A Bunch of Frozen Turkeys

Many years ago when I was oh, twelve or so, Dad thought it would be a fabulous idea to go camping on Thanksgiving. It sounded like a great plan actually. We'd grab the tents, head out to Kodachrome Basin with his extended family and have a Thanksgiving adventure in the outdoors. Complete with dutch oven Thanksgiving dinner, of course.

Truth be told I don't remember a whole lot about the trip. Except for the fact that we all almost died from exposure. Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad, but it was close.

You see, in November it is not uncommon to see snow. And sometimes it's also windy. On our camping trip we had both of those things. The day we got there we set up our tents and tried to explore the surrounding area. This is a little difficult to do when the only place to hike is up the side of a steep mountain on a trail the size of a walnut which is also soaked with snow and muddy and slippery. So instead we spent the evening melting our socks on the campfire, trying to keep the frostbite away.

That night was the worst night of my life. Mom and Dad were snuggled in their tent and my sisters and I were in another tent. We each had our own separate mummy bag in which it was simultaneously impossible to move and to keep warm. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if the zipper on our tent wasn't broken. It only zipped half-way down which meant that the snow was blown into our tent by the hurricane-like wind. I spent the night swapping between a suffocating airtight cocoon with my sleeping bag pulled over my head, and leaving the top of the bag open to breathe while my hair froze to my scalp.

The next day was Thanksgiving. Praise the Lord, at least we'll get some food. Somehow cooking a turkey and Thanksgiving meal in dutch ovens actually worked. I had to put my gloves on in between bites to keep my fingers from freezing off, but that was by far the most delicious Thanksgiving meal of my life.

As soon as we'd eaten everybody decided they'd had enough of cold weather camping and went home. I'm pretty sure the trip was cut short by at least a couple of days. While this was probably the worst Thanksgiving ever, it was also the most fun and memorable. Breaking tradition doesn't always work, but it sure makes things more interesting.

A Can of Beans and an Onion Walk Into a Bar...

Seth: (Walks into the room and reads the title of this post) What's this post going to be about? Smelly stuff?
Me: Nope
Seth: Flatulence?
Me: Nope
Seth: Beans and Onions?

Well sorta. Camping season is among us folks and what's the hardest thing about camping? Planning out all the damn food. It's a pain in the butt and I know because I'm the one who does that sort of thing around here. Seth does the packing of the car and I do the menu. That's just how it is because it divides up tasks according to our respective talents and abilities.

Now planning a regular weekly menu is hard enough, but when you throw in the camping element, it's a whole different ball game. You gotta worry about stuff getting smashed, keeping things cool, eliminating tedious prep, making something fast and easy that your family will actually like. All of your typical tried and true recipes get thrown out the window and you're standing there clueless, frustrated, and stressed out.

Lucky for you I do a lot of camping. Over the years I've tweaked and sampled and experimented and now you get to reap all the benefits. Today you get to learn all of my camping food secrets to success.

Tip #1: Use tortillas instead of bread.

How many times have I packed a loaf of bread for sandwiches and it gets smashed? Every single time I've done it. It doesn't matter if it's packed into a food box or surrounded by a force field of magic. Not only that, but anytime you whip out a loaf of bread in a dry outdoor environment, it spontaneously turns into slices of  stale parched yuckiness. Who wants to eat that?

On the other hand, tortillas are already smashed. They don't dry out. They don't need to be refrigerated and they're great for lunches on the go. Plus there are some great recipes for wraps out there that'll make you feel like you're eating a gourmet meal in the time it would have taken you to make a couple smashed PB&J sandwiches. And there'll be no whining from the kids about the dry crust.

Tip #2: Pre-packaged shortcuts

When I cook at home I rarely buy ready-to-use pre-prepped ingredients (think chopped onions, veggies, pre-cooked meat, etc.). These things just aren't very cost effective to buy on a regular basis and generally don't taste as good. However, when you're camping, they're a real time saver. Some of my favorite things to buy are chopped onions (found in the produce section in a neat little container), shoe string or sliced carrots, pre-cooked grilled sliced chicken breast, shredded cheese, guacamole, and the list goes on. Definitely worth the extra money to save some time and add a whole lot of convenience when the family is starved. Plus when you're already stressed out trying to get everything ready for a trip, the last thing you want to do is prep work for your meals.

