Blog Posts

Private Beach Picnic Preview

10/20/2015

Every September we try to head as far from the mountains as possible, since that's where we've undoubtedly spent most of the summer. We usually camp, but this past summer was more stressful and exhausting than the prior ten summers combined -- so we decided on a compromise: do all our favorite camping stuff, like kayaking, cycling, and especially eating outdoors, but then return at night to a very cozy, very clean, very un-tent-like air bnb hideaway, with an actual shower and (gasp!) toilet and...the best part...a bed we didn't have to blow up. It was embarrassingly wonderful.

We ended up in Ft. Bragg, CA -- because there is a terrific bike trail, great kayaking, miles of beaches, and no mountains in sight. Now, I'm obviously not a mountain hater, but an entire lifetime of summers spent at 8000' can grow old, and we really need a change of pace to make this trip actually feel like a vacation rather than just an extension of summer camp. Finding a place to stay was simple; finding a beach that allowed alcohol was not.

See, in CA 99% of the beaches are actually state parks or various other flavors of state-run designations...and this generally means (at least in Northern CA) no alcohol is allowed. If we were going to have a 4-star dinner picnic on the beach, we weren't going to do it without a very special bottle of Corison cabernet we'd been saving. I figured there had to be at least one tiny stretch, a few feet really, of privately owned beach I could somehow talk my way into for the evening. Of course, we considered (very briefly) just taking the risk, decanting the bottle into our backpacking wine bag, and hoping for the best, but we were tired...very tired...and we really, really just needed a stress and worry-free dinner. The last thing I wanted was to have our foie gras appetizer interrupted by an energetic ranger who, apparently (I know this because I spent way too many hours scouring reviews and reports online), dump out the alcohol if they catch you with it -- seriously, I would ugly cry for hours if this Corison bottle ended up in the sand; fine us, cite us, and arrest us, cool -- but don't waste one drop of that wine.

So I knew I needed a legal option; and I finally found it. There is a very short stretch of not-advertised privately owned beach sandwiched between two state parks, and for the paltry sum of $20, it was ours for the night. I was willing to pay for a night's lodging in the little hotel that owns that stretch of beach, but we didn't need to...the owners were more than happy to give us evening access. As it turned out, we didn't even have to share it -- so we had not only a private piece of sand, but a private cove on a private beach in a tiny private bay. It couldn't have been more perfect.

I'm going to stretch this experience into several different posts -- one with a menu, then several of our recipes, and finally one with pointers on hosting your own classy beach picnic, void of the typical beach picnic things like hot dogs and store-bought potato salad. For now, I'll just share a few pictures of our venue. Stay tuned.

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Lazarus, Definitely

9/15/2015

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Back from the dead, on the beach in Ft. Bragg, CA.

Ten months have passed. Ten months of outdoor cooking, hiking, eating, picnicking, eating, a little bit of burning stuff, kayaking, eating, snowshoeing, and more eating. But no writing.

This is my "holy hell, do I even remember how to post here?" post. A test to see if I can still make links work, put things where they belong, upload recipe cards to the right place, etc. But I figured I'd include a little peek at the first "real" post coming up -- a recent beach picnic to end all beach picnics. A real live one, not a fake Perfect Pinterest Picnic Photoshoot. And it was awesome. I'll include recipes for some of the things we cooked, like sauteed foie gras with fig mostarda and a seared duck breast with blackberry sauce and duck fat potatoes (sorry, vegetarian friends), and a terrific vegan pumpkin cardamom spiced trail mix that we simply can't stop eating.

But first I need to remember how everything works. Sorry for the 10-month hiatus, but we'll get into that later...

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Split Pea Soup

11/28/2014

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Day 28 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

Anyone who knows me is probably scratching her head right now -- peas?! Seriously?!

I hate peas. HATE peas. But I learned last weekend that my husband loves split pea soup, yet was willing to give it up when he married me, knowing very well how much I absolutely despise peas.

