Camp Out!: S'mores Muffins

My kids get the short end of the stick when it comes to summer vacation.  Mostly, because they don't get one.  I'd feel worse,  but Thatboy and I don't really get summer vacation either.  There's no lazy days of summer, sleeping in, and lounging about.  For Thatbaby, Thatboy, and myself, the only thing that marks the difference between summer and the rest of the year is that it's warmer outside.  For Thatkid, camp takes the place of school.

But we try to give them a little bit of a summer in the activities we participate in.  As the summer drew to a close, I asked the kids if there was anything they wanted to do over the summer that they didn't get to do, and Thatbaby firmly answered that he wanted to go camping.

Camping.

Camping last year was a disaster.  We were all miserable.  So I was a bit surprised that this was his request.  But last year's camping trip was planned by Thatboy, and I thought that maybe if I took a swing at it, I could figure something out that was more enjoyable for all of us.

I did some quick searching and found an open reservation for one night at a campground in Julian on Labor Day weekend.  We packed up the car and headed out.

Because we know Julian fairly well, we knew all the best places to stop.  Which puts everyone in a good mood.  First stop was lunch at Dudley's.  Since we had Thatdog with us, we ate in the car, but it didn't change the tastiness of the sandwiches.

Our next stop was Julian Station.  Where we got to drink mead, 

and cider.

Since the apple orchards weren't open yet, the kids used this time to get their own apple cider fix.

And play old school video games.

And ride quarter operated rides.

Our final stop before getting to our campsite was the Julian Mining Company.   My boys love love love love love rocks and minerals.  It's one of their favorite parts of the fair. So it made their entire weekend to be able to mine their own giant bag of gems.  

When we finished up with that, it was finally time to check in to our campsite.  

While Thatboy set up camp, I kept the kids busy.  Which was the second part of my plan to make this trip better than the last - a whole bag of crafts to keep the kids entertained.

Part three of the plan, which tied in to part one, was going someplace we knew there was food.  So we weren't reliant on the campfire, which proved to be a little much for my impatient kids.  It made the trip somewhere between camping and glamping, but was perfect for small children.  Our dinner was at the Julian Brewing Company.  Outdoor seating for families and dogs.

Jenga and cornhole to play.

And delicious pizza and beer.

In fact, Thatkid enjoyed his pizza so much, he wanted to come back the next day!

After dinner it was back to the campsite for some glowsticks and story telling around the fire before bed.  Which went so much better than bedtime last year!

The next morning we woke up, ate some granola bars, and headed out on a hike.  The location had several that started right off the campsite which made it really easy.

I had also made the boys scavenger hunts to do during the hike.  Which kept them both busy and interested.  

When we got back, Thatboy started taking down the tent, and I pulled out the craft bag again.  This time to help the boys decorate the walking sticks they'd found on their hike.

And give them sidewalk chalk while we packed up the car.

It was short, it was sweet, and it was a super successful camping trip. And of course, no end of summer campout is complete without the quintessential campfire food - s'mores.

Sure you can make these at home.  And we certainly have, but there's nothing like getting sticky and messy when there's lots of dirt to stick to that sticky mess.  At home, it's far easier to go with something cleaner.   These s'more muffins capture all the flavors of camping, without the smoke smell that clings to your hair for days.  Or the stickiness that you just can't seem to rinse off.  It's not quite the same, but it's a good way to relive it months later!

S'mores Muffins (From the Food Network)

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1 cup flour

1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

 1 stick butter, melted

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

3/4 cup marshmallow fluff

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  Line a muffin pan with silicone or paper liners.  Toss the chocolate chips with 2 tsp flour and set aside.  
2. Whisk remaining flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
3. Whisk the sugar, melted butter, milk, vanilla, and eggs in a medium bowl until smooth.
4. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, just until they care combined.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Divide the batter between the muffin cups, tapping the pan against the counter to smooth out the batter.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Let cool 5 minutes in the pan, then remove to a rack to cool completely.
7. Top each muffin with 1 Tbsp marshmallow fluff.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Peach and Blueberry Muffins

Back in February when we were visiting Horsewhisperer and her family, Thatboy pointed out that the Horsewhisperers had just moved and we were visiting them, but we still hadn't visited one of his besties, Grateful, who had moved to Washington several years ago.   

Which is a fair complaint, but it's much easier for me, the trip planner, to plan trips to my friends than his.  So I told him if he got some dates from his buddy, I would be happy to plan it.

