Weekend Adventures & Campfire Cuisine

This past weekend hubby and I took a little road trip to go.....camping!  Although there are a plethora of beautiful parks in Arkansas, especially in the mountains to the west, where should we decide to go but to....a swamp!  Well...not exactly.  I think the technical description is a bayou.  On the whole it looks like a submerged forest, tell-tale of the swamp land that used to occupy much of the Arkansas delta before it was drained and the trees were cleared.  After a week of Arkansas being the hottest place in the country, Cane Creek State Park was not exactly a cool resort vacation.  With lots of mosquitos, high humidity, and upper 80 degree temperatures at night, it actually fell more like a sauna.  But, we had a great time paddling along the kayak trail in the bayou, fishing, and testing out some new campfire cuisine.  Check out some of our pictures below!

The feature camping recipe I would like to share is one Nathan heard on a Backpacking Light podcast.  It is not really geared towards the use of a campfire...however, if you have a good cooking fire set-up where you can boil for sustained periods of time it could work.  We made it over a Coleman cookstove.  Here it is:

Steamed Muffins - Makes 6 Muffins

Supplies:

Cookstove and fuel

2 Qt. saucepan (or bigger)

Water - enough to fill at least an inch in the bottom of the pan

Aluminum foil muffin pan

Paper or foil muffin cup liners

Hot pads

Mixing Bowl

Wooden Spoon

Steaming rack, rocks, or other utensils to keep the muffin tin from sitting on the bottom of the pan

                         (I have brand new non-stick cookware that I didn't want to ruin the finish, so I simply                            

                         propped a wooden spoon up on the side of the pan and bent the muffin tin to sit on it.  

Ingredients:

1 pkg. "Just Add Water" Muffin Mix 

                  (it could also be a "just add milk" mix...just pack some powdered  milk!

Water

Our cooking set up.  

Instructions:  

In the mixing bowl, stir together the muffin mix and water.  Don't over mix...just about 30 strokes or until all the dry ingredients are mixed in.  Place paper liners in the muffin pan (I had to cut the pan to get it to fit in the cooking pot), and fill 2/3 of the way full with the muffin batter.  Set up the pot, inch or so of water, and steaming rack (etc.) in the pot.  Place the muffin pan inside, making sure the pan does not touch the bottom of the pot, but that it is also basically level.  Then, place a lid on the pot, heat the water to a rolling boil, and let it steam for about 12 to 15 minutes.  WARNING:  Be very careful to check the water level in the pot...don't let it run out or you'll scorch your pan!  The muffins will rise and form peaks, just like they would in the oven.  However, they won't turn golden brown.  Instead they will be the same color as the batter was.  Give them a couple of minutes longer when you first think they might be done...it is likely they might still be gooey in the middle.  Once you take the pan out, let them cool a bit (don't forget to turn off the stove!) then enjoy!

The finished muffin!  

Nathan kayaking in the bayou.

Mixer Make-Over!

Okay, so some of you may think this kinda silly, but my little creative genes got a bit of a workout recently.  While moving our stuff into our new place on the south end of the KC Metro area, I was thinking about how to best cram all of my wonderful kitchen equipment into my very limited cabinet space.  I soon made the discovery that there was no place for my mixer to go, and that most likely it would have to be stored on the counter top.  This isn't that big of a deal...my mom has kept hers stashed in the corner of the counter for years...that way it is handy to use.  The predicament I had was that my mixer seemed to me a little bit of an eyesore.  It is probably a late 70's model Sunbeam mixer, in kind of a dirty-yellowish and brown color, with a big, caramel brown spot where a piece of masking tape has been stuck to it for many years.  It was gifted to me by mom when I moved out for my first big-kid job, and works just fine...just looks a little aged (not bad though, because Sunbeam hasn't changed their design that much).  Maybe it's just trendily "retro".  The long and short of it is that if this mixer was going to be sitting on the counter in plain sight of everyone who came into our house (which hopefully will be all of you because I love visitors!) something had to be done.  So...I whipped out my good ol' acrylic paints with some elbow grease and gave the miserly mixer a makeover to make it match my other kitchen decor...sunflowers!  Take a look at the pictures and let me know what you think!

Before:  Note the brown, gooey masking tape spot.

After!