Be It Ever So Humble....

Brrrrrr. It is COLD here. After living in a world of air conditioning it was rather shocking to return to Seattle and its lovely coastal breezes. We came in around 10pm last night and it was so chilly I turned the car heater on to warm my toesies. The local weather report tells me to expect a sunny high of 68 degrees today. Ahhhh, I am home. I have lots of pictures to share and stories to tell you all. The pictures won't come in until tomorrow because I need to wait for DSSH to put his computer back together (my computer still refuses to acknowledge my camera, it is such a brat) so you will just have to wait for those. I may share one of my travel stories with you later today, when the kids are being quiet, but for now I must tackle the mountain of bags that need to be unpacked and the monster pile of laundry that somehow managed to follow me home.

Carefree Summer Days

Sweet Terror swimming. I just love her feet in this shot.
My newest sister in law. I call this one: Cute Country.

Pablo

My Niece

Foiled Again!

Tinfoil is one of those versatile must-haves. Tinfoil does everything from covering my lasagna to transforming my children into robots. You can chew on it to make your teeth twang, or press a small strip across your teeth for pretend braces. It saves the bottom of your oven from evil pie spill overs and it can increase the rang of your T.V. antennae. Some people even use it to invite skin cancer by holding a sheet of it under their chins while sunbathing. Don't forget to line the inside of your house with foil to prevent the government and aliens from spying on you. Among this miracle item's many uses is the foil pouch. When filled, rolled, and folded, a foil pouch becomes your personal little oven and only a lack of imagination can limit its possibilities. The trick to foil pouch cooking is the shape of the food, the way the foil is wrapped, good coals, and lots of turning.

Food should be flat. The flatter the food the more evenly it will cook.

Using Heavy Duty Foil will increase your cooking time but it will also help prevent burning of food. Make sure that all your seams are doubled rolled and pinched tight. You don't want steam to get out or ash to come in, and you also want it to stay sealed through lots of turning and flipping.

Make sure your coals hot, ashy, and grey. If you want to enjoy a fire while you cook foil pouches just light your fire to the side of your fire ring. After the fire has burned good and hot and you have plenty of red coals going underneath it, just scoop, or push, some of those red coals to the other side of the fire ring and place pouches in them. You can also place some coals on top of your pouches to cook both sides at the same time.

Flip and turn your pouches often. Coals give uneven heat and turning will give every part of the food a chance to cook, and keep food from burning on hot spots. Watch the foil itself for signs of blackness which are signs of doneness or burning.

My kids favorite foil dinner is also one of the simplest. Just press ground beef into a patty, add sliced carrots and sliced potatoes (beef shouldn't be thicker than 1/2 inch and veggies shouldn't be thicker than 1/4 -1/2inch thick). Sprinkle it all with Lawry's Season Salt and toss in the coals.

My siblings' favorite foil pouch is Inside Out Pineapple Cake. Take a glazed old fashioned doughnut (did you know these are my very favorite doughnut after the luscious apple or blueberry fritter) and slice it in half like you would slice open a hamburger bun. By the way, a glazed old fashioned is very different from a regular glazed doughnut, if can't find the old fashioned style just use regular cake doughnuts. Lay first half of doughnut on square of foil, cut side up. Sprinkle with brown sugar (how much depends on your sweet tooth), then lay on a slice of pineapple (the circle sliced kind), sprinkle with more brown sugar, top with other half of doughnut cut side down. Fold and seal foil tightly and cook. You will know it is done when the brown sugar and juice from pineapple have turned to a carmel glaze. Sooooo rich. If possible, serve with vanilla ice cream.

The Reynolds Wrap web site also has tons of great recipes for foil pouch cooking.

Now, if you don't mind, I need to get back to my foil ball

Fine Dining in The Great Out Doors

Hey everyone, sorry I've been gone so long. I'm still in Idaho having an AMAZING time, but I missed blogging. I have been so busy, there has been no time to sit at a computer for more than 5 minutes. It is almost 2am but I just had to type something up.
In my not-so-humble opinion, when camping, everything should be cooked on a stick. Seriously! I don't go camping just for the dirt factor. I go so that I can live the survivor lifestyle I've always dreamed of and for me that means eating off a stick. My mother and my sisters highly disagree and opt for the gourmet style of dutch oven cooking. I don't mean to knock it. I have eaten pizza, blueberry cobbler, beer brats, beans cooked in various delectable sauces, cinnamon rolls, and many other marvelous foods baked in dutch ovens. That said, I still prefer the stick. Why?

