Cooking aboard or outdoors

I may have mentioned this before; if I have, forgive me for repeating myself. A pair of our foster daughters had a father who hadn't been in their life for fifteen years, since they were infants. Suddenly he showed up out of nowhere, and had a blast playing devoted dad -- for about three months. Then he got bored, his girlfriend started complaining about the time and money he was spending on the girls, and he disappeared again.

But he was from an old Portuguese fishing family in San Pedro. Although he didn't fish any more himself, he was a trucker who owned a couple of rigs -- and with his family connections, he hauled a lot of seafood. So when he found out my wife liked calamari steaks, he gifted us with an entire freezer full of packaged frozen squid.

Most of them weren't big enough for steaks, so we ate a lot of squid scampi instead of shrimp scampi. I also cooked up some Italian-style recipes, and tried a few Asian dishes.

We ate squid once or twice a week, and after a few months my wife developed a severe allergy to it. Now she can't enjoy her special treat of calamari steaks anymore, and it's just one more thing for her to hold against the scumbag here-today-gone-tomorrow dad.

Fortunately, the girls handled the situation pretty well. They enjoyed the attention while it lasted, but they had a healthy skepticism from day one about dear old dad's long-term commitment.

 

Trouble with the idea of what dads do is not what dads do.

Dads dont do kids or babies, if your a dad and you do good on yer, but most men dont --they just do because that is what is expected of them by the modern interpretation of a --dad.

I dont eat squid either, no matter how many people tell me I should try it again and again. Ive tried it --I live by the sea, its edible, but so is sea cucumber.

So now hes a scumbag because he gave you so much food you got an allergy and can no longer supply the food they got to like.

I have a great deal of trouble understand some peoples domestic expectations.

Stand on your own 2 feet and stop crying you got 2 eyes, 2 legs,--stand up on them.

 

He's a scumbag because he ran out on his daughters when they were babies, showed up fifteen years later with a load of bull about how he loved them and would be there for them the rest of their lives, then disappeared on them again a few months later. So why are you telling me to stand on my own two legs? My wife and I were the ones who stood up, took his children in and raised them in his stead.....

You have a problem with my assessment of him? Maybe that's because it hits home for some reason. Tell me: is it uncomfortably close to the way you treated your children?

 

I'm very much in awe of generous people like Troy.

I'd say Frosties snarly because he's all backed up again and back on his prune diet.

 

Yeah ha thanks fort speaking to me troy. I never had kids god took one and the other still born --gave up. dont like babies they stink and are usless. 8-9 year olds are great and thats about the time I would turn up too after all the bum wiping.

I did not say YOU should stand up on your one feet I was suggesting the kids do --or be taught to do.

Dads go out and hunt or get work or do what ever they need to do.

If you love kids --Ok.-- some male animals will kill offspring. Difficult for us to even know why.

I just dont think the guy is as much of a scum bag as he got hit with. Id be willing to listen to his side wouldnt you think.

 

No but thanks for you concern in my bowel movements. I have infact damaged my coccyx which results in an uncomfortable anus rectum muscle spasms dues to sitting a lot and my usuall 13 hour drive through the length of Thailand on a monthly basis on an uncomfortable Mazda seat.

Rare 1% of people get it but thats me Coccygodynia google it.

I told you I was special.

 

Plum clafouti... Sounds snooty, tastes great, and is super simple to make.

 

If you used more plums you could make a nice smiley face like your avatar, same complexion and hair do.

 

Ragoût de poulet et poireaux. Sounds posh, tastes great, and believe it or not, is a one pot meal.

 

Yum, chicken and leeks!

 

Hmmm... Sounds like you've visited several of the sailors bars near the wharfs and failed to exercise self restraint and propriety.

After all, one can suffer all manner of carnage in the throws of passion and must expect discomfort when generously and enthusiastically accommodating the arrival of a naval vessel from foreign shores.

I do hope you recover soon, without the case of the French pox.

 

You obviously know quite a bit about it, Ille surrender to your knowledge.

 

Here's my dutch oven, all spruced up and sitting for its portrait...

It's quite practical as long as you have a Jeep, boat, mule or native safari bearers to carry it for you. It's a bit much for backpacking, though.

Being on legs means you can set coals or charcoal under it without smothering them. The flat lid with a lip holds coals or charcoal on top. And the lid is also a cooking utensil in its own right; I've fried a lot of bacon and eggs in it.

I own a special tool for lifting the lid off when it's hot, but I can never keep track of it. So most of the time I just use a claw hammer instead, which works fine.

For dinner last night I filled the pot with potatoes, onions, carrots, pasilla peppers, cilantro and chopped garlic, but left barely room to layer a small cut-up chicken on top (thank goodness for the deep lid). I poured a can of beer over everything, sprinkled the chicken liberally with a Cajun-style dry rub, slapped the lid on, and fired it up with charcoal briquettes top and bottom. About an hour and fifteen minutes later, dinner was ready.

 

Have you considered twisting a towel into a donut shaped turban, and carring your dutch oven balanced on top of your head?
i've seen slight looking women carry ENORMOUS loads on their heads.
Must be that spinal column is very strong1
But, if you step in a gopher hole carrying that way, they have to put you out of your misery afterward by shooting you.
Presuming you are WORTH shooting1

 

Troy, what brand Dutch Oven is that? I'm looking to get one.