I had a pleasant surprise today
Friends of ours, who we don't see to often, invited us over for pizza, wine and a Cub game tonight.
Aside from the 4-0 loss, it was a great evening.
We talked, and laughed, and groaned, and hoped. and of course, ate.
We've known Jim and Karen for ages, way back in our teaching days. We run into each other, and always say let's get together, and tonight we did.
Once upon a time, many years ago, I was taking an outdoor ed class at NIU/Lorado Taft. The class was cooking in the outdoors, and taught a variety of ways to prepare meals without the traditional pots and pans or stove.
One dish was a Dutch oven stew, with home made biscuits.
We lived on Mill Pond then.....so this has been at least 25 years ago.
I built a fire pit in the back yard, got it hot, put the ingredients in the Dutch oven and then buried the pot. Then a bunch of us guys got together and drank beer and wine and probably told dirty jokes. The ladies were at a shower of some kind, could have been bridal or even a baby shower...I don't remember.
At some point we ate. And drank more wine.
We had gotten down to the rhubarb wine from the Amana colonies and were feeling pretty good. Jim and I solved the then Cuban question by nuking them. And we nuked almost every country we could think of as we consumed the wine and smoked cigars.
I thought the stew was very good.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, out of the 7 or 8 guys there, I was the only one who did not have the shits the following day.
Maybe it was the stew, maybe it was the wine, maybe it was because my intestines can digest anything without an issue....but people got sick, which I did not know because I felt fine.
I never cooked in a Dutch oven buried in the ground again. It was a once in a lifetime experiment that did not go over well with my guests.
But I wonder about a Dutch oven.....saw a recipe for stew cooked in a conventional oven using a Dutch oven and thought this might be a chance for redemption. Or not.
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