Dinner Caveman Style!

Sunday
August 1st, 2010


'When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things - not the great occasions - that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness".
Bob Hope

Family FUN
is what our summers are all about!
Our adorable boys BEGGED us to take them to the Civil Defense caves just north of Rexburg....

and YES, we obliged and took them!
After church, I got all of the food put in our Dutch Oven and packed the cooler and Tracy and the boys packed all of the Dutch Oven equipment and loaded the car and then we were off!

For anyone living near the Rexburg area,
here are the GPS coordinates to get there.
This is the only marking you get to see and these are the rocks that mark the first turn off that you make.
You will see this pile of rocks 16.6 miles NORTH
from the North Rexburg, Exit.

(GPS coordinates)
Civil Defense Cave
First turn: 16.6 miles from hwy 20 Crooked Rd. (44.104507,-111.804688)
Second turn: (44.144398,-111.763275)
Destination: (44.155346,-111.775673

There is just something about being
out in the desert in the middle of nowhere!

I never tire of looking off in the distance and seeing the Gorgeous backdrop of the Teton Mountain range!

RECIPE

Baked Chicken and Rice
1 cup rice
1 chopped onion
1 chopped bell pepper
5-6 legs/thighs chicken pieces (OR 1 whole chicken cut up)
1 can Cream of Chicken OR Mushroom soup
3 cups water (with 1 to 2 tsp. Bouillon)
Cajun Seasoning

In Dutch Oven put in rice, chopped onion and bell pepper, put chicken pieces on top of this and season well with Cajun Seasoning. Pour water/soup over the top of this .
Cook for 60-90 minutes with 8 coals on bottom and 12 coals on top.

Enjoy!!

As soon as we pulled up,
Tracy got the coals ready for our Dutch Oven and then got our Chicken and Rice cooking, while we went and explored the HARD WAY of the cave.

(when you go in the entrance of the cave
there are large rocks that say
"HARD WAY" and "EASY WAY"
and that is what I mean by we explored the "Hard Way")

Ethan is our little GEAR loving kid!
Half the fun for him, is getting to put on his gloves and headlamp.
I am VERY much enjoying having a little
FULL OF LIFE 8 year-old in my home!

All ready!
Gotta love teenagers...
It was SUCH a hot day (high 80's) and we told Jade that the cave would be cold and that he would want to wear some long pants, and take some gloves.

He was wishing he would have listened to us half way through the cave.

Such fun...

I'm always amazed at the
awesome textures and colors in caves.

Tracy and I had fun "camera dueling"

It's crazy that we came across
these bright white rocks.

My favorite part...
the textures are amazing in this section of the cave.
LOTS of shiny pigment in the rocks.

Gorgeous Textures
of the HARD WAY!

We made it to the end!

This was the view I saw when I climbed out.
Anywhere there is a place to
run, jump or climb, our Ethan does it!

And then my three handsome men
in my life all greeted me!

Crazy to be in a spot
where you can have both of your hands in different temperatures...the cave was cold and the rocks in the sun were HOT.

This was my first time wearing my
newly REPAIRED Garmont Otero hiking shoes.
They were starting to split along the seam, but they still have PLENTY of tread on the bottom to get me a few more years of hiking.
SO, Tracy purchased a boot repair product for $10.00 and put a large band of it all around the toe and front sides of my shoes and VOILA...good as new!
(when he repaired my shoes, he also used this same product to put around the toe of several of his work boots)

One last photo
before we head back to the car...

I love walking behind my men
and watching them walk together.
I LOVE family life!

We had worked up quite an appetite
from spending an hour walking, jumping and climbing through the cave.

Delicious!

This post was titled "Dinner Caveman Style" because we were exploring caves, AND I forgot to throw in our serving spoon and so we had to use my drinking mug to "Dish up" our dinner onto our plates! It felt a little "barbaric" and like we were being cavemen.

I love our folding picnic table
that we can throw in the car along with our picnic and then wherever we go we can eat on a table!
SO much fun!

After eating our delicious dinner,
the kids begged to hike through the EASY WAY.

Ice Covered rock..
LOVE the way it has melted and formed.

