Had a lovely day on Wimbledon Common yesterday at the Wimbledon BookFest… and got some very appropriate reading for our next camping trip!
L
Summer reading for goats!
Author: embraceyourinnergoat
The most important meal of the day! #2
I hope the post about fried breakfasts whetted your appetite?
A fry up isn’t the only way to do a cooked breakfast when you’re camping – here are a few more cooked breakfast options…
1) Shakshuka
This is a good vegetarian option – eggs poached in a tomato sauce with spinach or kale.
2) Omlette
This one is a mushroom omlette with tomatoes and spinach as a side. Mushroom is my favourite omlette and mushrooms also transport well for camping. I think the trick for making a good omlette is to cook it in butter. I cook whatever’s going in the omlette first and then add more butter to the pan. When the butter’s all melted I add the eggs which I’ve already beaten with a splash of water & salt and pepper.
3) Breakfast stew
We’ve been refining this over our last few camping trips. Basically it’s a fry up in a pot!! This is our best attempt so far – chipolatas, chorizo & mushrooms fried, then add baked beans, barbecue sauce and tinned cherry tomatoes, get it boiling and poach some eggs in the sauce.
Sorry if you’re now feeling hungry!
L
What do goats do on the hottest day of the year so far?
We celebrated the Bank Holiday weekend and the warm sunny weather… with Christmas pudding & a fire!!
Merry Christmas from two goats (and Snoopy the dog – he wasn’t so impressed with the menu!)
L & R
The most important meal of the day! #1
I’m sure someone such as your mother or grandmother probably told you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Certainly breakfast is a very important part of camping!
So here are a few breakfast ideas to inspire you.
The classic fry-up
This is our default camping breakfast. We like other things… but often you can smell the bacon from your neighbours and inevitably you feel a bit jealous. We mix and match to keep things interesting – here are some of our favourite options:
sausages – chipolatas are the best as they cook quickly and are less likely to result in the burnt on the outside, raw in the inside phenomena!
bacon – cooked until it is nice and crispy, who can resist the smell of cooking bacon?
eggs – fried or scrambled. When I make scrambled eggs, for every egg I add a knob of butter, a splash of milk and my secret ingredient a knob of cheese!
mushrooms – a favourite of mine, roughly chopped and cooked in a pan with some butter. If you are doing a vegetarian breakfast you could also add a little finely chopped onion and some handfuls of spinach.
baked beans – not my favourite, but the other goat likes them. Fortunately you can buy half sized tins for exactly this eventuality!
tomatoes – cut in half and cooked briefly on both sides to mimic grilled tomatoes
bread – either bought, or if there’s plenty of time I often make damper bread in the dutch oven over the fire.
fried potatoes – always cut them into smaller cubes than you think is necessary to be sure they cook through
potato cakes – made with leftover potato from the night before or with instant mash, mixed with butter and flour and dry fried
griddle scones – good to rustle up out of stock ingredients (self-raising flour, egg, milk) and fried, my favourite varity have shredded cabbage in them too!
orange juice – I think this is an important accompaniment as the sharpness of the juice cuts through the fatty fry up. I get the longlife fruit juice when we’re camping as it makes storage easier.
a pot of tea – I don’t do anything before tea, let alone cook breakfast in a field!
More breakfast options to follow in the next post.
L
PS don’t forget to pack the ketchup! (I often do forget, much to the other goat’s disappointment!!)
Bottling it up!
You might remember reading about how I picked wild damsons and then started making damson vodka?
Well it’s now been strained and put into little bottles.
A few more weeks to mellow and then it will be time to enjoy!
L
Where did the goats spend their bank holiday?
Well obviously we went camping… but we tried out a new site. This one is also a vineyard, so as well as buying eggs on-site, you can get wine delivered to your tent!
See how we scored it: Far Acre Farm
We enjoyed exploring this corner of Kent and we hope to go back again sometime.
R & L
Campfire song
One of our friends always asks us whether we sing round our campfires. The answer is always no… except last weekend the excitement of the new camping season went to our heads and we found ourselves making up a song which made us laugh lots!
Not sure whether it will be quite so funny in the re-telling, but it will at least make you smile as it has a camping equipment theme!!!
The only piece of context you need to know is that we never seem to be able to find a spoon when we want one. You’ll be able to guess the tune… it goes like this:
On the first day of camping, my true love gave to me, a toi-let in its own tent!!
On the second day of camping, my true love gave to me – two shepherds hooks:
and a toilet in its own tent!
On the third day of camping, my true love gave to me – three dutch ovens,
two shepherds hooks, and a toilet in its own tent!
On the fourth day of camping, my true love gave to me – four camping chairs:
three dutch ovens, two shepherds hooks and a toilet in its own tent!!
