Friday, June 29, 2007

Tummy Treasure on Vacation!


I tried really hard to come up with a last minute "wow" recipe to leave you with. I really did try. Unfortunately, when you plan at almost the last minute to go camping for a week, real cooking tends to take an aside from planning and packing. We're in the home stretch of packing fever, but we still have so much to do, and dinner will be compliments of the frozen pizza section.

We're going to be spending the next week camping in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, and we're really looking forward to the time to relax and play. Unfortunately for all of you, that means no new updates for an entire week! We'll be back late on Friday the 6th, and I'll try to have a little bit of something that night for you. :-)

In the meantime though, a small sample of how we dine when camping. It really isn't that much different from home, the biggest difference being that we cook over a fire. And since we're going camping with my brothers, parents, and a sister (and relative spouses, children, etc.) we all take a turn cooking. One night we'll be having kebabs, one night BBQ ribs, one night fajitas, and one night foil dinners. You may be asking, what's a foil dinner? It's exactly what it sounds like. Ground beef, potatoes, veggies, and seasonings all wrapped up in foil and cooked over the fire. Simple and tasty camping fare- except that our kids wouldn't touch that for all the tea in China. So we have to get creative with our dinners every year. This year, with the discovery of the fish lovers, we're going to try fish in foil. In particular, a recipe from Tyler Florence for foil-wrapped swordfish. We'll be swapping in some Sole, as the swordfish was MIA when I went shopping, but here is Tyler's recipe. And if you click on the link, you'll see a photo on FoodTV- looks really good!

Swordfish Baked In Foil With Mediterranean Flavors

4 fresh baby artichokes, trimmed and quartered (we'll be using canned)
2 tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 lemon, sliced thin
1/2 cup black olives
1/2 bunch fresh basil
8 sprigs fresh thyme
4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 fish fillets, about 6 ounces each
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl combine the artichokes, tomatoes, lemon, olives, and herbs. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss together. Take an 18-inch piece of aluminum foil and fold it in half crosswise. Fold a 1-inch strip on each side over twice, once to close and once to seal; you should now have a pouch. Repeat for 3 more pouches. Season the fillets with salt and pepper and place 1 into each pouch. Add 1/4 of the artichoke mixture to each pouch. Fold over a 1-inch strip of the top twice to seal. Place the packets onto a sheet pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish. Carefully open the pouches and place the fish and vegetables onto warm plates. Spoon any juices that have accumulated over the fish. Serve immediately.

Well, that's about it! Happy 4th of July for all you locals, and I hope you all have a great week! See you back here in a week or so!

2 comments:

Jeanna said...

That's some national forest. Don't forget to do a tick check.

Erika W. said...

Surprisingly we were tick free the whole week, and Abigail spent so much time exploring the forest I was certain that she'd have harbored one or two, I'm glad we avoided them this year.