[Sca-cooks] How was Pennsic?

Kingstaste kingstaste at comcast.net
Wed Aug 12 09:24:51 PDT 2009


Phlip, it was wonderful to meet your mother.  I am always fascinated to meet
the parents of friends, it is so interesting to see family traits and how
they are passed down!  I am very sorry I didn't make it over on Wednesday,
but this seemed to be my war to stay in my tent and sleep.  I was not
feeling well for more of the war than not, but between sleeping and having
body workers on every corner (acupuncture, 2 sessions of massage therapy,
and one myofacial release session) I was feeling much better! 

Our food ventures were interesting though, we decided that since the 2nd
week sees most of our camp mates going various directions and rarely are we
all in camp for dinner, we should work on a food plan that featured portable
lunch foods.  We bought Bento boxes for everyone, made insulated bags to
carry them and something else like a bottle of water in, and lock-tight
containers with silicone seals and flip-down clicking 'locks' on each side
to keep the prepped foods in.  Those are the BOMB!  I will never try to work
with foods in coolers without them again!  Ziplocs are NOT the way to keep
your food safe and dry in a cooler full of ice, but these bad boys never let
in the first bit of moisture. The food stayed colder (floating in the water
was just fine,) cleaner, the water didn't get contaminated, it was grand.
We had Lock-N-Locks and some other off-brands, including a nesting set of 3
I got at World Market for a little over 5 bucks.  Well worth the investment!

Here is what I ended up making for my campmates: 
Monday
Mediterranean 
	Lamb meat balls
	Olives
	Hais
	Marinated Cucumber Salad
	Greek Potato Salad with olive oil, lemon and oregano
	Grapes

Tuesday
Oriental
	Sushi (tiny little rolls made from an off-the-shelf package I found
at 	the Giant Eagle.  Consisted of a bowl of rice for microwave or boil-
in-pot, 10 small nori strips and a packet of soy sauce.  I filled them 	with
carrot and shiitake mushrooms)
	Chicken and Beef Yakitori (grilled on a skewer, served cold)
	Blanched Green Beans with Tamari and Garlic
	5 Spice Peaches (white peaches slices drizzled with just a hint of
agave nectar, a splash of orange juice and 5 Spice powder)

Wednesday
Vegetarian (finish off meats from earlier in the week, including a "Hash
Salad" I made with leftover dry-rubbed beef ribs, potatoes, onions and
mushrooms)
	Grilled Vegetable Salad - scallions, zucchini, yellow squash,
Vidalia 	onion, banana pepper, kohlrabi, corn, grape tomatoes
	Fresh Corn on the Cob, cut into 2 inch segments and finished on the
grill
	Olive Bar Selection
	Watermelon
	
Thursday
New World
	Salsa Fresca with Corn Chips
	Turkey burgers with cilantro
	Fried Corn Mush (sautéed in butter until crispy, these were better
cold than I thought they'd be.  Got my only real war wound that way
though - the butter splashed up on my forearms and I've got splatter 	burn
marks) 
	Assorted cold vegetable salads

Friday
Sausage Fest
	Corn on the Cob (not as good this year, the PA corn crop has not
fared 	well with the weather I gather) 
	Giant Eagle's fresh Italian meatballs, chicken sausage with roasted
garlic, chicken sausage with feta and spinach
	Olive Bar Selection
	Quinoa Salad with Roasted Vegetables
	Mustardy Potato Salad
	Cantaloupe and Watermelon chunks


There were other foods available through the days too, the olives were in
play the whole time.  The hais was popular throughout the week as well, and
got packed in several lunches.   The portability and readiness of the foods
were a big hit with everyone in camp, oh, and I forgot to mention that half
of the camp eats gluten-free, and the other half is Kosher.  :)

I only ate one meal out of camp, and the rest of the time didn't eat much
but fruit and nibbles of my cooking process.  We ended up with virtually no
food that got forgotten and had to be thrown out, and very little in the way
of leftovers overall.  We'll definitely be doing this again.  

Christianna





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