Along these same lines, there are a few easy camp meals and side dishes that I've found work really well for camping. Don't be afraid to let the kids roast hot dogs for dinner or make tin foil dinners. I like to bring things like Lloyd's BBQ Pulled Pork for pulled pork sandwiches. Just heat and eat! Buy premade potato or pasta salads in the deli or just eat potato chips or fresh fruit. I've found single serving pop-top canned fruit also travels well and doesn't require refrigeration. Yogurt is a good option for breakfast. Get creative! Camping is a time to have fun and try new things!

Tip #3: Bring the Right Tools

When you're camping you don't want to bring your whole kitchen with you. It takes up too much room and it's a huge hassle to dig through everything to find what you need. Want to make a recipe that requires measuring stuff? Pre-measure the few ingredients you need and bring them in baggies. Keep sauces or oils in squeeze bottles. All you need are a few key tools and you should be set for any meal you want to make. This is MY list of essential camp kitchen items:

• Tin Foil (preferably the longer heavy duty kind)
• Gallon Size Ziplock Bags (to save leftovers and ensure open packages don't get soaked with water in the cooler)
• Can Opener
• Small Cutting Board
• Chef's Knife
• Saucepan
• Skillet
• Tongs
• Spatula
• Salt & Pepper
• Non-Stick Spray

Optional:

• Large Mixing Bowl
• Whisk (usually a plastic fork will suffice)

*My Favorite Camping Meals*

Breakfast Burritos

This is actually an incredibly easy and fast breakfast. Even better than those shake n' pour pancakes because those darn pancakes never seem to cook very evenly on a camp stove. These work best if you've got a large rectangular skillet, but a normal round skillet will work just fine too. Plan for 2 eggs per person and at least 2 sausage links.

• Burrito Size Tortillas (I like Mission flavored tortillas. Garden Veggie and Tomato Basil are my favorite, but Jalapeno Cheddar is also good).
• Eggs (you can buy Egg Beaters which come in a resealable container or whole eggs that come in a Styrofoam carton. Do not buy eggs in a cardboard container... it will get soggy and fall apart in your cooler)
• Pre-cooked Sausage (I like Farmland Premium Pork Sausage Links-Fully Cooked. It actually won the Cooks Illustrated taste test!)
• Hash browns (Don't get the frozen ones, they won't stay frozen. I like Simply Potatoes. One bag is enough for 6 large burritos)
• Shredded Cheese
• Salsa

The hash browns and sausage basically just need to be warmed up, so throw em on a hot skillet sprayed with non-stick spray and cook for about 5 minutes or so. While they're cooking I crack all the eggs into a bowl, add salt and pepper and whisk together. Throw one large tortilla onto each plate and divide the hash browns and sausage equally. Scramble the eggs and put on top of the hash browns and potatoes. Top with shredded cheese and if desired return each filled tortilla back to the skillet for a final warming. I let everyone choose whether or not they want salsa.  

Creamy Guacamole & White Bean Wrap

I know. This sounds like a vegetarian disaster. But I swear you will love it. And it's so incredibly easy to make. Trust me on this one. Oh, and just to give credit, this is my camping version of EatingWell's Creamy Avocado & White Bean Wrap. 

• 1 bottle spicy ranch dressing (or other southwesterny style dressing)
• 1 bag coleslaw mix (by the bagged salads in the produce section)
• 1 bag of shoestring carrots
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro
• 1 15-ounce can white beans, drained
• 1 package guacamole (I like Wholly Guacamole brand. Get the snack packs for 1-2 people, regular packs for families)
• 8 oz. shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1 small container chopped red onions
• 1 package burrito size tortillas (try the Mission Garden Veggie kind)

I mainly just put as much of this stuff on each wrap as I wanted. One can of beans makes 3 good sized wraps. You'll have a ton of all the other stuff left over. This isn't really an exact science, so just get extra of any ingredients you'll need more of for more people (probably just the guacamole and beans).