Which is how we ended up flying to Portland in August.   We flew into Portland because Grateful lives equidistant from Portland and Seattle, and Thatboy's other bestie, Magski, just moved to Portland.

So when we arrived, we made a quick trip to check out her new digs.  Plus our kids hadn't seen each other in a couple of months, so they were super excited for the reunion.

After our visit we hit the road for a bit of a car trip.  The drive was beautiful and I got a kick out of pointing out landmarks from The Oregon Trail.

"Look guys!  It's the Dalles!  That's where you have to decide whether to ford the river or pay the toll!"

We also found the weirdest rest stop, with cows!  And baby cows!

And then, we were in Washington!

Grateful's son isn't as familiar with our boys as Magski's kids are (mostly because I haven't been good about planning trips) but it took no time at all before they were thick as thieves.

This wasn't our first time in Washington, but we never cease to appreciate the beauty it holds.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was going fruit picking.  

There were a bunch of fun things for the kids to do too.  All the boys were very impressed with the tire swings. 

And my kids loved the little train tour around the farm.

What was neat about the experience was the variety. Here in San Diego, there aren't many places you can pick multiple fruits and each fruit has its season.  Grateful took us to a place where we could pick berries, stonefruit, apples - it was amazing.

Our original plan was to do some peach picking.  I love fresh peaches, and my childhood summers in South Carolina and Georgia have filled me with the feeling that it's not really summer without them.  But I've never picked them before!

We couldn't, however, leave without getting some bona fide Washington apples.  And we decided that, given the later apple season in San Diego, that this trip would be our apple picking for the year.

I snuck home some of those apples and peaches.  We snacked on them on the road trip to the airport, and on the plane, and still had a couple of doughnut peaches left over when we got back.  Which I thought would be perfect for muffins.  Throw in a couple of blueberries and it was like extending our trip for a couple more days!

Peach and Blueberry Muffins

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1/4 tsp almond extract

2 peaches, chopped

1/2 cup blueberries

1/4 cup slivered almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 400 and line a muffin tin with silicone liners. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 
2. In a separate bowl whisk the sugar, oil, sour cream, eggs, and almond extract in a bowl.
3. Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture until just combined.
4. Stir in the peaches and blueberries.  Divide among the muffin cups.
5. Sprinkle the almonds on top and beak for 20 minutes.  Let the muffins cool 5 minutes in the pan before removing to a rack to cool.

Breakfast with the ponies: Semi-Instant Pancakes

Every summer we go to the Del Mar race track to watch the horses.  They usually have an entire kids' area set up with magicians and face painting and pony rides.  It's great.  And the boys love watching the horses run.

But this year I found out about a special thing the race track does - they host a breakfast!  There aren't any races, but they open the trackside restaurant during morning exercises.  These are the horses that aren't racing that day, but some of the jockeys are.

The neat thing about this breakfast is that you get to be right up close to the horses and really get to see them strut their stuff.

The kids loved it.  In addition to watching the horses run really fast, there was an MC who gave us all sorts of facts about the horses and jockeys out on the track, as well as horses in general.  The boys wanted to know how old the horses were, and she told them all about the various ages.

But the best part of the whole thing was that it was totally cool and overcast.   The races don't start until the afternoon, and the afternoons in July and August are pretty hot.   Especially this year.   And there is very little shade at the race track.  

So we didn't actually make it to the races this year, but we still got our taste of watching the horses run.  And it's an experience I would definitely repeat.

My only negative comment was the breakfast itself.  It's clear the track isn't open for breakfast, and since the breakfast only happens on weekend mornings, they don't really go all out with the menu.  There are muffins and an egg dish.  But really, you're not there for the food.   Not like our house.  Weekend mornings are a time for great breakfasts.  Not on Saturdays when we're running out to swimming, or soccer, or art, but lately Sundays have been very low key around here, and we've taken advantage.

Last year I started making Alton Brown's pancake mix.  It came as a compromise.  Thatboy grew up on Bisquick and before he met me he didn't realize you could make pancakes without it.  On the other hand, I grew up with pancakes made from scratch.  So if I wanted Thatboy to make breakfast on the days I get to sleep in, then I needed to buy Bisquick, or make my own.

I made a little change to the original recipe - I added powdered buttermilk to the mix, which means we don't have to keep the liquid stuff on hand.  Because of this, I keep the mix in the freezer.

 Once the pancakes are made, we have a topping bar where the kids can put whatever they like on top (within reason.  Last weekend I nixed the notion of powdered sugar AND whipped cream).  