The EASY WAY
had us a little nervous at times, but it all worked out, once we got past the point where you had to crawl, it was no biggie!
The kids LOVED Tracy "scaring" them
with making scary noises, or saying things like,
"Boy, I sure hope we make it out of here"

My hubby is the BEST and the best part of all is he is
the most amazing dad in the world to my sons!

Textures and colors of the EASY WAY.
It was quite steamy in some parts.

I LOVE this fluorescent green color
that grows in moist places in nature.

Me and my boys!

All packed up and heading out.

This photo always amazes me that we live in an area where you can be this far out in the middle of nowhere, with no other people, or cars, or buildings.
Just a long dusty road and sage brush.

Tracy being the FUN and AWESOME dad that he is, pulled off at one of the sand hills on our way home and the kids had a ball rolling down the sand hill and playing.

FUN moments in time...
it just goes to show you,
you don't have to spend much money
to have LOTS and LOTS of fun!

SO happy that I have kids that love and BEG us to take them to the outdoors for fun family adventures!

A Wonderful Sunday Afternoon!

"When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things - not the great occasions - that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness". ~~~Bob Hope

Summer time is such a wonderful time!
It's a time in our lives where the weather is just right and so many times we find ourselves, packing up our dinner and heading to the mountains, the desert, a park...you name it.

We have to eat, so why stay home and be boring...
why not load your car with dinner fixins' and head to enjoy some gorgeous scenery and family fun!

All this requires is a few dollars of gas in your car and a little preparation and you have priceless memories that your kids will cherish forever.

Sometimes we take our Dutch Oven and cook up dinner, or roast hot dogs and make Smore's...
Sometimes we fill a cooler with sandwich fixin's and fresh fruit, or a salad...
Other times we just fill our thermos with hot soup and take it with us.
(one time we put our taco filling in a thermos and filled the cooler with containers of lettuce, chopped tomatoes and grated cheese and went an enjoyed tacos sitting on the sand at the Rigby Lake)

Whatever we do, the kids just love these out of the ordinary moments AND I love them too.

Sunday after church
we packed the cooler with containers of diced potatoes, beaten eggs, grated cheese and sausage, threw in a jug of iced water, grabbed our picnic bag and Dutch Oven and headed to the hills.
Besides enjoying dinner in the mountains, we were on a fact finding mission to see how the Huckleberries were doing this year.

Tracy got the coals all ready and we made
"Breakfast in one" in the Dutch Oven.

Our folding picnic table with our plates, sporks and mugs all ready to be filled and enjoyed!

Talk about FAMILY FUN!!

The recipe:

1/2 pound sausage
3 baked potatoes peeled and diced
8 eggs well beaten with 1/4 cup milk
grated cheese
(salt and pepper to taste)

Brown sausage in Dutch Oven until browned.
Remove sausage and most of the grease
Add in potatoes and cook until browned
Then pile on cooked sausage
beaten eggs and top with grated cheese.
Cook for 15-20 minutes until eggs are cooked
with 12 coals on the bottom AND top of Dutch Oven.

Enjoy!

(would also be yummy if you sauteed onions and bell peppers when you cook the sausage...
also yummy served with Salsa on the top)

Good thing we didn't listen to people when we first got to our picnic spot. They said they had looked all around and only found 5 Huckleberries...
we hiked up the mountain a little bit
and low and behold came across MANY berries.
Lots of green berries which we'll make sure we can come back in a week and get and MANY ripe berries.
We set an hour limit for picking since it was getting late in the afternoon.

(Tracy is always laughing that I take self portraits, but since I'm the main photographer of our outings, I have to at least take a photo of me showing that I WAS HERE enjoying this fun as well)

After one hour of picking we ended up
with 3 cups of Huckleberries.
Very much looking forward to making homemade ice cream tonight and making Huckleberry Floats for our Family Home Enjoyment this evening.

I absolutely agree that it truly is the little out of the ordinary moments that make life so big and memorable.

When I reflect back on all of the happy, memorable moments in my life I can honestly say that is truly is the "simplest things" that give the greatest glow of happiness!

