Christmas Time

Special Camping Potatoes

While we stood in the grocery store parking lot on Friday morning trying to whip together a shopping list for the weekend, Michael’s big brother David requested that we pick up the ingredients for his famous camping potatoes.  When he listed butter and cream cheese as the main attractions we couldn’t really say no now could we?!

When dinner time rolled around, David set up his assembly line on the picnic table and we watched him get things together while the rest of us prepped steaks, mushrooms and corn.  Nothing like a fully barbecue-able meal!

I think we used an entire roll of aluminum foil this weekend.  Um, and a pound of butter.  We saved dishes.  Not calories.

David says he makes these on pretty much every camping trip he goes on.  They started out being cooked in a campfire but now that he travels with a barbecue that works just fine too.

These would be super easy to prepare in advance (just wrap that foil good and tight) if you weren’t traveling with two fully equipped kitchens like we were.

Brother David’s Special Camping Potatoes

Yields 4 servings, 1 potato per person

(for the record, I could only eat half)

Ingredients:

• 4 medium sized baking potatoes
• 2 medium sized onions, peeled and cut into thick rings
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• seasoned salt (like Hy’s or Lawry’s)
• pepper
• optional: 1/2 cup sour cream
• lots of tin foil

Directions:

1. Preheat your barbecue or oven (400 degrees, give or take) or prepare your campfire.
2. Scrub and dry the potatoes.  Cut off the ends of the potatoes and discard (or repurpose).  Slice the potatoes into approximately 1 inch slices (probably 3 pieces per potato).
3. Lay out a sheet of tin foil for each potato, shiny side in, and work on top of these one potato at a time.  In between the slices, carefully layer equal parts butter and cream cheese.  Add a ring of onions between each section, using the butter and cream cheese as ‘glue’ to hold everything together.
4. If using sour cream, include with the butter and cream cheese layers.
5. Sprinkle liberally with seasoned salt and pepper.
6. Wrap each potato individually in foil, then add a second sheet of foil, wrapping to ensure no juices will escape.  Use three pieces if you are worried.
7. Cook for approximately 40 minutes, turning every 10-15 minutes.  Don’t worry, they can’t really be overcooked.  When you can poke a fork through the foil and into the soft potato you are good to go.

Be careful when you unwrap as there will be all kinds of steam and juicy deliciousness going on.  Serve alongside grilled corn and steak, and don’t think about the amount of buttery goodness you are about to consume.

Happy camping!

Belated Barbecue & Pasta Salad

Oh sorry!  Did we forget to invite you to our first BBQ of the year?  Geeeeze.  How rude.

And with all this food too?  We really could have used some help demolishing the burgers and corn and salsa and salad and watermelon.  Really. 

How could we have not invited you all?!  Next year I promise!

Since we were away frolicking in Ucluelet for Michael’s actual birthday we decided to plan a belated bday BBQ and invited his bigass family over to help us eat and celebrate!

The weather cooperated for the most part, we devoured copious amounts of deliciousness, and spent the afternoon watching the kids try to roll a tent around the back yard.  When the wind kicked in, the diehards stayed warm with Bailey’s coffees and the rest of us migrated indoors to stand at the kitchen counter to pick the strawberries and candied pecans out of the leftover salad.

I kinda, sorta, maybe never thought to pick up candles or sparklers for the Creamy Citrus Birthday Tart or mini Red Velvet cupcakes…but I’m pretty sure I’ve been forgiven for not wrangling 21 people to warble Happy Birthday in the afternoon rain.  :)

As an apology for not inviting you to hang out with us, here is a super easy, delicious and adaptable Pasta Salad recipe for you.  Originally based on the most popular menu item from the restaurant I worked at as a teenager, I’ve modified this a thousand times and it turns out yummy every time.

Cold Pasta Salad with Fresh Dill and Buttermilk Dressing

Yields 10 – 12 cups, plenty for the family BBQ

Ingredients:

• 1 box small pasta of choice (I prefer fusilli or rotini)
• 1 cup broccoli florets, bite sized
• 2-3 medium carrots, diced
• 2-3 celery stalks, diced
• 1/3 cup red onion, diced
• 1/2 cup red/yellow/orange pepper, diced (or green if you like them!)
• 1/3 cup cheddar cheese, small cubes
• optional:  3-4 dill pickles, chopped small; fresh parsley; fresh greens
• all measurements approximate, get creative!

