Patio Fire Pit: Five Great Ways to Use a Fire Pit for Enjoyment and Cooking
Patio fire pits are a great way to add to your family enjoyment of the outdoors. Not only do they warm the soul with family fellowship time together, but a patio fire pit can add group participation to the event. Let’s eat!! What better way to benefit from time together than a meal. This is where a Patio fire pit can do double duty. A patio fire pit can be a place to meet together and perform with one another to create a meal. Here are five suggestions for a meal with fun at the same time.
- While most patio fire pits come with a grill, who needs one to cook up some hot dogs? What a fantastic summer time meal. A pack of wieners, a package of buns and a bag of chips equals an instant meal. Throw in a few carrot sticks or other raw veggies and you have a decent meal. With very little prep work everyone will be happy they made this party.
- After a meal using the patio fire pit everyone wants dessert. Well, break out the marshmallows. Give all the kids a metal skewer with a cool handle and step back. There is not a kid from three to ninety three who hasn’t had a fun time with a fire and trying not to burn the marshmallows.
- The next logical step is of course the construction with a toasted marshmallow into a s’more. Some flat chocolate bars, you know the kind, graham crackers and you have one of the quintessential outdoor desserts known to mankind.
- The ideas come from the fact that most of the patio fire pits come equipped with a grill. This is handy when the wood turns to coals and anything you would use an outdoor grill for can now be done on a patio fire pit. Hamburgers certainly come to mind next. Easy to fix with little need for a lot of prep work. Even to make the easiest using frozen burger patties works well. A potato or pasta salad with this makes a perfect outdoor meal.
- There is not a better purpose for a bed of coals and grill on a patio fire pit than lying on a one inch thick rib eye steak. A few minutes on each side and you have a perfectly done steak. Only one more thing that could be done to enhance the flavor of a good steak is to smoke it a little. While any fruit wood, apple, orange, pear wood is great pecan, hickory or mesquite would do quite well. Soak the chips for a while in a bucket of water. Throw them on right before putting on the steak and let the smoke begin. A trick I picked up on a while back is to find an old pot or pan lid that you can cover the meat while it is cooking. This will circulate the smoke around the meat while it is cooking. This will help to intensify the smoke flavor while using a patio fire pit.
While all these things can be done, the first step is to have a patio fire pit. The second step is to make sure you use it with safety. Always have a way to contain the fire. Keep children away unless supervised. Never leave a fire going without someone in the area. Enjoy the extended outdoor time a patio fire pit will give to your family and friends.
James Dahlberg
