Well, We Did More Than Eat!

It all starts with Linda looking at her calendar and seeing that there are no appointments, meetings, or shopping to do for a four-day stretch. Then we raid our freezer and scope out the food cupboard and we put together a food plan for the days we're going to be out. Linda then checks the reservation website for Huckleberry and reserves one of our favorite spots. Once this is complete, then we start packing the camper and preparing Linda's folks by telling them we are going to be gone for a few days and how we're going to keep in touch. Being gone requires letters and procedures to those that need them in case something happens while we're gone and we touch base with Linda's sister so she can ramp up some phone calls to check up on things in the evenings. We have a window starting Wednesday afternoon and ending Saturday.

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.

We put the filling in the crust creating the "Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot Pie!" and then placed it in the coals to cook. I placed quite a few briquets on the top to try and brown the crust. On top of all this, I made a raspberry cobbler out of some fresh raspberries given to us by Rayelle Anderson. This cobbler came from a cobbler kit, but I changed things up by adding heavy cream in place of milk. I did this to use up the cream. Neither Linda nor myself actually use milk products very often and I didn't want the cream to go bad (can cream go bad?)

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.

We went to bed after all the dishes were cleaned up. I had beaten Linda in cribbage and our first night of camping was a huge success.

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!

I caught about three fish when I was out. One big one (see photo.)  Taking pictures of the fish I catch is so very hard on the fish and not the easiest on myself. I worry about the fish and worry that I will drop my phone in the drink. I have to get everything prepared prior to going into the water so that I can quickly get the phone and the photo without damaging the fish. I don't even pick up the fish when I catch them, I just grab the hook and give it a flip and they swim away.

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.

Quick, Short Trip

This last week we had a bit of a window without parental appointments and shopping needs, so we drove back up to Huckleberry and stayed Monday through Thursday. Linda went online and reserved the exact spot where we stayed two weeks ago. We arrived early afternoon on Monday and were set up with cocktails by 2 PM.

I have been trying to get better at cooking in a Dutch oven. For this excursion, I had collected the ingredients for a very tasty chicken cordon bleu meal we have tried before. I made some adjustments to the cooking process and it came out very nicely.

The recipe called for using crescent rolls that you buy uncooked and then bake them in the oven. The process calls for assembling the meal starting with the crescent roll dough on the bottom and then layering the ingredients up prior to baking. What worked really well for me was to place the crescents in the bottom of the pan and bake them before you layer the rest of the ingredients. Once the dough is baked, I took and flipped the baked crescent roll bread over and then built the layers of the recipe on top of the brown crust.

Here is the entire recipe for you to try:

Deep Dish Chicken Cordon blue
1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls (8 rolls)
2 tablespoons unsalted or salted butter
1 tablespoon Crisco® 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Pure Olive Oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 box (13.25 oz) frozen baked honey-battered chicken tenders, thawed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, or 1 (NOTE: I used Costco rotisserie chicken instead of the tenders. Cheaper and better flavor!) deli rotisserie chicken (2 to 2 1/2 lb), shredded
16 slices (1 oz each) Muenster cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon horseradish sauce or cream-style prepared horseradish
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves or 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1lb shaved cooked brown-sugar or maple-glazed ham (from the deli)

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Spray 13×9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with Crisco® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray. Unroll crescent rolls in baking dish; press perforations to seal. Bake 10 to 13 minutes or until light golden brown.
2. Meanwhile, in 10-inch skillet, heat butter, and oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring frequently, until softened. Remove from heat; stir in cut-up chicken tenders.
3. Place 8 slices of the Muenster cheese over baked crust. In a small bowl, stir Parmesan cheese, mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, honey, horseradish sauce, and thyme until well blended. Spoon half of the mayonnaise mixture evenly over cheese on crust.
4. Spoon chicken mixture evenly over mayonnaise mixture on crust. Spoon remaining mayonnaise mixture evenly over chicken. Cover chicken evenly with ham. Top with remaining 8 slices Muenster cheese.
5. Bake 15 to 20 minutes longer or until cheese is melted and filling is thoroughly heated.

With a Dutch oven, it takes a bit more time to get things right, but when it is finished... oh la la. I also used much less chess (8 slices total)

Of course, I finished off the meal by making some cinnamon rolls in the top Dutch and yes, we ate too much!

On Tuesday I went fishing and Linda read her book. She is reading a great book by William Finnegan called Barbarian Days - A Surfing Life. It is a great read and we both highly recommend it. While fishing I caught three fish, but only one was of an impressive size.

Wednesday I went out fishing once again, but this time I caught, what I would call, two real hogs! I was using a beat-up old grasshopper pattern, and those two big boys were hungry. It was sure fun, and both of those cutthroats slurped the fly in classic dolphin attack fashion. Great fights and I was able to release them untouched.

As I was letting the adrenalin rush of catching and releasing a huge fish pass, I stepped on an unstable rock and it sat me down into the water. I got wet, but it cooled me off and I didn’t hurt anything but my pride so all was good.

Back at camp Linda and I had a happy hour and enjoyed the evening.  New rigs were coming in and setting up. We met some very nice folks and chatted about camping and retirement. It was a fun evening.

On Thursday we loaded up and drove back into town. These short adventures give us a chance to get away and relax. We will definitely be doing more of them before the snow flies!

Yes, those are guides shorts. No laughing!