A Meal About Nothing

For several years now I have been thinking about doing a Seinfeld themed meal for the Memorial Day camping trip. On the long drives home Mr. W and I will talk about what we will do the next year based on all our wisdom gained on that particular trip, and inevitably we generally forget by the time the next year rolls around. But one thing I never forget is how perfect a Seinfeld meal would be if we got partnered with the Fs for a lunch. Big salads! Soup! Babkas! Junior Mints! So many options! This year we finally put our request in before the meal assignments were sent out, although we were still assigned a dinner rather than lunch. That just led to Mr. F deciding he should make marble rye sandwiches.

I had SO much fun putting this one together. At some point I realized I did not want to try to fit in making a chocolate or cinnamon babka so I was able to find grocery store on the west side that has kosher selections and babkas imported from Brooklyn. I even found 30th anniversary Junior Mint boxes.  This was also a good excuse to break out my Seinfeld DVDs and re-watch old episodes. Part of the fun is dressing up in costume to go with your theme so Mr. W would be Jerry, and I ordered him a puffy shirt. Mr. F would be George, and wear a gortex coat, and since Mrs. F was choosing to stay home with their elderly dog, I would be Elaine. I had planned some of the long skirts and blouses I wore in high school when Elaine was my fashion icon and I was going to give myself big hair.

It rained all that afternoon as we were getting ready for dinner. I made little signs with quotes from the show for all the foods. I tried to set up early and get some good pictures but everything was so wet. This was our menu:

Appetizers

Pretzels

"These pretzels are making me thirsty!"

Cereal

"His whole life revolves around Superman and cereal."

Chips & Dip

"You just double dipped the chip! You dipped the chip, 
you took a bite, and then you dipped again."

Peaches

"The Mackinaw peaches, Jerry! The Mackinaw peaches!

Oh right, the ones from Oregon that are only ripe for two weeks of the year?

I wait all year for these. Oh, this is fantastic!It makes your taste buds come alive. Like having a circus in your mouth."

Peas

"These peas are bursting with country fresh flavor!"

Soups

"Soup’s not a meal, Jerry."

Mulligatawny

"Well, a bowl of mulligatawny would hit the spot."

Lobster Bisque (I made this ahead at home)

"I met this lawyer, we went out to dinner, I had the lobster bisque, we went back to my place, yada, yada, yada. I never heard from him again.

But you yada yada’d over the best part.

No, I mentioned the bisque."

Salad

Big Salad

"She didn’t BUY the big salad. I bought the big salad.

Imagine, her taking credit for your big salad."

Main Course

Pastrami on Marble Rye

"I find the pastrami to be the most sensual of all the salted, cured meats."

"You stole the marble rye?"

Desserts

Babkas, Chocolate or Cinnamon

"No, but they got the chocolate. We’ll be going in with a lesser babka.

I beg your pardon? Cinnamon takes a back seat to no babka. People love cinnamon. It should be on tables in restaurants along with salt and pepper. Anytime anyone says, Oh, this is so good, what’s in it? The answer invariably comes back, Cinnamon. Cinnamon. Again and again. A lesser babka…I think not."

Black & White cookies

"Look, Elaine, the black and white cookie. I love the black and white. Two races of flavor living side by side in harmony. It’s a wonderful thing.

Nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate. And yet still somehow racial harmony eludes us. If people would only look to the cookie all our problems would be solved."

Junior Mints

"Well, who’s gonna turn down a Junior Mint?

It’s chocolate, it’s peppermint; it’s delicious! It’s very refreshing!"

Jujyfruit

"So you heard that I was in an accident, and then decided to stop off for some Jujyfruit?."

Snickers carving station

"Mr. Pitt eats his snickers bars with a knife and fork.

He probably doesn’t want to get chocolate on his fingers. That's the way these society

types eat their candy bars.

I am eating my dessert. How do you eat it? With your hands?!"

Drinks

Snapple

"Snapple?

No, too fruity."

Schnapps

"You can tell me. I’ll put it in the vault.

No good. Too many people know the combination."

It was such a wet, wet day that I never changed into an Elaine outfit. Mr. W did wear the puffy shirt, but no one really saw it because he was wearing a rain coat and only briefly took it off for this picture. The lobster bisque was a lot easier to make than I anticipated, I would definitely make it again and I bought the lobster tails at Costco so that was nice. I mean, who doesn't normally have lobster bisque while camping?

Boat People

Back in November while sitting in a coffee shop before his OT appointment I asked Deuce what he thought we should get Daddy for Christmas. His answer was an immediate and unequivocal, "A boat!" I laughed becasue Mr. W IS always joking about getting a boat or about how Mr. M needs to buy a boat and take us out in it. I told him that we can't afford for me to buy Daddy a boat for Christmas. So then he asked if we could get him a canoe instead. That actually seemed more attainable and as we googled canoes I realized that I might be able to pull off the funniest Christmas gift ever, especially with Black Friday pricing. So I bought a boat. But I didn't buy any of the accessories for it like oars, life jackets, or a trolling motor because I wasn't actually sure if Mr. W would want to deal with the undertaking of being boat owners.