Buttermilk Dressing:

• 3/4 cup buttermilk (and extra for thinning if needed)
• 3/4 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
• 1 1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons fresh dill, coarsely chopped
• large pinches of salt and fresh cracked pepper (to taste)

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook pasta a little less than package directions.  Do not overcook! 
2. For the last minute of cooking, add the broccoli and carrots to the pot.  Drain and immediately run pasta and veggies under cold water, tossing to cool.  Drain well.  Refrigerate.
3. While the pasta is cooking, prepare the dressing by whisking buttermilk, sour cream, Dijon and salt and pepper together until smooth.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
4. Once the pasta has cooled, toss with remaining vegetables (except fresh parsley or greens if using).  Refrigerate until about 30 minutes before ready to serve.
5. When ready to serve, carefully toss pasta mixture with dressing.  Add fresh greens if using, and cheese cubes and toss again.  Transfer to serving dish and garnish with extra fresh dill and sprinkle of salt.

Bits of Weekend

Right behind Michael’s house is this lovely green space…perfect for doggie walking (and Saturday morning coffee sipping).

Saturday brunch: egg puff/omelette with corn and ham. Oddly delicious combo.

Impromptu family BBQ.  Perfect excuse for leftover fancy cheeses and such.

Super sunny day.  Breaking in my Greece travelin’ hat and cuddlin’ my pupper.

Hot day quencher.

Rumblin’ tummy filler.

Smart aleck family cheeseballs.  :)

Super late Sunday brunch a la Kitty’s.  Oatmeal appetizer.

2-2-2-2…apparently the kitchen can’t count French Toast.  Win!

Massive breakfast burrito.  This doubled as Monday breakfast as well.

Brunch companions.

Clearly when your Harley’s gear shifter thingamajig goes kaplooey on the drive home you use your girlfriend’s hair elastic to fix it.  Apparently he was a boy scout in a previous life.

After a rough afternoon of sunbathing, book reading, and dog petting a comfort food dinner seemed the way to go.

Salad by her.  Stroganoff by him.

Bye bye weekend, we’ll miss you.

Keep on BBQin’

Looks like I’m still like three days behind on posting.  Whooooops!  No worries, this one’s a quickie.  :)

Monday night ended up being another impromptu BBQ dinner with Michael’s Mom and stepdad.  His Mom requested meat and carbs so we obliged!

Souvlaki-style pork skewers, corn on the cob, steamed gai lan with peanut sauce, asparagus with hollandaise, and foil packed potatoes.

I did the spuds.  We had a mix of new potatoes and baby red potatoes which I quartered and mixed with a couple of sliced carrots.  To get things started I popped the mix into the microwave (covered with a tea towel) with a splash of water and cooked for about 8 minutes until soft.

I then tossed the mixture with chopped onion, minced garlic, olive oil and Montreal Steak Spice before sealing it in a thick foil packet.  We cooked this on the BBQ at about 500 degrees for about 30 minutes (turning once).

For dessert we tried out these crazy Korean ice cream bars.

Made in Korea.  Full of all kinds of weirdo ingredients, but delicious in that old school creamy popsicle kind of way.  And only 130 calories.  Stay tuned for my review on the melon flavour… I’m a little freaked out by that one!

Surrogate Family

So one of the big things that has come along with dating Michael is extra family.  I come from a tiny family (hi Mom!) so his large family has been somewhat of an experience for me.

Sunday afternoon his Mom and stepdad came to stay with him so an impromptu BBQ dinner was planned and the next thing we knew it was a table of eight for dinner.

With quick calls to a couple of family members and a trip to the supermarket for ribs and chicken, Michael had enough food on it’s way to make the meal happen.

I offered to bring something and when he said “beer” I whined and said I wanted to bring food.  haha.  So he assigned me the salad.  Weeeee!  I also had a fresh loaf of Fol Epi ciabatta bread just dying to be used so I toted that along with me too.

His sister-in-law baked a Crustless Coconut Custard Cake for dessert.  It was crazy delicious!

In the morning there were still six of us hanging around for breakfast so we decided we might as well do a sit down meal.  I was the only one having to head off to work (bummer) but I decided to chip in and put breakfast together anyway.  Someone had mentioned French Toast before bed and I had to have it!

Michael hooked me up with a loaf of cinnamon-raisin bread and I got to work.  We served it up with butter, syrup, and fresh strawberries right from his garden!

Of course, he ended up having the most genius idea at the table…

How do you score double the strawberries?

Well, you build a French Toast sammich stack of course!

And the best part of helping cook breakfast for six people?

Someone else will do most of the clean up.  :)