Buffalo Chicken Wrap

• 1 package burrito size tortillas (try Mission's Tomato Basil)
• 1 package crumbled Blue Cheese
• 1 bottle Buffalo Wing sauce (in ketchup isle)
• celery (1 large stick for 2 wraps)
• 1 package coleslaw mix (salad area of produce section)
• 1 package Tyson Grilled & Ready Chicken Breast Strips (any flavor) (1 package= 2 wraps)

 Once again just divvy the ingredients out onto each wrap as desired. 1 4 oz. package of blue cheese crumbles is enough for about 6 wraps. Make sure you look at the hotness level of your buffalo wing sauce, especially if you have kids. Also, I don't worry about chopping up the celery, just break it into smaller pieces with your hands.

For more great recipe ideas, check out Eatingwell.com and CookingLight.com. They both have a ton of different wrap recipes. Don't be afraid to tweak them to your liking and/or substitute ingredients. Also, don't feel like you have to come up with something different for every single meal. Chances are you'll only be camping for a couple days. Nobody is going to die if you eat the same thing for lunch each day. Especially if it's something delicious.

I hope you can use some of these tips for your camping trips this year. Let me know how they work out for you. And feel free to share any of your own cooking tips for camping!

Flaming Navajo Tacos

This past weekend was our last camping trip of the year (well, as far as we know). The Navajos invited us down to Flaming Gorge for a couple days of fishing and freezing our butts off. We figured, hey, why not?

It took us about 4 hours to drive to the camping spot Friday night so we got there pretty late. There wasn't much time to do anything but set up the tent in the dark and go to bed. Neither Seth nor I slept very well that night... our sleeping bags are getting kind of hammered and the zippers don't work very well for keeping the drafts out. Also, just as a tip, those little disposable hand warmers take a good half hour or more to heat up, so plan ahead.

The next morning proved much better as we started the day with a nice breakfast of pancakes and sausage. Seth and I went over to check out the fly fishing situation on the Little Hole section of the Green River while The Navajos (consisting of Ramona, Gabe, and Gabe's brother's wife's younger brother, Jerry. He was a very nice young man.) went to check out Flaming Gorge.

Sadly, Seth and I didn't do so hot. I got skunked.... which seems to be a trend lately, and Seth caught one and lost another one or two. However, we did have a delicious lunch of Asian Chicken Roll-ups. I highly suggest using tortillas instead of bread whilst camping. Anyway, the river was very beautiful and we had fun fishing anyway.

We got a little lost on our way back to camp (we were distracted by a gigantic pair of binoculars, missed a turn, and started heading to Wyoming...) but finally made it back about an hour late. Dinner that night was a combined effort and consisted of delicious authentic Navajo Tacos. Having Navajo Tacos has become a tradition on our Flaming Gorge camping trips. I didn't get a picture of them this year, but here's some photos from 2007. Doesn't that fry bread look delicious? The key is to have a real Navajo make the fry bread ( you HAVE to use Bluebird brand flour) and you HAVE to use Hormel chili, otherwise, they won't be any good. And don't ask me for the fry bread recipe because there isn't one. You just know what it looks like. Which is why I've never personally made fry bread.

That night we took a tip from Jerry and heated up some rocks by the fire to put in our sleeping bags. We also made sure to give our hand warmers plenty of time to heat up. We did not get cold.

The next day we had another pancake and sausage breakfast and then we all headed over to the Gorge together to do some more fishing. We were all using "the bling" this time and did much better. For all of you fisher people out there, The Bling is the only lure that consistently works on lakes. Never caught fish on any other lure (silver and gold both work). Seth and I caught 6 Rainbows and the Navajos caught their fair share as well. Ramona caught the super fish of the day... a 21", 3 lb. Rainbow. It was huge! Of course Seth and I knew she'd caught a big one just from the whoops and hollers we heard from her as she landed it.

As usual we had a great time camping with the Navajos. They've become some of our favorite fishing buddies. I guess freezing your butt off on a camping trip isn't so bad after all.