A comical outing ensued when I decided to save on shipping costs by going to pick up the canoe myself from the store in our pick-up truck while Mr. W was out of town on a business trip and then having to enlist a neighbor who works form home to help me offload it into the garage. And then telling Mr. W that he wasn't allowed into the garage for a month. (We have a detatched garage so this wasn't as unreasonable as one might image.) The children did an excellent job of keeping the surprise. Then on Christmas morning he finally was allowed into the garage after we opened all the other presents and he definitely was not expecting a canoe.

For months Deuce has been not so patiently waiting for Daddy to take him fishing in the canoe. Our schedule has been crazy, and he has been traveling a ton, so the annual Memorial Day camping trip was our fist opportunity to try it out. This year we were at Timothy Lake which isn't so far for the Portland contingent. It only seemed right that Deuce would be the first one to go for a canoe ride with Daddy. The look on his face was pure joy.

Later T-Bone and Little Miss got to go out with him. He was positive he was going to catch some fish and she was super excited to go out. It rained a lot this weekend so after over an hour of them being out on the lake I got a little worried. What if they had capsized? Would it be too difficult to get two children safely out of the boat on the dock? I thought it wouldn't hurt for me to walk back down there to see if I could offer assistance. Good thing I did because T-Bone was pretty miserable and started yelling, "Help me!" when he saw me on the shore. Mr. W asked me if I would take him back with me. Then he decided that he would actually like to get out of the rain too. Then Little Miss was upset because she wanted to stay in the boat and keep fishing.

The next day I got to go out on the canoe too and Little Miss came with us. She really is our Adventure Girl. She couldn't wait to be handed a fishing rod and then later wanted to paddle. She did not think we gave her enough time with the oar. After we went up and down the near shoreline Mr. W wanted to paddle across the lake and then drift back across the dam. I thought that was too ambitious given the clouds. We headed that way a bit and then the sky opened up on us and he agreed to go to the dock instead.

It was really great being out on the lake and I am looking forward to more opportunities to take it out. I think we just might get that trolling motor to help out when grouchy tweens don't want to help paddle into the wind.

Huckleberry picking and hiking Granite Falls

One of our big daytime activities during our Priest Lake camping trip was huckleberry picking. We don't really have a lot of huckleberries here in Oregon, but any trip to Northern Idaho or Montana and one is sure to find lots of huckleberry flavored items or berries for sale. The website for the campground mentioned huckleberry picking and I thought it would be a great opportunity. Plus I could bring some home to make huckleberry syrup!
Mr. H had asked a few people for good spots to pick berries, but apparently huckleberry patch locations are just as protected as surf spots, no local is going to give you good advice because they want to keep the best for themselves. We were advised to drive along one of the old logging roads so we pulled over when we decided this dusty spot was a s good as any. In addition to all their camping innovations, the H's are also very prepared with bear bells. The had enough for every child and we were on the lookout for any black bears whose berry patch we might be pilfering.
We outfitted everyone with plastic cups for gathering berries and spread out through the brush, occasionally doing voice checks to make sure no one wandered too far away and that everyone was in reach lest a bear appear. Wild huckleberry picking is tedious work, the berries don't grow very densely on the bushes so you have to search around to find more bushes in order to make much progress. But these berries were perfectly right, somehow our timing was ideal.With so much talk of bears, and signs of bears, I convinced myself that this was a bear patch. I kept finding branches covered with bear fur from as I imagined them scratching themselves. It turns out that this is a type of lichen call dead man's beard according to Mr. H, but I didn't know that until later. I sure was nervous!We picked berries for about an hour and we were all pretty hot, dusty, and tired and ready to call it quits. This is how much our family ended up with. The twins became berry snatchers so you had to defend your collection.We loaded back up into our rigs, to use and Idaho term, and continued down the road to the Granite Falls trail head where we had a picnic lunch. This trail also leads to the Roosevelt Grove of Ancient Cedars. I was excited to see the giant trees here. On the hike up we were able to see some of the granite rock. A little peek at the waterfall. I also was smitten with some of the tiny native flowers in bloom. I always have my eye out for native plants that might be good for naturscaping.However Northern Idaho is a pine forest so the landscape is still a bit of a novelty for me.Near the top we reached a viewing platform for the waterfall. Now that I have children these things make me a bit nervous. I understand why my mom used to freak out so much. Granite Falls.There was a big rock ledge near to top which was even more nerve wracking. About this point someone began to have a melt down, so rather than continuing on to the top to see the ancient cedars with the Hs, we began the decent to the parking lot. There was a few giant cedar trees down there so we contented ourselves with some photos with them.I can't really fault a 3 yr old for being so tired after such an activity filled day. Not that he naps anymore anyway, but he certainly deserved a rest.

