I’ve wanted to try open flame cooking over my fire pit for a while, ever since my mother gave me a couple of old cast iron pots a few years ago.
So last weekend I had planned to get out side and do some yard work, finally. The cold, wet weather pattern had finally broken! My focus was to clean the fire pit I had created a few years ago (How to Build A Stone Fire Pit in One Afternoon) digging it out to make it deeper and reconfigure the design so I can try open flame cooking (direct heat) on the fire pit. By shaping my fire pit into a ‘Key’ would enable me to have an area where I can pull hot coals to control the temperature for cooking (indirect heat).
This time last year, the patio was open and I was planning my first Wine Tasting at the Twilight Lounge. After a few morning showers, the sun was out and temps warmer than they had been but it was a tad windy. I put on my work clothes and boots and Rubi and I headed out to the barn to get our tools. I filled the wheel barrel with shovels, rake, trowel and headed for the patio.
It was pretty clear Rubi was so excited to be out in the yard, running, sniffing and rolling in the still defiant patches of snow. Watching her expression when she rolls back and forth pushing her back into the snow, swinging back and forth making a little dodgy snow angel, she is in canine ecstasy.
At the fire pit I put my gloves on and reached down to grab some large twigs and felt resistance.
I pulled a little harder, that twig was going nowhere. So I cleaned away some of snow and leaves: all I could see was ice.
Upon closer inspection I could see the fire pit was a block of ice at least 6 inches thick. Now this is something I should have known, there was still a two foot patch of snow in the corner of the patio and the temps haven’t been all that warm. At least I could have ventured out in my pajama’s and inspected the fire pit before I went through my yard work routine. I was just so excited to get outside and get busy, so excited to start hanging out on the Twilight Lounge.
This week was a different story. Very few patches of snow remain after we had rain, sleet (and snow) this week but the Patio is clear and I was able to get outside and rake out the gardens, cut up my Christmas Tree (yes, I leave it up so long the Town won’t take it away, I love the Lights) and …. enlarge the Fire Pit!
The Old Fire Pit:
Converting the Fire Pit:
First, I dug the Fire Pit deeper so I could create a bigger, hotter bed of coals for cooking. I can put a cooking grate over the Fire Pit for open flame cooking. I also want to be able to control the heat which is hard over an open flame so I created a ‘wing’ which was less deep than the Fire Pit base. Here, I’ll be able to pull hot coals into the ‘cooking wing’ to adjust the temperature: a deeper coal bed equals a higher cooking temperature.
Now, let me remind you, this is a work in progress because I have never really cooked over an open flame, unless you include toasting marshmallows and veggies on a campfire.
Today, I’m going to get some friends over to help me lug the Patio furniture out of the barn and over the next week I plan to clean and season my cast iron pots, stoke up the Fire Pit to make sure burns correctly and gather a few open flame cooking recipes to try. That’s one item checked off my Patio DIY Project List for 2015!
Stay tuned!