#notcamping

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by Caroline

The one fixed point in our past several summers is a multi-family camping trip: four families, eight boys between the ages (now) of 6 and 11, hikes in the woods, splashing in the river, and of course lots of great food and cocktails. This year it seemed both fitting and a little crazy that we would be heading off for our three nights of camping less than a week after returning from family camp.

At least we knew we’d eat just the way we like to, with plenty of fresh produce and homemade dishes. Over the years, we’ve developed a Google doc through which we sign up for meals, remind ourselves of what we need to bring (a sharpie!), and ask each other about other things:

But this year, just as we were getting all the family camp gear washed (or not) and put away or repacked, Ben got sick, and as we got closer to departure day, it became clearer, to everyone but him, that he and I were going to stay home. As I shared on Twitter:

So Tony finished packing and headed out with Eli, leaving me with a sick kid and this sweet paper tent card, showing himself and Eli in their sleeping bags, with hearts on Ben’s and my pillows where our heads should be:

Ben and I have been home and very sad, consoled by messages and pictures texted to us by Tony and our friends, knowing they miss us, too:

~~~~~

As I write this post, Ben is starting to feel just better enough to remember the treats we always have camping — the Nutella one family brings for breakfast and the s’mores the kids make after dinner — and I’m remembering some of my favorite treats from last year’s trip, like my friend’s gorgeous appetizers:

and Tony’s fabulous coffee bar:

But for the second week in a row, I find I’m thinking less about the food than the experience around the food, and that’s what I’m missing by not camping. I’m sad that we’re both missing time that in years past we spent like this:

and this:

I can let go of my desire to share my latest pickles, to use Mark Bittman’s kebab generator, and to reinvent our s’mores a la Sunset Magazine. I’ll find more recipes by next summer. And I’m trying to be philosophical about the weekend we’ve missed. We will go again, with all our boys another year bigger and more independent. The woods and the river will be waiting for us till we’re ready. For now, it’s all tea and toast around here.

Twenty-One Meals at Camp

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by Caroline

Last summer, Lisa detailed her family’s vacation road trip and how they handled forty-two consecutive restaurant meals. This summer — just last week — my family faced a shorter, but perhaps even more difficult, challenge: 21 consecutive cafeteria meals.

We were at San Francisco’s family camp just outside Yosemite, and while we had heard raves about it for years — the lake! the hikes! the freedom for (and from!) the kids! — everyone always paused when Tony or I asked about the food. Well, they’d say, you don’t go for the food. When I asked about vegetarian options, they’d say yes, there’s always a vegetarian option, but then would mention the availability of pb&j and cold cereal at every meal, too, which was simultaneously comforting and worrisome. I read an article in the local paper and paused at the reference to the Sysco truck delivering provisions. The night before we left town, I ran into a friend, just back from her 9th summer at Camp Mather, who told me this year the food had slipped from mediocre to lousy.

But part of the point of this vacation, for me, was the break from cooking, from every aspect of cooking: meal planning, marketing, cooking, serving and cleaning up. A break from the kids’ complaints about what we’d prepared. A break from being in any way responsible for the meal. For someone who thinks and writes and cares about food as much as I do, I found that I really didn’t care too much about the food at camp. For one week, I figured, we could handle anything. So we did not pack extra provisions beyond granola bars for hikes and some salty snacks for cocktail hour. We crossed our fingers, and we hoped — well, not for the best, but for good enough.

And it was fine. We’d set the bar low, and were happily surprised. The food was varied and plentiful and we all found things we liked. Tony taught Ben to work the salad bar like a pro, topping his chopped romaine with tofu chunks and a soy-ginger dressing. Eli, happily taking advantage of how much I say “yes” on vacation, learned how to get just the right amount of cold milk into his hot chocolate, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No one had to resort to cold cereal for dinner.

an evening meal

And we were reminded, again, that it’s not just about the food. We ate every camp meal outside, on a wide porch shaded by enormous pine trees. We sat with old friends and made some new ones.

dinner crowd

