Cooking food is either done the conventional convection-way or the modern microwave-way. The difference is cooking from the outside inward or cooking from the inside outward. In either case, the lower the temperature or setting the more time given for the juices and flavors to flow within the food. When time is not given to food preparation, things like sodium and sucrose are substituted for natural flavor.
The result is quick and easy meals with little or no clean-up; and long, drawn-out bouts of diabetes and high blood pressure with little or no relief.
Wilderness camping convinces you that a good fire is essential for light, heat and, if you're doing it right, cooking food. There's always somebody that wants to load up the fire pit with wood, pour fuel on the fire, and keep stoking and/or blowing on it to make the fire more intense.
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These people remind me of church revivalists and political revolutionaries who tend to the flare rather than the spark, go for the take-over rather than give-away, and usually generate more smoke than either light or heat. They forget about the "rage" in the flaming emotions and the just cause. They forget to provide for the juices and flavors that enhance the recipe they offer to others. And, too often, they choose to salt or sweeten the deal rather than turn down the temperature for something more manageable and long lasting.
Cooking with low heat or embers is not very exciting or quick, but accommodates the varied schedules and agendas of those who pull up a chair. Searing and broiling lock in the juices that sometimes burst hot in your face as you're digging in. And what about tomorrow - will anyone think to stir the latent coals that the harsh, cold night could not extinguish?
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There's more to celebration than fireworks, more to rejuvenation than fast food, and more to inspiration than the unbearable lightness of being.
Whether your ideology cooks from the outside inward, with conventional means and methods applied externally, or from the inside outward, with modern means and methods surfacing internally, know that it will only be as good as the preparation and time given it.
Remember - a half-baked approach to life is a heart attack or stroke just waiting to happen.
