Camping Trip

Gracious, Erma, do you want to get poor Paris in even more trouble with the law? When that Mai Tai Pie arrives at the jail, some deputy will catch a whiff of it and confiscate it. Paris will never see that Pie as it will become some jailers coffee break treat.

We have sort of lost touch of the Hollywood Frenzy as we went camping over on the lake this weekend. You know, it is actually refreshing to spend a few days without any news. We can’t do a single thing about the news, and hearing the news days later sort of puts things in perspective.

Now if Paris and her family had taken the time to camp out on a lakeshore and come to love nature, she might not be the spoiled girl she is. There is more to life that mansions in Beverly Hills, and clothes closets the size of living rooms. Yes, I saw the pictures of Paris’ walk-in closet. My question is why does she need a closet that huge? Most of the time I see her she is wearing almost nothing. How much space does a wardrobe of almost nothing need?

Saturday night we grilled chicken, corn on the cob, and Girl Scout Potatoes in Foil for dinner. Think back to our old green Girl Scout Guidebook. Wasn’t this recipe in there, right next to Smores? In my memory it certainly was. I think we had Potatoes in Foil at our first overnight camping trip as Brownies. We would have been, what, maybe seven?

Certainly over the years of camping trips and cookouts, I have fixed this recipe hundreds of times and it is still good.

Tell me, Erma, were you a Girl Scout? I do have trouble imagining you out there in the woods, but then I remember trying to keep up with you on trips up into the Sierras.

Girl Scout Potatoes in Foil:

For each serving, lay out about a 12 to 18 inch piece of heavy duty aluminum foil (or several thickness’ of regular foil). Cut 2 pieces of thick bacon in half. Lay two of the pieces in the middle of the foil. Slice half of a medium potato thinly on top of the bacon. Leave the skin on if you wish. Lay a thick slice of onion, separated into rings on top of the onion. Sprinkle with seasoned salt and a small pat of butter. Slice the rest of the potato and another slice of onion in rings. Sprinkle with seasoned salt and top with the remaining two pieces of bacon. Wrap into a tight foil package.

These can be roasted on the grill for about an hour (to cut down grill time, bake in a hot oven for 20 to 30 minutes and finish on the grill), or bake completely in the oven for about an hour, or the way we did them as Girl Scouts: Place the packages directly in the hot coals of a campfire and let them cook for about an hour.

A good side for this is Corn on the Cob that is also foil roasted. As kids, we would go out to the field and pick some ears of field corn–which isn’t tender enough to eat except for a week or so–which we took off the husk and silks and slathered well with butter, salt and pepper and wrapped in several layers of foil. These we placed directly in the coals as well. They would come out crusty and sometimes a little blackened, but that way you didn’t care that the corn wasn’t very tender.