Easter, belated

There wasn't a posting for supper on Easter Sunday. We splurged and went out for Chinese that night -- and even went so far with our spree that we stayed at a motel.

Because the last two days were big driving days, they haven't been conducive to fussing with a meal.

But today has been a day for catching up on things like laundry and emails. And with the rain pelting down (in Louisville, KY), it was a good time to turn on the oven.

Again, because I was without my usual seasonings (fresh rosemary and dill), I decided to make do with what was at hand. I've always seen recipes suggesting mustard as a way to prepare lamb, and the exploded bottle of Dijonnaise that got squished in the fridge door seemed to present a good opportunity.

The 99-cent cheesy scalloped potatoes worked well. Heck, I even fooled around with a packet of the mysterious 'brown' (what flavour is 'brown'?) gravy.

Vegies and a salad, and even a little bowl of pickled beets. Happy Easter, despite the fact that it's a few days late.

P.S. There won't be any supper postings for a while, as I'm heading off to Montreal for a few days.

Fish 'n chips

Not exactly what we'd get if were in a pub in B.C., but still, for a quick little supper, this worked.

The halibut filets were smaller than the package had promised, so it was lucky that I'd planned to make the last of the Easter eggs into devilled eggs.

Some nights, it's a matter of time and what's easy from the freezer. Tomorrow will be better, I promise.

Almost the kitchen sink

After putting in a lot of miles this afternoon, by the time we stopped (it was crazy trying to find a site, but that's another story -- maybe a movie), supper needed to come together fast.

What's the fastest and most happy-making supper I could think of? Soup.

I mixed two different packets -- spicy seafood and a hot-and-sour base, so the results were hot hot hot.

Naturally, I threw in an assortment of strange additions. For protein, I chopped up the last of the lunch's meat, pastrami (which amazingly, turned out to be very good). As for salad, I didn't bother, but put it into the soup pot. A big bunch of broccoli and at the last second, a whole bunch of spinach.

A tube of those yummy (and fast) biscuits went into the oven and made the perfect addition.

An odd combination, but satisfying.

Not Christmas Eve

All that red and green in the photo probably looks more like Christmas than springtime, but this is the night before Easter.

Even though we'd used up a lot of that turkey breast from the other day (the big salad, plus two lunches' worth of sandwiches and wraps), there was still a bunch left, so it went into a tettrazini-ish pasta. Red pepper, basil, and spinach went in too -- along with lots of olive oil and Parmesan.

Because one of the eggs had cracked when I boiled them, I didn't really want to dye it, but it worked out perfectly as part of the spinach salad.

Easy Friday

We spent the day driving and exploring, so by the time we set up for the evening, supper had to be something easy.

I'd found some frozen burritos way back in California, and tonight seemed to be the right night for pulling them out.

While they heated in the microwave, I chopped up some lettuce, tomato, and an avocado. But then, because they looked too dry and white, I sliced some cheddar and melted it over top.

With salsa, they turned out to be more than pretty all right. And really, the whole prep took all of ten minutes. Just my kind of Friday night supper.

Cool supper for a hot night

Today, we stopped at a supermarket and fell for the idea of a pre-cooked turkey breast. I don't know if it was a matter of just thinking Easter or what.

When we stopped for the day, we were in a place that felt too hot to cook. The turkey, along with a bunch of greens, peppers, onions and tomatoes made a heaping big sort-of-chef salad.

Naturally, I wanted something-we-didn't-have to top it off -- ranch-style dressing.

But we did have chive and onion cream cheese, so I used a fork to whip some of that with milk and our usual (homemade) salad dressing. A bit thick, but flavour-wise, it worked.

Even a few sunflower seeds (which seem appropriate for Kansas, where we are) showed up in the cupboard to top it off.

Dry camping has its challenges

Like, no electricity (save for batteries) or water (except for what’s in the holding tank or in the jug under the sink)…

Luckily, the propane-powered stove works under just about any circumstance.

I don’t know who convinced me to pre-cook our supper yesterday, but I did.

We’d found a specialty meats place and stocked up on bison and elk and other goodies, including a packet of goat meat. I did some cross-cultural seasonings, low-heat cooking the goat with a Thai red curry base. Lots of onions and garlic in the pot too. But then, what else is new there.

By rights, tonight I should have added coconut milk and Thai basil. But despite the deep (if tiny) pantry here, I had to make do with coconut juice. I put half the coconut juice into the sauce, along with fresh cauliflower. The other half of the little tin went into the rice as half of its liquid.