I felt horrible about this -- so yesterday I made a huge batch of this stuff, just for him. It didn't smell terrible, I must admit...still, I'm not going to start eating peas, but at least now I know I can make a pretty darned good split pea soup, whenever he has a craving. The ginger makes it especially tasty.

When making this for a camping trip, you may either cook the entire thing at your campsite, omitting the blender step -- this will give you a semi-smooth soup, still just as tasty as the version below. However, you may want to make the entire thing at home, blend it to a super smooth texture, seal it, and reheat it at your campsite. Either way, the results are terrific.

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Moroccan Chickpea & Tomato Soup

11/27/2014

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Day 27 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

I made just enough of this soup yesterday for myself. One big bowl, just for the photo below. I had no plans to share -- I mean, considering the fact that this is day 27 in a row that we've had soup in this house, it's not like there aren't SIX different soups in the fridge at this very moment.

But which soup did kid #3 really beg for? I mean, REALLY beg for? Was he happy with the other SIX kinds I offered him? No. He smelled my Moroccan Chickpea & Tomato Soup, and, with his huge, 16-year-old "Mom, how can you say no?" eyes, managed to get the entire bowl from me.

So here it is, apparently kid #3's favorite soup of the month, so far. If keeping this recipe vegan isn't important to you, it's also great with an added cup of cooked/shredded chicken or lamb, and chicken stock in place of the vegetable stock.

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Chicken Enchilada Soup

11/26/2014

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Day 26 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

So every June all the staff who volunteer at the camp I run are required to complete a ridiculous amount of training hours. It's ridiculous not because it's especially excessive; it's ridiculous because 90% of the staff have been coming for years, and this means that, unlike most of the camp directors I know, I have to reinvent the wheel every single year rather than use the same curriculum, over and over, as they do. To fulfill these required hours, rather than make them show up for a three-hour course in the evening, once a week for twelve weeks, we take them all to a remote location (where they can't escape!) and get most of it done in one long weekend.

Now, I'm not complaining -- not really. These staff are amazing, and I'd rather have women staffing for me who have been coming to camp for over 20 years than a brand new batch of volunteers every single summer. But it does create quite a challenge, trying to repeatedly motivate and educate women who have spent most of their adult lives at this place. They expect, and deserve, something new, different and exciting every year.

The funny thing is that while they want new and different training material, they do NOT want new and different food. We've had the same volunteer cooks at our training weekend for a number of years, and the two of them do a phenomenal job of cooking for our loud and crazy group of 125 women. The one dish everyone asks for -- demands, really -- is their chicken enchilada soup.

I've lightened it here and adapted it a bit, only because that's the way our family eats. But anything that 125 women can agree upon must be worth a try, don't you think?

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Black Bean Soup

11/25/2014

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Day 25 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

Black bean soup recipes are a dime a dozen -- but the added fresh chilis in this one make it special.

Any fresh chili will do; we have poblano peppers exploding in the backyard (did you know that if you forget to pick them, even poblano's will eventually turn red? Me neither...) so that's what I used today.

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Turkey Corn Chowder with Herb Dumplings

11/24/2014

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Day 24 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...home stretch!

This title is a bit misleading -- when most people think of chowder, they think of creamy, fat-laden and sometimes goopy stuff, not suitable for everyday eating but maybe, just maybe, an occasional indulgence.

But not this one. With less than 300 calories per serving, and zero cream, this is an everyday staple, perfect for the last day of a camping trip when you have various small bits of this and that leftover. While the recipe calls for specific vegetables, feel free to substitute whatever you have on hand. I hate carrots and green beans, so they're absent from this soup -- but if you've got 'em, use 'em.

This soup can also be easily altered for vegetarian diners by replacing the turkey with tofu and the turkey stock with vegetable stock. Almond milk or soy milk may be used instead of the regular milk, and the butter may be tossed in favor of vegetable oil. The parmesan may also be omitted -- just add a bit more flour to compensate, or your dumplings will be especially sticky.

