Fancy Camp Food #4- Quinoa and more!

Camping was the cool thing to do this summer.  At least for us it was!  (And by cool, I am cleverly also making reference to the nights when I thought my feet would actually freeze off.)  We haven't spent this much time in the great outdoors for a few years.  And it was awesome.  Great times, great friends, great wine, and even great food.  Sometimes...I'll admit I took a couple "easy way out" opportunities.  Don't judge.  This trip WAS pretty great food, I'll even call it total a success.  I had items planned well, which certainly helps make camp food easy.

The first thing I did to prepare, was to cook up a large batch of quinoa.  It would serve as a base for many of the meals this trip.

I also pre sliced one each- red, yellow, and orange bell peppers.  This made for easy packing, easy snacking, and less prep time at camp

I finished my prep work and "shortcut" choices with edemame in a bag, heirloom bite sized tomatoes, tiny little mozzarella balls packed in water, a mix of oil and balsamic, and my favorite spinach arugula mix!  Packed it all up, and headed out after work.

When we arrived it was just starting to get a little dark.  We had enough time to quickly unload the truck and create this little appetizer to share with our friends.  How cute are these Camping Caprese Bites???  

And they couldn't be easier.  We made both tomato and peach caprese bites.  And the most work was cutting up the peaches!  Everything else was simple assembly.  Grab a toothpick, add two mozzarella balls, followed with a torn leaf of basil, and finally a tomato or a peach bite,  Drizzle with the oil/balsmic mixture, and voila!  Perfect to pass around camp while everyone was preparing the meals.  And easy enough for the kids to snack on as well.

By this time, it was starting to get dark.  Josh grilled up a steak, and I quickly made us some salads to finish the meal.  Throw all of the following into a bowl and toss with some oil & balsamic.  Done!

Ingredients

1. 1/3 cup cooked quinoa
2. Handful of spinach/arugula mix
3. 1/2 chopped peach
4. A sprinkle of dried cranberries
5. Top with small mozzarella balls (would also be great with shaved parm!  Maybe even better...)

Stay tuned for the next fancy camp post with easy lunch items, and the most important- dessert!

Peach Pizza! Yes, I said Peach Pizza!

Have I mentioned before that we have fruit trees in our yard?  And that they somehow have survived 8 years of my neglect...  Well one of those trees is a dwarf peach, although I'm unsure of the actual variety.  It has beautiful red "marbled" flesh instead of the standard bright yellow, and tend to be very sweet.  I harvested the last two for the season yesterday and wanted to celebrate my "harvest" in style.

I considered doing another crisp like I did a few weeks back.  (Recipe here!)  But decided to embrace the fresh fruit and instead just cut them up, sprinkled some raw sugar, and chilled them for a refreshing, after dinner dessert!  How pretty does that look?

But I still needed to make dinner!  And figured I'd just stay in a Peachy mood with a summertime Peach Pizza.  We had mozzarella, basil, and baby heirloom tomatoes left over from our Caprese Pasta a few nights back, and it was like everything was just falling into place for a refreshing summer pizza.  A quick call to the hubby to pick up some more peaches, prosciutto, and pizza dough, and we were set.  If you have never made pizza before, don't freak out.  It seriously couldn't be more simple.  Your local grocery store or italian deli should have fresh dough in their fridge section, ready for the oven!

Ingredients

• Your favorite, fresh Pizza dough
• 1 large peach- sliced
• handful of heirloom tomatoes- sliced
• fresh mozzarella (we used the baby bite sized, but slices of larger balls would work well too!)
• fresh basil
• Prosciutto
• Olive Oil
• 1 cup Balsamic Vinegar
• Shaved parmesan for garnish
• Spinach & Arugula mix as a bed (skip if you want to JUST eat pizza.)

