Backyard Cookout

The tent was still up from Friday night's slumber party. It needed time to dry out after the rain that night.

Big T got a dutch oven for his birthday. I didn't feel like cooking dinner on this Sunday afternoon but I had planned tacos, and had everything ready for them. But I didn't get going fast enough apparently. Seems like the conditions were just right for a Backyard Cookout.

I had stumbled into the kitchen after my pseudo-nap (the one where you really wish you could sleep, but just lay there with your mind racing instead) to find my husband and kids busily preparing ...something. "I am not getting involved..." thought I.

A little later as I drove home after a meeting, I noticed that my house and front yard were shrouded in a thick white and grey smoke--no worries, this was just the result of my kids adding pine straw to the camp-fire.

I think the marshmallows actually got roasted and eaten before anything that was NOT made of approximately 100% sugar - but, of course what fun would waiting be? Especially when you could light the things up like a torch and watch the blazing sugar turn to a charcoal-ly ash and sometimes float away in the air. Maybe even try a little flame-throwing. When the marshmallows ran out, my kids had no qualms about roasting pine-cones. They were, after all, being allowed to play around FIRE on a Sunday afternoon.

The dutch-oven dinner took longer than expected, of course. Isn't that the rule?

They called it Washington Stew. (Grouper's idea, since George Washington was a pioneer, right? it was also her idea to don swimming goggles during this event) And they ate all of it. I called it unseasoned potatoes and carrots cooked in hamburger grease. If I had made something like that in my kitchen, no one would have touched it...willingly.

And then, what to do with my plate-ful? Risk squashing their enthusiasm, and any chances of another night "off" from dinner duty? Nope, I sneak in some salt, pepper, and Worchester sauce, ignore my rising cholesterol level, and join the clean plate club.