- Joined
- Jan 19, 2006
- Messages
- 3,589
Chapter One: Trip = Food Porn
I love to cook.
It doesn't matter if I eat what I make or not. I simply love to cook.
Let me have every holiday at our home please. Let me get up 2 days early to get ready for a grad party and then never go back to sleep.
I am happiest in the kitchen.
I come from a long line of cooks/chefs on my Dad's side.
My Great Grandfather owned a bakery.
My Grandfather made every meal and cooked every cookie in my grandparents home minus when he was gone in WWII and when he worked late. I literally never saw my grandmother in the kitchen unless she was making her famous dip. She did not even refill her coffee. The night my Grandma died, me and my cousins stayed up till 4 a.m. making cookies with my grandfather, listening to stories about the love of his life.
My Father, wrote and published several "Wild Game" cookbooks and again, unless he was out of town, never saw my Mother in the kitchen. He was a big hunter and took groups on hunting trips including Roy Rogers and Hulk Hogan. It was not unusual to have 20 men gathered around our kitchen table at 3 a.m. for caramel rolls, omelets and waffles with as much bacon as you desired, before heading out to the deer stand or duck blind.
So I was raised around cooks and love of food but more importantly the measure of love that food shows to people when you take the time to prepare a meal for others.
Some people look at my weight (hello, not skinny here) and think it is associated with home cooking.
The truth is, when I eat the most, I am not cooking.
The satisfaction I get in preparing big meals and food for others curbs that piece of me who will eat when not hungry. I have said it a million times...let me own a restaurant (Breakfast/lunch only) or B&B and write on the side and you will find a fit and happy woman.
So please when looking at this food, know the hours I spent I would not have wanted elsewhere.
I could have just done FF on the drive or store bought everything but then it would not have been a family vacation. It would not have been what my kids have grown to expect from me or me from myself!
Having the big green bugger meant more room so we would not have to be so crammed and that meant more cooler room.
I am an over compensator for sure.
Thank goodness I am not male!
Not having Treyner to cook for during this past year and hearing him complain about cr@ppy food in Colorado and now at Anderson, makes a mama feel bad.
So I cooked.
I baked.
I bought.
I made enough food for 3 weeks of vacation for 2 tribes in Uganda.
I started about 4 days before we left gathering ingredients. Spent all day before we left in the kitchen! I even put many items in the freezer so nobody snacked on the goodies and it was gone before we left.
I had bought a huge plastic bin for chips etc, so things would not get smashed in the bugger. Began filling it about 1 week before we packed anything else! Best idea I had was that bin! I would not be happy if my perishables were perished before they would or could be enjoyed!
Here are some shots of the spread. Please make sure to wipe the drool of the keyboard when finished and do not blame me if your scale is up tomorrow because you licked the dust off your computer screen.
First up 32 cups of potato salad. I had never made potato salad before. Of everything I cook, never had the need to. My ex MIL, makes the best potato salad on the planet and even to Treyner's grad party, I asked her to bring hers. So Carsyn snagged the recipe from her and I made it.
I also learned a few things about what to do different next time including, cut the potatoes into smaller chunks after cooking!
Next was my famous chicken salad! This time made with turkey which I got up at 2 a.m. the night before we left to cook so it could be fresh and juicy!!!
About 38 cups worth!
Here is the huge bin I bought and ideas of what was inside including, pudding, Wheat Thins and Baylor's favorite store bought cookies!
Inside the bin was several bags of chips and peanut butter pretzels, nuts and an assortment of goodies to snack on!
Bring out the big guns for baking Nutteroos!
Before the peanut butter creme is added!
After!
These I will make smaller next time! The kids think jumbo cookies are fun once in a while. They looved them!
The first layer for home made Reece's Peanut Butter Bars!
Reece s Peanut Butter Bars after frosting them!
I also made elephant ears - (popcorn added to butter and melted marshmallows like rice krispie bars but then you add gelatin powder. (I used Strawberry.) The ones I made tasted like those strawberry wafer cookies you can buy that also come in chocolate and vanilla.
In the cooler went the salads and also lunch meat and cheeses.
After the big cooking day, my kitchen was totaled!
I did dishes for 2 hours and then started to pack clothes. You can see the turkey roasting pan by the sink!
I am not a big person in preparing clothes 2 weeks in advance. I usually pack pretty light, esp. if on a plane.