On the fifth day of camping, my true love gave to me – five different tents!
four camping chairs, three dutch ovens, two shepherds hooks and a toilet in its own tent!!
On the sixth day of camping, my true love gave to me – six lovely lanterns
five different tents, four camping chairs, three dutch ovens, two shepherds hooks and a toilet in its own tent!!
On the seventh day of camping, my true love gave to me – seven mugs for tea:
six lovely lanterns – five different tents!
Four camping chairs, three dutch ovens, two shepherds hooks and a toilet in its own tent!!
On the eighth day of camping, my true love gave to me – eight wine goblets,
seven mugs for tea, six lovely lanterns – five different tents!
Four camping chairs, three dutch ovens, two shepherds hooks and a toilet in its own tent!!
On the ninth day of camping, my true love gave to me – nine plates and bowls:
eight wine goblets, seven mugs for tea, six lovely lanterns – five different tents!
Four camping chairs, three dutch ovens, two shepherds hooks and a toilet in its own tent!!
On the tenth day of camping, my true love gave to me – ten bottles of beer
nine plates and bowls, eight wine goblets, seven mugs for tea, six lovely lanterns, five different tents!
Four camping chairs, three dutch ovens, two shepherds hooks and a toilet in its own tent!!
On the eleventh day of camping, my true love gave to me – eleven missing spoons
ten bottles of beer, nine plates and bowls, eight wine goblets, seven mugs for tea, six lovely lanterns, five different tents!
Four camping chairs, three dutch ovens, two shepherds hooks and a toilet in its own tent!!
On the twelfth day of camping, my true love gave to me – twelve heat logs
eleven missing spoons, ten bottles of beer, nine plates and bowls, eight wine goblets, seven mugs for tea, six lovely lanterns, five different tents!
Four camping chairs, three dutch ovens, two shepherds hooks and a toilet in its own tent!!
As you can tell the goats are very happy to be back camping… and our new song will make sure we don’t forget to pack anything!!
R & L
Our top camping tip
Our absolute top camping tip – particularly if you’re camping at this time of year, when the nights are still fairly cold – is to pack a hot water bottle!
It doesn’t take up much space and makes the whole experience of getting into your sleeping bag so much cosier!
R & L
Out of puff!
Last time I put the gazebo up the pump wasn’t working well. I remembered that when I’d last used it, before Christmas, I was suspicious it was getting less efficient, but this time it was clearly not right! I remember blogging saying I could put it up by myself in no time at all. It was now hard work and taking forever – the pump and I were both out of puff!!
I emailed outwell explaining that I’d bought the gazebo in 2019 and was disappointed the pump had stopped working – could they send me replacement valve to fix it? Yesterday I received a parcel – a brand new cyclone pump!
This morning I tried it out – and the gazebo positively sprung up!
This pump is better than the original as it deflates as well as inflates and somehow cleverly pumps both when you pull the handle up and when you push it down. So although I wasn’t impressed the first pump broke, I am very happy with the replacement – thank you Mr Outwell!
L
Tasty camping lunches
Over lockdown, in anticipation of better days, I’ve been trying out new recipes for our camping trips!
Tasty lunches can be particularly tricky to plan out. You want something light, especially if you had a cooked breakfast not so long ago! You also want something that’s transportable with ingredients which won’t go off if you’ve only got a cool box not a fridge. Warm lunches can be particularly welcome if the weather’s a little chilly.
Here’s my latest find – quesadillas!
These are super simple – you just need tortillas (the soft kind – I used wheat ones), grated cheese, any other fillings you fancy and a frying pan.
Place cheese and other fillings on the torilla, pop another tortilla on top. Lightly oil your pan and heat on a medium heat. Cook the tortilla sandwich until the bottom is crispy and the cheese is melting. The melting cheese will help hold everything together when you flip it with a fish slice. Once the other side is also golden and toasted, transfer to a chopping board and cut into wedges.
“Queso” is cheese in Spanish and you need that to help them stick together, but in terms of fillings you could try adding to the cheese how about:
slices of tomato
sliced mushrooms
chopped olives
sliced spring onions
sliced avocado
spinach (although can be bit fragile to transport when camping)
wild garlic
ham (but be careful of how you store it if you’ve not got a fridge)
thinly sliced onion
…basically anything you fancy! I’m going to make these this weekend and try adding capers, because they transport so well for camping and I think the little bit of acidic bite will cut through the rich cheese well.
Different types of cheese are also worth trying – guyere works particularly well, but for camping I usually take pre-grated cheddar as it’s easier.
I’d love to hear your favourite quesadilla fillings – leave a comment if you want to inspire me!
L
Embrace your inner goat 