Summer Project: Outdoor Kitchen

Something that's been on our project list for a long time is an outdoor kitchen. Dan has been grilling meat on his wood-fired grill for years, so expanding the outdoor cooking possibilities makes sense. Under cover makes sense too, although I think many modern outdoor kitchens are out in the open. But we want to be able to use it when it's raining, and the carport seems like the perfect place. 

The carport would be a good place for an outdoor kitchen.

So, what should go into an outdoor kitchen?

• barbecue grill
• stove
• pizza oven
• cold smoker?
• someplace to store my solar oven
• work/dining table

That's what's on our list. We have the grill, so we've been looking at cooking surface for pots and pans (the stove), and a pizza oven. Here's what we've come up with.

For the stove, we're going with the Walker Wood Fired Masonry Cook Stove (that links to where we bought the plans). Here are some front and back pictures from one of Matt Walker's videos.

Oven and fire viewing window side.

Firebox side.

The selling points (from his website, link above) were

"Incredible efficiency and smokeless performance, with an easy temperament. Easy to use, quick to light, and stable to cook on. . ."

The plans are highly adaptable; for example, we probably won't include the fire viewing window. And we've been able to source almost everything we need locally. It would almost be perfect, except that the oven is smaller than a standard size oven, more along the size of the oven in my wood cookstove. And the problem with that is that it's too small for my pizza stone. Hence the addition of a pizza oven!

But! This is not going to be the typical cob style pizza oven that is so popular. This is going to be a J-tube oven. 

From the building plans

I got a free copy of the plans for supporting the passive greenhouse video Kickstarter last year. It's made from two 55-gallon metal drums, so it will be plenty big enough for my pizza stone or a week's worth of other baking. The selling point was how much less wood it uses than a wood cookstove oven. 

So, there's our summer project! Or at least, that's that's the plan for our summer project. All subject to change, of course. 😺

Summer Project: Outdoor Kitchen © May 2021

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Haybox (aka Thermal) Cooking

I'm always on the lookout for methods of alternative cooking, so I was quite intrigued when I learned about the haybox cooker. I was also surprised that this new-to-me idea is actually a very old method of cooking! Haybox cookers (also spelled hay box) are sometimes referred to as wonder boxes, fireless cookers, or thermal cookers. They cook food by using retained heat. In other words, the food is partially cooked first, then allowed to finish cooking in an insulated container.

Early haybox cookers were wooden boxes which used hay as insulation. People still use hay, but wool fleece is popular too. The box itself can be anything from wood to a thermal bag. They tend to be susceptible to moisture build-up, so probably the only thing that wouldn't last long would be cardboard. Dan made my haybox from an old travel cooler and leftover foam board from our pantry insulation project.

The cooler is from Dan's trucking days. Plugs into a cigarette
lighter and keeps food cool without needing to replace ice.

We had quite a few foam board scraps left from our pantry
upgrade. As you can see, he cut them to fit a particular pot.

Two more pieces of foam board cover the top of the pot.

The other day I tested it out by cooking rice. To get the cooking started, I used my rocket stove.

I bought this little camping stove years ago and can no longer find the website. So much more convenient than campfire cooking, although it constantly has to be fed to keep it going. That's why it pairs nicely with the haybox cooker!

My recipe for rice is one cup brown rice and one pint of bone broth.

After the rice was allowed to simmer for about ten minutes, I put the pot in the haybox.

I had no idea about timing the cooking. Some
sources say one hour, some say several hours.

Then I covered it up, closed the lid and waited. It's hard not to peek, but every time the cooker is opened heat is lost, so it's best not to open it if at all possible.

After about an hour and 20 minutes in the haybox, the rice looked to be pretty much done. It was, pretty much done, and was edible, but it could have gone a little longer. I'll do that next time. 

I see a lot of use for this kind of cooking, all seasons. I'm not always around to tend to a wood fire, so this is the perfect solution for one-pot meals. Summer too, when we often have clouds rolling in during the late afternoon. Those clouds mean my solar oven stops cooking. The haybox will be the perfect way to finish up whatever I've got going for dinner. 

If you're interested in more, there are tons of websites and videos on haybox cookers, all easy to find with a simple search. There's also a free cook book by Margaret J. Mitchell, entitled The Fireless Cook Book. It was originally published in 1913, but is now public domain and available for download at the Internet Archive. Amazon has an inexpensive paperback option, which I recently ordered, along with a more recent publication, Fireless Cookers Haybox Cookers & Retained Heat Cookers by George Eccleston. I ordered it too and will give you a review of both books soon.

Haybox (aka Thermal) Cooking © Nov. 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Outdoor Cooking: Rice and Meatballs

Outdoor cooking doesn't have to use a solar oven, grill, or campfire. If you can put your slow cooker or crock-pot on your porch or balcony, you can cook outside and keep some heat out of the house! That's what I did the other day, when I cooked rice and meatballs in my slow cooker.

Cooking outdoors with my slow cooker.

The recipe was simple and required few ingredients.

1 cup of brown rice and 2 cups of "tomato water."

Tomato water is what I call the water I save from defrosting frozen tomatoes for canning. Because I'm cooking them down to make pizza sauce, I drain the tomatoes to save cooking time. My frugal genes won't let me throw that tomato water away, so I save it for making rice, gravy, or soup.

After the rice was started, I heated up some frozen meatballs to add.

Slow cooker is set on high.

Rice and meatballs don't have the same slow-cooker cooking time, so the meatballs needed to be cooked before adding. After that, I could just forget about it until it was time to eat.

Total cooking time was a little over 2 and a half hours.

I served it with a salad of cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden and my ricotta ranch salad dressing. We had homegrown watermelon for dessert. It's nice to have a simple meal after a busy day.

Outdoor Cooking: Rice and Meatballs © Sept 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Simpler Cooking & Meal Planning

I tend to not do a very good job at planning ahead for meals. I know some folks are really good at it and because of them, I know all about weekly menu planning. I know all about once-a-month cooking. I've thought these are good ideas but have never been able to work them into my reality. In fact, most of the time it's midafternoon before I figure out what to fix for dinner. Dan changed that this past summer.

Every Sunday he grills hamburgers for dinner. He stopped using charcoal briquets a long time ago, favoring cooking with hardwood instead. He has experimented with smoking the burgers and has gotten quite good at it. He uses mostly pecan (in the hickory family), but we also have apple, pear, and peach trees which impart a lovely flavor. This is truly frugal cooking.

Hamburgers cook pretty quickly, however, so he was always commenting on the lovely coal bed left glowing after the burgers were done. "Do you have anything else to throw on the grill?" he would ask. So I started buying or defrosting something else to throw on the grill. He worked his way up from burgers, drumsticks, and leg quarters to whole chickens, ducks, and roasts.

Pecan-smoked meatloaf

With less tender cuts of meat he'll hot smoke them on Sunday and the next day I'll finish it up in the slow cooker to tenderize it. Then, if the cooking broth doesn't become gravy, I freeze it for homemade smoke flavoring to add to soups and stews.

What's really nice is that this extra Sunday cooking gives us three or four days of a delicious, ready-to-eat main course. And that means nightly dinners are easier to plan and prepare. Win, win, win!

Care to share your ideas for simpler cooking and menu planning? I can use all the tips I can get.

 Simpler Cooking & Meal Planning © Dec 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/