Directions

1. Begin by reducing your balsamic.  This is done by heating over a medium flame until it just begins to bubble, and then reducing to a simmer to allow the liquid to burn off and the vinegar to become thick.  This takes about 30 minutes.  Just watch it and stir occasionally as you do all the steps below.  (*I used a cup to reduce to about 1/3 cup, but really it was too much.  Even with Josh using some as a dippy dip for the pizza later, I poured some out during clean up.  The problem is, that using less means you risk burning it during the reduction process...so use less at your own risk!)
2. Preheat oven to 500 degrees (yes I know that's hot!  But you are creating a "pizza oven.")
3. Let your pizza grill or stone pre-heat in your oven.
4. Slice your peaches, tomatoes, prosciutto, and mozzerella (if you have a bigger ball of mozz.)  Set aside.
5. On a floured surface, massage your dough outwards with your fingers, starting from the middle and moving around the dough in a circle.  You want the edges to end up a bit thicker than the middle to ensure it cooks more evenly.  I went with a thicker crust and the dough was about 1/2 inch thick.
6. Carefully remove your HOT grill from the oven, add a thin layer of olive oil with a brush (pouring it will just slide right off in a big puddle, trust me) and transfer your pizza dough to the surface.  I find that folding your dough in half (taco style) and then once more in half, will allow you to quickly move it to the grill, and then unfold it without stretching it out, losing the shape, poking holes, or burning yourself on the grill.
7. Lightly grease the dough, add your mozzarella, and place in the oven.
8. Bake for about 5 minutes until you see the cheese melting.
9. If large bubbles appear in your dough, it's best to poke/pop them real quick to keep the surface fairly flat.
10. Add the peaches, tomatoes, and prosciutto.
11. Bake for another 5 minutes or until the dough is golden. (You should a have total bake time according to the directions on your dough)
12. Cut the basil (I demo how to make it fancy and chiffonade it on the Caprese Pasta Post here.)
13. Remove your pizza from the oven.
14. Top with your fancy basil.
15. Sprinkle your balsamic over top with a spoon.  (Don't drop spoon fulls, but dip your spoon in the balsamic and let the liquid simply drizzle off.
16. Sprinkle some fresh shaved parmesan. 
17. Create a bed of arugula & spinach on a plate, drizzle with balsamic, and top with a wonderful slice of pizza!  

Super Easy Peach & Blueberry Crisp

One of the things that sold us on our current home was the awesome variety of fruit trees in the backyard.  I was sooooo in love with them all those years ago.  Instantly I knew this would be the house we would buy.  I had grand plans of all the very "domestic" and "foody" things I would do!

Sadly, I'm not good at taking care of plants. Fruit trees included.  They are basically on their own for survival. I'm pretty sure the irrigation doesn't even work for them anymore.  Surprisingly they still manage to produce fruit each year.  Well, most of them.  The cherry tree fell victim to a neighbor tree which failed its acrobatic leap over our fence and landed on top of Cherry.  She suffered pretty catastrophic injuries.  But, let me be clear that her demise had nothing whatsoever to do with my neglect.  I can neither foresee nor prevent random weather related accidents!

Over the weekend, Josh randomly came back in from taking out the trash, with handfuls of peaches and nectarines!  I thought I spied some peaches over the fence last week as I was pulling out of the driveway.  I guess it was NOT a hopeful illusion on my part but a happy reality!  Yay!  Lets make some peach cobbler for dessert tonight. 

But I'm not a great baker.  As I've probably mentioned.  And cobbler is like pie.  With crust.  Which I've never tried to make and had no inkling to do so then.  I decided to make a peach CRISP instead.  It's totally more up my alley.  It's a fool proof type of dessert.  (I'm no fool!!!). I've made this before, using my backyard peaches.  And I had blueberries which would make this even more fancy.  Having misplaced my old crisp recipe, I turned to the handy Internet and within moments had many recipes to choose from. Since I'm such an expert baker, I chose to follow the VERY complicated option here, from the Healthy Easy Recipe blog, which advertised "Two Steps."  Yes, that is sarcasm.  And yep, that recipe is a perfect match for me and my baking skills.  While I admit it's two MAIN steps with a few sub-steps needed, it's still super easy.

Ingredients

• Fresh Fruit- about 4 cups, but use more if you'd like and your baking dish can accommodate!
• 2 cups Oats
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (one cube) melted butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon (I'm a bit heavy handed and use more)
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg (again, heavy handed!)
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I find walnuts are bitter, which might be a good flavor...if you like that...I use pecans)

Directions

1. Slice your fruit into bite sized pieces and add right into your dish.  Use a large baking dish or individual ramekins.
1. I didn't bother to remove the peach skins.  Most recipes tell you to, I don't think it's a big deal to leave them on and frankly can't bother with that step!
2. I chose to make these in two ramekins.  His & Hers servings.  In theory.  However, these were like 6 inch diameter size.  And we shared one with a bit left over.  This recipe is pretty much a four serving size.  With large servings!
2. Add all of your dry ingredients into a bowl and mix up
3. Pour the melted butter on top and stir until there is no dry left in the mixture
4. Spoon the oat mix on top of your fruit
5. Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes (golden top and bubbly juices!)
6. Serve with vanilla bean ice cream for best results.  At least we think so.

