bring on summer

and camping season!

Late yesterday afternoon, Jus and I returned from a fantastic weekend of camping with family and friends. It was four days filled with fun, sun, water, and delicious food. Food is a very important part of our camping trips. I think we started planning our menu on mother's day, or maybe even earlier. We eat sandwiches for lunch, but breakfast and supper are big productions. When we are eating supper, we discuss what we'll be eating for breakfast the next morning, and when we are eating breakfast, we discuss what we'll be eating for supper that night. It's a never ending circle - a very tasty circle.

leah cracked and stirred eggs for omelets monday morning and she helped to fry the fish saturday night

At each meal we cooked for about 20 people, sometimes more. And when cooking for that many people, it takes A LOT OF FOOD.  See that tray of empty egg shells? We cooked all of those, got some from the neighbors who were heading home, and sent Spanky to the store to buy some more - and that was just for omelets on Monday morning. It also takes everyone working together.

The kids waiting patiently for their omelets to be cooked. But they also hauled trash, watched the dogs, pushed the baby, and made trips back and forth to fetch things from one camper or another.

Supper menus included grilled hamburgers and hotdogs on Friday night, a fish fry Saturday night, and smoked ribs and chicken with grilled deer kabobs on Sunday night. Breakfasts were filled with bacon, sausage, hot links, biscuits, pancakes, and eggs. It is somewhat of a tradition that we have omelets on the last morning. It takes a bit of slicing, dicing, and crumbling - but oh the yumminess!

Mike and Jen handled the griddles and man did they do it up right!

Everyone gets to choose his/her fixin's. Some want meat and cheese only. Some want the works.

this is john's - he told jen to throw it all on there - and she did

This year's omelet bar had bacon, sausage, hamburger, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, jalapenos, and cheese. Some people topped theirs with salsa. Heaven in a skillet I tell ya!

Here's mine. Jen added a garnish to pretty it up for the picture. That was the BEST omelet. No omelet at home can ever taste as good as these. And this type of breakfast is why we changed out of flip flops and hit the road for a long walk every morning. Between morning walks, walking the dogs throughout the day, and time in the water, I easily kept my commitment for the #4realfitnesschallenge.

If you have never camped, I say grab a tent, pack your ice chest, and drag your family to the nearest park ASAP. Our kids love it - the oldest "kid" brought her baby this year

he doesn't want me - he wants my phone!

And this little man loved it. He was passed from Momma to Daddy to GeGe to Grandad to aunt to uncle to cousin and back around again. He was pulled in his wagon, pushed in his car or stroller, and just carried around. We splashed with him, we played ball with him, and we did whatever he found entertaining. I'm betting that this morning he is wondering where everyone is and why we all aren't just out his window waiting to play.

Today I'm doing the laundry and packing it all right back because I'm leaving in a few days to go on another camping trip. This time girls only - no husbands or kids allowed.

A good ending to a great Monday

Well, the crew is slowly rolling in. Right now, this moment is one of my favorite things about camping. We just finished a simple but extremely yummy dinner, Cousin Chan and neighbor Alec are between campsites playing a variety of outdoor games, Alec's dad is sitting nearby watching the boys, and his mom just returned from a run. Friends across are finishing their dinner. It's quiet evening. And I love it. My brother and his family are finally finished with baseball and on their way. There have been several texts and calls to confirm the impending arrival.

Today we lounged on floaties in a secluded little cove. A few passing waves gave us the occasional wave action. Carolyn just told me that I've got my lake raccoon eyes started. Every year my tan gets all jacked up from sunglasses. I have white circles around my eyes and my nose gets very brown. Imagine a jack o'lantern nose. I do sunscreen, but it still happens.

Tonight's dinner included stuffed mushrooms. They were very simple and oh so tasty. I browner a pound of sausage with 1/2 red onion and 3 garlic cloves. Mixed this with softened cream cheese, one can of green chilis, a bit of oregano, Greek seasoning and salt and pepper. Then stuffed several medium portebello mushrooms. I planned to grill them, but it was just so hot and we didn't have anything else to grill, so I cooked them in the electric skillet with the lid on.

Now to do some dishes. Haven't really done any since I got here on Thursday.

Cooking on the Camping Trip

Ahhhh, the lake life. Relaxing. Soaking up the sun. Time to unwind. The biggest worry being did I cover everything that needed to be covered with sunscreen. But the most conversation about what to cook next. When I am at home, I like to cook - but get so tired of making decisions about WHAT to cook. Maybe that's why I like the lake so much. There is conversation about the menu for each meal. We decide one thing, then everyone adds to the menu with items from their stash. When I'm camping with family, we really have some great meals. We plan very little before we go. Everyone just brings what he/she has, and we mix and match our menus. For the girl's trip, there was a little more planning; they try to know what each person is bringing so that there is variety without too much duplication. A good idea for a short trip.

Each morning we had bacon or sausage, fried eggs, and biscuits. We cooked the meat and eggs in an electric skillet. Most of the time when camping with my family, we use the electric skillet to cook the biscuits. Turn it on very low temp and flip the biscuits about halfway through cooking time. They turn out just right.

But Liz has a toaster oven, and for our small group, it was just the right size to bake the biscuits. Whop biscuits are really good for camping breakfasts. Just whop 'em, pop 'em in to cook, and by the time everything else is done they are ready.

I made a chicken salad before I left home and packed it in the cooler. This made for an easy lunch each day.

I'm all about easy for supper too. One night we had pork loin, baked beans, salad, and bread. Yummy.

Liz put the beans in the crock pot that morning. Notice the liner? After supper she just tossed the liner and no cleaning a dirty crock pot! At lunch I put the pork loin in the rotisserie and let in turn all afternoon. My sister and I both have rotisserie ovens - they are great for camping. Just like the commercial says, "Set it; and forget it!"

Just before we ate, I mixed up a strawberry salad. Spring mix greens, sliced strawberries, yellow grape tomatoes, a red onion, feta cheese, and a vinagrette (I had almonds to go in too, but left them at my camper and was too lazy to walk back and get them).

We had friends come for supper that night. And Belle brought some great bread. These cheesy jalapeno rolls were my fav. And we heated the bread in Liz's toaster oven.

For our supper on the last night, everyone brought steaks. We grilled them on the fire. I packed a potato casserole from a local market, and brought some veggies to grill. Liz had some garlic bread to heat on the grill too.



I just pulled up a chair and did the grilling sitting down.

How 'bout that camping hair? Fresh out of the shower, trying to let it dry before pulling it up. And here is another camping tip - go sleeveless. It's amazing how much cooler you are with no sleeves.

Do you camp? What do you cook? Share some ideas.