My Gigantic Birthday Celebration

Guess who's super cute and just turned 29!? ME! You wouldn't believe the huge birthday party I had. Even P. Diddy or some other really famous person would be incredibly jealous. The entire extended Hanson family came together in Huntington Canyon for a weekend of birthday celebration and camping all for me!!

Ok. So maybe it was the Hanson Family Reunion. And maybe it just happened to fall on my birthday weekend. But I still count it as a birthday party. I mean, we were camping and fishing all weekend... what could be better than that?

The festivities actually started on Thursday, but Seth wasn't able to get that much time off, so we went down Friday instead. I still took Thursday off because I have a policy that I don't work on my birthday. Oh, and I didn't run either. In fact I lounged around all day long and tied flies.

We got to the Old Folks Flat campground in the afternoon, at about which time it started raining. It rained on and off for the rest of the day but luckily we were able to get our tent set up during one of the breaks. The Loel and Kathy Hanson family was in charge of dinner that night so we cooked up some sloppy joes. Unfortunately most of the pictures I took over the weekend were during that dinner, but at least I took some.

Seth supervising Marty's sloppy joe delivery.

Collette supervising Marty's sloppy joe delivery (you really gotta watch this guy!)

Tim in line for some food

Ashley and Megan

(and another guy that I can't remember his name but he looks like Hal Holbrook )

The next day Seth and I got up pretty early and tried out the fishing situation on the Huntington River. I've always been told that the fishing is best early in the morning, but in my experience it never is. I think it's an old wives' tale.

This is a picture from when I meditated on a rock in the middle of the river & watched mayflies.

Early morning fishing

The rest of the day on Saturday was spent fishing. First we went to Mammoth Lake (aka Huntington Reservoir) which wasn't too good, so we went up to Miller's Flat Reservoir and spent the rest of the afternoon there. The fishing was slow, but we ended up catching a few Rainbows with some gold spoons in the late afternoon. That night we went to Cleveland Reservoir and tried our hand at fly fishing. Marty even gave Arielle a lesson in casting. She looked pretty good!

Cleveland Reservoir didn't work out so well, so most of us decided to go over to Miller's Flat again to see if the fishing was any better. We caught a bunch of really small 3-4" Rainbows and a handful of pan fryers before it got dark.

Arielle with her hand-crafted leather headband and t-shirt.

Mama Hanson & Seth in deep conversation. Or talking about how much they like the choice of a pink bandana for our family.

Calysta & Arielle eating some food

Cute Collette... spotted me stealing a picture!

Marty Jr. toasting himself on the big bonfire.

Daddy Hanson

The next morning everybody packed up and headed home. Seth and I stopped once more to fish on the Huntington River and caught a few Browns. On our way back to Layton we stopped at Cabelas and Seth finally got a new pair of Simms chestwaders. He's pretty excited to try them out. They look pretty fancy. I bought a pair of women's Simms chestwaders too but haven't gotten them yet (it's a long very sad story... stupid UPS and stupid neighbors who steal stuff...)

Are You Ready for Adventure?

I first want to start by congratulating Seth. On April 30th he finished one more semester of school! Not only did he finish, but he was able to maintain a GPA of 3.59 while taking 19 credits AND working full-time. I like to call him Professor Hanson because he's such a genius!

To celebrate finishing the hardest semester ever, we decided to take our first camping trip of the season to get away and relax. No work or school to worry about, just nature and relaxation.

We decided to go to Buckhorn Wash down in the San Rafael Swell. If we'd been there before, neither of us could remember it, and it was a somewhat close, fairly people-free spot. I got all our stuff packed up and ready to go so we could leave in the morning on Friday, May 1st. Seth got a brand new big 2-room Cabelas tent from his parents for his birthday so we were pretty excited about trying it out. Plus we'd decided to splurge and get a 3 burner Coleman camp stove (with accompanying griddle!), so we stopped off at Cabelas on the way down to pick one up. Wahoo for camping stuff!

We couldn't believe how beautiful the drive was. It felt like we were driving through an Irish Spring commercial when we went through Spanish Fork Canyon! Maybe they should make a new soap called Spanish Fork Spring. Ok maybe not.

