Summer beach camping has ended. Our last big blow out was Labor Day weekend. We made staples like Spam Musabi’s, doctor hot dogs and macaroni salad, cheapest eggs and bacon. But what camping weekend would be complete without some new menu items?! We added Spicy Teriyaki Ribs with mashed potato’s and chicken mole with rice and black beans. Well the beans didn’t quite make it cause the tab on the can broke and we couldn’t open it! But we did take the left over ribs and add them to our Ramen for lunch on Sunday. I also juiced some cucumbers and ginger to add to our cocktail’s. My favorite mixer this season.
We did try to continue the faux sports pictures but I forgot the volleyball so we had to settle for a found tennis ball. Not the same thing. But the high fashion did return. Complete with runway walk editorial photo shoots.
No beach day or camping weekend would be complete with out our trusty axe’s. With our Halloween show coming up in October we figured what better time to practice then sitting on a beach for 4 days? Granted that is what beach ukulele camp is for!!!! Next is wilderness camping!!!! Can’t wait!
The weekend started with a bang. It being 4th of July and all. It was our friend Kirks Birthday and I attended his celebratory bbq bash where he made his Great Grandmas Fire Engine Red Cake and we enjoyed fireworks through a chain link fence. Only in New York can this be enjoyed. Well not entirely enjoyed but the company was wonderful. I then went home and took the late morning train to meet up with the beach crew for the rest of the weekend.
As usual we hit the beach bar for a quick arrival drink, abortion then headed for camp. The weather was amazing and for lunch I brought egg salad sandwiches. Great for the first day. The rest was spent soaking in the sun, swimming in the ocean and playing the ukulele. When dinner came around we were very excited to bust out the newest crazy meal we had thought up. Meatloaf sliders. Yes that’s what I said. They were a huge hit!! And really worked out great on the beach. We accompanied them with coleslaw. Which didn’t work out as well. But you can’t win them all.
The next day was the usual breakfast, eggs, bacon and potatoes. What wasn’t the usual was that our friend Naoum decided to join us. We were beyond thrilled. We picked him up a the dock and sang the New Zealand welcome song Haere mai. He arrived just in time for lunch which was our Spam musubis. We then constructed a kite made from the mylar balloons we found on the beach. It took a while but well worth the effort. For dinner we went for a classic, bacon wrapped hot dogs and macaroni salad. needless to say there was nothing left. The night was spent having cocktails and playing our favorite card game.
Our last day was lazy and spent doing what we do best. Breakfast, swimming, sunning, playing the ukulele and making beach pizzas for lunch. Sadly it had to end so we packed up, flew the kite one last time, hit the ferry, grabbed the train and headed home for Chinese food and a movie.
Peel and slice carrots into rounds, store set aside
Chop celery, and set aside
Chop bell pepper, set aside
Chop tomato's, set aside
Dredge meat in flour
In large frying pan on low/medium heat melt butter
Add meat for about 1 minute or till outside gets brown then remove and set aside
Salt and pepper as you go along
Saute onions for about 3 minutes
Add carrots and celery
Add a drizzle of olive oil
Put meat back into pan cook for about 5-10 minutes till meat is cooked through
Turn burner to low
Add just enough corn starch to thicken and make a sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
(at this point a nice addition would be a bay leaf)
Add garlic, bell pepper and tomato
Let simmer for 20 minutes
Add more cornstarch if sauce starts to get thin
Notes
The measurements are all totally from my usual guessing of what sounds good to me. So please feel free to experiment and change them to suit your culinary needs. Although I do say that I liked using the chunks of meat instead of the usual ground.
We just finished our second beach camping trip and are continuing the grand food experiment! On Friday night Karlo Meria treated us to a mash up of pot stickers/dumplings. We gobbled them up quickly, but we all agreed they need a little tweaking before the next attempt. Of course our new staples Spam Musubi and Beach Pizza were must haves. This time we used beefsteak tomatoes and added some onion on the pizzas, while the Musubi got a little extra rice wine vinegar.
