why not ‘beast it’ for dinner tonight?
DIY CAMP FIRE GRATE
Forget the outdoor gas grill… make dinner on your camp fire!
I am not a huge fan of camping, but I do love campfire food. Why is it a plain old hot dog tastes so much better on a camp fire compared to the fancy gas BBQ grill at home? This very thought inspired my husband with a great idea:
Last summer we purchased a new outdoor gas grill but for whatever reason he decided to keep the top and bottom metal cooking grates from our old grill before throwing it out. After we built our DIY Fire Pit (more on that here), he got the idea of attaching both of the old grates together using re-bar and heavy duty metal wire to make one long cooking grate that can sit right over top of our fire pit whenever we feel like pretending we are camping having a cookout.
To make your own DIY CAMP FIRE GRATE you will need:
- Two cooking grates from an old BBQ/gas grill or purchase new ones wherever they sell replacement grill parts.
- Two 43″inch long pieces of re-bar (double check length according to your fire pit)
- Heavy duty metal wire
- Metal wire cutters, pliers and work gloves.
Using the metal wire, tie the two grates together lengthwise. Sit and center them on top the re-bar and attach them with more wire at each corner and along the edges by wrapping the wire around several times. Use the wire cutters to cut the wire and the pliers to help twist the wire together tightly and securely. You’re done!
The other night we tried it out by cooking Italian sausages, hot dogs and green beans (picked fresh from our garden) right on the campfire!
It. Was. Awesome.
We now refer to this way of cooking and eating as ‘beasting it‘: Cooking on a real wood fire. Eating mostly with your hands. Your clothes and hair smelling of smoke and charred meat. Your lap getting dirty because the plate keeps sliding off -oh and don’t forget to pick the ash out of your drink!
The kids loved it and the food was so tasty that everyone had second and third helpings! It was a great family evening which ended with roasting marshmallows and some tackle softball (the tackle part was introduced once I started throwing marshmallows at the hubs and kids! LOL). And best of all, when we were done, we all got to clean off inside the house with hot showers and sleep in dry, cozy, bug free beds!
Tell me, is camping without actually camping, your kind camping too? ;-)
Julie
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