When we got to Buckhorn Wash we decided we'd better go pick out a camp spot before all the good ones were taken. We found a place near the far end of the wash, nestled in a cove below a towering sandstone cliff and started to set up our new gear.

I'm used to setting up tiny dome tents and Seth wasn't too familiar with our tent style either, but somehow we managed to get the thing up. It was huge! It has a 10x16' floor so we felt like we were in an outdoor mansion!




After getting all our gear organized Seth gathered up a little wood and made a fire for us. We sat around the campfire and talked and admired the scenery. Not too long after roasting our hotdogs and oatmeal creme cookies, it started to sprinkle. Luckily it was starting to get dark by this time so we headed into the tent with our chairs. We also decided to bring in our campstove, cooler and anything else we wanted from the car. We had so much room inside that tent!

This is the rock face above our campsite. Seth dubbed the figure "Spirit Man."

Another rock face at our campsite. There's two figures in this pic, but they didn't have names.

The next morning it was still raining pretty good and I was glad we'd brought everything into the tent the night before. We spent the morning figuring out our new camp stove and cooking a leisurely breakfast of pancakes and bacon. I ruined a couple pancakes trying to get used to the griddle, but that's to be expected, right?

Our tent had a little awning on the front which we'd just rolled up out of the way when we put it up, but we decided to put it up while we were making breakfast so we could open the screen door (to ventilate for the stove) without getting wet. Surprisingly enough it stayed strong too and after a couple adjustments, we found a way to keep the water from pooling up on top. It was a great morning just relaxing and watching the rain.

The famous 3 burner Coleman stove!

Well, about the time we were done with breakfast the rain stopped. We cleaned up the dishes and then headed out on a designated route to try and find some petroglyphs and pictographs that were scattered along the wash. It turned out to be a bit of a hide-and-seek game as some of the features weren't exactly easy to find.

Our first stop was a huge wall of pictographs and petroglyphs. It's right along the road so they're easily seen. Apparently the drawings are from two groups of people. The pictographs (paintings) are from an older civilization about 2000 years ago. The petroglyphs (carved pictures) are from a civilization from about 1000 years ago. They aren't sure exactly what tribes of Native Americans they were from or exactly what all the pictures mean. Seth has a theory that the people drawn in the pictures are representations of figures they saw on the rock walls. If you look at the markings on the rock walls just right, they look just like people. I think Seth is onto something! Who needs scientists and anthropologists when you've got Professor Hanson?

The next stop was a signature on a rock wall from Matt Warner, dated February 17, 1920. I guess he was some guy who used to run around with Butch Cassidy. It took us a minute to find it, but eventually we did. Maybe we should've parked at the pull-out right in front of it and followed the footpaths. Eh, we'll make our own pathways! Anyway, you could tell why Matt became an outlaw. He must not have been the brightest of guys... he spelled his own name wrong (Mat) and his "9" was backwards so it looked like a "P." Stick with what suits you I guess.








The next stop was another set of pictographs. I used my deductive reasoning and decided it'd be best to pull over in the parking area and follow the man-made trail (the pictographs weren't visible from the road). Seth headed off in the other direction towards another large rock wall. In his defense the instructions told us the pictographs were on the East side of the road (they were on the West side) and we'd seen 3 climbers up there the day before. Plus there was a small trail. I followed my woman's intuition up the trail on the west side and found the large group of pictographs (not to gloat or anything...).








After this stop we drove to another smaller group of pictographs. It was easily found by spotting a set of initials someone had shot into the rock next to it. They must have been using some sort of bazooka though because those bullet holes were huge! You could have put a stick of dynamite into those suckers!


Our next item was a bit tougher to find. There was supposed to be a dinosaur track up on this sandstone ledge, but there were no signs or anything to show where it was. We wandered around for a little while before finally climbing over a big bunch of rocks onto a second sandstone ledge. I was looking everywhere for the thing and was about to just call it quits when Seth found it. It was under a rock! I think people cover it so it doesn't get ruined, but still. A sign or something would be nice. So, we did what anyone else would've done... we took pictures and then put a giant rock on top of it again. To our credit we drew a big "X" on the rock and wrote "The track isn't here." Come on, people would totally look there anyway!








