Helper Monkeys

The kids are running wild. You're outdoors and it's time to get them to slow down and get ready for dinner. Enlist their help. You've been rafting all day and everyone's been paddling together. So, include them during the dinner prep. Have them make this hors d'ouevre while you prepare the rest of the dinner after the river trip.

ROLL UPS
1 pkg softened cream cheese
2 T gorgonzola cheese
tortillas (flour)
thinly sliced salami or mortadella
sliced dill pickles
sliced roasted red peppers
crushed black olives (or kalamata)
chopped Italian parsley

Mix cream cheese and gorgonzola until creamy. Have the rest prepared in advance. Two (2) instructions for the kids: 1) shmear the goo on to the tortillas 2) sprinkle the rest of the ingredients on top. Go do your thing (get the meat ready for dad's grill). Come back after 15 minutes and help them roll up the tortillas. Wrap in plastic and place into cooler for about 10 minutes. Enlist the kids to help pick small branches and wild flowers to make a table bouquet. Wash up. Take roll-ups out of the wrap and cut into 1/4 inch slices. Let the kids serve them on a plastic platter.

Nut Crust

This is a recipe that we modified for our vegan friends. A great staple for pie-making, freeze several so you're ready whenever you have an abundance of any kind of fruit. You can even make this on a multiple-day river trip and add apples for a real American pie.

NUT CRUST
1-1/3 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup finely chopped nuts
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 T rice or soy milk

Heat oven to 475 degrees. Or heat a large dutch oven (big enough to place a pie pan in) with evenly distributed coals. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix wet ingredients in a cup. Add wet ingredients all at once to dry mix. Mix well. Roll dough out between parchment or wax paper. Roll out to fit a pie pan. Peel paper off one side of dough. Place into pie pan and carefully push dough to fit pan. Peel the second paper off the top. Flute edges with finger or fork. Prick with fork. Bake at 475 for 13 to 15 minutes.

Make several and freeze for later use. Add parchment or wax paper in between each pie crust and you'll be able to stack them in your freezer. This is a great base for ice-cream pies or fruit pies. Add your favorite apple pie filling and serve warm. Try cooked figs mixed with cream cheese and fill this crust. Heavenly!

Beet Salad

Beets are the messy vegetable that kids loved to cook. I remember painting with the juice on butcher block paper in our family's kitchen. We ate beets with everything, so I grew up to love their sweet taste. On your next white water rafting trip, add this as a side dish to that grilled chicken. Here's a savory salad featuring sweet beets.

BEET SALAD W/FETA
water
cleaned, scrubbed beets or roasted beets in olive oil
olive oil
feta or herb flavored feta
arugula leaves
red onion (thinly sliced)
crushed toasted walnuts
salt
cracked black pepper
splash balsamic vinegar

In a small pot, add water and cleaned beets. Cook low heat until tender. (If you cut them in half, you'll decrease the cooking time.) Rinse in cold water and set aside. OR roast your own olive oiled beets for 30-40 min at 420 degrees in the oven. Set aside to cool.

Add sliced beets into a glass bowl. Add feta and mix until beets are coated. Add the rest of the ingredients and toss again. Chill for at least 30 minutes. Serve with grilled meats or top your favorite green salad.

Lemony Green Beans

Fresh green beans used to be a luxury only afforded by the prolific backyard gardener or the affluent foodie. Now, with a farmer's market somewhere in town every day of the week, and high-tech flash frozen beans at the grocery store, you can make this lemony veggie dish any time of the year. I like Trader Joe's frozen green beans. Already prepared and ready to cook.

One bag of Trader Joe's frozen french green beans
large colander
running water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup finely diced onions
3 cloves garlic sliced
1/2 lemon's juice
lemon zest
salt (to taste)
cracked black pepper (to taste)
1/4 cup toasted almonds (whole, halves, sliced...)
lemon peel (decorative)

Empty bag of green beans into colander. Rinse thoroughly in cold water. Let dry for 5 minutes. Rinse again in cold water. Set aside. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add sliced garlic and onions. Toss and cook until onions are partially browned. Add green beans. Add a drizzle of olive oil on top of beans and toss in pan. Add 1/2 lemon's juice. Add lemon zest. Add salt and cracked black pepper. Toss thoroughly. As soon as the beans turn bright green and shiny, take off the heat (about 4 min). Add almonds. Place onto a large platter. For a decorative touch, add a sprinkle of lemon peel on top.