First off, they are easy to clean. I'm sorry, but I consider camping as a way to "get away from it all" and that includes getting away from the daily chore of washing dishes. Sticks are easy to clean, you just stick it in the ashes to burn food remnants (and sanitizes it at the same time), then wipe it off on your not-so-sanitary jeans and you are good to go.

Second, they are easy to pack and store. Mess kits are really cool and fun but when you are cooking for a family of 6 those mess kits can cause a big mess. I can carry enough roasting sticks in my stick bag for 15 people if I wanted to.

Thirdly, the kids can cook their own food. Sure, they drop stuff in the fire and whine a bit that it is covered in ash. The bright side is that they are a bit more thankful for the clean food you give them once they return home and I can always go for more gratitude in the food department with my bra... um, I mean, angels.

Fourthmost, it's just fun. It is fun being able to play with my food, play with sticks, and play in the fire all at the same time. It is fun having competitions to see who can roast the perfect pig in a blanket. It is fun coming up with new "stickable" kinds of food. It is fun watching my boys play sword fights after they are done eating. Camping should be about letting loose, having fun, and eating well, and stick cooking seems to fit the bill in all three areas.


Things I cook on my stick:

Pop Tarts (the trick is all in how you skewer it)

Canned Whole Potatoes (sprinkle with salt or dip in ketchup, yum)

Toast (spread bread with bacon grease, skewer onto a forked stick like you would pin your fabric before sewing)

Popcorn (hook my forked stick around the wire handle of those old burner style Jiffy Pops and shake like crazy)

Bacon (put on stick accordion style)

Any kind of shish kebab (I love ham, pineapple, red onion, and bell pepper with a little teryaki sauce)

Hot Dogs (my favorite are Cheddar Brats)

Marshmallows (I'm not a big fan of chocolate so I do my smores on fudge covered grahams. I kill two birds with one cracker that way)

What do you cook on your stick?

Check back tomorrow for my second favorite way to camp cook: Foil Pouching

BYE

If anyone needs me, this is where I will be for the next 13 hours. I may not be blogging very much for the rest of the month but if you are wondering what I'm up to just read my Scribbit Writeaway Entry. Yup, that is me for the next 4 weeks. I can't wait. Hope you are all having a fantastic summer, don't forget your sunscreen, and keep up all your wonderful blogs!

BYE!

P.S. Scribbit has posted the new writing topic for this month. Will YOU accept the challenge?

Happy 4th

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

The Set Up

In just two days I will strap my four children into the back seats of my minivan. I will then sit in the drivers seat and buckle myself in. The car will start, we will slowly back out of the driveway, and then we will head towards Idaho and try to do it with as little stops as we possibly can. There will be no co-pilot, no stewardesses, just me and my four kids. How will I accomplish this without stopping every five minutes for potty breaks, food breaks, and pulling-over-to-yell at-everyone-breaks? Well, it is all in the set up.

Tripping with kids Tip #2: Setting up the one man show.

Flingable food. When driving long distances the kids are bound to want snacks to munch on to keep them happy. The problem is that I don't want to stop every time they get a craving but I also don't have a set of extra hands lying around to open fruit snack pouches or to evenly dole out the cookies. This is where I use my lovely Ziploc bags again. I preportion out all the snacks in baggies. Kids always eat more than one pouch of fruit snacks, so open all the fruit snacks and dump two pouches in every baggie. I fill baggies with equal amounts of cookies, carrots, grapes, pretzels, etc. I only put in enough for one serving because once I fling them a baggie it is theirs and the little kids sometimes dump out whatever they don't eat. I keep a box full of the flingable food bags, water bottles (one for everyone), two small baggies with some wet wipes in them for flingable cleanliness, and apples up between the two front seats. Now when I'm driving I don't even have to look back, I just pick up a baggie and toss it back. The older kids can help toss, or at least help retrieve the ones that almost made it.

