Cherry Nut Trail Mix

Inside the party favors for the adults, or CAMp counselors if you will, were homemade hot chocolate packets (nothing new around these parts) and a packet of homemade trail mix.  You can hardly call this a recipe, but I'm not really sure what else to call it.  It was my first time coming up with a trail mix, and I just mixed it until I felt I had a good thing going on :)  Enjoy!

This is just the basic ratio, but feel free to halve or multiply as needed.

3 cups peanuts
2 cups cashews
1 cup dried cherries
1 cup craisins
1 cup almonds
1/2 c dark chocolate morsels

Um, mix it together.  Now you have Cherry Nut Trail Mix :)

Happy CAMper Birthday Party!

MY baby. My BABY. My itty, bitty, teeny, tiny baby turned 1 yesterday. Yep. 1 Whole Year Old. I'll save the tears for my pillow, and instead share with you the celebration part. The part that helped this entertaining loving momma look past the fact that we were entertaining because my baby is now a toddler.

Months ago, I was trying to come up with a theme of sorts. I thought the whole "Winter ONEderland" thing was adorable, but probably better suited for a girl. Back to the drawing board, and it dawned on me. Let's have a CAMping party. And it began. I am certainly not the first one to have a camping themed party, because as soon as I started searching I was bombarded with tons of cute ideas. I do believe, as far as the Internet goes, that I was the first person to have a CAMping party though, and that is where my creative intellectual property ends :)

I will warn you. It's time for photo overload. I am going to keep the dialogue to a minimum or this will, seriously, be the longest post in Blogger history.  Please feel free to ask any detail questions in the comments or the FB page!  :)

The Menu

• CAMping Chili
• CAMping Corn Chowder
• Baked Potatoes
• Potato Bar
• Fresh Cut Vegetables & Dip
• Dirt Pudding Cups
• Dirt Cupcakes
• S'Mores Bars
• Ants on a Log
• Bug Juice (Punch)
• Canteen Water (Punch)
• Bottled Water
• Assorted Beer
• Coffee

Weekend Prior: All decor and favors were completed

Thursday Prior: Cupcakes were baked

Friday: Chili and Chowder were made and refrigerated.  Dirt cups made and refrigerated.  S'mores Bars made and refrigerated.  Set up was started.

Day of: Cupcakes frosted, punch made, ants on a log made, all food was set up.

 

Kids received a "hiking bandana" with candy, homemade hot chocolate packets & Play-Doh

Adults received a take out box with homemade hot chocolate packets and homemade trail mix

I couldn't have been happier with how it all turned out.  We had about 50 guests, and just to tell you how big our families are, that accounted for no friends...at least that aren't family. :)  We are so fortunate to have had so many people come and celebrate with Cam!

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!!

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Wraps

I actually have made some new, yummy things the last couple months, but with the lack of natural light at dinner time, pictures are just about non-existent right now.

Exhibit A:

But even with no natural light and a crappy photo, this was worth blogging and when spring rolls around I'll update the post with a picture more worthy of this recipe. It's easy. Stupidly easy. It's so tasty. It will easily become a weekly meal for us. Much thanks to Mama G over at Growing Up Geeky for pointing me in the recipe's direction! I took that one and jazzed it up a bit, like the other Buffalo Chicken Wraps I've made in the past. But these ones are a bit healthier as there is no breading and it's not fried.

Ingredietns:
2 Large Chicken Breasts
1/2 c chicken broth
3/4 c buffalo sauce (I use Frank's Buffalo Sauce- you could easily use your favorite Buffalo Wild Wings sauce too!)
3/4 c ranch dressing
4 green onions, diced
1/4c cilantro, chopped finely
2 cups lettuce of your choosing, chopped
Blue Cheese Crumbles

Place chicken in a slow cooker and cover with broth. Cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 4-5 hours. Remove the chicken, and shred with a fork. Discard the excess liquid. Put the chicken back in the slow cooker. Combine the buffalo sauce and 1/4c of the ranch dressing, stir into the chicken. Combine the green onions and cilantro in a small bowl.

