Camping at Metamora-Hadley Recreation Area

Metamora-Hadley is in Lapeer County, and it's a lovely campground. My favorite so far this summer! We camped the weekend of June 13, but I am just getting around to writing about it. We camped close to Lake Minewanna. It had a wonderful sandy beach and has boats that can be rented. It has an operating camp store that sells ice cream cones and rents out recumbent bikes. Despite the crowded conditions, it was relatively quiet. Next year, I'd prefer a site right on the lake. Our friends live in nearby Oakland Township, so they came out and joined us for dinner. I experimented with a pork tenderloin in the dutch oven, and it was great! Here's my recipe:

Camping Pork Tenderloin

2 pork tenderloins, sliced in 1" thick slices
6 cloves garlic
1 lb new potatoes, cut in half
1 small bag baby carrots
1 Vidalia onion, sliced
Greek Seasoning
about a glass of white wine....whatever you happen to be drinking would be fine. Beer would work, too

Put all the veggies and garlic in the bottom of a 10 inch dutch oven that's lined with aluminum foil, layer with tenderloin slices. Sprinkle with Greek seasoning - I keep a container of it in the camping box. It's a great all purpose seasoning. Cook with 8 coals on the bottom, 14 on top for about 40 minutes, rotating the lid and pot every 15 minutes or so. Feeds 4 hungry adults and 4 hungry middles schoolers.

Pickled Asparagus

Today is the last day asparagus can be had at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market, so my friend Laura and I decided to make pickled asparagus. I love asparagus, but it is something that requires pressure canning, so my canning partner Laura suggested pickling it last year. She bought some at a gourmet shop and loved it. so we had to see if we could make it cheaper than we could buy it. Indeed, we could! We spent some extra money today to buy really thin asparagus, but I think it looks better in the jar, don't you?

We used the Ball Blue Book recipe, but in some jars, we added some piquin chili. I am going to give it a couple days to determine if what we tried is a good recipe. Stay tuned!

Camping at Portage Lake Campground

Our second trip with our newly purchased gently used Viking pop up camper was to Waterloo Recreation area's Portage Lake Campground. This was a really nice campground - it was crowded but quiet. We were in campsite 122, but next year, I'll have my eye on site 114, which was fairly secluded. On a list I am on called arborparents, people are complaining that there are no intergenerational experiences anymore, but camping definitely is one. There was retirees, people with babies, teenagers, young lovers, and it is multicultural, too. This was evidenced by the large group of Indian families that had set up camp across from us. The smell of their cooking almost had me begging for a sample!

I tried Campfire Popcorn again, this time with no oil, and the corn caught on fire in the foil. I will not give up until I master this camping recipe. I precooked Alton Brown's ribs, and finished them off on the Weber Smoky Joe. I also made some great food in my new Lodge 10" Dutch Oven. Love this thing! A great experiment I tried in it was Monkey Bread, using homemade refrigerator roll dough, instead of biscuits in a tube. Here's the recipe I used for the dough - i mixed it up at home and stored it in the cooler.

Mom's Camping Bread Dough

1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup milk
2 t. bread machine yeast
3/4 cup lukewarm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 egg, beaten
4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided

In a large bowl, combine sugar, vegetable shortening, and salt; stir until well blended. In microwave, scald milk; pour over sugar mixture. Cool to lukewarm (105 to 115 degrees F).
In a small bowl, combine yeast and water; stir until yeast is dissolved. Mix in egg until well blended; stir into milk mixture.

Add 2 cups flour. Gradually stir in as much of the remaining flour as dough will absorb, mixing well. Place dough into a well-greased plastic container, cover with saran wrap and a rubber band. Put this in your camping cooler 8 hours but no longer than 5 days.

Dutch Oven Monkey Bread
1 batch bread dough
2 T. cinnamon and 1/4 c. sugar mixed together
1/2 stick butter

Line 10" oven with aluminum foil, and melt butter over hot coals. Divide dough into 1" balls, roll in melted butter and then in the cinnamon sugar, line bottom of oven with balls. Cook over 8 coals bottom, 14 on top for about 1/2 hour, rotating top and oven 1/4 turn every ten minutes or so.