Busy Bag. About a month before the big trip I start collecting things for the busy bag. I keep my eyes open for new books, colored pencils, notebooks, and little toys or travel puzzles at garage sales and thrift stores. I keep the items hidden until the trip because they work best if they are "new" to the kids. I put crayons and colored pencils either into Ziplocs or small pencil pouches to make it easier for the kids to keep them tidy. The other trick to this bag is when to use it. It is all about the timing. A good busy bag will really only keep their attention for 5 hours. If I give them the busy bag right away they will quickly use it up and I will be left with another 8 hours of whining. So, I take some of the busy bag items and keep them aside for the very last part of the trip (keep them newer longer), then I don't let my kids have the busy bag until after they have had a nap. Which moves me to tip #3

Time it just right. I like to leave 2 hours before our regular nap time. The kids can usually behave and be entertained with music, audio books, a few snacks, and singing for two hours. Then they hopefully fall asleep for two hours. Then when they wake up I let them go as long as they can on the audio books and snacks. When they start going crazy we stop at a McD's with a playland and let them eat and run around like crazy. Get gas, go potty, get on the road again. Now I have the busy bag up by my seat ready to toss back to the oldest child to distribute. It should last a good 3 hours with some good audio books playing at the same time. Hopefully they will drift off to asleep again at about this time (at least the really young ones should). Then when they start going crazy again I will pull out the last little busy bag. Then the last hour of the trip is spent pointing out how many more turns, land marks, or streets there are till we are there.

When and where to stop. Know the stops along the way so that you can plan potty breaks, gas fillups, McD stops, even where a good park is close to the freeway for a mid trip run around. Try to plan gas stops and potty breaks for the same stop. All kids go potty at every stop whether they think they need to or not. I think Chevrons usually have the cleanest bathrooms, and so do the McDonalds stops. Take advantage of those.

Emergency preparedness. Keep an old Tupperware bowl, or an empty cool whip tub, and an old towel wrapped in a plastic bag under a seat close to you. This will be a life saver if someone starts puking on your trip (cool whip tubs stack up pretty snug so you could bring one for every kid). Keep a florescent poster board and a big magic marker and some packing tape in the back of the car. This way if you have an emergency you can write exactly what kind of help you are in need of for other drivers to see. Keep extra water and food in the car. I always travel with a Costco size thing of granola bars and bottled water in the back of my van so we are never without food and drink. I also keep a big jug of water in the car for refilling bottles as we go. Keep a roll of toilet paper under a seat (you never know when someone is going to have to go out in the middle of nowhere).

What are your special road trip tricks?

There is a new answer over at Little Miss Knowitall.

Packing

Sorry I haven't been posting lately. I have be, oh, so busy getting ready for my big, annual, Idaho trip with the kids. It is quite a big deal in that I will be driving for 13 hours, with four kids, all by myself. I also have to pack up a family of 5 for 4 weeks including a camping trip. So, I'm sure you can imagine the cleaning, packing, organizing, and general craziness that is taking place in my life right now. Every time I tell someone about this trip they look at me like I am crazy (I don't deny that I am) and then ask me, "How on earth do you do it?" It all comes down to very detailed organization and my favorite quote for life: HOPE FOR THE BEST; PREPARE FOR THE WORST.

Tripping With Kids Tip #1

Pack by the bag. Of course you will have a bag for each kid with their clothes in it, but there is much more to kids than just clothes. I don't like rummaging through bags trying to find things that I know I've packed. So, I pack everything in it's own bag grouped according to use. Here is a small example.

Swimming bag:

sunscreen

swimsuits

swim shoes

towels

toys

plastic bags

quarters

Diapers and wipes

Church bag:

Sunday shoes (wrapped in a bag so they won't soil clothing)

Sunday clothes

underwear

stockings

socks

Hair things, brush

church bag (scriptures, paper pads, pens, church books, water bottle, bag of cereal, diaper, wipes)

Camping bag:

Warm PJs

old clothes

sunscreen

bug spray

Art kit

flashlights

hot dog sticks

Glow sticks

First Aid kit

diaper and wipes

Car Bag:

audio cassettes

books

Note books

colored pencils

pens and pencils

small toys (ones that I don't mind loosing)

Diapers and wipes

Map

Electric bag: Camera, video camera, extra tapes and cards, all power cords

Toilet bag: Don't forget feminine hygiene products even if you don't need them right now

Kid's toilet bag: Another bottle of sunscreen goes in here

And many other bags... Some of these bags will go in other bags. Many of the things in these bags will be in Ziploc bags (I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ziplocs). It is a long process getting it all packed this way, but it sure pays off when I need something in a hurry.

Come back tomorrow for Tip #2: Setting up the car for my one man show.