Traveling Gourmet: Lakeside Dining

Most of the day was spent in the kitchen yesterday. Now, almost all the food for our camping trip is prepared, and there will be very little cooking while we're at the lake. My day started making Blue Cherry Hand Pies from the Blue Cherry Pie Filling I made last week. Of course, I opened one jar right away to taste it, and it went straight into the refrigerator. Making a guilty pleasure dessert for our trip seemed a good way to use it.

I used this recipe from King Arthur Flour, which I've made before. Previously, I made the filling as the recipe suggests. This time, I simply substituted a heaping tablespoon of the Blue Cherry Pie Filling. And, honestly, I can't wait to eat one of these.

Next up, I made dinner for tonight, which is this Salmon Baked in Foil recipe from Giada DeLaurentiis. They had some pretty wild-caught King Salmon fillets at the grocery store, and so this seemed like a good choice. It's so simple. You make a sort of Italian "salsa" from tomatoes, onions, and Italian seasonings. Then, you wrap the whole thing up in foil to be baked in the oven.

I like to use the long heavy-duty foil for this. It makes tidy little pouches that are easy to make ahead and pack along. They went into the refrigerator just like this, and we'll bake them for dinner tonight. (It's always nice not to have to cook on the first night out.)

On the second night, we're going to have another of Giada's recipes...her Seared Rib-Eye Steak with Arugula and Roasted Red Pepper Salad. We're not big fans of arugula, and so I substitute spinach in place of the arugula. Also, we prefer hunks of tri-tip to the rib-eye. Tri-tip is a tougher cut, but I marinate it a day ahead in Better-than-A-1 Marinade from America's Test Kitchens. In my first year of blogging, I posted my adaptation of their recipe right here. It's so, so good. We don't eat any kind of steak any more without first using this marinade. For this trip, I made up the marinade and stored it in a jar. I'll pour it into a zip-lock bag with the meat tomorrow morning.

For the third night, we'll just barbecue up some boneless, skinless chicken thighs using the Sweet Cherry Barbecue Sauce I canned recently.

As a side dish, I'll be making some Grilled Green Beans. This is a new-to-me way to cook fresh green beans since we started the Cooking Light Diet. I don't grill them. Instead, I just fry them in a lidded hot frying pan. Otherwise, I do them just as the recipe suggests. They are so tasty that way.  I've also tried it with other vegetables. Broccoli and asparagus are good prepared this way, and I'm guessing just about any vegetable that would be good roasted could probably be done this way as well.

Finally, I made up the mix for yet another of Giada's recipes. (It's not that I'm such a huge Giada fan, but she does create some good recipes that lend themselves well to travel.) This is the sandwich mix for her Curried Chicken and Apple Wraps. It has everything *and* the kitchen sink. It's so tasty, and once it's mixed up, you have lunch for several days.

It has chicken, golden raisins, romaine lettuce, apples, garbanzo beans, goat cheese, curry, onion, mint, and some other stuff, all mixed together. Then you load it into a wrap, and it is delicious. This is one of my favorite sandwiches. We haven't had it in a while since, technically, it isn't on our diet. Still, I don't think we'll be straying too far with any of these meals, unless you count the Blue Cherry Hand Pies. But let's just not, okay? We're on vacation, if it's possible to take a vacation when retired.

So we'll be heading off at around noon today. If all goes well, I'll be able to blog while we're gone, although I might not blog every day. No matter what, I'll be back on Saturday.