Mmmm....."These Burgers ROCK"- and a greenhouse/shedworking update

Live on "Caveman TV" (aka "Fire"), its sizzling burgers! Forget Burger King, THIS is flame broiled.

     Note: This blog entry, and camping trip, were partly inspired by a discussion thread we had recently on our "Tiny Yellow House and Relaxshacks.com" group on facebook (you can join in the righthand column- scroll down). The chat dealt with ways in which to get your kids outside, inspired, into building and creating, self-sufficient, and interested in life's simple (and often "Free") things....

     This weekend isn't even over yet, and its been great- first off, I decided to take my nephew and some friends of mine camping last night- I mean being dropped off at a trail head in the woods, no swimming pools, arcades, and concrete fire pits, camping (not that there's anything too wrong with that). Suffice to say, it was a great time, we listened to several eerie deer calls early in the night (which sounded like those long, low-end, plastic party horns- or a donkey) which almost seemed to circle us for awhile, and even cooked burgers the "non-pan way", ala from my old boy scout days, on a fire-heated rock. It works really well, if you haven't tried it before, and no frying pan to clean afterward! I didn't bring supplies for "poor man's apple pie"- but I tossed the "recipe" below. Its a great, quick, and fun way- which I've done on, and IN, our families wood stove many times.

Burger #1 (the guinea pig- like pancakes, the first one never comes out all that good lookin'), with a multi-tool in the foreground (never camp- or build- without one).

      As for the burgers, the trick is to build the fire against a pre-selected flat-top rock, and let it heat up for a good two hours or so, or at least until its "hot as hell" (to put it non-technically)- then toss the burger (or whatever) on the slab, and flip 'em with a multi-tool or jack knife- being careful not to burn your hand (you gotta work quickly!). Its a great lesson in appreciation for kids, in terms of taking things like stoves and microwaves for granted. And yes, you can bring a spatula camping, I just try not to bring much when I'm hiking things in.

"Hey boy, you want a burger?"

"Sure!"

"Gimme two hours or so...."

I also worked quite a bit today on the greenhouse/horror-writer's retreat, and made some good headway. The front, second-hand, windows are up, and even some roof rafters as well. There's still a long ways to go, but it'll be really cool when its done.

POOR MAN'S APPLE PIE- perfect for camping, wood stove cookery, cheapo desserts....

Peel an apple.
Core it- leaving a shaft/hole all the way through it.
Stuff the lower third of the hole with butter
Stuff the upper half with brown sugar
Sprinkle cinnamon or cinnamon sugar on the outside of the apple
Wrap in two layers of aluminum foil


Toss that sucker on some fire coals for awhile (in general, nowhere TOO hot, or the foil will burn)
When cooked/soft, open and eat! Serve with vanilla ice cream if you have any. 

Only $11.53- THE NEW EDITION of my book- through the link in the left hand column of this blog (or amazon.com- same thing).

-Derek "Deek" Diedricksen