Camping, Princess Style

[SLB]

On 2/19/2025 at 1:29 AM, Katie Meadow said:

@Smithy  YOU.  ARE.  AWESOME.

 

What she said. 🙃

 

I don't usually deploy emoji, but I don't have enough words for what it feels like to read these reports.  

  

Edited Thursday at 05:15 PM by SLB (log)

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

3 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

We've seen them sometimes and stayed in a few, but can't reliably find them. Do you have a reliable search source?

 

US Army Corps of Engineers campground are also great, if you happen to be in a party of the country where they exist. 

I'm trying to remember how we discovered them. This was a couple of years ago and my memory ain't what it used to be (along with a few other things). We stayed at several in the time we spent in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa in 2023. My notes only describe the parks themselves, not how we found them. I'll ask my spouse when he gets home--maybe he remembers. if so I'll post more.

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

I did a little poking around on the internet, using iOverlander and, surprisingly, the Winnebago website, https://www.winnebago.com/lifestyle/winnebagolife/travel/hidden-gems-free-county-city-rv-parks  though it seems to be more Texas oriented. My spouse says we used iOverlander the most.

 

A favorite was Burwell City Park in Nebraska, on our way back to Colorado. A few small sites right on the river (the dog, who's a swimming fool, loved it) but with larger sites adjacent to the main part of the park. No water hookup but electric at all sites. And Barnesville, MN, with the vegetable garden--dry sites in a large meadow and full hookups in a more organized area, where the big rigs were staying. We walked into town (about a mile) for supplies and found it a charming little town. Too many empty storefronts, though.

 

 

[Maison Rustique]

@Smithy I can't believe how big your kitchen is in that thing!

[Smithy]

2 hours ago, Maison Rustique said:

@Smithy I can't believe how big your kitchen is in that thing!

 

I chose carefully...did I want more floor space or a kitchen island? Did I want the pantry or a shorter trailer? And so on. So far, I'm very pleased with the choice I made. 🙂

 

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

Do you have a photo of your new rig? 

[Smithy]

We used to stumble over county parks too, back in the days when "app" meant "appetizer". (Yes I'm THAT old. 😀) One memorable experience was in Laredo, when the state park was full because it was Easter. The entire park filled up with locals picnicking and driving their little wheeliess around us, wishing us "Happy Easter"with kids grinning and giggling. A lot of fun, really. The park itself was so full of goatheads and other stickery weeds we never wanted to return. But it was fun once. 

[Smithy]

Well, this is an unfortunate culinary development. I spent several hours in town, running crucial errands that took so much time I didn't manage to include an intended social event. I got home around 4pm, savagely hungry, and tore into the tabbouli, green beans and hummus from yesterday. Report: the hummus definitely benefits from the extra vinaigrette (lemon, olive oil, garlic, mustard, salt) that I made yesterday. The green beans, now only a fond memory, already contained some and were still a delight.  The tabbouli... well, it's better with that vinaigrette but I can still taste the staleness of the old package contents. Maybe I'll be able to finish that stuff. It isn't terrible, but I may decide that the local wildlife would appreciate it more than I.

 

By the time I'd eaten my fill of all that, it was 5pm. Now at 7:30 pm I'm still not hungry, so this campfire... intended to cook something wonderful... is just keeping my feet warm while I sip a beer. 

 

 

That isn't all bad, of course. Just goes to show how rapidly my food plans can go awry.

[Smithy]

3 hours ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

Do you have a photo of your new rig? 

 

See here for the pre-launch photo, and here and here for interior tours. As for the current setup, which I plan to change in a few days, here it is -- well, was before I set up the camp chairs, barbecue grill, etc.

 

 

(The point of that second picture is to note that it's dry out here. Even for this desert, it's VERY dry. I've never seen the drought so bad out here.)

[ElsieD]

Are you all by yourself there?

[Smithy]

2 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Are you all by yourself there?

 

I am now. I had a fellow boondocking friend here until a couple of days ago, but he's started heading north toward home. I know some of the folks camped within a mile radius, but there's nobody close at the moment.

[ElsieD]

You're a brave soul.  It's not something I could do.

