Bon Appetite!

What's on the Menu?

For anyone who’s been camping before, you know that a large concern is of course what to cook. Well, with the next 4 to 5 months camping in the wilderness, we were in the same boat. Before coming up here, Jillian and I planned a few meals to prepare together, as we didn’t know what really to expect. Due to her diet and the very few things she could eat, we invested in a small freezer, knowing that it would either be cold enough up here, or we could run the generator every few days or so to keep things frozen.

What a blessing that has turned out to be! Best.Purchase.Ever. Plus, freezers seem to be a precious commodity out here (it’s cold enough at night that for the most part people just place their milk or whatever outside to keep cool). We’ve now become the neighborhood freezer. We are currently housing the neighbors’ sheep meat they just brought back after a fruitful hunting trip. As a thank you, on Sunday we enjoyed some of that sheep as a roast. Don’t knock it until you try it.

So with that freezer comes the possibility for frozen meats, veggies and of course all of the fish Chase can catch. Right now we will not starve as there is an endless array of Grayling, Dolly Bardon, Pike, and Salmon tucked safely away. We enjoy eating the fish quite a bit, but I’m still worried we won’t go through it all before we return home.

After the first initial few weeks here, the boys set up our much-needed cook tent. We were blessed with floors, a wonderful camp chef stove, and a pantry to blow other camping pantries away.

This meant more constructive meals, the ability to bring the babies into the tent with us, and of course- more dishes to do (truly a never-ending job out here!). Chase and I have loved experimenting with the dutch oven set I got him for his birthday. I think if I could cook every meal (including cereal) in them, he’d be happy. Some of our favorites have been:

Chicken & Dumplings

Chili Verde
Lemon Chicken with Capers
Even the baby has loved eating more lately. As you can see, he is breaking in three top teeth all at once.

This has made him want to eat EVERYTHING! It’s sad because, just a few weeks ago he was quite content with the baby food I made him. He loved carrots and peas and green beans.

He especially loves sweet potatoes and zucchini but sadly that is a rarity for us right now so we settled for what we could get out here. Only now, I’m finding that his taste buds are clearly changing. I’ve puréed some of our meals (like the chicken stock and veggies from our chicken and dumplings) and he LOVES it! Unfortunately for me, he likes it so much that he turns up his nose when I try to go back to the simple carrots and green beans. Oh well, we’ll keep trying. He thinks he’s something else now that he can use those big man hands to direct the food into his mouth.

He even just started signing “More” after every bite. It’s really come back to haunt me as anytime he sees me munching on something, he starts signing “More! More! More!” Every once and a while he throws a “please” in there, but right now they’re very few and far between.

The only down side to this learning to eat thing is that he now thinks anything in those cute little hands of his is eatable. I frequently find him investigating intently the palm of his hand with a quizzical look that I swear says, “Why isn’t there any food there?” I’ve even had to stop him a time or two when I see him try to put something (like rocks, sticks, or my shoe) in his mouth and want to eat that too.

The other day while I was sweeping, he was rolling around on the floor like he does. I usually keep him kind of barricaded up so he can’t get to things like the garbage can or the dog food (it’s a bit of a daunting task trying to baby-proof a tent). As he rolls, he talks and gabs. His new word is “Buh”. He was busy rolling, I was busy sweeping when I suddenly realized that he was quiet and that couldn’t be a good thing. I haven’t been a mother for very long, but I know the sound of when my little man is into something.

Sure enough, he had rolled right over to his little exercauser. Not a problem. Then it hit me- he was eating something off the exercauser floor! Now, at home in a regular, controlled environment I probably wouldn’t have minded. But out here, where the dust and dirt flow in droves, I panicked. Because of all the dirt, I have to clean that darn exercauser almost daily. Well, I will be denouncing my title as Mother of the Year today because sadly, I had not done that one simple chore. There he was, right in front of my eyes, eating the fallen cherrios and crackers off of that dirty-filthy-no-good-very-bad excercauser floor. I figured since I wasn’t getting the Mother of the Year award anyway, I might as well run for my camera as opposed to remove the little monster from his buffet table.

Oh the things we learn. I guess it’s true: If it doesn’t kill you, it’ll just make you stronger.

I may just have the strongest little guy in the world.

Click here for a video of Baby Kurt signing "more" and "please"

Bon Appetite!