Dan and I shared a suitcase and the kids each had a duffel bag.
We also had a huge soft sided car topper that had boogie boards and snorkeling gear. Never did put it on the roof though! Had plenty of room inside and was glad for that after the gas mileage was reviewed!!!
To make the ride better than before, Dan had conspired with Baylor to Tech Savvy the booger.
So new to the van was a 19" flat screen LCD/DVD TV and....
an x-box!
Which came only the day before we left. Baylor had been in a panic it would not get here in time! Dan spent hours installing both of the gadgets and it looked like all was operational!
We had plans to leave around 3 p.m. on Wed., March 10th. Got the kids out of school around Noon in order to finish packing and help run last minute errands. Poor Carsyn had been up literally 24 hours plus. She had a huge project in Social Studies that a group of girls was supposed to help with. They choose to bail and Carsyn being the good student, stayed up all night on her own working on it. Her first all night cram before college even starts!
See she even looks delirious! (The lava lamp in the background was part of her project in case you think that is my idea of lighting! She had the 70's in a decades project!)
After she got home, I called down to her and when she did not answer, I went downstairs to find her passed out on her floor in her duffel bag! Poor kid was just ready to sleep the drive away.
Baylor was wearing his new glasses and ready to roll! He had been begging for an x-box and saving his money for almost a year so this was just as much of the trip as Florida was to him!
Gas was filled in the van, everything got loaded and we were ready to leave in pretty good time for our family!
Dan's Game Face!
Baylor ready to get the show on the road!
That huddled mess in the back was Carsyn - already out!
On our way out of town I stopped and dropped off a Silpada order and bought Treyner's Tabs for his Jeep that were expired in March and then...we were .......
Heading South!
We wanted our first Food Destination to be Garret's Popcorn in Chicago! We had a tight time line to get there in!!
I love to cook.
It doesn't matter if I eat what I make or not. I simply love to cook.
Let me have every holiday at our home please. Let me get up 2 days early to get ready for a grad party and then never go back to sleep.
I am happiest in the kitchen.
I come from a long line of cooks/chefs on my Dad's side.
My Great Grandfather owned a bakery.
My Grandfather made every meal and cooked every cookie in my grandparents home minus when he was gone in WWII and when he worked late. I literally never saw my grandmother in the kitchen unless she was making her famous dip. She did not even refill her coffee. The night my Grandma died, me and my cousins stayed up till 4 a.m. making cookies with my grandfather, listening to stories about the love of his life.
My Father, wrote and published several "Wild Game" cookbooks and again, unless he was out of town, never saw my Mother in the kitchen. He was a big hunter and took groups on hunting trips including Roy Rogers and Hulk Hogan. It was not unusual to have 20 men gathered around our kitchen table at 3 a.m. for caramel rolls, omelets and waffles with as much bacon as you desired, before heading out to the deer stand or duck blind.
So I was raised around cooks and love of food but more importantly the measure of love that food shows to people when you take the time to prepare a meal for others.
Some people look at my weight (hello, not skinny here) and think it is associated with home cooking.
The truth is, when I eat the most, I am not cooking.
The satisfaction I get in preparing big meals and food for others curbs that piece of me who will eat when not hungry. I have said it a million times...let me own a restaurant (Breakfast/lunch only) or B&B and write on the side and you will find a fit and happy woman.
So please when looking at this food, know the hours I spent I would not have wanted elsewhere.
I could have just done FF on the drive or store bought everything but then it would not have been a family vacation. It would not have been what my kids have grown to expect from me or me from myself!
Having the big green bugger meant more room so we would not have to be so crammed and that meant more cooler room.
I am an over compensator for sure.
Thank goodness I am not male!
Not having Treyner to cook for during this past year and hearing him complain about cr@ppy food in Colorado and now at Anderson, makes a mama feel bad.
So I cooked.
I baked.
I bought.
I made enough food for 3 weeks of vacation for 2 tribes in Uganda.
I started about 4 days before we left gathering ingredients. Spent all day before we left in the kitchen! I even put many items in the freezer so nobody snacked on the goodies and it was gone before we left.
I had bought a huge plastic bin for chips etc, so things would not get smashed in the bugger. Began filling it about 1 week before we packed anything else! Best idea I had was that bin! I would not be happy if my perishables were perished before they would or could be enjoyed!
Here are some shots of the spread. Please make sure to wipe the drool of the keyboard when finished and do not blame me if your scale is up tomorrow because you licked the dust off your computer screen.
