Emeril Lagasse meets Daniel Boone

Being relatively unemployed has its downsides. Mostly consisting of not having money for things like bills, health insurance, gas. It's bad enough not having money for the essentials like drinking, going out, and partying. But being the optimist that I am, being unemployed also has its benefits. Mostly consisting of having way too much free time. Which truthfully can be a blessing or a curse. 

In the case of me and my other good buddies, who also happen to not have jobs, we've taken the time that we'd otherwise flitter away and the beautiful weather that we'd otherwise waste in front of an Xbox, and turned ourselves into regular Emeril Lagasses. 

It all started when my friend, Mike, got himself a dutch oven, which for those who don't know is a large cast iron pot for cooking over a fire. We had a cook book. It served well as a start for our recipes, but we decided to take things a little further. 

For example, the Good Old-Fashioned Family Stew. The recipe called for:

• 1 pound of stew meat, cut to 1" cubes
• 2 large diced onions
• 4  cubed potatoes
• 1 cup of baby carrots
• 1/2 cup of diced celery
• 1/2 cup of diced other choice veggies (mushrooms in our case)
• 2 beef bouillon cubes
• 2 cans of mushroom soup 
• Seasonings of choice

That's all great and grand. But we added:

• 2 can of Miller High Life
• An extra pound of meat
• 2 more potatoes
• Brown Sugar
• 2 Apples
• A garlic clove
• lots of Love

Take that mixture of mouthwatering flavors, let it sit on some hot coals for 3 hours, stir every 20 minutes or so, and you'll be hosting the best party your mouth has ever seen. The meat dissolved before your teeth could do the work. The apple and brown sugar combined with the beer to give a sweet, cider lager flavor. Plus, the garlic and onion added an extra bite that made the love ridiculously palpable. 

The following week consisted of another delicious dish: a dutch oven pot roast. Alex found this one, and I'm quite pleased he did. One huge slab of meat simmers with apple cider and barbecue sauce for about an hour. Then add in preferred veggies and simmer for another hour. Finally, to finish the whole thing off,  15 minutes of simmering with 1/2 pound of okra. Delectable. 

A cast iron pot isn't the only thing we can cook in either. We took a three day journey up to Mike's cabin in Iron Mountain. There we concocted a fantastic Last Supper consisting of Alaskan Pollock, perfectly seasoned potatoes and onions, beans, and of course, a box of Franzia to wash it all down. It made for a great Holy Thursday. 

Our tag-team cooking has us considering a future in the restaurant business. However, then we'd miss out on the best part of all this cooking, having fun. Once the prep work is done and the pot is on the fire, it's all about having a few beers, playing with the dogs, shooting guns, singing along with ukulele strums, and enjoying the life of the unemployed. 

I don't mind this lifestyle. That is, till I run out of money.