Being outside is simple. I love it for this reason. And because it always makes me feel great, no matter what I’m doing! I want you to come here and realize that going outside is necessary for your health, and its just not that difficult. This recipe is one of the easiest camping recipes ever, which will hopefully be some motivation to use it properly- like, under the stars by a lake.
Author: Emily
Ginger Peach Juleps
Its picnic time. The weather is HOT and I have no air conditioning, which means I’ll have the best luck enduring the heat in the shade of a big tree. Its been birthday time the last few weeks as well for us Dirty Girls. My birthday present to Mai-Yan was this cocktail at her Birthday Barbecue Beach Bash. It was invented, however, for a picnic. And that is how it will be used for the rest of the summer- especially since I was given a beautiful picnic basket for my birthday last week.
GRITS
Hey ya’ll! Its the southern side of Dirty Gourmet again. I spent a good solid week in South and North Carolina recently, which was my first trip back in almost three years. That’s where my whole famn damily is from, and they sure embrace their southern roots. We eat a lot of grits, which is a ground hominy (corn) breakfast item traditional of the south. I learned from my mother and my Uncle Steve since birth about bein’ a grits connoisseur. It includes requiring them for breakfast from the porch of a mountain house on your birthday, and driving around to remote locations in the sticks, begging restaurant managers to sell you bags of their prized menu item- even if they aren’t for sale.
Smores #3: Bacon Wrapped Smores
Remember our original quest to find the ultimate smores? We found it. The exciting ingredient is bacon, of course!
Secret Weapon Brown Sugar Spice Rub
Grilling has been a staple form of cooking in my house all my life, and a lot of different sauces, rubs, and marinades have been tried. This is a time-tested recipe that has impressed friends and family for years, but I never knew how good it was until this Mother’s Day weekend. The secret is brown sugar.
Dutch Oven Campfire Cooking
A dutch oven is a heavy, high-sided pot, usually made of cast metal, and often made for use over a fire. Dutch ovens have been used to cook for centuries, and are still popular today because of the high-quality and long lasting design. They are especially popular in cooking over campfires, giving anyone the ability to “bake” without a traditional oven available.
Skillet Enchiladas
The night I first made Skillet Enchiladas was on our Carrizo Plains trip at Easter. We were surprised Saturday night by a strong cold wind that wouldn’t let up. It was one of those nights camping where you’d just rather snuggle in your sleeping bag than cook, but we forced ourselves to throw some things together. Its always worth it in the end, and that held true this time as well. We all made our own dinners, of course, competing for the kitchen and the fire. Skillet Enchiladas ended up being the easiest thing I could have chosen. All my ingredients were prepped ahead of time, except the roasted Anaheim chile. That just gave me an excuse to stand by the fire while roasting it, so that was fine. Then I put some canned enchilada sauce in the bottom of a skillet, rolled some tortillas around a handful of ingredients, and put the lid on. They were such a warming and easy camping recipe that I made two skillets worth that night. That’s my favorite kind of gourmet outdoor cooking!
Dutch Oven Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler
My whole family is from the south. I grew up in Southern Nevada, which my mother always called “simulated south.” She planted trees and cooked me grits and taught me how to talk real good like them nice folk down in North Carolina. It wasn’t ever easy gettin things like grits and sweet corn in the the desert, so I gained a huge appreciation for these items and other seasonal produce, especially in the spring and summer. You still can’t find grits in my current home of Southern California, but there is a lot more produce available here. Right now, strawberries are in season, and they are everywhere!
Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce
Last weekend, I was sucked in yet again to “snowstorm backpacking.” We planned another snowshoeing trip, but knew ahead of time that there was going to be a storm- again. I was really the only one against it this time. Everyone who had avoided the trip to Yosemite was now itching to get out, and used my success as an even bigger reason to go. I tried to get myself out of it, threatening to spend my weekend cuddled up with my chihuahua in my living room. But I couldn’t let the other Dirty Girls have fun without me, especially when I didn’t have any real excuse. I grumbled a good amount; all the way to Aimee’s house, and then all the way to Mt. Abel.
Oatmeal Pancakes with Dried Fruit Compote- Dirty Version
We’ve been talking about a snow backpacking trip for a while. At the beginning of the month, I was invited to go to Yosemite to do just that with my good friend Adam. We thought this would be the perfect opportunity for everyone to meet up, and we got a lot of people on board early. As the date approached, however, the weather factor began to look grim. Every day that we checked, there was more and more likelihood for the whole weekend to be filled with snowstorms. One by one, plans changed, and by last Thursday, only three of us were still planning to go. And even we weren’t sure about the whole thing.
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