Of all the cooking methods, grilling is my favorite! Cooking outdoors with gas, charcoal briquette, open wood fire or smoker in particular. Average grilling seemed to be restricted years ago to grilling few common items; hotdogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob. But, there's so many more foods fit for the grill. Crab, lobster, fish, vegetables and even some fruits.
The grills available on the market have greatly improved by adding features, side appliances and tools. There's a lot out there to satisfy any Human Pursuit Factor, anyone's grilling preferences What's not to like? Anyone can be a master outdoor chef to some degree or another. Knowledge and tools make a great difference in one's abilities to provide food excellence to family and friends.
Even the top of a good wood stove works for slow-cooking stews, soups and many other meal favorites. Keep an consistent eye on things though. A wood stove will tend to dehydrate the items being heated faster than other cooking methods. It produces concentrated radiant heat. Depending on how you load the stove with wood, manage the damper and the type of wood can cause the heat generated to vary significantly. You will need to reposition, and sometimes remove, the cooking container during times when the stove is too hot. A slow cook method is preferred. That takes stove management practice, truly getting to know the stove. Remember, always use extra caution, details and emphasis, with wood stoves.
For the green-minded, there are solar cookers available.
Like the variety of tools in my garage, so too, the kitchen can be filled with handy and very applicable cooking tools and appliances.
One of the things I like to do is choose some recipes that generally are great tasting and try variants of ingredients or amounts to produce something a tad bit better. Sort of like a mad kitchen scientist, except with the result of brining on more compliments.
