I know in past lives I’ve must have been a cook. I can imagine myself working as a hired chuckwagon cook for the cowboys back in the 1800s. I can almost smell the coffee brewing, biscuits baking in a dutch over, onions and potatoes frying, and grilling up juicy sizzling steaks.
I can also see myself as a cook in a primitive time, working with other cooks preparing meals for my village. I am sweaty and can see children running around, kicking up dust from the dry dirt. We are anticipating what the men would bring back from the hunt.
I love cooking outside. We opened up our summer kitchen on Sunday, and I used it yesterday. I cook outside any day the weather is decent. Last summer, we extended our deck with a lower level creating an outdoor commercial kitchen.
We have our dining table and bar cart on the upper deck, plus a ceramic smoker, a long prep table, and a sink we haven’t installed yet.
Summer kitchens in our country date back to the revolutionary war. Typically they were attached to a large home as a smaller structure. The large family homes were timber-framed, but the summer kitchens were made of stone. The stone structure was to protect the main house in case of a fire.
These summer kitchens were built and used for various reasons. The obvious reason is to keep the heat and smells from cooking out of the home, especially in the warmer months. Another reason was to keep the servants or slaves separated outside of the family’s home.
The kitchen had a large stove and a fireplace where prep work, cooking, baking, and canning were done. However, the food was stored inside of the house or root cellar.
Summer kitchens were still used until about 1930, making way for new stoves and ovens that could be used without building a fire. Outdoor kitchens became storage sheds; however, they remained popular in the mid-west during the summer for a long time. They are a fantastic feature to an older home on the real estate market today.
Backyard cookouts began in the 1950s, and America was cooking outside with their shiny brand new grills. Men were the ones that typically did the grilling and barbecuing while the women prepped everything for him, made all the side dishes, set the picnic table, cleaned up, and did the dishes. The guy stood around drinking a beer while the wife ran around like a fucking idiot.
I don’t understand why men were given and entrusted with the cookout’s food in the first place. They didn’t cook a damn thing indoors; how would they know when the food was done? Is that why they burned it? They didn’t want to kill their family from food poisoning?
I remember the cookouts I went to as a kid; the hotdogs and hamburgers were always pitch black, and the bbq chicken was burned beyond recognition. I usually chose a hotdog because I could peel the black skin off of it. The burgers were incinerated hockey pucks. I was always grateful for the delicious sides like potato salad, watermelon, macaroni salad, and beans.
Today you can find absolutely gorgeous outdoor kitchens with well-decorated entertaining space, outdoor fireplaces, flat-screen TVs, and fire pits. Cooking, grilling, and barbecuing have come a long way. People have taught themselves how to cook, bbq and grill from watching cooking shows and Youtube videos. That’s how I learned.
I consider our outdoor kitchen a summer kitchen. It lets me do what I love to do, cook while enjoying the outdoors. I am a total summer girl through and through and don’t want to waste a moment of the warm weather here in Vermont.
Last night, I made my first salad outside with music playing while the sun shining on me, sipping a gin and tonic. I made a watermelon, tomato, and feta cheese salad with a lime dressing.
I will be writing this watermelon salad recipe soon. I am indecisive as to how I want to cut the red onions in the recipe. I’ve been using onion crescents but don’t like the mouth feel or the way they look in the salad. We made this salad in our cooking class last year, and everyone loved it.
Tonight I used the kitchen area on the lower deck. I made jalapeño popper stuffed cheeseburgers, and Marty made the fries. I’ve been using a recipe for the burger I found online last year; it’s ok, but I want to improve upon it. I’ll be sharing this recipe as well as soon as I write it. There is a slew of recipes for the watermelon salad and the burger online, but I want to create my own.
The daytime highs next week will only be in the 40s, but living on the journey and not the destination, I am not paying attention to forecasts like this anymore; I live in the now and enjoy the nice weather while I have it.