Going With The Flow

With my schedule, I have had to learn how to “go with the flow” with many things in my life.  If something happens that I have no control over, I have had to learn how to just ‘deal’ and go from there.  There’s really no point in stressing the small stuff, when there are so many more important things in the world to worry about.  I’m thankful that I have my wife and kids and I’m grateful everyday that they are happy and healthy; we all know how short and precious life is, so take one day at a time.

My favorite part about “going with the flow” is when I cook. Mind you, I’m no chef in the kitchen, but put tongs or a spatula in my hands and give me a flame, I can throw together some pretty tasty meals.

Of course, I can’t take all the credit for my masterpieces, my wife and kids contribute a lot of their time with food prep and oftentimes coming up with  meal ideas. Having a family of 6, I needed a large enough grill to house everything that I plan to cook over it, several times fully loading it twice.

Cooking over the grill isn’t always our go-to source of cooking out.  There may even be times where cooking on the grill isn’t always available to us. Just last month, we went to our cabin and, although our family has a charcoal grill there, I still prefer to cook over an open flame. I did a lot of our family meals over the fire there; and of course, the kids and I also prepared our dessert over the fire as well, good ol’ fashioned s’mores.  My wife says the word s’more and I’m like “eh”, I can take it or leave it, but once it hits my taste buds, I always have to go back and have a second.

I have many favorites. I prefer some foods cooked over a campfire verses cooking over a grill.  One of our all-time family (and friends included) favorites is corn on the cob cooked over the fire.

I had built a small fire pit close to our home for everyone to gather and this is where I do my cooking.  I used stones that we had found in and around our property while gardening or major projects– including excavating (ex. Our pool and backyard water garden).  After I gathered enough rocks I mortared them together and put together a makeshift fire pit. Hey, it isn’t the best looking, but it serves the purpose in which we use it for. 

Oftentimes, I find myself cooking over a fully loaded grill, so I then get the fire pit lit and get some other stuff cooking on there.  I prefer cooking corn and potatoes over the fire. Anything that takes a bit of time to cook is better to be cooked by fire, that way I don’t have to use more propane and I’m not standing at the grill for a long time.  I’m able to sit in my chair and use tongs to move around food when needed. My wife also makes cooler corn when we have more people over, only because it’s more convenient and I’m not spending so much time preparing food the whole time we are entertaining.  You can check out her cooler corn video; It’s easy and definitely great for big gatherings.

Every year my wife and I grow banana peppers and we stuff them with cream cheese and cheddar cheese and wrap them in bacon and grill.  They are delicious! Bursting with flavor with just the right amount of heat. Seasoned and grilled zucchini from the garden is also a nice side. It’s great to have things readily available from the gardens.

If you know Classic Jeff, you know how much I like cooking pizzas over the grill.  We have tried so many different toppings. The best part about cooking outside is we have a useful grill island that I built to prep, and serve food.  We also have the convenience of an herb garden that I built for my wife; to season our grilled foods.

From grilling spare ribs to beer flavored chicken, fire cooked corn to fresh vegetables, there isn’t too much that I haven’t tried to cook over a grill or fire.  One weekend I prepared all our meals over our fire pit. We just felt like camping, but wanted the conveniences of home. We made fried eggs, bacon, and toast for breakfast, grilled cheese and pizza sandwiches for lunch, and a whole shmorgus board of food for dinner…filling up the entire grilling rack.

If my wife has food cut and seasoned, I’m ready to grill.  Going with the flow is more of an attitude than a saying, sometimes when we’re deciding what to have for dinner, some of our best meals were throw-together things that we threw on the grill and it was delicious.  A great filler is cheddar potato perogies, seasoned, and grilled. You can buy them in the freezer section of your local grocery store. They cook faster than actual potatoes and they are a favorite to most of my kids.

If you go with the flow and grill as much as I do, and have any tips or recipes to share, make sure to comment below.  If you have a chance, and like spice, try and make the stuffed banana peppers I mentioned in this post, they are hot…I dare you to try one and let me know what you think.