The First Camping of the Season!

It was a wonderful short weekend camping. It was short because we only stayed at the campground for Friday and Saturday, so that we could get home for the neighborhood gathering on Sunday night.

The weather? Well, at least it didn't snow! It rained Friday night while sleeping until breakfast, so that was fine. Then the rain came back at about 5pm, and rained off and on all evening, finishing at about 4am with a tremendous lightning storm. It was incredible to observe that from our camper.

We had a late start (this was the first camping we did since the summer of 2010) so I was a bit rusty at preparing the gear. By the time we got to camp and were set up, I decided that cooking a meal just wasn't an option. I walked to a nearby restaurant and ordered a 12 inch veggie pizza and some onion rings. Yeah. Pizza AND onion rings! My wife was able to exert self control and ate a proper portion of the pizza (about 1/4) and a couple onion rings. I, on the other hand, ate as if the concept of leftovers was forbidden by law. (The aftermath of that meal was swollen hands and feet from the sodium.) But it tasted pretty good.

Saturday, I cooked a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs (I made two servings, using three whole eggs and three egg whites) with sauteed onions, crimini mushrooms and green bell pepper, topped with some sharp cheddar cheese, and served with an orange and a piece of my homemade bread (beautifully plated on a paper plate!) Nothing fancy, but really tasty. I used an electric skillet, cooking under the awning to stay dry, and that skillet made sauteing the veggies simple.

Lunch was a simple meal of hummus and vegetables (bell peppers, carrots, cucumbers and celery) along with some sweet Bing cherries. After lunch, we found a very relaxing path through the woods, and the three of us walked about 90 minutes enjoying the quiet of the trees. Tammy took some pictures of local wildflowers and when I get them off her camera, I will post some. We have no idea what most of the flowers were, just that they were part of a beautiful hike.

Dinner was burgers (equal parts ground venison and 80% lean ground beef), again cooked in the skillet, again under the awning because the rain had started. Nice symmetry to the day! I went back to the restaurant and ordered a basket of deep fried veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, onion rings, and that Wisconsin standby, breaded cheese curds.) These were not as good as I had hoped for. Maybe by that point I was starting to feel bad about eating all that grease-soaked food (which is really not my usual diet.)

The evening was spent playing cards with Tammy (and getting my ass handed to me! She was on fire!) because it rained constantly.  Ozzy spent the evening in a drug-induced haze, because he really does not tolerate thunder.

Don't worry. He was his normal self by the time the really loud thunder started at 4am!

Sunday was spent in the neighbor's backyard. It was a "bring your own meat and a dish to pass" party. We brought Grilled Pepper Poppers for everyone, and Cheese-Stuffed Portabella Caps for us (recipe to follow.) I never made that exact recipe (sort of combined a few ideas into one meal) but it was a keeper!

We'll be camping again in two weeks. Hopefully I will have more exciting food pictures from that adventure.