Salad? Not tonight. The last of the somewhat-tired-looking greens went into the pot at the last minute, as a pseudo substitute for the Thai basil that should have gone in.

Still, for a supper by lantern light, after a long day’s hike, this was satisfying.

P.S. I lied. There was sort of a salad. The little yellow colander is on the table, holding the extra cauliflower florets that offered hand-picked 'salad' for the taking.

Rerun?

This looks like almost the same supper we had not very long ago. Still, it finally felt hot out, even if briefly. Though that might be only because we've come down out of the mountains.

Still, it felt warm enough to get out the barbie again (though we still had to eat indoors, too chilly for the picnic table). Spring seems pretty iffy everywhere.

Once again, it's bison burgers -- this time with barbecued onions and red peppers. Melted cheese and avocado and tomato and lettuce. . . plenty of toppings.

Oh, and those magical get-crisp-in-the-microwave easy chips. Way fun.

East meets West

Tonight’s supper was quite the crazy quilt – not combinations you’d usually consider.

Earlier, I’d added some chopped up purple onion and green pepper to last night’s leftover couscous. I poured some olive oil over top, then fretted over what I’d put into it for spice. The usual flavourings for tabbouli are parsley and mint, but I didn’t have either on hand.

Still, I had a mint teabag (okay, green tea and mint), so I sliced that open and sprinkled it over top. Just before supper I added fresh lemon juice, bits of chopped tomato and feta cheese. So that was the East part, or at least Middle East.

To round things out, I pulled a pack of tempura shrimp (more ‘Eastern’ influence?) from the freezer and put those little beauties into the oven with a casserole dish of tinned beans. Beans seem like ‘western’ food, cowboys and all, plus the jar of salsa seems kinda western too.

I’m sure there wasn’t another soul on the planet who had the same combination. And I’m also sure they didn’t have the sunset view that we did.

Hardly the traditional Sunday roast beef

This morning I was hungry for eggs, but we were trying to pack up to make up some miles on the road. But when lunchtime came, and I still had the craving, I pulled out the skillet and fried up the last of the steak, then tossed some eggs and cheese over top of the meat. Piled onto a couple of buns, these sandwiches left us set for the afternoon’s drive.

But because we were driving, and without running water, the skillet had to sulk alone under the sink, with no one for company but a damp paper towel.

By supper time, the eggy goop had come off enough that the pan was just fine for tossing oil into and frying up some garlic and onions, the base of so many of our meals. Double-duty, one wash – this is a good thing.

Because I’m trying so many of the convenience foods I keep finding here, tonight I used a packet of pre-cooked ‘center cut beef with chili sauce’. The serving suggestion pictured on the package shows it on a bun, a la Sloppy Joes, but I decided to use it to make a stir fry instead. Adding the last bits of coleslaw (some had gone into wraps for lunches) and some bits of green pepper gave it just the right crunch. And served with plain old couscous, it was easy and quick.

Instead of a salad, I put out some lettuce leaves and we made ourselves some messy (but yummy) roll-ups.

Round and round and round

It's not so much the food going 'round -- the ones going 'round today -- that was us. We're barely 30 miles from where we stopped last night.

We wanted to check out some ruins (worth it) and another national park, and the route worked out to be pretty much a circle.

When we finally circled the wagons (okay, parked the unit) for the night, supper was something that had to come together fast.

I'd had a packet of 'garlic Alfredo' sauce mix in with our camping supplies for almost forever. If it ever had an expiry date, it had worn off.

Cooked up some fresh pasta, whipped up the sauce (with butter, cup of milk) and added chunks of chicken from the other night's bird (the ones left after the big wraps we'd had for yesterday's lunch). Some fresh green beans and salad and we were diggin' in!

Friday night feast!

Half the time on the road, I lose track of what day it is. But when it comes to Friday, I always seem to know.

We covered a lot of ground today, both in the truck and on foot. Hiking, especially at altitude this high above sea level, works wonders for the appetite.

The Dear Man whipped up a feast on the barbie. Steak, with onions and mushrooms.

While he prepped food outside, I fiddled indoors -- with a pack of microwave chips. Four minutes, and presto! Though it probably took as long to work out how to fold their magic 'crisping' box as it did to cook 'em.

With a big bowl of fresh green salad, it made for quite the Friday night feast.