Feeling blessed to have a hubby that always takes time to make life so much FUN for our family and feeling blessed to have kids that appreciate all of these little moments as well!

"Open your arms
and welcome the joy of today"!

Kimmie in Real Life (week 8)

I LOVE HAVING
LITTLE KIDS IN THE HOUSE!!

They just say and do some of the sweetest things!
I really wish that when Tracy whispers in their ears when they are asleep
"No Growing allowed"...
that the wish would really come true, or they would at least stay young and innocent for just a little bit longer.
They are growing up too fast and one of my favorite things about little kids, is the adorable and sometimes hilarious words that come out of their mouths.

Some memorable moments
from Ethan's mouth this week:
Ethan (to the bowl-full of strawberries on the counter from our garden and our neighbors garden)
“You mean we didn’t buy these at the store”, WOW!

Ethan: “Hey mom, I was just wondering if you have anymore of the Spinach, I mean Chard to eat. That was my favorite and I would really like some more”.
(I felt bad that I had to tell him "no" that there wasn't anymore left...upon hearing this he then drank the juice left in the pan from steaming it up)

We had a wonderful 4th of July
with my parents at their property in Lava.
We enjoyed bowls of fresh fruit, made up tin foil dinners and cooked them in the coals and also made Huckleberry Ice Cream for my dad.

Monday afternoon,
while we were unloading the car, Tracy got coals started as my parents sent us home with a package of un-thawed hamburger patties....

So, we put the hamburger patties in the bottom of the Dutch Oven and
topped them with chopped onions, diced carrots and potatoes...
we let it simmer for an hour and then mixed it all up (so the meat was in bite sized chunks) and had dinner.
The Kids loved this!

Absolutely delicious!
While Tracy was making dinner,
I cleaned and sorted some pinto beans and got them soaking on the stove.

After the beans were cooked,
I divided them up and took 6 cups of them and made up a Baked Bean Casserole for dinner (for recipe...click here)
(instead of using 1/2 package of bacon, I pulled a snack sized bag of Bacon Ends from the freezer...they worked great...click here for this tip)

I then put the rest of them in a Ziploc bag in the freezer to make a pot of Beans and Hamhocks one of these next weeks.

YES...
Green Smoothies finally graced our Vita-Mix this week!
PERFECTLY DELICIOUS!!

I forget how much Tracy's enjoys these cookies and when I made up a batch this week, Tracy nicely asked me if we could make up more and OF COURSE he got another batch.

Never underestimate the FUN
of having Kabobs to eat.
I think my favorite thing about Kabobs is that if you just have a handful of different kinds of fruit, you can just put them on a stick and it makes it FUN and where everyone can enjoy what little fruit you have.

Even though it was a hot afternoon
Ethan begged me to make up some hot cocoa and popcorn for an afternoon snack.
These photos were priceless
as I was busy making dinner Ethan wanted to come and sit at the counter and eat and read to spend time with me.
I LOVE this sweet little moment!

"Tendah, Juicy"!!
Thursday my Sweetie decided to cook dinner in the Dutch Oven.
This is one of his specialties.
The way the onions, bell peppers, meat and BBQ sauce all blend together make the most DELICIOUS dish to serve over a bed of rice or with baked potatoes.

BTW....a funny little tid-bit about "Tendah Juicy"

We saw this guy from South Carolina on You-Tube a few years ago doing a cooking video and he kept on saying "It's Tendah, Juicy...Dutch Oven does all "da" work"!

It really made us laugh hard!

SO, needless to say Tracy and I always mock this when we make up this meal.

Last Thursday, I had dropped the kids off with Tracy at the park so I could go and get my hair cut and then when I went back to the park to get the kids I gave Tracy a little "hip to hip bump" while I said "I can't wait to enjoy a little "Tendah Juicy" tonight". I didn't realize that there was nice little mom sitting there who overheard and saw this little gesture and conversation and she let out a little giggle. Little did she realize we were talking Dutch Oven cooking...OR, who knows, maybe we weren't. (Wink!)

We all enjoyed a delicious sandwich
with the leftovers the next day!

Since we had such a large bowl-full of strawberries I decided to freeze some, we ate some fresh and then made a Fresh Strawberry Pie with the rest.