[Smithy]

I think one of the tough things about being out here without my darling now is that he ALWAYS wanted dinner, even if it was a tube steak or two and some potatoes. Without him, it's easy to forgo dinner if I'm not hungry. Of course that's contributed to my weight loss, but it isn't a very interesting culinary adventure. Tomorrow night, wind permitting, will be campfire cooking for sure. I promise!

 

(And if that falls through again, I'll go back and show you a grilled sandwich in Papa's pan and you'll all be none the wiser, right? Of course right!)

[Smithy]

I've been loafing this morning. Part of that is because it's windy and not very pleasant outside, although I know it will be windier as the day goes on. A larger reason for my sloth now is that the low-battery alarm in the Princessmobile started flashing at around 0530. There's no sleeping (for me, anyway) when that happens. I went outside, admired the stars, and started the generator. Then I came back inside and tried to sleep. Maybe I dozed a bit, but I didn't sleep well. An hour or so later, I figured that should put paid to the battery question. Went back outside, turned off the generator, and went back to sleep. So my sleep schedule is off today. Then of course I had to have morning coffee while I read, and wrote, and contemplated the day's chores.

 

Breakfast is the last of the Goûter chocolate panettone. It really does need to be reheated. I didn't want to restart the microwave, so I put the panettone unwrapped in the oven for a few minutes. This was also partly a test to see how easily I could start the oven. It's propane, with a sparker, and my friend and I had a lot of laughs over trying to figure out the lighting sequence the evening he came over for a ham dinner.

 

It isn't difficult. I just have to push harder than I'd expected to get the sparker to work. The panettone stayed in here a few minutes, just enough to get warm,

 

 

then came to table with butter atop it.

 

 

The oven-heating method, unwrapped at least, is a guaranteed way to dry it out, but it's still delicious. The butter helped moisten it again.

 

 

Kudos to @Alleguede, @Kerry Beal, and Goûter Patisserie!

 

If the wind dies enough this evening for a campfire, I'll burn the cardboard wrapper. If not, I'll shake the crumbs out in the bushes and put the wrapper in the trash.

 

 

[ElsieD]

@Smithy i just put in an order with Gouter.  It included a Strawberry and White Panetonne.  I've taken to spreading a miniscule amount of butter on a slice of panetonne, putting it into a dry frying pan and warm over not too high heat until both sides have browned up a bit.  Delicious.

[Smithy]

22 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

@Smithy i just put in an order with Gouter.  It included a Strawberry and White Panetonne.  I've taken to spreading a miniscule amount of butter on a slice of panetonne, putting it into a dry frying pan and warm over not too high heat until both sides have browned up a bit.  Delicious.

 

Real strawberries? And white chocolate? Let us know how it tastes. I generally distrust strawberry-flavored anything, based on an early horror of strawberry ice cream, but I can image Gouter doing the fruit justice.

[ElsieD]

2 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

Real strawberries? And white chocolate? Let us know how it tastes. I generally distrust strawberry-flavored anything, based on an early horror of strawberry ice cream, but I can image Gouter doing the fruit justice.

I dunno.  I'll let you know what it's like.  What is the strawberry ice cream horror story?  I love strawberry ice cream.   Actually, i think the only ice cream i don't like is chocolate.

[Smithy]

33 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

I dunno.  I'll let you know what it's like.  What is the strawberry ice cream horror story?  I love strawberry ice cream.   Actually, i think the only ice cream i don't like is chocolate.

 

No particular horror story; nobody smeared me with it as a kid and tied me down for the ants, for instance. But I have never, ever liked strawberry ice cream, and always felt that what gets marketed down here as "Neapolitan" ice cream (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry) was a horrible cheat. Then again, I'm a big fan of chocolate. IIRC you and I also differ on garbanzos / chickpeas: I love 'em, you hate 'em. 🙂

 

[gfweb]

On 2/20/2025 at 3:36 PM, Maison Rustique said:

@Smithy I can't believe how big your kitchen is in that thing!