The comfort of homely food

After a day of wind and dust, both of us were hungry. A stop at the supermarket only seemed to make us drool.

We loaded up with a few supplies, including the lazy pre-cooked chicken. Along with instant mashed potatoes (complete with skins, no less), peas and a salad full of tomatoes and avocado, we chowed down and seemed to finish in all of three minutes.

Hungry!

Pretend barbie

We'd had good intentions of barbecuing tonight, but a fierce wind blew up (not cold, but gusty and full of gritty sand). The breeze was stiff enough to deter even the Dear Man, but he made the burgers (buffalo) on the stove instead. Plenty of onions cooked up first, some cheese over top, stuffed onto a couple of buns.

I made some coleslaw a day ago, so the flavours should be starting to mellow. It wasn't my usual recipe, but used what was on hand -- olive oil, juice of a lemon, chili oil with bamboo shoots, plenty of pepper.

If this supper looks skimpy compared to our usual feasts, it might be because we already
had ourselves a plate of pretend nacho snack. And yep, that's where the leftover salsa for top of the burgers came from.

Honouring history

We've spent the last days travelling through traditional lands of the Paiute Indians. When we were at Zion, we learned that they lived here for thousands of years, and that the mainstays of their diet were game, corn and squash.

The corn is pretty obvious, the single vegie I like when it's out of a tin.

As for game, there's the last bit of the buffalo sausage, sliced into rounds.

The squash is trickier, as it's inside those wildly-striped ravioli!

Sort of a Sunday night dinner

Not serving the family tonight, though we're lucky that so often there's a crowd of happy eaters at our house. But while it's not a from-scratch meal, the menu's really not all that different.

Barbecued ribs in the oven used up the last of the homemade barbecue sauce I'd brought from home. The scalloped potatoes are from a cardboard box mix (where it was only 93 cents, I couldn't say no).

Salad's a fake Caesar -- spinach with tiny bits of chopped up garlic, plenty of olive oil, the juice of a small lemon, and hand-grated Parmesan (still have the teensiest chunk).

The 'garlic bread' is burger buns I spread with butter, then sprinkled with a garlicky pepper shake spice I bought at an RV show.

Now, if only the rest of the crew were here...

No supper, just a neat trick

We treated ourselves to a restaurant supper tonight -- Mexican, and nicely authentic.

So instead of posting a meal, I'm showing a lazy trick that seemed to work -- cleaning a baking pan while we drove.

This first shot shows how miserably baked on the residue from the biscuits was. Boo-hoo.

So, I put a bit of soapy water on a cloth and spread it out over the mess...




Then, quietly tucked the lid over top and stuck the whole thing into the oven, where it always resides while we're driving...






And look at that -- on arrival, all it took was a brush and a swipe, as that little pile of brown is now nothing but loosened crumbs.



Here's to being lazy!

Hot stuff for a cold night

Crazy, but it's snowing. Big, lacy, Christmasy-looking flakes.

We'd heard the roads were bad, so decided to settle in for the day and night. That gave us time for walking around the town (Kanab, Utah) and exploring.

Some nice locals urged us to go for lunch at the all-you-can-eat pizza and soup and salad bar place. Five bucks, better than Vegas.

Anyway, the big lunch left us full enough that supper didn't happen until 9 tonight. But as I mentioned, hot it was.

The Dear Man played sous-chef and chopped up an onion, some cloves of garlic, and a chunk of the pork rib meat that had been earmarked for tonight.

I cooked that up, then stirred in the last of some curry paste I'd brought from home. Then I added the final bits of the stir-fry vegie mix we've been using the past few days and tossed in some reconstituted chicken bouillon, to give it some liquid.

Served over a curry-style couscous mix (which I'd added frozen peas to), the hot spicy food was the perfect antidote to the cold and blustery weather. (And yes, that's a little pot of yogourt on the table to go with the curry.)

Re-Hydration

Because we slept in the park last night, we went out for more sightseeing of the oh-so-grand Grand Canyon. Managed to get ourselves nicely windblown. There were a few tiems I clutched at trees, thinking I was about to go over!

We then had a longish drive, wanting to make Utah, and boy, if the winds at the canyon seemed strong, the ones on the road were downright crazy.

Anyway, the drive with its tiring gusts of wind left both of us feeling dehydrated (all the elevation changes probably added too).

So supper was a double batch of broth (two tins, plus water) with the last bits of the chicken (from two nights ago) tossed in. A small pack of big ravioli cooked right in the broth.

