Our first night of camping, when it was just Kevin and I, we failed big time with dinner. We planned on making borscht. Cabbage, potatoes, beets, beef, sour cream and pimenton all sounded like a recipe for success, and especially when a few aspic cubes were tossed into the mix. Well... we got to our camp site late. By the time we were cooking it was dark, and by 9:30 we were STARVING. We could not let it cook any longer, despite the fact that we knew that the dish needs time. It was not good. Overly salted, under cooked. The beef tasted horribly beefy and did not "fall apart". The beets were so earthy and sweet that it gave me the creeps. It was bad, and there was a lot of it. Next!
Thank god our friends Nic and Topher came to save us on Friday night. They brought with them salmon and potatoes, corn with cotija, kale and bread. Nic cooked the salmon on corn husks that he pained with mustard. As the husks burned off, the mustard adhered to the salmon skin creating a toasty mustard crust. Give me a break. The potatoes were cooked in a packet with tons of garlic and oil. The greens we cooked in a dutch oven with lemon juice and salt, and the smoke from the fire made them extra special.
It was a great trip. On our second day the sun came out and we frolicked along the river and even went for an invigorating midday skinny-dip (twice! Notice my cold dead face in the last photo- I call it freezing victory.) and the dogs were happy to run around and get dirtier than usual. They love to sleep in a tent, and Jacky loves to sleep in my sleeping bag with me.
The stars were unbelievable. We all laughed about how dumb people are and how we all always say the same dumb stuff when confronted with the night sky, but then we took a walk and looked at the stars and we all exclaimed "we're so small..." and "there's gotta be life out there...". We are so predictable.
Back in Portland I am anxiously waiting for my cuisinart to be delivered. Pesto!
