And Then We Feasted

My advisor /boss recently asked me to dog-sit his two canines while he vacated town for a week. His pooches, Fizbo the beagle and Fontella the lab, are very friendly and low-key. To better care for the dogs, I am staying the night at the house. Fizbo sleeps in the bed with me and must be touching my leg the entire night. The only time I heard her make a sound was when I was in the shower one night. I thought tornado sirens were going off, so I poked my head out and there was Fizbo-sitting in front of the bathroom door howling. She was experiencing seperation anxiety or something.

My co-worker/friend, Amanda, stayed the night with me Thursday night. Originally, we intended to cook a feast in our boss's new toy- The Big Green Egg. The Egg is a combination smoker, grill and oven. We were hoping to grill some naan on the stone oven. Unfortunately, we had some difficulties lighting the coals and getting the grill up to temperature. So we altered our meal plan and began cooking food inside.

The Egg. It was smarter than us.

Butternut squash.

Potatoes from Amanda's garden.

The final stew contained butternut squash, onion, green chili peppers, potatoes, black beans, cayenne pepper, sweet curry powder, garam masala, black pepper, salt, ground coriander, paprika and cumin. Was a rather spicey brew.

Naan is supposed to be baked in a Tandoor oven, a cylindrical clay oven used in cooking and baking. Temperatures in a tandoor can approach 900°F. Well, we don't have a tandoor oven. I've never even seen a tandoor oven. After doing some research on the wonderful world-wide-web, I learned this style of baking can be sufficely replicated on the stove top. Our contraption is a cast-iron skillet with a bowl placed over top as a lid.

Huge table for two.

All together now.

I believe there may have been some moaning during the consumption of this meal. For just throwing stuff in a pot, this dinner was mighty tasty.