Our trip up is uneventful. We have to stop for road construction three times, but that has been normal up the Joe this summer. The camper is set up by 4:00 PM and our next activity is the cooking of the Dutch oven "Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot Pie!". (Follow the link to understand the pie joke.) I had prepared the pie filling the night before and all we had to do was unfold the crust into the Dutch and then build the pie. Cooking was the big unknown for this meal. How much time? How many briquets? Will it burn? How will we tell when it is done? It's enough to send a guy to the looney bin.
We endeavored to persevere, placing the crust into the Dutch. It took three pie crusts. My tip of the day would be to let the crusts set out and warm up a bit. Having Linda sit on the crust to warm it was helpful but probably not the best solution. The crust was wrapped in a towel by the way. They need to be flexible and from the refrigerator, they tend to crack and pull apart. Success came after much pushing and stretching, a big victory in my book.
The filling is not for the weak at heart. It contains heavy cream, carrots, chicken, peas, celery, and onions. You put 4 Tbsp. butter in a pan and saute the celery and onions. Then you add one cup of chicken broth, your chicken chunks (I used the world-famous Costco rotisserie chicken!) and stir in one-half cup of flour, the carrots, and the peas. This should be cooked until it thickens up. Add some garlic, salt, pepper, and thyme and that about covers it.
Fresh raspberries from the Anderson's farm. |
Enough for a small army. |
Cooking the meal took about 40 to 50 minutes. I was freaked out about the "Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot Pie!", but Linda forced me to wait the 40 minutes before I looked at it. Oh my gosh, everything was perfect! The flavor was amazing and the crust was golden brown. The top of the crust cooked and was moist and heavenly! We had to force ourselves to not eat too much!
This was a big Cutthroat caught on a hopper pattern. |
On Thursday I went fishing and Linda stayed around the camper and read. As you know, Linda runs every morning, even when we are camping. She runs in the campground in and out of all the small side roads. By the end of our stay, everyone knows her and she is waving to everyone.
I make breakfast once each trip! |
Linda beat me in cribbage tieing the tournament. We ate dinner of Flautas and cheese, read and then went to bed.
Friday we spent the day taking walks and reading. There were so many fly flippers on the hunt that I didn't even go out. The wind was a bit gusty which also took away some of my desire to fish.
We heated up leftovers and then played Mexican Train. Linda kicked my butt in the games of the evening and then we crawled into bed where I finished my Dean Koontz book.
Camp takedown was smooth. We were up and loaded by 10:30 AM The drive home was nice. We are rejuvenated and ready for a new week.
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