Not Your Average Cook-out

I love a good "burgers and dogs" cookout as much as the next person.  But once in a while, its nice to be able to "kick it up a notch" and really make something special over an open fire.

Mr. FC&G and I did just that last night.  We recently built a new fire pit in the area where a much-neglected rose bush once stood.  It's just a simple circle of landscaping brick with a thick layer of lava rock in the bottom, but it already is a favorite feature of our garden area.

For dinner, we seasoned some salmon fillets with Old Bay, and then we cooked them beside a saute pan full of a splash of olive oil, a cube of frozen basil pesto, and a bunch of fresh veggies:  spiral-sliced zucchini, plus peas, beans, tomatoes, and cilantro.  A little sea salt and some wood smoke were all the additional seasonings needed.

Let me tell you, this was perhaps one of the best meals we have ever made.  Maybe it was hunger from chopping wood all day, or maybe it was the freshness of the veggies, but this was $25-a-plate kind of flavor.  And it was all on the cheap in our back yard -- we didn't even pay for electricity to turn on the stove.  That's what I call a sustainable win!