Now that's a fire!

This weekend Mark and I camped at Riverside State Park. The park was located unexpectedly close to downtown Spokane and yet peacefully on the Spokane River.

My dinner plan was a camping classic of Pork & Beans! We had a small fire started, but I needed something bigger for my Nathan's hot dog roast.

We invited Mark's niece, husband and baby to our outdoor adventure, which made them our first official dinner guests in my mid-life crisis camping trailer.

It was a great overnight trip and hot dogs and bush baked beans never tasted so good.

Try this at home...really

Seriously...try this at home. It is so simple and yet delicious. I discovered this Bulgarian dish on facebook when a local wine bar was posting their weekly special. Le Bohme stated that we should google Banica in order to discover what it was. So that is exactly what I did. I found a website that broke down the concept of how to make Banica. Basically it is layers of buttered Filo dough rolled up with a feta, egg and greek yogurt mixture and then arranged in a baking dish in a snake-like fashion. Doust with a little more butter and then baked to a golden brown, the dish can be served as an appetizer, as I did here, or even for breakfast as they do in Bulgaria.

Anyway you serve it, it is so good and your guests...or your guy...whatever the case may be will love it too.

Pretty as a picture fresh fruit tart

During the 4th of July family reunion my little sister treated us to fresh fruit tarts. Then and there I decided I must have more and so I made one for my "birthday cake." So the down side of being a Pastry Chef is who makes your birthday cake?

This recipe is basically the same as Paula Deans Fresh Fruit Tart. However I used real sugar instead of powered and added some vanilla yogurt to the cream cheese mixture.

There are two pieces of this fresh fruit tart in my refrigerator right now. I begged Mark to eat them for breakfast and not to leave me alone all day with those last two pieces of fresh fruit tart....but did he eat them...nope.

Costco Dinner

I love it when something so simple tastes so dang good!

Everything in this dinner was purchased at costco. We made BBQ tri-tip steaks marinated in Soy Vay which is a teriyaki sauce produced in the small town of Felton, California where my sister and family lives. The peppers were placed on the grill until they were nicely charred and tasty. The broccolini was pan sauteed with a bit of seasoning salt. Last but not least, a little jasmine rice dowst with some soy sauce. The most simple dinner ever and yet oh so good!

The cinnamon roll

A couple weekends ago I convinced Mark to drive to Hazelton, Idaho to pick up a little camping trailer that I became convinced I had to have. Well, needless to say the trip became quit the Odyssey! We did get to see some new sites, as neither of us had been to Boise driving from Lewiston. It was fun to see Riggin's as well as the Payette river.

We camped in McCall, Idaho on the way home in the new little camping trailer, which was a lot of fun. Forgetting about the change in elevation, neither one of us thought to bring a jacket after many days of burning up in the July heat. So we froze in the mountain air and worked up a healthy hunkering for breakfast by the morning. At the recommendation of our overly friendly camping neighbor, who made sure to harass Mark because I just happened to be driving that morning, we had breakfast in McCall at a cute place called The Pancake House. I was craving a cinnamon roll and boy did I get my fill.

When I ordered the cinnamon roll, as well as a breakfast, the waitress looked at me twice, which I wondered about at the time. After we ordered I went to browse at the gift shop. As I was walking back to the table I saw Mark looking at me with a funny expression which I soon understood. The cinnamon roll was breakfast in itself. He will tell you that I ate a third of it and he ate the rest, but I think I ate 1/4th and he finished it. All I can say is that it was one heck of a cinnamon roll, especially for $3.25.

If you find yourself in McCall, Idaho I highly recommend you have a cinnamon roll as well as breakfast at the Pancake house. Hopefully you will have someone with you to share it with.