Once in awhile I get this incredible urge to get out and go camping. Maybe it’s a spiritual thing, maybe it’s an elemental thing (I’m a fire sign, and I’m drawn to a volcanic area), maybe it’s just a thing… *Ü* This was one of those “times.” I was so driven to get moving that I didn’t check, double check and make sure every thing was in it’s place.
We packed up (with cross purposes) and headed out. I was positive we were camping overnight. Hubby was figuring on a day trip with the possibility of being out overnight. 1st mistake. Well…maybe the 2nd. The first might have been cleaning up the camping gear and not making sure everything was returned to the appropriate boxes. If you take it out, and don’t replace it…it won’t be there when you want it! I had the box open and didn’t think to replace…oh, the cooking oil…seasonings…minor things. *rolling my eyes* It’s ok. I had help in the “brainiac” department. Hubby didn’t pack any of the cookware. It was no biggee…he wasn’t really planning to be out overnight. Ahhh…cross purposes! LOL! It actually gets a little better…neither of us packed anything for meals. What was I thinking??
A brief stop off at a Trader Joe’s solved our culinary needs. We picked up some juice and something for supper – Teriyaki chicken bites, a package of grill veggies, and a package of flatbread. At this point we didn’t know we had no seasonings (except salt and pepper-so it could have been worse!) or no cooking oil…or no cookware. I was pretty tickled with our dinner selections as it was, so off we went!
150 odd miles later, we pulled into the last campground of the day…one with no piped water, but a gorgeous setting. Sold. The water situation wasn’t much of a problem. We have filtration devices. We have a hand-held filter and a gravity fed water filter. Who wants to worry about piped water when this is right beside you?
This is the amount of water we filtered in about 12 hours…
It may not be fast, but it certainly works well!! I am no longer concerned at all about where I’m camping as long as there’s a clear running stream! *Ü*
Back to our dinner tale…So, here we are…sitting alongside one of the prettiest little creeks in the country, camp is set up and we’re getting ready to cook supper…”Where’s the skillet?” …… “What do you mean it’s at home…?” ……. “Okay…no, it’s ok. It’s just a little extra challenge…I do have the little Stowaway pot…but there’s a griddle and a grill, and we’ve got wood…this should work out fine!”…Oh. Wait. There’s no cooking oil…Hmmmm…. Ok. We’ll put a good sprinkling of salt down first… That worked. The chicken bites had microwave directions…thankfully I didn’t read them, otherwise we couldn’t have had supper! They also had sauce packets. Ahhh…the chicken could be heated without burning the sauce; excellent! The veggie package was fabulous! Sweet potato, eggplant, summer squash, mushrooms, peppers and onions. I started with the sweet potato and worked my way through the veggies until everything was crisp-tender. There wasn’t room for everything at once so it had to be staggered anyway. While I was trying to think of a way to keep everything warm until everything was cooked, I saw the metal colandar and thought it might work double duty…it could keep the food warm, but with the water in the coffee pot boiling beneath it…it could also steam the veggies some too. SOLD. I put the chicken in the 2 cup Stowaway pot with a little water and put the lid on to heat over indirect heat alongside the other things.
Yep. That’s me. One seriously REAL shot. Just doin’ my thing in camp. NOT a sophisticated environment…but totally happy and in my element! Cooking, (ok, over an open fire, but that’s nothing!), with a few challenges. Perfect!
While I know just about anything tastes good when cooked by a campfire, this really was exceptionally good. Bruce sat there, indulgently, for the process, but started taking pictures when things started getting inventive! You see…we didn’t even have any foil with us this trip either. I pushed just about everything to the limit on this adventure! LOL! I had picked up some Middle Eastern Flatbread while we were at TJs to go with this…I should have grabbed a package of their “already cooked” brown rice. That would have been perfect! LOL! Just another little adventure from the “Campfire Magic” side of our lives!
Can't Believe We Ate... 