A Walk in the Park

A few weeks ago my brother, two of our friends and myself went backpacking/camping for the weekend in Allegheny National Forest. This isn't pay 10 bucks for a campsite, buy some firewood and set up a tent next to your car. We pack up our backpacks with hopefully enough supplies to last us the weekend, hike in to the forest, say this random spot looks good for a campsite, and don't look back until the end of the weekend. Over the whole weekend we hiked about 7 miles, and our resident woodsman friend, Arko, claims the change in elevation from the lowest part of the trail to the highest part is over 1000 feet. I love a weekend like this. For me there's nothing like leaving behind everything for a weekend and just being in nature, out in the wild. We had a great time, got way to drunk Friday night, didn't think we would move from our first camp site Saturday morning, but had reviving swim in the a river and actually ended up hiking for 3-4 hours Saturday afternoon to a new campsite.

One of the best parts of going camping like this is, cooking over an open campfire. Who said you can't cook well in the wild, on Friday we had deer burgers (the deer caught and butchered by Arko last fall) prepared by Boz, and a deer stew that I threw together (I brought 2 onions, some baby yukon gold potatoes, garlic and some beef stock), oh yeah and a chocolate peanut butter cake that I brought, that as I was opening dropped icing side down on the ground. Saturday was a more traditional camp food day with hot dogs, bratwurst, and beans. I know for sure that the burgers were some of the best burgers I ever had, but by time the stew was ready I think I as well as everyone else were a little too drunk to know what the stew really tasted like (from what I can remember though it was pretty tasty).

One funny story, on the car ride to the forest we talked about how we had to hang all of our left over food and anything an animal (bear, bobcat, mountain lion, other carnivorous animals) might come around to forage, in a tree. My brother who worries about those kinds of things says there is no way he would get drunk enough or too tired to make sure everything was secured in a tree before we went to bed each night, well take a look how he passed out Friday night,

yeah he was ready for an attack (that is quite a spear, eh), that is if he would even be able to hear and be roused by anything in his drunken stupor. Somehow we did at least all manage to make it in to our tents that night. I guess a whole bottle of goldshlager, some Jim Beam Red Stag, vodka, some more of a different kind of whiskey and a 12 pack of Natty can have that effect on four campers.

The most amazing tank top ever (nothing better than a goofy outfit a manly camping trip)

The weekend was great though, we didn't run into much of any wildlife (we saw a salamander and a deer), ended up making a the whole 7 mile hike, and got to check out an absolutely amazing look out over the whole forest. This was my second time doing this camping trip in the summer, now were planning a trip for the late fall as well as a winter trip. We want to see how different the forest is in each of the different seasons.

Chances of encountering a ghost if brave enough to stay a night in this creepy old shed/barn/house 85%

Wildlife!

Eat well, Live well, while not becoming bear food

Lost Finale Party

I can't believe it's actually over, and if you have not watched this tv show than I really do feel bad for you. I'm writing this after watching the finale so now I can finally say Lost is the best show of all time. The writing, acting, directing and story were all unbelievably good throughout its six seasons, every new show that comes out will be compared to it, some may be called "the next Lost", but that is unfair because I really don't think there will ever be another Lost, this was a once in a lifetime tv experience that I couldn't be more happy I was able to enjoy, although I do have to admit I started watching at the start of season 2 (I've since rewatched the entire series starting at the beginning multiple times), I was a hater all of season 1. It's kind of testament to the greatness of the show, that I was once a hater, but now completely obsessed, most people have a vague idea of the show but think to themselves how could it be any good, but if given an honest chance fall in love with the show. I've told many people to watch the first 4 episodes of season 1 and see if your interested, if your not by then, then you never will be, but if you are say good bye to all your free time for a few weeks because you will be obsessed. Not one person I've given that advice to has ever stopped after those first 4 episodes. The greatness to this show was all pending on a great ending and Darlton did not disappoint, I haven't stopped thinking about since last night, in my opinion it was as near to perfect as I could have imagined.

The party I threw for this event was of course themed around the show, we had dharma beer:

dharma tortilla chips, dharma pop and dharma guacamole:

as well as Lost inspired dishes like John Locke's World Famous Pulled Boar:

Kate, We Have to Go Back! (for seconds) Mac & Cheese, Hurley Hid All the Dharma Mayonnaise Cole Slaw, Charlie and Claire's Peanut Butter Surprise, Apollo Bars:

and a Lost Cake:

plus my friend Matt brought Jin Shoo-Sushi, my friend T brought boneless Mr. Cluck's chicken wings, and finally Rickert brought a fruit tray and chip dip. It was definitely more than all of us could eat, but that is the way it should be. I think the Apollo Bars were the biggest hit, they were made from a base of an oreo cake-like concoction I kind of just made up, topped with caramel, the stuff from an oreo and vanilla buttercream, covered in Lindt milk chocolate, they were about as dense is allowable by law, but they were awesome. I pretty much spent all day Saturday and Sunday cooking for this party, but since the finale ended up exceeding expectations it was definitely all worth it.

Cooking with a Friend

My best friend Joe, is on a little bit of a cooking kick and I couldn't be happier to do a little bit of cooking with him. Over the past two weeks or so we made steamed dumplings and crab rangoon. We are always getting chinese takeout and our two favorite sides are definitely dumplings and rangoon, there isn't a time we get chinese and do not have them along side whatever other meal we make.

My experience with cooking chinese dishes is that it never seems to come very close to how it does from a takeout place. So we were both excited to find out how each of our side dishes would turn out. The dumplings were alright, too much ginger for sure and they definitely weren't seasoned properly. We did however make the dough for them as well and that turned out really good. The dumplings weren't bad but they were just kind of bland and overly gingery (I have come to the conclusion that I am not a big fan of ginger).

The crab rangoon on the other hand came out amazing. It was as good if not better than any rangoon that I've had from our go to takeout locations. The best part about it was that it was so easy to make and not much work either. We used store bought wonton wrappers, which for some reason are kept in the produce section of the grocery store (which doesn't make any sense to me), they also had egg roll wrappers which may need to be the next chinese staple we take on.

All in all it was a great time cooking with someone else especially my best friend. Typically I cook by myself for myself and my brother, but it definitely is a good time cooking with somebody else. I can't remember the dumpling recipe but it wasn't very good so it doesn't really even need posted. Here is the crab rangoon recipe, and it was really good, give it a try.

Crab Rangoon

30-40 pieces

1 package of wonton wrappers

8-12 oz cream cheese, softened

2 green onions sliced thin

4-5 cloves of garlic minced

1 package of the cheep crab meat in the shrink wrapped package, minced

2-3 teaspoons soy sauce

1 bottle of vegetable or any oil of your choosing for frying

Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl. Place about a teaspoon in the center of a wonton wrap and pinch the corners together. Set aside, assemble all the crab rangoons and fry until golden brown.

Eat well, Live well