The other dish that was a resounding success was, Shepherd’s Pie!!! As with most food we bring camping this was made before and frozen. This is a great trick because you use the frozen food as ice to keep the rest cold. Then by the time you use it, it’s thawed out. The recipe I used was literally off the top of my head and a little of what can we add. The only thing missing was frozen peas and if Jason has anything to say we wont forget them again.
Our next camping trip will be 4th of July weekend. I wonder what we will come up with for this one!!!
Our last blog was about Beach Pizza. This one is about the other lunch we had while camping. Spam Musubi. What is Spam Musubi? It’s kinda like sushi. You basically take sushi rice, information pills Spam and wrap it up in Nori Seaweed(the kind used for sushi). Simple right? It’s also fun to make. Of course you can add extra ingredients just for fun. We thought it was time to challenge ourselves and try new recipes for our camping trips and this is one of them. It worked out so well it has become a staple in our lunches.
Fry Spam for a couple minutes on each side till it gets a little crispy
Put them on a plate to cool when done
When rice is done let it cool
Heat a dry frying pan for Nori
When hot, Use tongs to heat nori on both sides till it starts to get bright green
About 30 seconds on both sides or till its a little flexible.
Don't over cook or it will be no good
Grab Musubi maker
Lay the Nori on a plate
Place maker in the middle of the Nori
Using your hands add some rice(about the size of a large meatball) inside the maker.
Evenly spread it out
You can use more if you like
Press rice down
Drizzle some plum vinegar
Add a slice of Spam
Sprinkle a little rice seasoning
Add more rice on top
Press rice and Spam down
Slide Musubi maker up an away
Wrap the seaweed around and use water to seal
Lay them seal side down
Put in container or zip lock bag and refrigerate
Now you have perfect camping lunch
Notes
This works best with a Spam Musubi press. You can get them for less than $10 on Amazon or Houserice.com. Some people use soy sauce, we used plum vinegar.
Adapted from when we were camping. We used leftovers but you can make it at home with a frying pan or a frying pan on your electric grill. I prefer cast iron.
Ingredients
8 sandwich rolls
1 Hot Salami or hard cured meat of your choice
1 package of Campari tomatoes
8 oz of Irish cheddar cheese
Instructions
Cut rolls in half lengthwise.
Cut tomatoes in half, ask set aside
Slice cheese, advice set aside
Slice salami and set aside
Put 4 slices of salami in pan or on grill
Cook for a minute or two on each side
Put 4 tomatoes in same pan or on grill skin side up
Cook for about a minute
Turn tomatoes over
Cluster tomatoes and salami together with a couple slices of cheese
Cook for a couple minutes, capsule cheese should just start to melt
Put half of a roll on top and cover for a minute or two till cheese melts
Take spatula and remove from grill or pan and plate bread side down.
Do not smash tomatoes, as the juice is key to keeping sandwich from being dry
Careful this can be a bit messy
So you may have to scoop melted cheese that tries to slip away
Serve immediately.
If you have a big enough pan or grill you can do more then one at at time
Just be careful to keep ingredients in separate clusters for each roll
Notes
You can add some fresh cut Basil on top at the end or some hot sauce, Kalamata olives, or thin sliced red onions.
Beach camping has finally arrived. A little late, but it is here and we are so excited!!! Here are a few pics from our little adventure. Hope you like them. And for those of you who want to know. Our first night, we had salmon steaks, asparagus and mashed potatoes for dinner. Our second day, breakfast was scrambled eggs, bacon and new red potatoes boiled in sea water. Lunch we had Spam musubi, dinner was vegetable chilli that we added hot salami to, with a side of grilled corn and for desert, Jello chocolate pudding cups!!! Our last day if we have any leftovers we incorporate them into the meals. Breakfast was the usual eggs and bacon but with mashed potato’s. For lunch we had grilled cheese with cucumber and cherry tomato sandwiches. But, since we had left over salami………… Jason grilled the salami and cherry tomatoes, put some cheese and bread on top for amazing upside down grilled sandwiches!! Of course he was nice enough to turn them right side up when it was time to eat – just like mini beach pizzas !
With our first camping excursion over we look forward to the next. So until then we will post more of what summer in NYC is all about.