Cookin' on the Rez

I was on the Rez, babysitting, & the young ones wanted brownies.  Unfortunately, one of them pointed out that the oven wasn't working.  How to bake brownies?!

I set everyone to hunting through the pots & pans for something to make an oven from & we found a great big wok with a good-fitting lid (important!) & a rack that sat about 2" above the bottom of the wok.  A square baking pan fits in really well..  in fact, I've since found out that if you have a really big wok, you can fit 2 square pans in, one above the other, if you use steel butter knives to provide a space between them.  (You use 2 knives on each corner, set so that the handles of each pair are not together; so the pan on top will sit level.)

That first time, I had to regulate the heat by guesswork & keep adjusting the flame a tiny bit up or down according to the appearance of the brownie batter, but since then I've just added an oven thermometer, sitting on the rack next to the lower pan.  It works best with a medium-low flame & adjust as needed to get the right temperature, which is about 350F.

Now, even when it's blistering hot out, we can have brownies without roasting us out of the kitchen or challenging the fans.  (I detest air-conditioning & won't use it.)  And my grandchildren think I'm one creative grandma.  A win-win all around.