors is not going to be as much of a challenge as it would be in the winter.

Washing dishes outside has been a challenge.  We've been using paper plates for eating, but using our regular utensils for eating.  Since we can't get to the kitchen sink, we've washed some of the smaller stuff in the bathroom sink.  The bigger stuff, we're washing outdoors in a bucket with hot, soapy water.  Maybe my outdoor kitchen should include a plan for water of some kind, too.  And a sink.

Keep an emergency savings account, and keep adding to it.  You never know when an emergency is going to hit, and having that cushion brings a wonderful level of comfort to your life! 

Other than the fun of cooking outdoors for a week, life has been pretty quiet around here!  How about you?