Saturday 21 July 2012

Outside cooking

Riding on the wave of the Native American interest that is alive and well in our house at the moment (see last blog entry), today we decided to cook on an open fire outside, just as the people of the plains had cooked.
An excited group of three set off outside to collect wood and pinecones, and get a piece of cororgated iron to prevent the sparks hitting the grass..... they did all this themselves.
Kurt had deducted that back history American Indians wouldn't have had matchs, so he decided to light their fire by what he deemed 'a more natural way' , with a magnifying glass and the sun, acting on apiece of paper. I'm not too sure the Indians had magnifying glasses either, but he was to be congratulated on his patience and perserverance waiting for that one piece of paper to catch alite.......




After a really exercise in patience , and a wee chat with me, they decided that it was OK to light the fire with a match (just this once).

And so it was light, followed by great celebrations , made even sweeter ,I'm sure, knowing that they constructed this fire, and their own cooking modality by themselves....


that's our chook house behind, I'm really not too sure what the thought of all the commotion, they settled down after a while, but I don't think they ever really forgave us for all the smoke that drifted into their enclosure, over the course of the morning,. Maybe smoked eggs to collect tomorrow???

And so it was lit, followed by great celebrations ,running and whooping for joy, a celebration made even sweeter ,I'm sure, knowing that they constructed this fire, and thus their own cooking modality by themselves....



The next stage in the process was to cook food. They waited until the fire burnt down to hot embers, then we made some dough for 'bread sticks' to cook over their fire creation. Suitable untencils in the way of sticks were sourced and amist all the smoke the cooking began...


All learning how to find the optimum height over the embers to get the bread most evenly cooked with out too much eveidence of charcol....














It was quite the art to turn at just the right time for that perfect brown but not too brown, and yet cooked right through, but not too dry balance...







The little ones were fascinated by the smoke, and loved the fact that they were cooking there own lunch, they were so proud.
Oh sweet independence . (I quietly ask them not to grow up too fast, just yet)


Even little Arwen sat for a while to let the bread cook....










...however it turns out that , the time it takes to cook was just too long, and I think she decided it tasted pretty good half cooked anyway....



..hot bready spirals and  a bit of good ole golden syrup were enjoyed by all...I pointed out that maple syrup would have been a bit more accurate, as this was what was used by the people of the plains, but we had run out, and if I do say so myself, the golden syrup was a pretty tasty alternative....







Full tummys... it was off to play in the hedgeline (for some reason the place of choice for play at the moment) ...




How much fun and delight two old tyres can bring .....


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