SO, I have never made a Strawberry Pie without "JUNKET"!
Since I don't have one box of Junket in my house, I had to compromise and throw together something without a mix.

Here is what I did:

(in a heavy sauce pan mix the following)
1 cup water
2/3 cup OR 3/4 cup sugar (depending how sweet your strawberries are)
3 Tbsp Corn Starch
dash of salt
(whisk together to make sure there are no lumps)

Bring to boil and then add in
1 cup crushed strawberries
1 Tbsp butter
Continue cooking until heated through...remove from heat and add in
1 tsp. vanilla
Let Cool

Prepare pie crust
Fill pie crust with fresh strawberries
Pour glaze over the top of strawberries and chill 2-3 hours.

Enjoy!

You know when Tracy LOVES a recipe
because he will copy the recipe onto a card with instructions and hand drawn art (he has always been a "doodler" and loves to doodle and illustrate any and everything)
He then adds it to his recipe box of favorites.
Blender pancakes
(Connie's recipe) have become another weekend favorite!!

Tracy blended up the wheat, water and dry milk powder,
while I got the syrup jar refilled up.

Such yummy pancakes!!

They were SO yummy
that we took the leftovers and made the kids
"Pancake sandwiches" for lunch!

Tracy made up one more batch of "Tendah Juicy" Saturday night and we enjoyed the leftovers and made delicious sandwiches Sunday afternoon after church.

(July 4th to July 10th)
Sunday
Zucchini Bread, Plums,
Watermelon, Cantaloupe and Strawberries, Tin Foil Dinners (cooked in the fire at my parent’s vacation property in Lava, Idaho), homemade Huckleberry Ice Cream,

Monday
Fried Eggs, French Toast, hash browns, sausage/bacon and fresh fruit (my mom fixed a BIG breakfast for us).
Made S’mores before we left my parents
Tracy pulled out the Dutch Oven and we threw in hamburger patties my parents sent us home (that were already un-thawed and needed used right away)
we cut up carrots, potatoes and onions and cooked it in the Dutch Oven while we unpacked from our tip. YUMMY!!
(SOAKED pinto beans overnight and then cooked them on Tuesday)

Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy) Leftover Tomato Soup, watermelon, Pluots, and peanut butter cookies
(kids) Leftover soup/Dutch Oven mixed into a Goulash, Green Grape Smoothie
Salmon and steamed Swiss Chard
Garden fresh strawberries and toast

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy) Scrambled egg sandwich, watermelon and strawberries, Snickerdoodles
(kids) Tuna Fish Sandwich, Garden Fresh Strawberries, Green Grape Smoothie
Bean Casserole, Cottage Cheese, Avocado slices, Kabobs
Snickerdoodles

Thursday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy) Leftover beans, cottage cheese, apple, Snickerdoodles
(kids) bowl of fresh Strawberries, Tuna Fish Sandwiches, bananas,
Snickerdoodles
Dutch Oven Pork Loin over rice, sliced tomatoes, lime drink
Strawberry Pie

Friday
Steel Cut Oats
Bananas
Pork Loin sandwiches, apples, Strawberry Pie
(kids dinner) Leftover Bean Casserole, tomato and avocado slices, cottage cheese
(Tracy and I split a Pork Salad at Café Rio)

Saturday
Whole Wheat Blender pancakes and eggs
Green Grape Smoothie, pancake sandwiches
Dutch Oven Pork and veggies served over steamed rice

I felt VERY spoiled this week
having such a wonderful array and variety of delicious food to eat and it really is becoming a way of life for me to just eat what we have and most of all to never waste a thing. Not one thing goes to waste in my home.

We put every morsel of food to use in some way or another and it feels good to be frugal, but most of all to eat such a variety of healthy and nourishing food.
The kids are begging me to make Orange Rolls with the oranges we got this week and I want to make up some Vegetarian Enchiladas with all of the yummy veggies we have as well, but don't have tortillas, so depending upon how my week goes, I may venture out and try making homemade tortillas for dinner. Stay tuned

But most of all have a
wonderful, happy week full of LOTS of laughter, love, smiles and memories!