Family Night

In case you didn't know, my husband is a survivalist. He's very interested in wilderness and emergency survival. The newest branch of our business is happysurvivalist.com. He put together survival packs for our children, and he's teaching them to use them. He's already taught them a lot of fire starting techniques, and plans to teach them to make shelters this summer.
And make one.
And sleep in it.
So anyway.
He'd always read about this cool way to cook a chicken (or whatever you happen to catch out there) where you get a rock really hot in the fire and stick in inside the chicken, and it cooks it from the inside out.

We have a fire pit in the backyard where we often roast hot dogs and marshmallows (and, conveniently, burn weeds) so a few family nights ago we figured we'd try the chicken thing too.

He started the fire nice and early in the afternoon, and washed a rock and got it heating up. We had no idea how long to let it sit in there. The books say till it's "red hot." It only turned black.

While we waited for the fire, the kids played in the back yard. And look what they discovered! Bike factories! I was so amused because I totally remember doing this as a kid.

They were just putting dirt on the wheels and watching it spin off, but I showed them how to take dirt clods and shave them down into cool shapes. Good times . . .

So finally we figured the rock was probably ready. It had been in the fire for a long time. So we brought out the chicken, and Jason used an oven mitt to stick the rock in it.

Yeah, I think it was hot enough. The rock was a little bit too big, so it wouldn't go all the way in. We did the best we could and wrapped the whole thing in foil. Then we waited about two hours and voila! Is this a beautiful meal or what??

The black thing is the rock. The heat didn't reach the drumsticks quite enough, but the breasts were cooked beautifully. They were so yummy and juicy! Jason and I put a little salt on ours, but the kids gobbled it up plain.

Then we went out and roasted marshmallows, which is always so much fun. We love hanging out around the fire. We're planning to put in some simple benches around the fire pit this summer.

Jason stayed out there well into the darkness burning more weeds. The kids really wanted to help put the fire out (with the hose!) so we let them stay up till he was done. They looked so cute out there in the dark, dancing around in their pajamas. But of course I didn't take a picture!

And that was the end of our family night.