Its the small things - Like cooking on a Fire
I love cooking on a fire. As soon as we bought our property and were camping on it, I started testing my skills. We would camp there a weekend a month at first and then we would start taking vacations and stay a week at a time. We were always burning debris and having bonfires which would always include food on the fire. During all this time I always told my hubs that I wanted a fireplace in the kitchen when we built our house there. A double sided fireplace separating our Lodge Room and Kitchen became my number one must have during our design phase. Yesterday, I got to have one of those days I just love. I got up and it was chilly so I built a fire and got my coffee and just enjoyed the morning.
I got to thinking this would be a great day to cook on the fire. We didn't have any plans and I had some sausage and ground beef thawed I was gonna meal prep today. We had cooking attachments built in with the kitchen side of the fireplace. So if you want to grill or use pans, there is a rod that you just pop in on the left side of the fireplace. I needed to go ahead and get that in there before it got any hotter so I enlisted the help of the Hubs. Soon as the attachments were in, I stuck my skillet for the sausage inside to let it get good and hot. This will always give you a good quick sear.
You want to make darn sure you have a good mit if you are cooking on a fire.
I used the skillet for my sausage and decided to get the iron grill/griddle out for the burgers. It leaves beautiful grill marks on anything you cook.
The cooking time is gonna depend on your fire and how hot it is burning. I keep an eye on my food all the time when I am cooking on a fire. It only takes a nano second for everything to go up in flames so I try to be extremely careful. My Fire today was too hot, but I just didn't want to wait, and started early. That just means to me I had to be more attentive but that is the part I love. I like keeping the fire going and I like working the pan so everything gets to cooked evenly if there are hot spots, and I love the smells and then there is that smokey taste. You want to make sure you remove your food just before it is done, when you are cooking on an open fire. For me, that is hard to do because I want my food done! If you don't pull early, I promise it will be overcooked. Iron Skillets hold heat well and will continue to cook your food even after you remove from the fire. Let your meats rest 5 to 10 minutes.
Caramelized some onions for the tops of the burgers, saute'd some veggies in olive oil and white wine, and threw together a pan of cornbread. I will use leftover veggies in dirty eggs for breakfast or quesadillas. This will make several meals for us this week.
I hope you had a great weekend and was able to take some time for yourself to rejuvenate. We are always thankful for quiet weekends. This one didn't disappoint.
I did a point and click on all of these photos myself.
Holy cow!!!! This is a fantastic post!
And wow, your home is BEAUTIFUL!!!!! Upvoted and resteemed! 😀👍🏻
Well I sure appreciate you stopping by and glad you liked my post! Thank you for the kind compliment! We kicked city life to the curb too and lived in our barn while we built. It was a great experience and I learned so much. Things get put In perspective real quick when you don't have everything you want and need. I am thankful for having to learn several things the hardway. My biggest challenge was no fridge for 11 months. We were buying ice in the summer and using a Spring on our property until the Bears found our stash. We had 4 solar panels but they were not enough for a fridge. We used them to power the pump for toilet and shower which brought in the rain water we caught. We hauled our water from a Spring the Hubs plumbed. We decided not to spend a dime on anything in the barn and rough it so we pitched our tent and that was our bedroom and an air mattress. My Hubs told me if I roughed it during the build we could take the money saved and spend it on my kitchen. Well, that didn't take me long to decide. Best decision ever. We just moved in last March, a year ago last week, and we are so blessed and thankful. I wish you the best with your Homesteading! Man, I really appreciate the vote and Resteem too :) Thank you!!!
What a lovely home you have and the fire is great to cook on:) I have a fire that I can do soups etc on but not cook inside of it like that. In fact I've never seen one like that before - it's awesome!
Thank you bunches! We are really enjoying it but it sure burns a lot of wood! I love soups on the fire too and spaghetti sauce. We had a tripod and kettle I cooked with when we lived in the barn. Great Memories!
Beautiful post @qberryfarms, your house looks gorgeous! Here in South Africa we love barbeques (or as we call it here, a braai) also cook other foods outdoors, but I really love this idea of yours. Some food tastes so much better cooked on a fire hey!
Thank you so much and Yes, I agree some food definitely tastes better. I love South Africa. My husband visited in 2012. We did a 7 day safari and then spent a week in Cape Town. My husband says it is the only place we have been that he didn't think he would get me to leave. My #1 Bucket List in Africa was amazing. So many Hallmark moments. I will never, ever forget that trip. I loved all of Africa!
We don't cook too much on an open fire, but we do a lot of canning in our outdoor kitchen on an open fire.
We have an outdoor kitchen area that we ran water and electric to, but it is on our list to complete one day soon. I am excited about learning to can on the fire one day too.
Very interesting post sweetheart, you are doing so well! Keep it up!
Thank you! I appreciate that so much!
Love your photos! It's really helpful to see clearly what you were writing about when cooking in the fire place. Excellent post!
Thank you! I am glad you enjoyed it. I was afraid to keep my cell phone in the fireplace too long for my pics... it was HOT!