If you don't hike or camp with fresh herbs, substitute 1 T dried herbs for the 1/4 cup fresh ones in the dumplings.

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Pesto Antipasto Soup

11/23/2014

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Day 23 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

This one is a little odd, but it's a perfect way to serve antipasto on a camping trip if you don't want to mess with cheese, crackers, and meats. Only the stock requires refrigeration, so if you freeze it before leaving, you won't have to worry about it at all. You can also skip the immersion blender step, if you'd rather make this entire thing at your campsite.

Be sure to rinse the olives and peppers before adding them to the pot, though -- our first crack at this recipe was a total failure because it tasted like vinegar and nothing else! Rinsed, though, this soup takes on a rich, Italian flavor, perfect for a first course either at home or in the woods.

We have mutant basil plants growing in the yard, so every fall we make a year's worth of pesto concentrate (which is homemade pesto, with a fraction of the oil). We freeze it into logs, and then slice off as much as we need. When adding it to recipes, I don't add extra oil; but if using it as a stand-alone pesto sauce, I'll mix equal parts pesto base and olive oil. Feel free to use jarred pesto sauce in this recipe, but try to squeeze out as much excess olive oil as possible...you could even use that oil to saute the onions.

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Wild Mushroom Soup

11/21/2014

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Day 22 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

We don't do cream-of-anything soup here. I'm sure it's because when I was a kid, my mom used to make this dish she called "Chicken Spaghetti," which everyone else in the family loved, but even now just the memory of the smell of it cooking makes me throw up a little.

It consisted of cooked chicken, a few cans of cream-of-something-unidentifyable soup, curry powder, cooked spaghetti, and slices of velveeta cheese on top that, rather than melt, turned black under the broiler. Maybe some canned chilis, too -- I don't remember. I never ate it.

Anyway, I still remember the sound that an emptying can of cream-of-garbage soup makes, thanks to this dish. Scarred for life, I am.

So this soup is NOT cream of mushroom. It tastes like it might have cream in it, but it doesn't. The last thing I want to do on a camping trip is worry excessively about keeping my cream cold enough, so we don't even go there.

The creaminess is due to a little trick I discovered -- gently sauteed chopped onions and cauliflower, when blended thoroughly with an immersion blender and a little stock, creates a wonderfully creamy texture, nearly equal to any cream-based soup I've tasted. Of course this little substitution doesn't work when you're making something like pumpkin pie, but try it out the next time your savory recipe calls for cream.

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Roasted Red Pepper Soup

11/20/2014

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Day 21 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

This is another favorite around here, especially considering the ridiculous crop of red peppers that grew in the garden this summer (and frankly won't stop growing. Did we get tomatoes this year? Hardly. Are the red peppers so abundant that I have to wonder if the neighbor's satellite dish is creating some sort of concentrated radioactivity, aimed right at the pepper bed? Definitely.)

As with all my other camping soups, this one requires only one pot over one burner, though you may want to roast your peppers over that burner first. Otherwise, they may be roasted at home in the oven (500 degree broiler, spray with olive oil, turn them every couple of minutes until charred), or over a flame (using tongs, roast them until bubbly and charred, turning regularly). When you're finished, it's best to peel and seed them right away, as soon as you can safely touch them -- waiting too long makes peeling more difficult. HOWEVER, if you're going to make this entire soup at your campsite, skip the peeling and just pull out the seeds.

It's best to make this at home, so you can use an immersion blender to create the smooth texture we love. If you'd rather do this at your campsite, the texture will be chunky, but the taste is still quite wonderful. Take along a few extra roasted peppers, as they're excellent dipped in the soup and eaten on their own.

This is a vegan dish to boot -- but feel free to substitute chicken or turkey stock for the vegetable stock, if keeping the recipe vegan is not important to you.

(And pardon the lousy photo...it's finally raining here so we have no natural lighting inside, too much water outside!)