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I thought we were encouraging exhaustion by accepting an invitation to an overnight in the woods in the midst of packing and moving. But unplugged time in the Appalachian back country turned out to be most relaxing. We hiked wet trails, played with sparklers, ate well, and then Lil experienced shooting for the first time. We feel grounded and ready to settle in a new house this week.
1) While making cereal snack mix for the annual family camping trip, I saw the recipe on the box for chocolate/peanut butter covered in powdered sugar snack mix. (These mixes have names but they are trademarked and silly.) 2) I had to make it too, despite not exactly possessing most of the ingredients. I subbed chocolate bar pieces for the chips and almond butter for peanut butter.
3) Then I realized the vanilla extract jar ran dry two days ago.
4) But I found vanilla beans in the spice drawer and ran to the computer to search how to make vanilla extract at home. I dumped vodka and beans in a jar leftover from canning apple butter.
5) In four weeks I can make chocolate/peanut butter cereal mix with vanilla. You can bet I made it without vanilla for this trip. This is how I get into trouble in the kitchen: one project leads to another to another. Am I the only one? PS. The CSCC Taste the Future giveaway ends Tuesday.
Ingredients and Inspiration:
Sunday - pad thai with green beans
Monday - wild rice soup and carrot muffins
Tuesday - pork stew with patty pan squash, carrots, and purple potatoes
Wednesday - something on the road?
Thursday - Lunch at Ikea, pasta with garden veggie sauce
Friday - sandwiches on the way to East Harbor State Park
Saturday - pancake breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, African Safari potluck dinner and potato packets
Sunday - eggs, bacon, and toast breakfast, lunch on South Bass Island (Put in Bay), hot dogs and sausages, chips, fruits and veg dinner
I mentioned in the Labor Day camping post that our campout menus are generally very simple. There's grilled meat, cold veggie salad, fresh fruit, and always potato packets.
The 'packet' method of cooking is a standby because it can use a variety of ingredients, virtually any method of cooking, and cleanup is easy. You can cook fish in parchment paper packets, meat and veggies in aluminum foil for packet stew, and many more combinations of ingredients.
After years of refining our method, here's how my family makes campfire potato packets:
Slice russet and/or sweet potatoes into 1/4 -1/8 inch rounds. Try to get them as thin and uniform as possible. If you are doing this at home, you could use a mandolin.
Cut onion into thin rounds too and chop a mess of fresh garlic.
Lay out a two foot length of aluminum foil. Dot it with butter or olive oil. Stack potatoes, onions, and garlic alternately. Sprinkle seasoned salt and pepper between the layers and on top. Dot with butter on several times and on top.
When the vegetables are three to four inches high, it's time to wrap up the packets. Fold the long sides towards each other, crimping ends tightly. Flip the packet onto another piece of foil and crimp again. Depending on how stuffed the packets are and whether the foil is heavy duty, we often add a third layer of foil.
Place the packets on a wood fire. Ideally, the packets will get low even heat for 40 - 50 minutes. If there is room on the grill top, place them there, turning every 15 minutes.
Sometimes the packets need to be placed into the fire ring so the grill is free for other things. Keep them away from the hottest part of the fire and turn every 10 minutes.
You can generally tell when the potatoes are fully cooked by gently squeezing the packets. You should feel no resistant uncooked rounds.
Open the packets gingerly because they are hot and steamy inside. Dump the potatoes into your serving container, in this case the cookset's largest pot.
Don't forget to enjoy the cook's treasure - the crispiest bits stuck to the foil. Yum!
Campfire Potato Packets
makes one packet to serve four
1 - 2 pounds (about 4 - 5 large) potatoes, sliced into thin rounds
1/2 onion, sliced into thin rounds
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons seasoned salt (Lawrey's or Old Bay are our favorites)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
6 - 8 feet aluminum foil
1. Spread a 2-3 foot length of aluminum foil on work surface.
2. Dot foil with 1/2 tablespoon butter or olive oil.
3. Layer half of potatoes, onions, and garlic onto foil.
4. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon seasoned salt.
5. Dot with 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil.
6. Layer the rest of potatoes, onions, garlic, and seasonings.
7. Finish with the rest of the butter or olive oil.
8. Wrap the foil, crimping on all sides. Flip onto additional foil and crimp on all sides again. Repeat a third time if you wish.
What is your favorite camping recipe?
We're taking off for an extended family camping trip at East Harbor State Park this afternoon. After managing a thousand details for the Canadian back country canoe trip earlier this summer, plans are lax for this weekend.
I did work out a very basic campfire cooking menu:
Fri night - grilled sausage, buns, veg sticks, fruit, chips Sat am - english muffins and cream cheese Sat lunch - hummus, veg sticks, pretzels, fruit, nuts Sat dinner - taco-truck style pork, corn tortillas, queso blanco cheese, cilantro, salsa Sun am - backyard eggs, bacon, homemade bread for toast, jam Sun lunch - Peaches Perch Pierogi Fest I am very excited about this! Sun dinner - grilled chicken, white and sweet potato packets, slaw Mon am - leftovers, english muffins, toast
I'm also bringing homemade cowboy cookies (a cross of oatmeal and chocolate chip), a barrel of pretzels, and a tub of mixed nuts for snacks. Beverages will include Snowville milk for Lil and beer and sangria for us.
As I'm looking forward to relaxing this weekend I bought most of the food pre-prepared. It's all made with high quality ingredients, just not by me. Sometimes we all need to give ourselves a break.
If you happen to be around a computer (I won't!) please vote for me (@racheltayse) to win a conference ticket to Asheville North Carolina once a day. Thanks! Have a wonderful weekend and Labor Day holiday!
This weekend we went to our annual Labor Day Camp with family and friends. Every year we have a theme night with costumes and related food. This year our friend Leonard went all out on the theme, Hawaii. I could write about the tiki hut trike, our chant to counter the hellfire and brimstone preaching group across the way, the 25 mile bike tour including a confederate prisoner of war camp, or the bald eagles we saw fly over East Harbor State Park many times. But since this is largely a gardening and eating blog, I will focus on the food.
We started our drive early Saturday morning. With some extra pizza dough as inspiration on Friday night, I made a pear and mozzarella pie to take on the road. I chilled the cooked pie overnight in the fridge. It was filling, yummy, and easy to eat in the car.
The camp stove saw heavy use in the mornings at camp. Breakfasts are my favorite because someone else (usually my dad or grandfather) always does the cooking! Being that I have food and only food on my mind early in the morning, I took no pictures of our actual breakfasts.
It is harvest time here in Ohio, so the food table was laden with seasonal fruits and vegetables. My grandmother brought some delicious yellow melon pictured below.
Camp lunches for us are simple sandwiches, fruits and veggies, and chips.
For the Hawaiian themed meal, Alex braised a pork shoulder with pineapple and cinnamon.
Other theme dishes included mai tais, beanie weanies with cocktail umbrellas, and a poi substitute: mashed potatoes with a beet adding color.
The next night we had grilled meats, salads, fork mashed guacamole and roasted corn.
Grandma brought her famous gingersnap cookies, my favorite of the snacks.
And there were s'mores, of course.
What do you eat when you are car camping?
