may 25, 2013 newt!

my friend alex picked up this fellow on the trail. good thing he's wearing gloves, as rough-skinned newts (taricha granulosa) harbor a neurotoxin (tetrododoxin), which is the same bad stuff found in fugu!

may 18, 2013 dinner

we picked up a few cuts of meat from three sisters farm on whidbey island last weekend, and decided to try the tri-tips with mel's insanely delicious moroccan dipping sauce, as well as brussels wrapped in foil in the campfire. the perfect meal!

may 10, 2013 dinner

the first camping trip of the season calls for grilled salmon! we live in a tiny apartment with no room for a grill, so camping brings out a whole new side of food for us. accompanied by brussel sprouts seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper, wrapped in foil, and allowed to ponder life's deeper meaning in the campfire coals for a good half hour or so.

september 15, 2012 fort flagler

camping late in the season is so pleasant. mid-september is still tank top weather (at least for me), and the campground was less than half full. did some geocaching, hit up the port townsend farmer's market, and hiked all over.

sep 1, 2012 sunset

camping with craig, brent and matt at san juan county park on the west side of san juan island. the campground looks out over haro strait, where earlier in the day, the four of us and my dad and darcy went kayaking. just like last year, orcas passed by within an hour after we returned to shore. such an idyllic place..

august 5, 2012 breakfast

breakfast as we tear down camp is a scramble of everything we have left: eggs, ham, mushrooms, zucchini, onions and avocado.

we do a short hike from sunrise, getting a taste of the other side of the mountain..

the view from the ridge is breathtaking, but swarms of mosquitos are mobilizing, so we keep marching.

this clark's nutcracker is keeping pace with us along the trail.

august 4, 2012 dinner

after breakfast, we drove up to paradise. the weather was absolutely perfect, not a cloud anywhere. the beginning trudge uphill up to panorama point is a superhighway of a trail, but the further you hike, the more it thins out. a lot of people turn around about halfway. we pushed on, although part of it went through snow on an incline - kinda sketchy without poles!

you could see for miles. that is mt. st. helens peeking over the horizon in the distance.

the wildflowers were everywhere. here are some magenta paintbrush.

marmots were moseying about. this one seemed to relish the contrast of the sun on his back and the snow under his belly.

naturally, godzilla was our amiable hiking companion. although his boastful posing on the way back held up our party a bit.

following a not very picturesque lunch of leftover sausage, eggplant and zucchini, we decided to tackle the silver falls trail, which leaves directly from the campground. this waterfall, on the ohanapecosh, is definitely worth the hike!

the trail winds through some mossy forest, strewn with massive boulders. part of it passed through old growth forest (the trail links to both the grove of the patriarchs trail and the pacific coast trail).

we'd passed some hot springs upstream of here, but didn't linger, as the day was sweltering enough. returning to the campground, we saw that some folks had the right idea!

i dunked myself in the river a couple of times, but it was freezing! we'd hiked about ten miles that day through temperatures in the 80's, so it felt good to get some of the grime off, though. anyways, on to the campfire pig greens. ridiculously easy. cut a cabbage into eighths, wrap each with a piece of thick bacon, dab butter here and there, and salt and pepper the whole thing. wrap in heavy duty aluminum foil (more than one layer strongly recommended) and place in the campfire coals. Turn occasionally - it'll be done in, oh, 45 minutes, or longer if you want to leave it in the fire..

as the piggie greens sizzled away in the campfire, we grilled up some cod for fish tacos, using this amazing recipe.

eaten open-faced on butter lettuce leaves. (we are foolish, and brought living lettuce camping. it sure takes up a lot of cooler space! next time we will wash and prep the leaves at home.)

the spicy citrus sauce and mango avocado salsa on top made for messy but oh-so-delicious eating.
(note: right now, this photo is upside down. i will fix it later. for now, marvel at the amazing gravity-defying fish taco!)

august 4, 2012

good morning! sleeping to the white noise of the river was so peaceful. that was the best night's sleep i've had in i don't know how long..

make way for grilled portobello breakfast sandwiches! we were excited to try out this idea. these were hearty, and had to be eaten with a fork, not as a handheld sandwich. assembly was simple enough:

first, we grilled up some portobello caps that we'd brushed with garlic olive oil.

topped each with a few slices of thick bacon..

then a fried egg for the next layer..

half an avocado atop the whole shebang, and she's ready to nom nom!

deliciousness. this steller's jay wanted a bite, but no dice.

august 3, 2012 dinner

it's still light out when we arrive, but by the time we get our campsite set up, it's pretty dark. (it's a walk-in site, so we have to carry everything down a steep path to the riverbank, where our campsite is.) we're staying at ohanapecosh, on the southeastern side of mt. rainier. it's in a lovely old growth forest, with the turquoise ohanapecosh river flowing right by our tent. grilled zucchini and japanese eggplant, brushed with garlic oil, as well as mushrooms (not shown) are starters.

two of these sausages are for tonight, and two will be cold munchables for tomorrow. it feels late in this old forest, even though it isn't, so off to tent!

