“What are your plans for the 4th?”
“Oh, I’m going camping,” I responded giddily.
“Really? You don’t strike me as the camping type,” came the reply.
This conversation was repeated about 5 times the week before the 4th of July long weekend. I don’t strike anyone as the camping type, apparently. Yes, it’s true, I’m a bit on the princess/prissy side, and I wear pink near daily (actually, it’s daily, even if you think I’m not wearing pink, I probably am), I have a lil girly frou-frou princess dog (in my defense, I didn’t exactly choose her, though I love her to bits and wouldn’t have it any other way), and I wear 4″ heels… but I also can get down and dirty with the best of them! I don’t blowdry my hair, I don’t wear makeup, and while I probably shouldn’t admit this, I think I could go a few days without showering if I absolutely had to, and I wouldn’t be all whiny about it, either.
I’m just one big contradiction, k? K!
I do really hate dirt, though.
In any case, part of the reason I adore camping is because of the food, duh! Cooking over an open flame, a fire made nearly entirely of hickory wood… geez, it doesn’t get better than that!
The first night, I wrapped scrubbed Idaho potatoes in tin foil, sliced some butter on top, and tossed them into the fire.
Of course *ahem* someone wanted to put the potatoes on top of the grill instead… so they didn’t quite cook all the way through… next to our rib eye steaks!
My plate – I ate salad first, thus the vinaigrette residue on the plate.
The next day, we went for a nice 8 mile hike through the woods and all around the park. Gorgeous waterfall.
Surprisingly, my lil frou frou princess dog made it all 8 miles. Here’s “Daddy” walking her (we switched off between holding the bag with our sandwiches and holding her leash, which was unnecessary but rules is rules… though we bumped into a bunch of people who had their much larger dogs off-leash, grrr). The only parts she didn’t walk were when we got to muddy areas and when we had to cross streams by stepping from rock to rock.
Of course, after the hike, Keywee was pooped out…
“Mommy, I was so good and walked all that way without complaining, why are you giving me dog food? Why do I not get a steak or at least a hot dog?”
“This is cruelty… I protest…”
“I said no pictures. I am mad at you.”
“Did I hear someone drop some food???”
The second day, we had more steaks, and some hot dogs.
And of course, salad.
My lovely hickory smoked hot dog… I didn’t bring pickle relish this time, boo.
And the steak from the second night. We learned that cooking it a lil more done than we like is the best idea for this style of cooking; it’s easier to cut using our plastic knives, and it ensures even cooking. Still juicy and tasty – this is medium, actually – but slightly more done than I prefer (since I like medium rare).
The sky looked gorgeous while I was walking Keywee around the campsites.
I tried to catch a good shot, but I’m limited with my point&shoot’s capabilities.
You see the lil doggie all passed out to the side in the pic? Still very tired. And she did get some extra treats for being so good the whole trip and hiking so well. (I was really surprised; I walk her to my mom’s house sometimes and she’ll lie down halfway and refuse to walk any further. My mom lives a 10 minute walk from me – 15-20 minutes with the dog, and we hiked 8 miles this time!!!) Anyway, this birch beer was available at the camp store, so I had to try it. Packed with caffeine, but the kick wasn’t as great as I’d have liked. The back of the can explained how dangerous black bears are and how we have to be wary of the area we’re in, and respect the black bear, etc. and had in great big letters “DO NOT PLAY DEAD!!! IF IT COMES TO PHYSICAL CONTACT, FIGHT BACK!” Pretty awesome.
So really, this post is completely self-indulgent for me to show off my adorable doggie, and brag about what I ate on this year’s camping trip (with another couple; that’s not all food for just two people!). I will mention, however, that the steaks were extra seasoned, then placed in individual gallon sized ziploc bags with a paper towel to sop up the moisture from the steaks as the salt penetrated, which made them extra tasty. That’s about all the cooking advice I can give, but if you want camping advice, let me know, because I have a ton of it 🙂
Happy eating~!!!
Rochelle says
You totally eat better on camping trips than a lot of people do at home. And for that, I adore you. That steak looks AWESOME.
eonyc says
This post alone makes me reconsider camping. 🙂
SkippyMom says
I can't wait! We leave for our trip tomorrow. And those steaks are INSPIRING. Perhaps we will have that our first night. Yum – thanks for the tips on cooking them – we don't usually eat steak while camping, but we are splurging this trip 🙂
Kewee is so dang cute. I love the bow. We aren't taking our doggies 🙁 because it will be too hot for them ….I will miss them. They can go next time.
Have a great week. See ya' when we get back.