Expeditions can take you many places. You can journey to a far off place. You can find yourself trying a new cuisine or preparation. In this case, Margie and I journeyed to Hosmer Lake in Central Oregon to go camping and enjoy the bounty of outdoor opportunity that Oregon provides. Margie is still relatively new to the “camping” thing and we are still sorting out just how much we “rough it” in the great outdoors. I like to keep things simple and pack fairly lightly for overnight camping trips, while Margie still enjoys the comforts of a very nicely padded sleeping surface. We both agree, however, that there is no reason camping food has to suffer at all. We take a lot of pride in our meals while camping. With a little extra forethought and planning anyone can still make some tasty (some might even say fancy) meals with simple camp cookware.
On this particular three day camping trip, we were well equipped with plenty of food and beverage for our expedition into the great outdoors. The car was filled to the brim and we were off to enjoy ourselves and do a little fly fishing, relaxing, and mostly just escaping from the normal day to day life. In past camping trips, we have been known to make such meals as chicken or beef fajitas, or fish tacos, or steak and potatoes. All very good camping meals, by the way, and not all that difficult to prepare and cook outdoors. On this particular trip, we were going to make Pesto Linguine with Sauteed Chicken and Artichokes.
First things first….a little wine.
Nothing but the best while camping 😉
Laugh all you want, but it’s not as bad as you think. Wine Spectator agrees….they gave it a whopping 87 points. More than you would have guessed, huh?
This meal isn’t about making every component ourselves or even using the freshest, hand selected ingredients. It’s more like what one would make at home for a convenient, but enjoyable weeknight meal. We purchased dried pasta, pre-made pesto sauce, canned artichoke hearts, and pre-shredded parmesan cheese. We weren’t quite ready to go all Pilgrim and make all that out there. Perhaps at a later time…
The chicken was one component that we spent more time with. The chicken was cut into smaller pieces to make it cook faster and also to give more surface area for the spices to adhere to. I like spiced up food! After marinating the chicken for awhile, it was time to cook.
Since the meal really is simple, i’m not going to spend time talking through each step. We got a late start that evening on cooking, so you will notice that it started out nice and light, but by the time everything was ready to eat, we had lanterns going and were squinting to see our food!
Uh oh! It's getting kinda dark out.
Yes, that is a camping wine glass!
Almost ready!
It may not be the prettiest meal we have ever made, but on this night in this place, it tasted REALLY GOOD! We’re pretty certain our meal was the best in the campground that night! For us, the extra effort to cook fun and unusual camping food is enjoyable and it makes the trip even more memorable.
Does anyone else have some favorite camping meals that they want to share? We are looking for new meals to try on the next trip…
culinary expeditions 