july 14, 2012 dinner

we cooked up some chioggia beets (aka candy-striped beets) in aluminum foil, with a drizzle of oil, some kosher salt, and some quality campfire coal time.

beef tri-tip sirloin, pepper and onion kabobs, in a lime and basil marinade (from mark's daily apple) was also heartily consumed.

nesting boxes for pigeon guillemots on the pier.

july 14, 2012 lunch

on the way to our campsite, we stopped at the port townsend farmer's market. a more idyllic market i can't imagine, with sunny admiralty inlet as a backdrop, the blue crows playing, and colorful produce that would make a crayon cry!

oysters on the grill for lunch with just a squeeze of lemon, plus a salad of greens from the market: beet and mizuna, drizzled with a little olive oil, lemon juice and pepper. perfection.

..and a few rainier cherries to round the whole thing out.

properly satiated, we set off to explore fort worden. it had been thunderstorming earlier, but it ended up being a beautiful day. good for a barefoot walk on the beach out to the point wilson lighthouse.

there are a ton of old abandoned bunkers to explore in the park.

july 8, 2012 breakfast

we paddled in coldwater lake for an hour or so sunday morning. this lake did not exist until the volcano erupted and mudflows dammed the valley. also, the water is not actually that cold.

a no-cook breakfast on the way out of hard boiled eggs, half an avocado, salt, pepper and cholula.

july 7, 2012 dinner

 our project was widening the elk bench trail, which was little more than its namesake when we started, hardly more than a deerpath in places, and pretty overgrown. by the time we finished, our team of 8 had hacked trail to a width of at least two feet for almost half a mile. working in the heat does funny things to your appetite. even though i couldn't seem to drink enough water, i wasn't hungry until around 8pm, and then i was famished!

good thing we had coleslaw on hand! in the background is mt. st. helens, as well as the coldwater visitor center, which is re-opening soon after losing its funding in 2007. the road to it has been closed since then, which is why the trail we were rebuilding had seen little use in recent years.

kabobs! beef sirloin cubes marinated in olive oil, garlic, paprika, lime juice, salt and pepper, along with red and green bells and onion..

we retired early to our camp. there was a particularly scenic meadow designated for volunteers to camp in, and we picked a pretty good spot, i think! that's coldwater lake below, where we'll be kayaking tomorrow.

july 7, 2012 lunch

a quick lunch break of tuna salad, red bell pepper strips and some baba ghanouj. trail building is hard work, but we didn't want to eat too heavy and then go back out in the sun. i am staying hydrated and taking lots of breaks. :)

july 7, 2012 breakfast

to call this breakfast is a bit of an overstatement. we ate this while rushing off to our volunteer post at mt. st. helens, after driving three hours from seattle and setting up camp. a nice parking lot backdrop for our breakfast of leftover egg cup and a smoothie of strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, coconut milk, egg white protein and chia seeds. we were ready to take on some trail maintenance!

july 1, 2012 breakfast

crabbing season opens today, and as we were packing up, the campground was filling up with people rolling in with boats and crab pots, or just settling down for the fourth of july fireworks show in a few days. i whipped up a quick scramble of eggs, bacon, broccoli, mushrooms, orange bell pepper, onion, garlic and scallions. farewell to our favorite campsite here at sequim bay, 81. it is small, and doesn't have the most privacy, but the views out to sequim bay and north to dungeness bay and dungeness spit, with its lighthouse, and cargo ships passing through the strait of juan de fuca beyond that.. well, it is always too soon to leave.

june 30, 2012 dinner

it stopped raining late saturday afternoon, and turned into a beautiful evening. here is the scene just below our campsite.

our thoughts and stomachs turned away from the beautiful last day of june sunset, and we set about making dinner, cod cooked with a lime-cilantro-parsley-garlic butter. divine!

we also made campfire pig greens, although given that we had purple cabbage, they turned out campfire pig purples. these were amazing. we cut a half head of purple cabbage into eighths, wrapped each with a slice of bacon, dotted it with butter, salt and pepper, wrapped it up in three sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil, and set in in the campfire coals to cook for about an hour, turning occasionally. the result was cabbage tasting like "i didn't think cabbage could taste", according to matt. definitely give this a try if you're camping and have these ingredients!
(you can also do this in the oven - see link above.)

bacon-y, cabbage-y goodness!

june 30, 2012 breakfast

after a refreshing night's sleep (sleeping to the sound of rain is so relaxing), we rose and cooked breakfast. i didn't have a plan, but we'd packed just about every vegetable in our fridge (hence my friday meal challenge!), so i made an omelet filling of bacon, onions, yellow bell pepper, zucchini, and mushrooms, and somehow managed to cram it into a three-egg omelet cooked in grass-fed butter. oh yeah, and i mashed up some avocado and spread some of that inside as well. i sprinkled plenty of green onions on top.. and then realized i'd forgotten to add the garlic i'd minced. oh well, i'm sure we'll use it tonight!