Camping: The Menu

 Night one: Not everyone was there yet, so Matt barbecued hamburgers at our site. After dinner we went to Ben and Melanie's camp for the campfire.

Just after Angus accused Matt of being too bougie to buy Molson Canadian and said "please don't give me an IPA, those taste like ass"

The next morning when I woke up Matt was baking a peach walnut cake over the fire. It was a peach walnut cake rather than a banana walnut cake because he brought a banana cake mix and didn't realize he also needed to bring some banana. I packed up for the beach while he tried to decide when to check the cake's status.

The first look did not display something you would term "appetizing" or "impressive" or even "edible", but when we flipped it over and then lifted it out of the incinerated top it was quite nice, plus we now had a nifty carbon bowl. He brought it to the beach and it was quite a hit. I think the peach was even nicer than the banana would have been.

Night two: Our site. Trying to cook an entire dinner while camping would give me the vapours, so I cook ribs and chicken at home, we grill corn for corn salad (this year I also cooked rotini because it's a LOT of corn to grill when it's just corn), and I made biscuits. 

San asked how you even prepare for cooking for twenty-two people. The first year was trickier, but it's a little easier after you've done it a few times. We counted about three ribs for every person, which meant about seven racks. I browned them in roasters at 450 degrees and then did them low and slow with honey garlic sauce until they're basically fall-off-the-bone - it took a few sessions and I think Matt was fairly relieved when he got to wash the roasters for the last time. I cooked nine chicken breasts in the air fryer with a spice rub and then barbecue sauce for the last couple of minutes, and we took extra barbecue sauce to brush on them when we reheated them over the fire.

We grilled twelve corn cobs and cooked one big package of rotini. I felt like we might need more pasta, but Matt reminded me that I had made dill pickle pasta salad for the cottage a month ago and we had eaten it for four meals and still brought some home, and he was right. I usually make a lime-cilantro dressing that I shake in a jar, but this time I found a recipe online for one in the food processor that also had jalapeno in it, and it was the best one so far. Unfortunately I can't remember where I found it, so that's going to take a bit of searching, but it was like four cups of cilantro, some garlic, some lime juice, a jalapeno and olive oil and I think that's about it. It was green and beautiful. I also made three dozen biscuits.

Last year Matt brought potatoes to bake over the fire, and decided to do it again even though we already had pasta - they make good leftovers for breakfast. 

I made two Costco-margarine-tupperware containers of corn and two of rotini. We only used half that for our dinner, but I brought the rest to a subsequent dinner, and cut the meat off the ribs and brought that and the chicken to the last night's dinner. Probably the least amount of leftovers we've ever had. It is kind of daunting having to cook that much amongst the other camp prep, but it's also really nice to just unbox everything and warm it up the night of our dinner. We have a big Igloo cooler that we plug into the van the whole way there, then add ice to, and everything stays quite frozen until we serve. It's also really nice to only have to host dinner once, and then just show up with plates the rest of the evenings. 

For our drink we did the Caught in the Rain that I made at the cottage. Even the people who professed to be non-tequila drinkers liked it. 

Night three: Walshes site. Marinated grilled chicken breasts (there was soy sauce and brown sugar and I think sesame oil involved, it was yummy), Margot's unbelievably delicious garlic roast potatoes and Michele made a cucumber salad and an Asian cabbage and ramen noodle salad. Also a jug of the Platonic ideal of a margarita. 

Night four: Tony's site with Antayas assisting. Hot and sour soup and firepit pad Thai - I was, not skeptical exactly, but intrigued, but  holy crap it was good (if requiring a superhuman strength level to stir, according to Mark). Then individual pineapple upside down cakes made over the fire (because Tony likes to show us all up) and THEN waffle cones with little marshmallows and skor bits and chocolate chips to foil wrap and also bake over the fire (second dessert - like second breakfast, but different). 

Drinks were a choice between a daiquiri and a Long Island Iced Tea, which features gin, rum, vodka, triple sec, and -- you guessed it -- tequila, with lemon juice and simple syrup and a splash of coke. I was in my thirties before I learned that Long Island Iced Tea isn't actually iced tea, and every time I've tried one it was repugnant, but I have the utmost faith in Tony's mixology skill, so I tried the LIIT, and I honestly I have had drinks with way less alcohol in them that tasted way more alcohol-y. I also told Ben's girlfriend she was pretty and kissed her on the forehead about twenty minutes later, so I won't be in a hurry to try another one.

Night five: Walshes site again, Wardles cooking. Sausages with an array of toppings (I forgot to take a picture until they were nearly gone. There was no picture to illustrate how once they hit the grill we rapidly lost sight of which were mild, which were spicy and which were honey garlic), really amazing instant pot brown beans and dill pickle salad. 

The drink was a callback to the Harvey Wallbanger Night of 2015 - goddamn, that is a palatable drink. 

Dave letting Tony sniff the cap to assess the vintage.

The first two mornings I got out of the tent and Matt handed me a plate with breakfast on it and I ate it. By the third morning I realized I did not remotely need to eat breakfast, just have a sandwich on the beach and then whatever amazing dinner was on offer. Plus various assorted Pringles and cookies.

 Matt remembered that in past years he hasn't gotten the fire going in time and trying to bake twenty potatoes and warm up other stuff while your fire wasn't adequately banked yet was difficult, so he left the beach early and we were ready early if anything. Probably the only oops was that he packed our salt shaker from home instead of just throwing in a box of salt - it was a pepper grinder with a small salt compartment on top, but we never used the pepper grinder part. The salt completely compacted because of the humidity, and by the time we got home the whole thing was rusted and gross and I threw it out. This made me realize that I had kind of been wanting to throw it out for years but didn't have a good reason. I knew Eve would be slightly angry about it because she hates when things from her childhood disappear, but she's mostly over it, and our new salt shaker is simple and cute. 



That is the pepper grinder I took from my childhood home. Why are we so oddly attached to spice containers?