Lastly , assemble the wraps- chicken, cheese, onion/cilantro mix, lettuce, and top with ranch dressing. You can also fry up the tortillas a bit. Heat a frying pan on med-high, spray with a bit of non-stick cooking spray and fry the tortillas one at a time for approximately 30 seconds a side.

adapted from Betty Crocker

Cherry & Apple Handpies

This is totally a cheater recipe, but they look so cute and rustic that it's easy to look the other way when I say I did nothing from scratch. Of course, you can substitute any of your favorite homemade recipes for dough or pie filling, just follow the general guidelines.

Need:

• 2 Rolls of refrigerated pie dough
• 1 Can of Pie filling (I used apple and cherry)
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp water
• Crystal Sugar

Do:

1. Using very cold dough, unroll the dough and cut out six, circles, approximately 6 inches in diameter. I used a medium sized Pyrex bowl- works perfectly. You will have to re-roll the dough since you can only get 2 circles at a time from a 9 inch crust.
2. Place 2 Tbsp of pie filling in the center of each circle.
3. Whisk together the egg and water, and brush the mixture on the edges of the pie crust.
4. Prepare your egg wash by whisking together the egg yolk with a tablespoon of water. Brush egg wash on edge of dough circles, fold filled dough in half and seal the edges with a fork.
5. Chill hand pies for at least 30 minutes before baking.
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
7. Remove pies from refrigerator and brush with remaining egg wash. Sprinkle on crystal sugar and cut a small slit in the top of each pie to let out steam.
8. Bake about 20-25 minutes. When done, pies should be golden brown and flaky.
9. Cool to room temperature before serving. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Yield 6 Handpies

Adapted From

I'm linking up with The How To Mommy for Tasty Thursday!

Simple Apple Pancakes

This is another one of those "hardly a recipe" type deals. I've made apple pancakes before, but not quite like this. This one just seems genius. I spotted it on...wait for it...Pinterest. The Holy Grail. Anyway, it's simple.

1. Peel, core and slice an apple. I use an apple corer peeler slicer :)
2. Mix up your favorite pancake batter and heat up your griddle.
3. Dip the individual apple slices right into the batter and place them on the hot griddle.
4. Cook as you would a pancake.
5. Enjoy.

Makeshift Chicago Dogs

WARNING: This hot dog is an imposter! It is NOT a true Chicago Dog. You've been warned.

I love, love, loooooooooooooove Chicago Hot Dogs. The ingredients seem so strange together, but something about them just works. Delicious. Problem is, some of the ingredients are hard to come by, especially outside of Chicago. I made what I had work. You can try it too. :)

• Turkey Dog - It's supposed to be all beef :/
• Tomato, sliced
• Pickle Spear
• Pepperocini Pepper, sliced in half- these are supposed to be the very hard to attain sport peppers
• Onions, chopped
• Ground celery mixed with Kosher Salt - supposed to be celery salt
• Poppyseed Bun
• Mustard

Just assemble the dog as shown above. One thing to note is that poppyseed buns can be hard to come by. I just sprinkled some seeds on a plate, brushed the buns with some melted butter and dipped the buns to coat. Worked alright in my opinion!

This is no true Chicago dog, but it definitely works in a pinch when the craving is too much to fight!

Tomato Sandwiches with Basil Mayonnaise

Carl wanted a tomato sandwich today.  I had no tomatoes, but we were about to leave for the Farmer's Market.  Sounded like a win to me.  I bought some heirloom tomatoes since mine are not cooperating.  Then he took it up a notch and asked if I could make some sort of basil mayonnaise.  Sure!  Why not?  Ina had a perfectly acceptable sounding one, and I had all the ingredients, including basil from the garden, so I got to work. 

Uh, yum!!!!  We'll be using a lot of this, and if I can figure out how to freeze it, I will.  Otherwise, I'll just freeze my basil and use it all year long!  Too bad heirloom tomatoes aren't in season all year long.  That would rock.  I just used some English Toasting Bread I had bought at the market last week.  Carl had two sandwiches...that should tell you something.

Ingredients

• 1 cup good mayonnaise
• 10 to 15 basil leaves, chopped
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon good olive oil
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 slices country loaf bread
• 1 heirloom or Israeli tomato, sliced

Directions

Whisk together the mayonnaise, basil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic. Spread the mayonnaise mixture on the top of 2 slices of bread. Place the sliced tomato on top of one

bread slice. Place the remaining slice of bread, mayonnaise side down, on top of the tomato. Cut the sandwich in half and serve.