Space Dilemma

1. Lasagna
   
2. Stuffed Mushrooms
3. Chicken Wings
4. Chicken Legs
5. French Fries

As you can see, most of these foods are very different from one another, and require different cooking times & temps, but here's how I did it:  Because the lasagna needed the longest cooking time (2 hrs), I put it in the Egg first.  Since it was a frozen lasagna, it had instructions on the box.  I think it said something like 2 hrs @ 350, or something like that. 

After removing the lasagna, I then added the chicken wings, leaving space to add 2 firebricks, and placed a smaller grid on top of the bricks.  I then put the mushrooms on the smaller grid. 

Every 7-8 minutes I went out to flip the wings so they wouldn't char.  While I had the dome up, I'd check on the 'shrooms.  After several trips out to flip the wings, I determined the 'shrooms were done, and took them off.  After I took them off, I added some frozen French fries to a wok-type "bowl" (basically, a metal bowl w/ holes in it), and placed that on the smaller grid. 

Now, every time I went out to check on the wings, I removed the bowl & smaller grid to make it easier for me to get to the chicken (so I wouldn't have to keep trying to reach around & under that setup), and I also tossed the fries to spread them around inside the bowl.  Once the wings were flipped, I'd add back the smaller grid & bowl.

Once the wings were ready to come off, I opened the dome, removed the fries & smaller grid again for ease, and removed the wings.  I then placed the chicken legs on the same grid where the wings were, and then put the smaller grid back on the bricks, then the bowl w/ the fries on the smaller grid.  I then repeated the 7-8 minute drill of going out & flipping the legs, along w/ tossing the fries.  While these things were cooking, we were enjoying the lasagna, wings, and shrooms.  Eventually the fries were done so I removed them, then not too long after (maybe 5-7 minutes), the legs were done. 

I did ALL of this with 1 Egg at a constant temp of around 350-ish, one-right-after-the-other, even though some of the other foods called for a different temp (I believe the fries called for a temp of 400, I think, and the shrooms called for a different temp as well). 

The difference was that I just let the foods which called for a higher temp cook longer, is all.  For the most part, temps are guides, NOT written in stone.  For instance, a recipe might call for a temp of 400 at 45 minutes.  However, you can also cook the same food at a temp of 350 for a longer time, perhaps an hour. 

Granted, there are a few recipes where temps and/or time are imperative, like when you have to get to a certain temp for a chemical reaction in the food to take place, or for rendering, etc.  But those are usually the exceptions, and not the rule.  

The point to take away from my post is that, it's all food, it'll cook, and to not over think it or make it overly complicated.  :-B

HTH,

HH