You can take this dish on a camping or a rafting trip. Just put the whole thing in a ziplock baggie and put in the cooler. I love this dish cold or at room temperature. Add cooked leftover chicken to the dish and create a low-carb, one bowl meal.

Japanese Eggplant

Camping and grilling in the summer provides many of us with roasting delicacies that are hard to duplicate in the kitchen. One of my favorite side dishes goes great with roasted fish, sandwiches or just a bit of rice. Japanese eggplant is tender and less bitter than its Mediterranean counterpart. This is so easy and anyone can do it.

ROASTED JAPANESE EGGPLANT
8 Japanese eggplants (slender, not round)
olive oil
sesame oil
grated ginger
soy sauce

Slice each eggplant lengthwise into 16 pieces. Drizzle olive oil onto the skins. Add sesame oil, ginger, garlic to the interior. Wrap in aluminum foil or place skin-side down into a dutch oven or heavy covered skillet. Place aluminum covered eggplant onto the grill until fork tender about 10-15 minutes. Or place dutch oven over the coals with a few coals on top for about 20 minutes on medium heat. When done serve as a side dish with soy sauce.

Another variation is to just wipe the whole eggplant with olive oil and roast directly over the coals. You will see them shrink and shrivel. When fork tender, open them up and add the rest of the ingredients. Add slices to a sandwich. Roasty, toasty, creamy good!

Man-Size Sandwiches

Sometimes a great sandwich is all you need after whitewater rafting. If you are on an extended rafting trip, this is a sandwich for day 4 on the river. Use all the leftovers still in the cooler in this one!

MAN-SIZE SANDWICH
(2) day old baguette or slipper bread
1/4 cup olive oil
4 crushed garlic
4 T feta cheese (French or Greek)
1/2 lb provolone cheese
sliced leftover roasted meats or seafood
leftover roasted veggies ie, asparagus, brocolli, carrots, cauliflower, eggplant, etc)
2 roasted red peppers (sliced thinly; or use jarred sliced peppers)
2 carmelized onions (sliced and cooked over low flame with olive oil until carmelized)
crushed kalamata olives (to taste)
shredded cabbage
Italian dressing (or your favorite)

Take baguette and slice lengthwise into (2) halves. Smear all (4) halves with crushed raw garlic. You should hear a scraping noise! Drizzle olive oil over each half of the bread. Add sliced provolone liberally over halves. Add crumbled feta cheese. Close both halves and wrap with aluminum foil and grill over a low heat for 6 minutes. Meanwhile, slice all ingredients for sandwich. Open bread. Smear the provolone and feta together making a thick gooey spread. Add leftover meats. Add roasted veggies. Add sliced roasted red peppers generously over the mounds. Add sliced carmelized onions. Crush kalamata olives over the whole thing. Add shredded cabbage. Drizzle left over olive oil or your favorite Italian dressing. Close both halves of sandwich and slice into large pieces. Serve immediately. Or hold off on the cabbage and wrap sandwich up again in aluminum foil and place on the lowest heat of the grill. Add cabbage and dressing before serving.

Suggestions: if you are camping or rafting, cook more than you need each day and save leftovers for this sandwich. If you are at home, roast veggies once a week in a large quantity and save leftovers to be added to sandwiches and other dishes during the week. Same concept, just different location!

Ham Salad Dip

Kids are hungry and the hubbie is getting the grill ready. You're camping on the river and the chants of "I'm hungry... where's the food?" is getting a little old. Here's a quickie retro recipe spread to go with crackers and vegetable crudites. It'll keep them happy until the grilling is done.

HAM SALAD DIP
1 container of ham salad spread
1 pkg cream cheese (softened to room temp)
3 T mustard (prepared)
2 tsp horseradish
1/4 tsp tabasco sauce

Blend all ingredients using an electric mixer or hand wisk. Chill and serve with plain crackers and/or cut carrots, cauliflower and/or jicama.

I like to have all the veggies cut and stored into a ziplock baggie. Add a wet paper towel in the baggie and the veggies will stay nice and crisp. Store in the cooler. Prepare the dip in advance for a time saver. Or have the kids whip it up with a fork in a small bowl. Enlist the kids to place the crackers and veggies onto a platter. Tell them they are in charge of the "presentation." By the time the kids are done, your dip will be done, too. You can change this dip by adding any of your favorites such as minced roasted red peppers, a bit of minced red onion or crushed black olives.