Camp Prep.

GOOD MORNING! Grabba cuppa and pull up a chair. (I realize that not everyone will read this in the morning........)

I started this blog yesterday, but got too busy to finish it. It's now 6:43 am and I'm going to wrap this baby up.

We're headed to the hills for the weekend and it's a good thing because the temps here are supposed to be in the upper 90F's!

We love to camp, especially now that we have our little camper (our Tab). It is much easier to pack now as opposed to taking a tent and all of the things that go along with tent camping. We still have all of that stuff and are going to hang on to it in case Audrey and Jonathan ever go camping with us. Plus, I'm hoping that someday they will move back to Colorado and then we'll just give it all to them, if they want it.

Preparation for camping requires planning and some work - the grocery shopping, making sure we have clean clothes and putting the things we will wear into piles to pack in the Tab, packing food items and other things we don't just keep in the camper all of the time. I also like to put the house in some order so it will be nice to come home to. Here is a picture of our Tab camper in Death Valley.

This was the return trip by way of southern California that we took after we picked up our camper in northern California. We had purchased it on Ebay. That's my old Jeep Wrangler that I sold through Craigslist. I now have a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon that I purchased through Craigslist. http://fortcollins.craigslist.org/craigslist.org/ If you have never used this website before, it's really great because you can sell things for free by region of the country. If you click on this link, be sure to pick your region (state/city/province) of choice over in the right hand columns before posting an ad or searching for something. Warnng: there are some R rated posts on this website. So, if you are a G to PG person like me, just don't go there.

Here is our camping list I made in Excel that has everything on it that we need to take with us when we go camping in our camper. A lot of the stuff is already stocked in the camper, like soaps, toothbrushes and toothpaste, insect repellent, extra blankets, lanterns, etc.. I'm a list kind of person. (I'm also a sticky note reminder kind of person.)Anyway, our list is very comprehensive and I add things that need to be added or remove things that seem like they don't need to be on it. Here is a picture of our list. I have little boxes next to each item so we can check it off. I print a list off of the computer about a week prior to each trip. We don't take everything on the list, some of the things are suggested items for food or clothing, etc.. The "must have" items are on there, though.
We don't always camp where we can plug in our camper, so we have a little converter "thingy" that lets us hook up to one of the two big batteries we have on the Tab and use the computer, a fan, speakers, a DVD player, etc.. We just bought a small DVD player and I will rent a movie to watch one evening this weekend. While camping in Moab, Utah earlier this year, I noticed a group of people sitting in chairs one evening, looking at the side of their RV. They had a screen and were watching a movie. It was one of those things you see in an RV camp that is always interesting. Yep, we really rough it.........

I like to prepare a meal in advance so that we can just warm something up, like for tonight when we arrive at the campground after dinner time. This time, I'm going to make an enchilada casserole - a big one. We'll only take a portion so that we can have leftovers when we return. I'll warm it up in foil in my steamer on the stove in the camper. We have a little refrigerator in the camper that runs either on electricity, gas or the car battery when we are driving. It's a little temperamental to get it going in the gas mode, but Merle is "Mr. Get Anything Going Guy" and after a few attempts, it is up and running and the frig keeps things nice and cold.

Here's my enchilada recipe - it's really good.
NORTH OF THE BORDER ENCHILADAS
Sauce ingredients:
1-15 oz can tomato sauce
2 T chili powder
1 teas sugar or equivalent amount of sweetener
1 teas onion powder
Flour
Some kind of fat (butter, margarine, oil, etc.)
Water
The rest of the stuff:
1 dz corn tortilllas
2 chicken breasts, deboned, deskinned, cooked and chopped into small chunks
1 chopped medium sized yellow onion
Approximately 1-1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack Cheese or any other shredded cheese you might prefer (probably not any other, but something like Monterey Jack or Cheddar)
Cooking oil
Making the sauce.
1. In a small saucepan, over medium heat, put in about 3 T fat.
2. When it sizzles, turn the heat to low and whisk in about 2 T flour, all the while whisking until it is smooth. This mixture should be creamy, not thick and pasty, so add more fat if you need to.
3. Remove it from the heat and SLOWLY pour in the tomato sauce and about 1/2 can of water, whisking very quickly to combine it until it is a smooth sauce. It will probably get pretty thick quite fast. Put it back on med/low heat so that it cooks and gets thicker. Add the chili powder, onion powder, sweetener and more water, if necessary. You should be able to pour it - that's the right consistency. Let it cook for about 5 minutes, then remove it from the heat and set it aside while you prepare the enchilada portion.
Enchilada assembly
1. Spray cooking oil in a glass 9" X 12" oven proof dish and have the tortillas, chicken, onion and cheese all ready to use. Place a large square of foil on the counter top next to the stove top so you can assemble the enchiladas individually on it.
2. Put about 4 T of oil in a skillet over med/hi heat.
3. When the oil is hot, turn the heat to medium to maintain. If it smokes, turn it down until it doesn't.
4. Place one tortilla briefly into the oil (about 10 secs) and then using tongs, flip it over in the oil for a couple of seconds more. This makes the tortilla pliable, so just hold it in the oil long enough for that.
5. Remove the tortilla with tongs to the foil square on the counter top. Using your clean hands, put some chicken, cheese and onion along the middle and then roll the tortilla over the mixture. Place it in the dish. Repeat this procedure until you have used up your ingredients. If they don't all fit in one dish, use another dish.
6. Pour the sauce over the enchiladas, sprinkle some more cheese on top and put it in a preheated 350 deg oven for about 30-45 minutes or until bubbly. Let the finished product sit for about 20 minutes before serving.

This will serve about 4-6 people depending upon the appetites as long as you have a nice green salad alongside. Italian dressing on the salad is a very nice complimentary taste to the enchilada dish - sounds weird, but it's true. Here's the dish just before it goes into the oven. I measured this dish and it's about 7-1/2" X 10".

I've marinated some pork sirloin for another evening meal on our little grill and cooked up brown rice that I will mix with tomato, black beans, jalapeno and chopped cilantro for a side dish. Breakfasts are eggs, pancakes, SPAM Lite (we indulge ourselves occasionally), coffee. Lunches consist of tuna fish sandwiches (I prepare the tuna fish salad beforehand) along with chips. For any desserts I buy both sugar free varieties of Voortman's cookies and Jello puddings in the little containers.

OK. I think I'd better move my fanny now and start getting some of this food prepared and packed. When I return, I will have some pictures of our camping excursion to post, so check back. I'll be back in touch on Sunday or Monday. Have a wonderful weekend!