Non-grill Owners

Greg and I do not own a grill. This is made utterly apparent on Memorial Day, especially driving home through the community with the windows down. Last year we spent our entire tax return on having a brand new fence and patio built in our back yard. Now our yard is almost complete, save some patchy grass and the empty space at the edge of the patio. The grill is the one thing we have still neglected to buy.  All we've got is a small George Foreman, but that's kept in the kitchen, as you might expect. It does the job, but apparently it is horrible to clean. (One nice thing about cooking at my house is that whoever cooks doesn't have to do dishes or clean Foreman Grills).

Luckily, we went camping this weekend with Andy and Karissa and were able to get a little dose of the smoky grilled goodness. We cooked hot dogs over the fire and made s'mores.

We also cooked dinners every night  in our new dutch oven.

The first night we got there, it was threatning rain, but we threw a fire together anyways. We put some ground beef, carrots, and scalloped potatoes into the dutch oven, placed it next to the fire and let it cook for a bit while we put the tent together and unrolled our sleeping bags. All of the sudden and all at once, a vicious wind picked up and it got completely dark an ominous. We could hear thunder quickly getting closer and closer. We quickly grabbed the food off the fire and practically dove one by one into the tent, not a moment too soon! A thunder storm rolled over us for the next 10-15 minutes. Here we are safe and sound inside the tent with our perfectly cooked dinner. 

The next day all I could think about was sitting by the fire with  nice bottle of wine. Unfortunately, I forgot a corkscrew. I finally gave up on the pocket knife from Walmart, which I was sure was going to snap in half and stick in my eyeball. So I got creative. Here I am trying to get into a bottle of Pino Noir with a hot dog skewer and a hatchet. It finally worked!

Thanks for reading my thoughts about campfires and cookouts!

Picnic By the Lake

We went camping last weekend near Cumberland, MD.

We had a picnic by the lake. I made chicken salad with bits of apple and onion.

Greg skipped stones.

The dinner I made was hamburger casserole, ground beef, sliced red potatoes, a chopped onion, beef bouillon, and salt and pepper with diced tomatoes on the top. We cooked it in the coals for about 40 minutes. A warm and hearty meal!

Leftover potatoes make great hash browns the next day. And a Coleman stove makes it all the easier ; )

All in the Family

After the intense summer heat of the last few weeks, I was thrilled to finally feel some cold weather rolling in. The month of October is definitely made for pumpkin. I think about all of the memories from being a little kids and picking our own pumpkins at the farm near my grandmother's house. Therefore, I was determined to make a pumpkin pie this weekend, half to eat, and half because I just wanted to fill the house with the aroma of pumpkin and graham cracker crusts baking. However, instead of  normal pie, I opted for a pumpkin chiffon, which uses gelatin and sets in the fridge instead of being baked in the oven. Hence, no pumpkin smells wafting through the house. But it tastes so delicious, that my pumpkin spice candle will just have to do the trick for now.

As you can see, I enjoyed some of the fruits of my labor before waiting to photograph.

If you've read some of my other posts, you probably know that my favorite season is fall. I think it runs in my family. We were always out jumping in piles of leaves and taking walks through the neighborhood on cool evenings. I still love it! I also love camping in the fall. Greg and I are going camping in a few weeks with some friends, and I can't wait to make food by the fire!

Foil Packs Cooking Away!

This meal came from foil packs that we made last year on a camping trip. I had never heard of foil packs before this, but they're a great idea, really easy and yummy! We just chopped up some veggies and ground beef, added some oil, salt, and pepper at home and wrapped it in tin foil and stuck them in the cooler. Then we cooked them in the fire for about 15-20 minutes.

Coffee

Michael's Pasta

Kabobs

Cobbler

Eggs and Sausage

Weirdly, I love campfires, but I don't really like s'mores. I roast marshmallows because it's fun, but I usully don't eat them. Greg likes to bring peanut butter for his s'mores.

Shenandoah, Virginia 2009

Cunningham Falls, Maryland 2010

Hunting Creek Lake, MD

The name says it all...

I'm looking forward to hiking and sleeping outside before it gets too cold! I guess it just runs in the blood. My sister, Sarah, just came back from a camping weekend with friends, what a cool idea for a birthday party...I wonder where she thought of that! ; )

Anyways, I'm making corn chowder tonight...hopefully it goes well. Last time I made it was traumatizing because I misread the recipe and added 1 tablespoon of pepper instead of 1 teaspoon. It was horrible. I'll let you know how it turns out this time. Thanks for reading my thoughts about food!