Instead of salad, I threw in an odd assortment of vegies -- part of a bag of fresh 'stir-fry' vegies I bought the other day. We've already used bits in salads as well. Convenient.

With a few biscuits left over from last night's meal and then some chili-oil bamboo shoots, well, we were laughing.

Camper cooking

After a day spent hiking around the Grand (yes, it lives up to its name -- and then some) Canyon, we found an RV spot right in the park. Only catch, there's no hook-ups. That means no water or electricity.

That didn't deter us. We have water in our tank and, with propane, who needs electricity. It can run both our fridge and our stove. For supper what more do we need? As for light, it meant a candle for our little lantern.

In keeping with the spirit, we had sausages (pretty spectacular ones -- buffalo meat made into German-style sausages) and beans. The beans were plain old tinned ones, though I added a bit of hoi-sin sauce (didn't have my usual addition, molasses).

Plus, I baked a batch of those pre-made (in a tube) biscuits. Managed to set off the smoke detector (battery-powered, not electrical) in doing so, but that served as a good reminder that they were starting to burn.

Then, leaving the oven door open while we ate made the whole place nice and cozy.

And really, how many people get to camp in Grand Canyon National Park?

Greeky?

Or, is that geeky? After all, two computers on the table with the supper, like, get us a life.

Still, it's a bit of a celebration, as we've made it to Arizona. The plan for tomorrow is to get to the Grand Canyon.

Tonight, it's a night to kick back a bit.

Lazy, pre-cooked chicken from the supermarket is some sort of lemon-herb variety. That seemed Mediterranean enough to get me to pull out those last few pieces of spanakopita from the freezer.

And though it isn't really a Greek salad, there is a fair bit of feta tossed into it.

So, the heading is right, when it says we're sort of Greeky tonight.

Using things up

Tomorrow night is going to be some kind of restaurant meal (after all, we're in the land of big buffets, Las Vegas), so tonight it's a mishmash that uses up what's around.

And because we have water hook-up, I get to use the nice cast-iron skillet.

I started with olive oil and cooked up garlic cloves and onions, including some of the onion that had been on the barbie the other night. After that, I added a packet of spicy Thai seasonings (Thai basil and other delights) and added the sliced up bits of leftover buffalo from the too-big steaks we'd chowed into the other night. The leftover birthday potatoes also went in, but then, because the mixture seemed too dry, I added a pouch of premade palak paneer and then let that all simmer while the rice finished steaming. With a last-second addition of a handful of frozen peas, it was starting to look like something edible. The last of the Naan bread added a nice touch, and helped scrape up the sauce on our plates.

Because salad greens were gone, we made do with a lot of fresh cilantro sprinkled over top, and a plate with the last pear and a few dates.

Dumb-luck special

The other day, we had a bit of an early April Fool's joke. While we were driving, a jar of pre-made spaghetti sauce jumped out of a cupboard and crashed onto the floor. It took a stop by the side of the road and a fair bit of cleaning up, but both of us were happy that the jar didn't break and that most of the sauce even stayed inside.

Still, because it had been opened, it seemed like we should use it, so pasta it was.

I pulled out a pack of Italian-sausage-stuffed ravioli (that little freezer is amazing) and while that cooked, I improvised with the sauce, adding basil and garlic and the last bit of salsa from our appetizer snack (wheat crackers with two tiny pots for dipping -- one of sour cream, one of the salsa).

Then, when the ravioli was cooked and drained, I added the last bit of sour cream before I added the sauce.

And beacuse we still didn't use up all the tomato sauce, into a container and then into the magic freezer it went. No doubt, some other night, it will make an encore appearance.

As for this final pic, it wasn't until the day after the spill (on the floor) that I happened to look up at the ceiling -- the air conditioner wearing its own bits of red sauce!

Spectacular meal for a very special day

Crazy though it seems, I'm an April Fool. And what a birthday celebration I've had!

The day was spent exploring one of America's oldest national parks, Yosemite.

And now tonight, the Dear Man has cooked up an appropriately extravagant meal on our (his?) brand new barbie: buffalo steaks. He also cooked up some wonderful red potatoes and onions -- and really, I didn't mind a bit assembling a salad, complete with celebratory chunks of bleu cheese.

As for birthday cake, we had tiny doughnuts with ice cream -- and of course, a candle. But after a day like this, complete with the bluest of skies, what more could I possibly have asked for?