Peaches & Blueberries right into the baking dishes

Throw all dry ingredients together, and mix well

Pour the melted butter over your oat mix

Stir until no dry is left

Top your fruit, and toss in the oven.

Voila!  Yummy, warm fruit crisp with vanilla bean ice cream.

If you blog it, they will eat! Peach Arugula Salad

This is the salad that inspired me to create this blog!  

(Well, and you girls who comment on my instagram pictures and make me feel like I am a good cook!)

So onto the salad.  THE salad as it will now be known.  I'm in love.  And if I had one, would probably trade my first born for it.  Good thing I have no children.  It's so easy.  Seriously.  And it's delicious.    If I can make it, so can you.  Toddlers, crying babies, and make shift tools...totally doable.

Peaches are currently filling up the produce dept at the Nugget (our awesome grocery store) and smell so good as you walk by.  Since it is already super hot in El Dorado Hills, I wanted to make a nice cool salad with some of the gorgeous peaches.  Our current favorite salads always include arugula.  So off to Pinterest to search "Peach and Arugula."  And voila, I find this.  Serves 4

Ingredients

• 5 peaches (NOT white cause they fall apart too easily)
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 Tbsp honey or Agave nectar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp lime zest (I skipped cause I don't have a zester)
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice (I used way less- juiced one half a lime)
• 3/4 tsp ground cumin (Used half the 2nd time we made it.  Hubby found it overwhelming, I had liked it.)
• 3/4 tsp chili powder
• 1 1/2 tsp tequila (Skipped cause it was more trouble than it was worth.  Save your tequila for Margaritas later...)
• 1/3 cup olive oil (or the amount you want to create a consistency to your liking.  I used less.)
• Cooking spray or oil for your grill
• Baby arugula, thoroughly washed (I buy organic, ready to eat, washed 3x's, plastic box.)
• 1 lb fresh mozzarella
• Optional- Prosciutto for you meat lovers

Directions

1. Chop one peach.  Cut around the pit into small cubes for the food processor later.
2. Combine the cut peach, onions, cilantro, honey/agave, salt, lime juice & zest, cumin, chili powder, & tequila in a food processor for 10-15 seconds.  Add in olive oil gradually and blend to create the consistency you want.  (I did not use a full 1/3 cup.  Probably less than 1/4 cup.)  If you make this ahead of time, just throw it in the fridge.  The flavors will set up overnight and be great by the next day.
3. Slice the remaining 4 peaches into nice even slices for the grill.  Cut inward from the sides until you reach the pit.  Cut one side, then the opposite, then the two "ends" that this creates.  You'll have pretty round slices as well as strips from the short sides.
4. Brush both sides of the peach slices with a little of your dressing.  Set aside.
5. Slice the fresh mozzarella rather thinly.  The "real" recipe says 1/4 of an inche but I don't even know what that looks like without a ruler.  Just slice them as thick as you want.
6. Coat your grate or grill with cooking spray or oil (I used olive oil) and place on stove or grill.  Heat on medium to high heat.
7. Grill the sliced peaches about 3 minutes per side, allowing grill marks but not burning.  *Note- peaches have lots of sugar and it might get a little sticky and messy on your grill.  Don't fret, just flip the best you can.
8. Arrange the arugula on your plate or bowl, drizzle with some dressing, and add slices of peaches and mozzarella.  Top with more dressing and dig in.  
1. If you need to be fancy, then stack slices of peaches and mozzarella alternatively.  But since you won't EAT it like that, just put them on top of the greens!
9. For you meat eaters- cut up some prosciutto slices and sprinkle on your finished salad.

1.   

This should take less than 30 minutes total.  And if you wanted to prep the dressing the night before (while the kiddos are in bed) you could whip this dinner up in 15 minutes.  Simply cut the peaches, grill them, and plate.  Enjoy with a glass of wine, maybe some rustic bread, and it's a prefect dinner for a hot day.

Voila!  You have food :)