"outside" news and stories

I roasted my first chicken sometime in the spring of 2002. I was 22 and living on my own for the first time in my life. I bought the chicken at Reading Terminal Market, for the extravagant price of $13 (it seemed awfully spendy at the time since I was making approximately that much an hour). When I got it home, I rinsed it with cold water, patted it down with paper towels and perched it in a battered, shallow roasting pan that I had picked up at a thrift store. Following my mother's instructions, I sprinkled the outside with salt and garlic power. Inside, I slipped a halved lemon, a sprig of rosemary and a small, roughly chunked onion.

I've only very slightly improved on this method in the last six years. These days, I slip herbs under the skin, scatter whole cloves of garlic in the pan around the bird and rub the skin with a little butter in the final half hour in order to help crisp the skin. However, I always slip that halved lemon in the cavity. Over at the Kitchn, they've tested two roasted lemon chicken methods in an attempt to find a superior method. In one they perch lemon slices over the skin of the bird and in the other they put the lemon inside. Check out the post to see what they discovered.

What's your chicken roasting technique?

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If you ever went camping as a child, chances are that you have a vivid memory of the first thing that you cooked or ate, whether it was hot dogs, s'mores or simply marshmallows, it was probably cooked on a stick. After all, was there any reason to go camping if you didn't get to eat food off a stick? You know that no one was out there for the mosquito bites.

Cooking on a Stick: Campfire Recipes for Kids is a book full of camping recipes that children can make on their own. It is aimed at the 7-11 age range and written specifically for kids, unlike some books that are simply about feeding them when you're doing the cooking. The book covers basic fire safety, describing how to build a fire properly (sort of seems like a boy scout/girl scout thing) and how to put it out, before introducing the young cooks to easy recipes with cute, appealing names. In addition to the stick foods (Moose Kebabs and Ranger's Apple Pie), there are foods cooked in pouches (Favorite Beans and Hibernating Bananas), grilled foods and snacks, like GORP.

And, yes, there is a recipe for s'mores, too.

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The Talos Outdoor Cooking Suite cannot be called a grill. This stainless-steel outdoor grilling system is better equipped than many professional kitchens are. It offers 42-inches of grilling space and 75,000 BTUs of total cooking power. The 20,000-BTU searing station includes a commercial-style griddle and the ceramic infrared rotisserie can easily fit entire, large roasts. In addition to packing some impressive firepower, the grill can maintain specific temperatures for extended periods of time. For example, with the hood down, it can double as an oven, steadily holding a temperature of 350F (or any other temperature). The unit has tons of storage space, a warming drawer, a solid-wood cutting board and a bartender module, which features a full sink and cooler well. Customizations are also available to suit your particular needs.

The only drawback, aside from the $35,000 price tag, is the tremendous amount of energy it uses. Talos buyers have been known to run a separate gas line out of their house to power it, instead of trying to use tanks.

Frontgate, the maker of the grill, is not kidding when they say that it's more than the grill of a lifetime. But at that price, you might want to consider simply replacing your kitchen with it, rather than replacing your Weber.

 

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