Sunday, August 10, 2025

😂 Around the Campfire (week 32)

Dear Campers ~ 

Here's a quick recap in case you missed anything at camp last week:

Posts ~

8/3: 🔥 week 31

8/4: bleu cheese dip or dressing (re-run)

8/5: TT (take a pause!)

8/6: hungarian potato and sausage soup (re-run)

8/7: shrimp and quinoa bowls (re-run)

8/8: mojitos (re-run)

8/9: words (homeschooled)

That's it for this week! See you next week for more projects, crafts, recipes, whatever we can think of to make at camp - bye :)


Sincerely ~

Jill
camp counselor

8.10.24: thru the years

Friday, August 8, 2025

Mojitos (re-run)

My mouth is watering just thinking about the mint in these drinks!

Original post:

Al made us mojitos using mint leaves from 'mojito mint' plants that Cathy and I bought at a nursery at the beginning of summer - and they are so refreshing and delicious! Do you like mojitos? I'm a fan of the sour notes of lime and mint, you can make them as sweet as you like depending how much simple syrup you add - I prefer it on the tart side. 

Simple syrup is simply equal parts sugar and water; heat them in a saucepan for a couple minutes until the sugar is dissolved. 

Muddle a few mint leaves in the bottom of a cocktail shaker or glass (muddling is just gently smushing the leaves to release their juice and fragrance, you don't want the leaves smashed into pulp tho). Add a couple tablespoons of the simple syrup, couple tablespoons of lime juice, rum to taste (I'd do equal amount of rum as syrup and lime juice - in this case about 4 tablespoons of rum, more or less to taste). Shake and pour over ice. Garnish with additional mint leaves and lime wedges. 


8.8.24: thru the years

8.8.23: TT herb flowers

Thursday, August 7, 2025

Shrimp and Quinoa Bowls (re-run)

 I still love this recipe and am re-running it to suggest that you might love it as well! 

Original post:

I made these bowls the other night for dinner and I can honestly say that I loved them...and Dave ate his* but requested that while it was fine one time he'd rather not have them for dinner again. So I won't put this recipe in the dinner rotation - but you can bet I'll be making this for myself at lunch! Easy and healthy, win-win. 

*I should mention that he's not usually a fan of salad for dinner so take the above for what it is. 

*I'll clarify that - he likes salad for dinner just fine if it involves fried chicken nuggets, cheese, bacon, and blue cheese dressing 😂

Recipe found here at Eating Well - I'm just pasting their recipe because I didn't change a thing other than I substituted thawed, cooked and cleaned large shrimp:


EatingWell

These shrimp, pesto and quinoa bowls are delicious, healthy, pretty and take less than 30 minutes to prep. In other words, they're basically the ultimate easy weeknight dinner. Feel free to add additional vegetables and swap the shrimp for chicken, steak, tofu or edamame.

Prep Time:
 
25 mins
Total Time:
 
25 mins
Servings:
 
4 
Yield:
 
10 cups
Ingredients
  • ⅓ cup prepared pesto

  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

  • ½ teaspoon salt

  • ¼ teaspoon ground pepper

  • 1 pound peeled and deveined large shrimp (16-20 count), patted dry

  • 4 cups arugula

  • 2 cups cooked quinoa

  • 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes

  • 1 avocado, diced

Directions

  1. Whisk pesto, vinegar, oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Remove 4 tablespoons of the mixture to a small bowl; set both bowls aside.

  2. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and cook, stirring, until just cooked through with a slight char, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove to a plate.

  3. Add arugula and quinoa to the large bowl with the vinaigrette and toss to coat. Divide the arugula mixture between 4 bowls. Top with tomatoes, avocado and shrimp. Drizzle each bowl with 1 tablespoon of the reserved pesto mixture.

    Tips 

To make ahead: Cover and refrigerate dressing (Step 1) for up to 2 days.

Originally appeared: EatingWell.com, June 2019; updated February 2023

Nutrition Facts 

              
Serving Size 2 1/2 cups
calories429
total fat 22g 
saturated fat 4g 
cholesterol 188mg 
sodium 571mg 
total carbohydrate 29g 
dietary fiber 7g 
total sugars 5g 
protein31g 
vitamin c 14mg 
calcium 205mg 
iron 3mg 
potassium 901mg


Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Hungarian Potato and Sausage Soup (re-run)

Yes it is waaaaayyyyy hot here and soup should probably be the last thing anyone wants to eat right now, but this is such a good recipe and I'm in the mood to make it - who care's if it's 89' feels like 96' outside hahahaha. 

Original post from 2020:

Al made this soup a couple months ago and I just haven't had time to post the recipe -  this time I didn't forget about it tho,  it's too good to forget! I am a soup all-year- round person so even tho it's summer right now and you might not be craving potato soup I still highly recommend you make this! Or at least bookmark it and make when the temp suits you and you want soup again hahaha. Dave and I both loved, loved this soup and this is a keeper recipe for sure. 