Right across from where the dinosaur track was located, was a camp spot with a small canyon behind it. We decided to stop and eat lunch at the mouth of the little canyon (pre-assembled tuna salad kits from the store are the best!) and then began hiking. We walked a little ways to were the 4 wheeler tracks stopped and ducked through some bushes. The trail wound around for a short distance and then opened up into a little alcove where the hike ended. It was this beautiful shaded room with high rock walls on all sides, probably no more than 10 feet across. And what did we find? Secret petroglyphs on the wall! We didn't know they were there, as I'm sure many people didn't, and we found them! We had talked about finding our own secret pictographs and we found some on our first exploration! I'm sure we weren't the first to see them, but I bet there aren't many people who have.








When we got back from that hike, we decided to find another place to explore. There was a short hike mentioned on our little guide paper so we decided to go check it out. That hike wasn't much farther than our first one, but it was still fun. We probably could've gone farther, but it involved a little climbing and I wussed out. Seth was able to climb up the place where we stopped and found a magic brown sparkly rock. We're not really sure what it is, but it's probably worth A LOT.


We decided to go back to camp after the last hike and just relax for awhile. We went for a little walk around our campsite and found this rock that looked like a giant butt. It was so funny. We even climbed in there! There was a lot of prickly pear cactus around and I mentioned to Seth that I'd never tried any but that for some reason it looked really good. With that, he whipped out his pocket knife and cut off a chunk so I could taste it. It wasn't as good as I thought it'd be, though it wasn't necessarily bad. I thought it tasted like spongy cheesies. I'm sure you've eaten cheesies before, all kids have. If you don't remember what they are look here.

Come on, it totally looks like a giant butt!

That evening turned out to be really beautiful and clear so we stayed up late and star gazed and talked around the fire. Oh, I forgot that a bunch of people wussed out after the first night and ditched their campsites so me and Seth went around to all of them to raid their firewood. Maybe THEY should've gotten a fancy Cabelas tent too! Crazy City Slickers with their Walmart tents and Barbie sleeping bags. Don't they know this is the WILDERNESS? Not just anybody can survive out here!


The next morning we ate another lovely pancake and bacon breakfast (much better this time... I think I got that griddle all figured out!). It had rained a bit early that morning so we hung out and cleaned things up while we waited for the tent to dry out. Then with sad hearts we took down our desert mansion and put all our stuff back in the car.

Doesn't he look so happy with his plate of bacon?

I told Seth he had to "Steamroll" the tent to get the air out.

Before we left we decided to go for one last hike in the canyon across from our campsite. We thought maybe it'd turn into a slot canyon or something. This hike had a lot of big boulders and things to climb over and under so it made it a bit more exciting. The hike only went for about a 1/2 mile or so before we hit a big wall that was too tall to climb over. Oh well, maybe next time.








Seth decided from this trip that it'd be fun to take up canyoneering. We would've been able to go a lot farther if we'd had a rope and some basic gear. I think canyoneering could be fun. It doesn't seem quite as death-defying as rock climbing (I don't want to fall 1000 feet to my death, thank you very much!). Maybe we'll get a book or something and learn some of the tricks.


Just outside the wash is the Wedge overlook. The Wedge is like a small scale Grand Canyon. It was amazing! We couldn't even tell there was this magnificent canyon there until we were right up next to the cliff! So beautiful! We sat on the edge of the cliff in the warm sun and ate another lunch of tuna sandwiches before we got back in the car to drive back to civilization.








It really was tough coming back to real life after such a great weekend. Seth and I wanted to thank Mom and Daddy Hanson for the awesome tent (without which we surely would have been miserable), Annie and Eric for checking on Gracie the cat while we were gone, and Cabelas for allowing us to purchase their fine merchandise. Without all of you, this weekend would not have been possible. Oh, and thank you God, for creating nature without which we wouldn't have had a place to camp.