My daughter's NYC kitchen is less.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Strawberries are a special food of the gods, meant to be enjoyed still warm from sunny fields or your backyard strawberry pot.    I can't abide cooked strawberries, e.g., preserves.    One may find them delicious but, please, don't call it "strawberry".  

[Smithy]

3 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Strawberries are a special food of the gods, meant to be enjoyed still warm from sunny fields or your backyard strawberry pot.    I can't abide cooked strawberries, e.g., preserves.    One may find them delicious but, please, don't call it "strawberry".  

 

I agree. Some fruits preserve well, but IMO strawberries don't.

[Smithy]

Looks like I've discovered a few more omissions and errors.

 

It all started when I decided that some of the potatoes are getting old. I'll be away for a week. The greens and other perishables need to be used up, or thrown away, unless they can come with me to be used. The original plan for a generous green dinner salad fell by the wayside when I thought about those potatoes. (There are more, in a different bag. These were from the oldest bag. Russets. I don't know how old they were, but they were starting to sprout.) I cut out the eyes of 2 potatoes, realized the peel were turning green and peeled down until the green was gone, then thought about the rest of the bag. Okay then. Here it is, all of it. 5 potatoes' worth. 

 

 

 

This is at least as much as my darling would have used for his beloved hash! I didn't want to make hash! I don't think I have a big enough pan for this!

 

I rooted around in the trailer. What was the largest pan I'd packed? Had I packed any large sheet pans? (The answer to that is "no".) The largest pan I could find was my prized Sur La Table "Dutch oven", which isn't especially heavy as a Dutch oven should be, but is generous enough that it's handled our prime rib roast or beef ribs in the last couple of years.

 

It was under all this stack:

 

 

The cabinet sits next to the oven, near ground level, and is a rather awkward space. I have to work out a better arrangement for its contents.

 

Any skillets with handles sit elsewhere, but none of my darling's prized camp skillets for fireplace or camp stove cooking got packed. I wasn't planning to do such large-batch cooking, or so I thought. 

 

It was still windy, so I cranked up the generator in order to use the range hood, and went to work. 

 

 

Then I figured out that the vegetable oil in the cabinet is rancid. I'm not terribly surprised. It'll be a great fire starter. I used olive oil -- which, incidentally, I had to buy the other day. (How COULD I have come away with no olive oil, no red wine vinegar, yet 3 bottles of white wine vinegar??)

 

Then I realized that I hadn't packed a spatter guard. Of course not! All this sort of thing is always done outside. Over the fire, or over the camp stove -- which I haven't set up yet. Because hash and other frying were my darling's thing, not mine. Hmmph. I looked around in the drawer of pan covers, and found a substitute.

 

 

 

Next up: since I was making my darling's hash, despite other plans, I had to figure out the meat to go into it. I first chose a package out of the freezer. Luck, WI is a small town a couple of hours' drive south of where I live. I discovered this meat market, and their sausages, during a trip there only a week or so after my darling had passed. Despite my despair, I'd encountered this sausage and liked it. I'd gone to the meat market and bought more.

 

 

I'd forgotten that it's one solid coil. I hadn't thawed it. i put it back in the freezer. Instead, I pulled from the refrigerator this artifact from our time together:

 

 

Once the potatoes were starting to brown in the olive oil, I added red bell pepper, most of the mushrooms hanging around, and coins cut from three of those Kiolbassa links. The anti-boilover lid actually makes a pretty good spatter screen.

 

 

Dinner, first effort:

 

 

Something wasn't quite right: probably because I hadn't added salt and certainly because I hadn't added any greens as I'd originally planned. I pulled out a jar of Trader Joe's Chili Onion Crunch and added a spoonful to my serving.

 

 

Ah-HOOA! That had waay too much heat for me. I added my bowlful back to the entire pan's worth, stirred it all, and served myself again.

 

That worked out pretty well. I like the flavors. There are leftovers -- more than I'd planned, but those potatoes needed to be cooked.

 

And I was able to enjoy a beautiful evening sky while everything cooked, even though I wasn't out by the fire. If you look carefully, you'll see Venus about midway up the photo.

 

 

I couldn't stretch the photo enough to show Jupiter and the rest of the planetary parade, but they're all there.