camping food prep

 We are going on Wednesday, so the prep has to be done soon. This trip we are expecting 13 people. Mostly everyone does their own food but shares adult beverages and snacks. Jim and I tend to experiment with food. Scratch that. I tend to experiment and He puts up with it and packs extra just in case food. One year I did all 1800's recipes including a rabbit stew (we both thought I could have gotten the same taste with a mix of pork and chicken & saved quite a bit of money,) crackers, and bread. One year I made a bake reflector oven and made cinnamon rolls. One year I did all 1700-1800 drink recipes. The ones that were basically a shot in cider or beer were good, some of the others were very not good. I won't do that as it required too many things and mostly I didn't like the drinks anyways.

This year we have the following and I am experimenting with some stuff at home and planning on doing the hiking trails at the campsite.

Menu

Skewer of chicken Lunch Wednesday (Jim)

Mushroom Hash Dinner Wednesday (Jim)

German pancakes breakfast Thursday (Julia)

Mussels stew & french bread lunch Thursday (both)

Fajita dinner Thursday (Julia)

Fish in foil corn on cob lunch Friday (Jim)

Bean and rice & cornbread Dinner Friday(Both)

Tortilla soup lunch Saturday (Jim)

Beef curry & Sticky rice Dinner Saturday (Friend&Julia)

Brats lunch Sunday (Jim)

 These two are attempts at photographing my horseradish infused vodka. At the top is my lemoncello. I got one large bottle of vodka and split it between the recipes. The lemoncello has sugar, water, and the peals of 5 lemons. I let it infuse for almost two weeks. I used a 8 inch long piece of horseradish grated and the vodka and let it infuse for four days - it smells strong enough to strip paint. I strained and bottled both today, discarding the lemon peal but I ran the horseradish through the food processor and jarred it for later use. 

Later today I will be starting on beef jerky and honey roasted nuts. I also plan to make banana bread and chocolate chips to take with, and have two types of home-brewed beer to bring along.

Yarn Along - flower explosion

Joining in with Ginny and the Yarn Along!

 In preparation for next weeks camping trip I dug out an old project. I plan on working on my milk sweater while camping, but as this is a pattern I need to pay attention to and there is definitely going to be drinking and too much sun. Not a great combo. I wanted a easy evening project for around camp. I started this several years ago, using up my bits and bobs of yarn. I paid little attention to yarn weight figuring I could even it out at assembly. I plan on making 100 flowers then crocheting them together with green yarn to have a flower garden afghan. I have misplaced the pattern! But the internet was good and I found it again - here! I have 58 done so far. When I was working on them before, I did not tuck my tails. I spent a few hours this week and got them taken care of. Behold the yarn shrapnel   

As for reading I am re-reading Up Close and Dangerous by Linda Howard. I really like her characters.

~Julia

Monday morning musings - lists

I love them! recovering from prepping for and having a show for my yarn and such. It rained all the show day so I had to reorganize and dry everything. Luckily, Sunday was sunny and breezy. Here are my to do lists in recovery and in preparation for our up coming large group camping trip. The kids will be hanging out with their cousins and grandparents for the week (next week) so it is just the adults. A week long date with my husband, that we just happened to bring a bung of friends on... okay more like before kids trip. Okay, okay, we always end up spending time talking about how cool they are and how much we miss them, but adult time is important. These lists are not for the shop, just for me. I should get off my computer and get to work!

House – to do list

Vacuum

Mop

Laundry

Find bedrooms

Find rec room

Weed wack around garden

Plant garden

Mulch garden

Buy sprinkler for garden

Rack wine

Camping Prep – to do list

Make:

Horseradish Vodka

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Snack mix (buy?)

Roasted nuts

Beef Jerky

Dehydrated peaches

Salad

Get:

Mussels

Fancy bacon

Beef for jerky

Horseradish

Check sticky rice quantity

Chocolate chips

Tomato juice

Instant coffee

Whip cream can

Find:

Camping kitchen stuff (sort for two)

Bag or container for kitchen

Spice disk

Rack for Dutch oven

Baking dish for Dutch oven

Baking stone for Dutch oven