Friday Foodie Affair: How do you vacation?

 ...where we profess our love for food and food related things.

For this week's Friday Foodie Affair, I'd like to ask you a question....

How do you vacation?

You're probably wondering what the heck I'm talking about and how it relates to a food feature, right? Well as I'm writing the bulk of this post I'm thinking about the vacation that my husband and I will be on next week (by the time this goes live we will be home and I can add some photos). Normally when we're away from home we eat out. A lot. It's so much simpler then worrying about packing and transporting a ton of food that we may or may not eat. We both like to try new places as well as visit our favorites if we have any in the area so it works for us.

This trip is going to be different. We're taking our dog, Kirby, with us for the first time *biting nails*. He's a very quirky dog so it should be interesting if nothing else. Anyway, because we will have Kirby the love dog (yes we have a ton of corny nicknames for him) we decided to rent a bare essentials cabin in the New York Finger Lakes area and 'rough it'. Basically we'll have a teeny bathroom, a bed, walls, and a roof (Hey don't judge, I know that's not roughing it but it's close. Sort of.). We will have to do the dreaded and take all of our food, utensils, pans, and almost anything else associated with camping except the tent and bedding. It's a lot of extra work BUT I'm really looking forward it. I'm also excited to have campfires and campfire foods.

I love making mountain pies and cooking hot dogs over the fire but what I love most of all is roasted marshmallows. I'm not talking lightly browned like most people eat them but absolutely scorched, completely blackened, and oh so delicious! The outer charred layer is crispy and ashy and the inside is perfectly melted, I'm drooling just thinking about it. See below if you're curious about my cooking methods...or if you're stuck at the beginning of the paragraph wondering what a mountain pie is ;-)

Back to my original question...

How do you vacation?

Do you prefer to eat most of your meals out or do you prefer to bring your own food?

 

Jen's perfect campfire marshmallow

1. Place a marshmallow on the designated roasting stick whether it's an actual stick or a metal roasting stick you brought with you. You can do two at a time but if that's the case then I have to ask  "Do you feel lucky....do you?". I'm kidding...mostly...it's not very difficult to roast two at a time but you have to be aware that you may have a casualty here and there.

2. While keeping your body at a safe distance place the marshmallow end of the stick into the flame...yes right into the flame.

3. Hold it there until the marshmallow catches on fire.

4. Remove from the flame and watch in awe while chanting 'burn baby burn'. In between your chanting slowly rotate your stick so the fire can move around and get to the whole marshmallow.

5. Once sufficiently blackened, blow out any fire left on your marshmallow.

6. Carefully take the marshmallow off the stick and enjoy. Make sure you don't lay the stick in the dirt or your next marshmallow may be extra crunchy!

Jen's mountain pie madness

 A big fail on my part since I didn't take any pics of our mountain pie making but I did find this one from pieiron.com along with some recipes if you're curious.

1. Grab two slices of bread, butter one side of each piece...like you would with a grilled cheese.

2. Open the mountain pie maker(s)

3. Place a piece of bread on one side of the maker, butter side down.

4. Add your desired ingredients but don't go too crazy or you won't be able to close the maker.

5. Place the second slice of bread on top of the ingredients making sure the butter side will be against the maker when closed.

6. Close the maker and trim off any bread that's sticking out.

7. Cook over the fire, flipping occasionally so both sides cook evenly. It should look almost like a grilled cheese sandwich when you're finished.

8. Remove the mountain pie from the maker and enjoy. Just beware, the insides will be very hot!

A few variations:

-pepperoni, cheese, & pizza sauce

-ham and cheese...and if you're like me, a little mustard

-milk chocolate & marshmallows

-apple pie filling (or other pie filling flavors)

Some pictures from our vacation if you're interested

We spent a lot of time in our very cool Eno hammocks enjoying the quiet and the view of the lake.

And we enjoyed just hanging around the winery where we stayed

I kept trying to get a good pic of the not so cooperative Kirby.

Blackberry wine slushy? Yes please!!

I also had a kick ass Apple Dumpling Sundae from the Cayuga Creamery

Wendy from Wall-to-Wall Books was nice enough to take me to Geneva at the top of Seneca Lake. 

It's so gorgeous there!

And she took me to a nice lunch spot on Cayuga Lake.

On our trip home I was a little photo happy and took pictures of trees

and Seneca Lake in Watkins Glen

And of course Pennsylvania welcomes us home

We made a puppy pit stop at the PA welcome center. 

The welcome center is awesome and so are the views.

And last but not least two more pictures Kirby passed out in the truck.

Thanks for reading!