Camping

I've been a bad girl I know. I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks after getting so excited about starting one. I obviously have some catching up to do. I will start with last week's adventures.

We went camping for a few days at Lake Murry in Oklahoma. It as wasn't nice as I had hoped but still quite acceptable. The park was huge and we were camping light, so we had to rent an RV site to get water and electricity. The tent only sites had one or the other but not both. I am completely baffled why. It was fine though. My sister and her two little girls came with us. Our tent is appropriately huge and has two rooms. My husband has been camping lots of times before, but I am still relatively a novice with only one real attempt under my belt. He asked me to prepare a menu for the weekend, so I got online and researched so rather inventive options (aka code for some of them don't work). James was rather skeptical but willing to let me go for it. I found some things that work great and one that wasn't so fantastic. One thing I will be sure to think about next though is when I plan my menu to be sure if adequate fuel sources are available. I had hoped to roast hot dogs over the fire for lunch one day, but we didn't have enough wood (who burns a fire in hot weather anyway). It's still early enough in the Spring though for mornings and evenings to be nice and chilly. Perfect campfire weather. Next time I will adjust accordingly.

Losers:

Crescent Rolls roasted on a stick

(This may have be sabotaged by the fact that our fire was too hot. We didn't properly let it burn down to coals before tempting it. My husband thinks that it have worked accordingly, especially if we tried biscuits instead. I'm not so sure. We'll probably end up trying it one morning for breakfast eventually [with a cheap can no doubt, lol]. It was a cool idea though.)

Up for debate:

Pan fried frozen Pizza

(It had defrosted and cooked up okay. I think I was turned off by the fact it had gotten cold by the time we were ready to eat it. It was also a bit "crisp" on the bottom. My husband and niece had no problem finishing it off though)

Winners:

Eggs in a Bag

(Strange I know but it sounds exactly as it is. I should have used freezer bags but I didn't want to waste more expensive bags. Instead I used regular zip lock bags. They were fine, but you have to be careful. Half of mine ended up of the ground. Eggs are quite slippery :-)

Quesidillas

(The little one loved making them and they're just as easy as at home. We froze cut up rotisserie chicken, shredded Mexican blend Cheese, Sauteed Mushrooms, and chopped spinach for a filling. By the second day, they had defrosted in the cooler and were ready to use.)

All in all, our meals were not too bad. I'm excited about trying other options next time and I will be sure to plan more thoroughly. My nieces and sister had a great time and that's the most important thing :-).

Making Up (Chicken Marsala and Asparagus Risotto)

This past weekend James and I struggled to find appropriate ways to communicate with each other. By Monday, we were both especially miserable after such a rough weekend. Thankfully, we were able to make up over email during work that day. Expecting a snow storm in DFW (yes I know ???), we made a grocery store run before heading home.

I decided to go all out and make a recipes for Chicken Marsala and Asparagus Risotto I found. Asparagus was on sale for 1.28 a lb. Practically irresistible. You can't say no to that price :-). It caused for white wine though. I am not a wine drinker at all. It just doesn't appeal to me, but I like to cook with it. Once the alcohol flavor evaps off, it can really enhance certain dishes. With only 20 dollars in our pockets to expend on groceries for the week, we opted to buy just one bottle. I figured the chicken would be fine with white wine but red would overwhelm the asparagus, so we splurged on the cheapest (5.98) bottle of Chardonnay they had.

At home, we started cooking our beautiful meal loaded with things I love like aparagus and mushrooms. In the end, we ended up with a delicious meal in just an hour.

A great thing too, b/c when James went to check the car it was covered in snow. A perfect night to snuggle after a very enjoyable meal.

Blend Baby Blend

Yesterday, I had a half hour of time to burn, so I decided to go to one of my favorite stores to buy a few things from our registry. Armed with a gift card, I made a list of what we really needed and set off. Some things alas, this location didn't have, but typical of me I found others that I decided I just couldn't do without. Once such thing was two Quick Blend Shakers. I was unbelievably excited to discover these.



For quite some time, I've been wanting a magic bullet. How wonderful they've seemed. My heart aches a little every time said infomercial comes on. They just call after my heart... Twyla buy me, buy me. don't you want the ability to blend small portion sizes? wouldn't you like to make individual portion size smoothies right in your glass without dirtying a whole blender? wouldn't you like the flexibility of multiple cups to easily switch out and blend different things. "YES!", I say "YES!"

So, when I discovered a cup that you could pop the lid off of and screw onto your blender, I could barely contain my excitement. I'm sure a store employee had to show up after to me to clean up my drool. I picked my husband up from school gushing about my newfound treasured discovery. He laugh and laughed at my delight and said that I just had to blog about this thing.

We arrive home and I got to. I grab my blender and find that I am unable to unscrew its base from the jar. Seeking my husbands help, he manages to get it off. I'm a bit puzzled, b/c my wonderful blender base doesn't look quite like the picture. In fact, it's quite unlike the picture. Unfazed, I take the blade assembly and slip it onto the quick shaker bottle. Sighh... It doesn't work. I have an extra capacity blender with larger than normal blades. My new bottles are now quite an impossibility. How tragic! At least I have a receipt. They're going back this weekend, and maybe just maybe I can find something else to console my broken heart.