We shared drinks, bottle openers, and tips about nearby hikes and swimming holes. At the end of each meal, our messy trays looked like this:

My family looked like this:

And I can’t wait to go back.

Banh Mi Summer

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by Caroline

Within two blocks of my family’s San Francisco home, we have two taquerias plus a Mexican restaurant, one burger place, one salad and sandwich place, one seafood restaurant, three sushi restaurants, two Thai restaurants, two Indian restaurants, one Peruvian restaurant, one Ethiopian restaurant, one place for gyros, three pubs, three pizza places, three Asian-vegetarian restaurants, a Vietnamese restaurant, a couple greasy spoon diners, a donut shop, two ice cream parlors, and several bars and cafes.

It’s a wonder we cook at all, really.

But we do, and Tony often takes inspiration from the local restaurants to make something new at home. He’s made the shiitake mushroom dumplings from the now-sadly-closed Eos, a roasted tomato and pumpkin seed salsa from a nearby taqueria, and a lemon and chard pasta dish from the Italian place near the boys’ school. His latest homemade version of a local dish is vegetarian banh mi, from the Vietnamese place I didn’t even know we had (maybe because there’s nothing in the name to indicate it’s Vietnamese food?) Their version has some glass noodles and shiitake mushrooms and I have to say, I prefer Tony’s, which we’ve all been eating a lot this summer. It takes a few make-ahead steps, but once you’ve done them, you can be eating banh mi quickly. Here’s how he does it.

First, make a batch of roasted chili paste.

Next, shred a few carrots into matchsticks and toss them into a bowl. Cover with a simple pickling liquid of equal parts rice wine vinegar and sugar. Add a sprinkle of salt, stir, and let sit for 30 minutes. If you like cucumber or radish, go ahead and add them in matchsticks, too, and just increase the amount of pickling liquid to cover.

Then, make a batch of caramelized golden tofu, cutting the tofu into long fingers. If you like, cook some sliced shallots with the tofu.

The pickled vegetables and chili paste will keep indefinitely in the fridge; a batch of tofu will keep a couple days.

Once you have those three basic elements in place, all you need is a soft roll and some cilantro. You might also want some fresh mint, jalapenos, and a squeeze of lime juice. Spread some chili paste on the roll, stack the tofu, vegetables and cilantro on your roll in proportions to taste, and eat.

Cheesecake Ice Cream

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by Caroline

I think it was the summer that Star Wars came out, 1970-something, when my oldest brother and sister had summer hotel jobs up in Ogunquit, Maine. Our parents drove my other brother and me up for a weekend visit and we ate a forgettable meal in the big, quiet hotel dining room followed by an unforgettable cheesecake. It was a fruit cheesecake, but instead of a shiny, syrupy layer of fruit on top of the cheesecake, the fruit was fresh, and it had been incorporated into the batter, leaving light, delicate streaks of berry throughout the cake.

This ice cream reminds me of that cheesecake, just a little bit.

1 cup granulated sugar
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons grated fresh lemon zest
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
3 graham crackers, crumbled

Beat the sugar and the cream cheese together until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla.

Bring the milk to a boil in a medium-sized pan. Slowly beat the hot milk into the cream cheese mixture. Now pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, over low heat until the custard thickens slightly. Don’t let the mixture boil or the egg will scramble!

Remove the custard from the heat and pour it through a strainer into a large bowl. Allow the custard to cool slightly, then stir in the lemon zest and cream. Cover and refrigerate until cold (or overnight).

Stir the chilled custard, then freeze in your ice cream machine
according to its directions. Add the crumbled graham crackers when the ice cream is semifrozen, and let the machine mix them in well. Eat right away, or decant into a container and freeze until hard.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

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by Caroline

Summer vacation’s here and I’m catching up on ideas I meant to write about during the school year, like our school garden! The kids work closely with their classroom and science teachers to plant, weed and harvest from the various planters that have been tucked in around the school.

This vertical planter is on the stairwell on the way up to the rooftop play area:

These box planters have drop down plastic covers to protect them from errant basketballs:

Do your kids garden at home or at school? What do you grow?

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