There. Now that that's out of my system I can get on with my post!
 |
| Suki bored on the Ferry |
 |
| Our first campsite |
We went camping last weekend at Fort Flagler State Park...Now for a little back story, literally every year, we go out camping in April and have TERRIBLE weather, and a pretty miserable, cold, wet, sometimes even snowy time. And EVERY year we say, "Man! That sucked! Lets never camping that early in the season again!" and every year we make plans for our first camping trip at exactly the same time of year. I think now its just tradition to go out and be miserable in April...But this time was different! This time we didn't get snowed on, or rained out, or any of the usual things! (Well, I should note that last year at our worst adventure yet at Cape Disappointment State Park we got camp all completely set up to be told that no, we couldn't use that site...And this time THAT same thing happened to us! Apparently the upper loop was closed -even though it said it was open on the website and the gate was open and the water was running- so we camped our first night and had to break everything back down again and move... but that's not a usual occurrence...yet) We had great weather for the coast, overcast with rain only one morning. It was beautiful.
 |
| Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum |
For those of you unfamiliar with Fort Flaggler, it is located on the WA peninsula and is part of a triangle of WWI forts/batteries to protect the inlet including Fort Warden, Fort Casey and Fort Flagler. So far we have stayed (and explored) at Fort Warden and Fort Flagler, next up is Fort Casey! Fort Flagler is truly a beautiful State Park with a good sized beach, light house, barracks, and batteries to explore on a roughly 3 mile round trip "hike"..its very easy, just a long walk. The beach combing there is wonderful also. We saved a poor flounder! It had washed ashore, Suki our dog went up and sniffed it and we had thought oh no, she's gonna roll in the dead fish, but at closer inspection is was alive! So we tossed it back into the ocean, and after several minutes where we were left wondering if it had just been out of the water too long it swam away. Which was exciting! I also found a big old shark's tooth! That's right! A big shark tooth on the WA coast! I don't know how rare they are to come by in our area, but I felt like it was quite a find! I am quite proud! lol. There was also a lot of beach glass and other good finds along the beach as well.
For anyone interested in our food this trip, we had a little different menu than normal. As always our first night was my famous corn chowder. This stuff is good...however not so good for your waistband. My "recipe" is as follows:
-----
Stazia's Corn Chowder
1lb (ish) good thick bacon
2(ish) Tb unsalted butter
2 cans creamed corn
2 cans no salt added whole kernel corn (or frozen would be fine)
Half and Half
Cream
Milk
4 (maybe 5) cloves of garlic
1 medium onion
5 (or so) potatoes (anything will do, reds are nice) diced
green onions/chives for garnish
salt/pepper to taste
Put a large stainless steel pot (I use an 8qt) over medium heat.
Cut the bacon into squares (I make them decently sized because I like them that way, but small pieces might suit you better. only preference dictates size) and put in the pot to sizzle away, its best to let this crisp up just a little so that it will retain some texture in the chowder. Do NOT drain the fat! I repeat! Do NOT drain!
To the almost done bacon in the pot add your onion (chopped) and your garlic (I smash the crap out of it and then mince it. lol) and saute until heated through and the onions start to become translucent. To this add your diced potatoes (again, personal preference dictates size and type. But keep in mind that large chunks of potato take longer to cook). Once that has a chance to simmer for say, 10 minutes, add the butter and once that has melted add the cans of corn and give it a good stir.
To this add your milk/cream/half&half. I usually use mostly cream, a small carton of half and half and a splash or two of fat free milk to get the consistency and texture right. The amounts in which you want to use these things is again up to you, but I definitely insist on at least a small carton of cream and a small carton of half and half if you're really that concerned about calories. lol. You wanna get the consistency a little thinner than you think you'd like and reduce the heat to low and let simmer for about 45 minutes.
Store in a large Tupperware over night and serve the next day.
-it is also an informal requirement to serve this with buttered (we do use smart balance) buttermilk bread. I think it's called San Juan's or something. In any case, its one of the breads named after a place in the PNW. lol
------
We do NOT EVER eat this unless we are camping or out on a road trip, so I don't skimp on the fat/calories here. And I definitely recommend this for camping. Its filling and hearty enough for cold weather, but doesn't have the heaviness of something like chili. This is my husbands favorite dish. Ever. I highly recommend it on your next outing.
We also had hot dogs, and kebabs (we got a little crazy and started sticking just bacon on our skewers. lol).
And a new addition to our camping menu, Batter Blasters! Let me start off by saying I was very, VERY, skeptical about this product (you know, that suspicious looking whipped cream can filled with pancake batter by the eggs in the grocery store). But I saw it was organic ( I was a little skeptical of that too) and Ryan wanted it so I thought, what the heck, might as well try it. And I am SO glad we did! there is NO mess and the pancakes taste amazing! They are a little sour (that's a good thing) not quite sour dough pancake status but a little more sour than buttermilk pancakes. Great. Try 'em.
I wish I had taken more pictures with my iPhone, but alas, I did not. I may make a post with just some pictures from the trip.
**In other news**
A bright blue "Budgie" flew straight into our window last Thursday and surprisingly did not die! So we now have added a bird to our family. No one has been looking for it as far as we can tell and it also doesn't seem like it was handled very much. So we'll see how that goes! He sure is a pretty boy!
No comments:
Post a Comment