First up 32 cups of potato salad. I had never made potato salad before. Of everything I cook, never had the need to. My ex MIL, makes the best potato salad on the planet and even to Treyner's grad party, I asked her to bring hers. So Carsyn snagged the recipe from her and I made it.
I also learned a few things about what to do different next time including, cut the potatoes into smaller chunks after cooking!
Next was my famous chicken salad! This time made with turkey which I got up at 2 a.m. the night before we left to cook so it could be fresh and juicy!!!
About 38 cups worth!
Here is the huge bin I bought and ideas of what was inside including, pudding, Wheat Thins and Baylor's favorite store bought cookies!
Inside the bin was several bags of chips and peanut butter pretzels, nuts and an assortment of goodies to snack on!
Bring out the big guns for baking Nutteroos!
Before the peanut butter creme is added!
After!
These I will make smaller next time! The kids think jumbo cookies are fun once in a while. They looved them!
The first layer for home made Reece's Peanut Butter Bars!
Reece s Peanut Butter Bars after frosting them!
I also made elephant ears - (popcorn added to butter and melted marshmallows like rice krispie bars but then you add gelatin powder. (I used Strawberry.) The ones I made tasted like those strawberry wafer cookies you can buy that also come in chocolate and vanilla.
In the cooler went the salads and also lunch meat and cheeses.
After the big cooking day, my kitchen was totaled!
I did dishes for 2 hours and then started to pack clothes. You can see the turkey roasting pan by the sink!
I am not a big person in preparing clothes 2 weeks in advance. I usually pack pretty light, esp. if on a plane.
Dan and I shared a suitcase and the kids each had a duffel bag.
We also had a huge soft sided car topper that had boogie boards and snorkeling gear. Never did put it on the roof though! Had plenty of room inside and was glad for that after the gas mileage was reviewed!!!
To make the ride better than before, Dan had conspired with Baylor to Tech Savvy the booger.
So new to the van was a 19" flat screen LCD/DVD TV and....
an x-box!
Which came only the day before we left. Baylor had been in a panic it would not get here in time! Dan spent hours installing both of the gadgets and it looked like all was operational!
We had plans to leave around 3 p.m. on Wed., March 10th. Got the kids out of school around Noon in order to finish packing and help run last minute errands. Poor Carsyn had been up literally 24 hours plus. She had a huge project in Social Studies that a group of girls was supposed to help with. They choose to bail and Carsyn being the good student, stayed up all night on her own working on it. Her first all night cram before college even starts!
See she even looks delirious! (The lava lamp in the background was part of her project in case you think that is my idea of lighting! She had the 70's in a decades project!)
After she got home, I called down to her and when she did not answer, I went downstairs to find her passed out on her floor in her duffel bag! Poor kid was just ready to sleep the drive away.
Baylor was wearing his new glasses and ready to roll! He had been begging for an x-box and saving his money for almost a year so this was just as much of the trip as Florida was to him!
Gas was filled in the van, everything got loaded and we were ready to leave in pretty good time for our family!
Dan's Game Face!
Baylor ready to get the show on the road!
That huddled mess in the back was Carsyn - already out!
On our way out of town I stopped and dropped off a Silpada order and bought Treyner's Tabs for his Jeep that were expired in March and then...we were .......
Heading South!
We wanted our first Food Destination to be Garret's Popcorn in Chicago! We had a tight time line to get there in!!
) I will open a bakery in my hometown. All we have is a grocery store craptastic bakery, and a real bakery is desperately needed! I would love the recipe for your peanut butter cream cookies, or the reeces peanut butter bars, if you are willing to share of course!
Just sayin'.
Sweet story but man I miss her van!
lmao
and i'm totally spoiled since i've been able to read three of your TR's back to back - glad this one is a long one!!
). And i NEVER SCORED A TRY!!! i got close, once, hahaha. i played hook (the middle person in the front row of the scrum) but i've filled in all over the pitch (field). Carsyn (since you're reading this), what do you play?? do you LOVE it or do you LOVE it?! get ready for black eyes, funky bruises, and weeks of not being able to walk right...
(and, since you're not in college and nowhere near 21, you *shouldn't* get this, but...
Using that bin was an awesome idea too. Glad to hear everyone at your son's school was safe and unharmed. What a horrible experience!
Joining in for another great TR!