Camping at Priest Lake

Last year Mrs. H, my best friend since 3rd grade, suggested that we go on a joint camping trip this summer. She and her husband settled in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and now that her children are school age they have been going on camping trips. I loved the idea and was happy to agree. Her very first camping trip was with my family when we were in 6th grade, which I don't even want to do the math on how long a go that was! Since we don't get to see each other all the time, I thought it would be a great way for the children to play.
They picked the location and prepped most the food. All we had to do was pack up our mirco van and cargo box with all our gear and drive 7 hours to get there. At least that's how long the drive would be without children and nursing. I like to break up the drive by stopping at the C&D Drive in in Boardman, Oregon. I love local burger joints, their prices are fair and their portions are reasonable. Plus they have milkshakes! I thought they offered butterscotch, which is my favorite, but they only had caramel on the menu, almost as good and I was able to nurse the baby. The second stop I like to make is in Ritzville, Washington. There is a coffeshop/diner in old downtown where I like to eat. The weather was so nice though we decided to just stop and find a park for the boys to run around. They have a great park with a public pool which I'll have to remember because it was hot!
We originally planned to stay at the H's house Thursday night because we'd be arriving so late, but as we neared Spokane we thought we could make it to the campsite before dark. That was before we drove through Spokane though, it took us so much longer than we anticipated and the roads north were slower than we thought. I will say this for the highway that runs north, there is a ton of great neon signage, if we had been there a touch later at dusk I would have taken some pictures.
By the time we finally made it to the campsite it was LATE! Good thing the H's had lots of lighting options and the guys put the tent up so we could get a tired baby back to sleep. We all pretty much went to bed so the boys wouldn't have to settle into the tent alone.
The next day we were able to go down to the lake and play on the beach. What a lovely setting, no wonder I have heard so many college friends sing the praises of Priest Lake.
The children also did a lot of bike riding as well as playing trucks in all the great dirt.The Hs are great innovators so between the boys in the previous pick you'll see the porta-potty they fashioned for little C. She does not like to have a BM in one of those adult size pit toilets, and who can blame her. This is a clever little way to keep her going on camping trips.
That isn't the nicest segue into dinner time conversation, but that's what's next. Mr. H also has a camp oven. This great wooden box covered in tin foil and heat resistant tape has a wire rack and temperature gauges inside. I had never seen such a thing, and Mr. W and I quickly fell in love! How had we ever gone camping before with out this?! Our introduction to the magic that is the camp oven was crescent rolls.You can see how nice and golden brown the get. The back cooks faster since it is reflecting the heat back so you have to rotate the baking sheet while cooking. Meanwhile Mr. W was grilling up some lamb kabobs for our Mediterranean dinner.
Baby Boy overseeing the process.
The H's have all the great camping gear. They sleep in a pop up camper, canoes and inflatable rafts, and have a nice shade tent that they set up over the picnic table. After dinner the children changed in to their jams to roast marshmallows over the fire and tell stories. Our Little Helper's new skill these days is hopping so you may see a lot of that in the photos. I don't wear make up when camping so no judgement please. :)Early the morning, and I mean early, we were up again and ready for breakfast. Some enjoyed a breakfast bar appetizer while waiting for the main course of......bacon and cinnamon rolls. Dang, I love this oven!!Mrs. H was making a camping delicacy called Pirate toast for breakfast which is a piece of bread with a hole cut out and you fry an egg in it. Flip. Serve with bacon. Such a clever way to keep the egs from getting all over the play.I waited as patiently as I could for breakfast to be served. I love baby tongues!After breakfast and cleaning up we headed down the hill to the lake shore where the children had made a lean to. I think someone else had stated this, but they sure took the idea and ran with it.Next year Baby Boy you'll be able to climb around scaring us half to death rather than just observing all the activity.Our big activity for the day was huckleberry picking and a hike which I'll save for another post.
After a hot dusty day picking berries and hiking most everyone wanted to cool off in the lake. I was able to take a few photos of the preschoolers.The fashioned a fishing pole and were intent on catching something.
That night after the children were in bed the adults took some trips down memory lane while sitting around the campfire.
In the morning we had to take some group shots of the children. Everyone is a big fan of Baby Boy.He was so popular this morning that everyone wanted a turn holding him for the photo. Big C was first.Then T.Followed by Lil C. So cute! I just can't get enough baby tongues! We took a few family shots by the lake.Including a best friends photo.The children said goodbye to their lean to.We all packed up and began the long journey home. We broke up the trip by stopping at the public park in Arlington . It is right by the river, but has a little swimming area, a big play structure and a field in which I could race and spin My Little Helper.
In spite of the distance I'm so glad we went, we all had a wonderful time together. We probably won't be able to make this an annual co-camping trip, but but hopefully every couple of years.