  • 3 T. unsalted butter
  • 6 ounces smoked Hungarian sausage, sliced into rounds
  • 1 yellow onion, diced
  • 1 t. salt, or more to taste
  • 3 T. flour
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 t. Hungarian paprika
  • 5 cups chicken broth, or more to taste
  • 2 cups chopped green cabbage
  • 1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • black pepper to taste
  • 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
  • 1 bay leaf 
  • 2 T. white vinegar
  • 1/2 cup sour cream, or to taste
  • 2 T. sliced green onions (optional)

1. Melt butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Add sausage and cook and stir until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove sausage to a bowl, leaving behind any butter in the pot.
2. Toss onion into the pot with 1 teaspoon salt. Cook and stir until onion just starts to turn translucent and picks up a brown color from the meat juices in the pan, 4 to 5 minutes. Add flour, cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic and paprika, cook nd stir until fragrant, about 1 minute, being careful not to burn the paprika. 
3. Stir in 5 cups chicken broth. Increase heat to high and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally so flour does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Stir in cabbage and cook until it just loses its stiffness, about 2 minutes. Stir in potatoes and bring back to a simmer. Add pepper, cayenne pepper, and bay leaf plus a splash of chicken broth if desired. Bring back to a simmer. 
4. Stir soup and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are very soft and tender, about 30 minutes. Add sausage and vinegar and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste and adjust for salt.
5. Remove from heat and ladle into bowls. Garnish with sour cream, green onions, and cayenne pepper.



Note: Al couldn't find anything at the store called Hungarian sausage, so he substituted Eckrich smoked sausage.





recipe from allrecipes.com

8.6.24: thru the years

8.6.23: week 32

8.6.22: lemon squares

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Tip-sy Tuesday: pause

Just a quick note - not a tip other than when life gets tooooooo hectic and something you love to do ends up adding more anxiety on top of everything, I'm giving you permission to put the thing you love to do on the back burner. In case you haven't figured out what I'm trying to say - is that while I love to make things and blog I just don't have time and it's making me stressed! I will catch the past few days up at some point, but at least for today I'm not sharing anything (I did make corn chowder this morning tho and will share that soon). 

Didn't want you to worry or wonder where I am! 

Now I'm off to pick veggies at the farm, anyone know how to freeze swiss chard? That's my next experiment. Later!


8.5.24: thru the years (apparently I'm always too busy to blog on 8/5 haha!!)

8.5.23: words

8.5.22: perfect lemon bars

8.5.21: greek broccoli gratin

8.5.20: milk dud ice cream cake

8.5.19: friendship bracelets by Brooke

8.5.18: creamy cucumber salad

8.5.17: porch sittin'

8.5.16: fidget stress balls

Monday, August 4, 2025

Bleu Cheese Dip or Dressing (re-run)

I posted this recipe in 2016, it's worth repeating - I still make it all the time!

Original post:

I'm not sure where I got this recipe - it's typed out on a piece of paper and says "Outback Steakhouse Bleu Cheese Dressing" on the top - I wasn't a bleu cheese lover but someone in my family requested that I make this for their birthday (for a wedge salad) and I'm so glad I did. It's really really good and I have to say that after making it that first time I became slightly obsessed and started putting it on everything - now I make it all the time and have found that I'm starting to like bleu cheese more because of it.


not my photo but I googled until I found one that looks
like my wedge salad! found it here


This is more like homemade ranch dressing with bleu cheese crumbles added - so if you don't love bleu cheese but do like ranch give this a try and see if you don't like bleu cheese just a little bit more now!
  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons buttermilk (plus more to make it thinner, see note)
  • 1 tablespoon crumbled bleu cheese
  • 1/8 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
Mix all ingredients together by hand in a small bowl until smooth. Cover and chill for 30 minutes before serving. Makes 1 cup.

Notes: I always double this and use way more buttermilk to make it runnier. Only using 2 tablespoons leaves it very thick which is great for a dip. Just keep adding buttermilk until you get the consistency you want. If you don't have buttermilk put a little bit of white vinegar in milk and let it stand for a few minutes before adding to the recipe.

Wedge salad is simple: literally a wedge of iceberg topped with halved cherry tomatoes, crumbled bacon bits, red onion if you like. I drizzle with balsamic vinegar (if you put some balsamic in a small saucepan and heat it until it reduces and gets thick and syrupy it's even better!) before adding the dressing over top of it all. Add more bleu cheese crumbles if you want. Yum!


Sunday, August 3, 2025

🔥 Around the Campfire (week 31)

Dear Campers ~ 

Here's a quick recap in case you missed anything at camp last week:

Posts ~

7/27: ðŸ”¥ week 30

7/28: mosaic stepping stone (re-run)

7/29: TT pitting cherries

7/30: watermelon "sushi" (re-run)

7/31: august 'challenge' - organizing 

8/1: cookie ice cream sandwiches

8/2: words (homemade with love)

That's it for this week! See you next week for more projects, crafts, recipes, whatever we can think of to make at camp - bye :)


Sincerely ~

Jill
camp counselor


  

Friday, August 1, 2025

Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

Everyone loves when I make ice cream sandwiches with homemade chocolate chip cookies - they take a little time to assemble, freeze, and then wrap in paper...but it's worth the time! Here's a rerun of the original post from 2016 on how to make them:

I made these to take to my sisters house Monday for the Fourth - pretty easy although I'll warn you they're a little messy to make - especially on a warm day :). 



First I made small chocolate chip cookies using my small cookie scoop (about 1 tablespoon). After they're completely cool match up the cookies into roughly the same size pairs so the sandwich will be pretty similar on both sides. Let a tub of vanilla ice cream sit on the counter until it gets soft (not too soft though, that's when the messy part really starts happening!), then spoon some onto one side of the matched pair and top with the second cookie, press lightly to spread the ice cream. I then take a small knife and fill in ice cream around the edges of the cookies so the ice cream fills up the entire space between them - since it's July 4th I rolled the edges in patriotic sprinkles but any other time of year I just leave them plain. Put in the freezer until they are solid, then wrap each sandwich individually in wax or freezer paper and tape shut with a piece of masking tape (or you could be really cute and use patterned washi tape!) - I actually like how old fashioned it looks to have them folded up in white paper and sealed with masking tape, it's cute.