Semi-Instant Pancakes (by Alton Brown)

 10 oz semi-instant pancake mix (I use Alton Brown's with powdered buttermilk added, but shhhhh Bisquick would also work)

2 eggs, separated

2 cup buttermilk (or 2 cups water if you've added the powdered buttermilk to your pancake mix)

4 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled

1. Set a skillet over medium heat.  Place the pancake mix into a large mixing bowl.

2. Whisk the egg whites and buttermilk or water in a separate bowl.

3. Whisk the egg yolks and the melted butter.

4. Whisk the egg yolk mixture into the egg white mixture.

5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk quickly, leaving lumps.

6. When the skillet is hot, grease with cooking spray or butter.  Ladle 1 ounce of the batter into the pan.

7. Cook for 3 minutes, then flip and cook for another 2 minutes.

8.  Top with butter, syrup, fruit, sugar, whatever your heart desires!

The Play's the Thing: Pert Near Perfect Popcorn

One of my favorite parts of summer is summer theater.  I mean, sure, there's theater year-round, and we're lucky to live in an area with a theater just about every 15 miles, but summer theater is special.  Outside amphitheaters, watching a show with a cool summer breeze, picnics on the grass.

It's also ideal for little theater go-ers, because you can remove them easily.  This is the first year we've been able to take Thatbaby.  The past 2 years he would not have been able to sit for any of it.

There are two outdoor venues that have summer theater.  Usually they each do one family friendly show a year.  This year however, the boys requested to see almost all of the shows, which meant 5 musicals!

It all began at Easter.  Remember Jesus Christ Superstar Live?  Well we were staying in a hotel room when it aired and I could not get my children to sleep.  So like any good parent who wants to watch a live program, I told them they could stay up if they were in bed watching quietly.  And Thatkid fell in love.  For the first act.  He fell asleep during the second.  Thatbaby didn't even make it that long.  When he heard that it was going to be playing this summer, he begged to go see it.  And his little brother wanted to come too.  So our first family theater night was to see Jesus Christ Superstar.

Thatkid still says it's one of his favorite musicals ever.  Thatbaby loved it and for weeks sang "What's the Buzz" (which he took up again this weekend).  He put on shows with his microphone - "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Super Christ Super Star!"

The next show was the family friendly show I was counting on - Annie. Or as Thatbaby calls it, "Andy."  

The very next night, we packed up our show and went just a little farther out to see Newsies.

Newsies was at Moonlight Ampitheater, which is a step up from our community theater.   Nice seats, Broadway sets and costumes, and a lot more room.

For Newsies we got reserved lawn seats, which we like because you get lawn chairs, but also a nice grassy area to spread out a blanket.  The blanket is where the kids like to lie down and watch the show when they get tired.

They were selling Newsboy hats and it was one of those souvenirs that I just couldn't refuse.  Especially because ever since I have been treated to renditions of "King of New York" by these two little noggins.

We made a return to Moonlight when I saw that The Hunchback of Notre Dame was a Disney production.  But it was NOT like Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Frozen, or Little Mermaid.

The music was beautiful, and it was really well done, but it wasn't exactly kid friendly.  The boys got a little bored.  It didn't help that the reserve lawn seats were sold out so we were stuck in chairs.  No lying down for them.

This past weekend we saw our last show of the season - In the Heights.  This one wasn't high on my list, despite loving the show.  Thatkid and I saw it at the Moonlight last year.  But once again, claiming it was one of his favorites and asking to see it again, it was hard for me to say no. 

Given the later time of these shows, we didn't picnic as much as eat dinner before hand and just bring snacks with us.  Our snacks were very consistent though - popcorn.

Not just any popcorn, but homemade, stovetop popped popcorn.  I love popcorn, but stove-popped is a special treat for special occasions.  Like everything I make, if I want it done right, I always look to Alton Brown.  He has the best, most simple recipe with just 4 ingredients.  And while the butter is not a necessity, there's really nothing better than hot, fresh, buttery popcorn.

Pert-Near Perfect Popcorn  (By Alton Brown)

3 Tbsp peanut oil

3 oz popcorn kernels

1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbsp butter, melted

1. Place oil, popcorn, and salt in a large metal bowl.  Cover with aluminum foil and poke several slits in the top with a knife.  Place the bowl over medium heat and shake.  You can make handles from the foil or use a tong.  When the popcorn stops popping, remove from heat.
2. Remove the foil and drizzle butter over the popcorn, tossing to coat evenly.