food – Amy Morris-Jones

Adapted from sausage-662049_1920_Pezibear @ Pixabay.com

By now, everyone knows food cooked outside tastes better, right? Honestly, I think the food is the main reason I go camping sometimes. Yes, it takes a bit more effort to cook over the campfire, but there’s something about the relaxed pace of campfire cooking coupled with being hungry from exertion and fresh air that makes food cooked over a fire taste amazing.

Interestingly, the *taste* of the food isn’t the only good thing about cooking outside. According to an H.E. Remus on Medium, “When you cook for yourself, you consume 50% less calories.” That makes sense since when you’re camping, you’re probably meal planning more carefully and are conscious of portion control since storage of food is an issue. Further, you’re less likely to just randomly grab a snack from the pantry, and if you do stock your camping pantry with junk food (s’mores, anyone?), you’re more likely to have exercised setting up camp to burn more calories than you would sitting in front of the TV. As an added bonus, if you’re participating in activities like fishing or foraging (yes, people do that!), you’re probably eating the freshest protein around sans preservatives of any kind.

Finally, if you’re camping, you just have to try one of the incredibly creative recipes you can find in the array of camping recipe books or on Pinterest. In case you need some incentive, here’s my Pinterest camping recipe list:

How is it that the lowly hot dog can taste so GOOD when cooked outside over an open fire? What are your favorite recipes for cooking outdoors? I’m always looking for new things to try on this summer’s adventures!

I hope you’re not hungry!

What follows is my newest chapter in The Great Book of Lists. Thank you to La duchesse d’Erat for this excellent challenge. Here are the instructions for anyone interested:

Every Monday, I will propose a theme and you will have until Sunday night to publish your ticket, including the hashtag #TGBOL and a ping back (link) to the post announcing the topic which you are participating.

I will publish a summary of holdings with a new theme on Monday.

The comments section will allow you to say on what topics you want to write or to do lists.

Do not forget to subscribe to the blog so as not to miss the ads Monday.

The Great Book of Lists 3.0: Your Favorite Dishes

So this week is about food, but not any kind of food. We’ll be focusing on the food you enjoy cooking the most. Be it a gourmet dish, a simple fruit salade or a pizza, nothing’s too fancy nor too simple to enter our lists, as long as it brings joy. You can even share a recipe if you like 🙂

I could go on for days about food, but I’ll try to keep this list relatively short! I often say I like to travel through food, so most of my food choices here are associated with places or memories of people.

Grandma Parker’s Spaghetti Sauce – “Grandma” Parker wasn’t my grandmother, but she and her kids babysat me when I was young. I was just one of the family, and there was nothing better than a big family dinner of spaghetti with her homemade sauce. If we were really lucky, we had it in lasagna or over handmade ravioli. No, I’m not including the recipe here, but it’s a staple in my household.
Photo from joshumed@pixabay
Grandma Spiekerman’s glazed yeast donuts – Grandma made everything from scratch, and her donuts and buttermilk pancakes were legendary. I have her dough recipe, but they just aren’t the same without Grandma by the fryer.
Dough Balls – Where I grew up, it was the routine to go out to Capri for dough balls after every Friday night sporting event. Dough balls were just fried pizza dough, but that restaurant had the technique down perfectly (Capri has since closed, so I’m including a picture from a rival local restaurant, Brentwood). I’ve tried to make them at home, but they never turn out as well:
Visit Brentwood for your own dough balls! http://www.thumbtourism.org/busdetail.php?id=0000000214
Nutella Crepes – When I was 16, I went to France for the first time with a group of classmates. We took a TON of junk food with us because we were afraid we’d hate the food there. Once we found the street vendors making fresh crepes, however, that junk food was forgotten. My favorites were the crepes filled with Nutella and coconut or bananas or strawberries. I make them at home, but they’re just not the same as those ones on the Paris streets:

Blond Bombshell Bagel: I went to grad school at Miami University of Ohio in Oxford, Ohio. While there, I discovered this little hole in the wall bagel shop called Bagel & Deli that has no comparison. The menu is huge and diverse, and all the bagels are described on signs hanging on the walls—many of which were named for former students. My favorite at the restaurant and to recreate at home, the Blond Bombshell, piled turkey, swiss, and veggie cream cheese on a toasted sun-dried tomato bagel (although you couldn’t go wrong with anything on their menu).
Austin’s American Grill Pork Tenderloin: After graduate school, I moved to Colorado. While there, I took my then-boyfriend-now-husband out for a birthday dinner at a place neither of us had been: Austin’s American Grill. The menu was rather short, and it had none of my usual faves. I ended up ordering a pork tenderloin dish that sounded decent. My husband still talks about the look on my face after I put the first bite of that tenderloin into my mouth: pure food ecstasy! I’ve tried to replicate the meal, and although my version is decent, it’s nowhere as good as the original.
Indian Food: When I lived in Colorado, my husband dragged me to an Indian restaurant. I was skeptical from the moment the server put little bowls of green and brown stuff on the table (mint and tamarind chutney, I know now). With trepidation, I took the first bite—and was hooked! To this day, I will drive far out of my way for a good Indian restaurant, especially if I hear they’ve got chicken korma or tikka masala. In a pinch, I try recreating my favorites at home.

Italian Arancini – I can’t remember precisely where I had my first arancini, also known as a risotto ball or rice ball. I’m going to credit Cinzetti’s in Denver, CO. Wherever it was, I fell in love with these little deep-fried delights and now make them at home:

Penne with Roasted Asparagus and Balsamic Butter – I live in an area of Michigan known for its asparagus production. We spend most of the spring inhaling asparagus in every way imaginable. This is my favorite recipe to cook when the asparagus harvest begins:

Ziti with Portobello Mushrooms, Carmelized Onions, and Goat Cheese – I’m not a vegetarian, but I often eat like one. With dishes like this one, I could be happy for life:

I’m starving now! How about you? What would you include on your list of favorite meals?