Gleek out! Guide Camp 2010

So this summer we caved to the pressure of the kids (yes caved is exactly the right word, there was no squeeing or excited clapping from Lynsey and I at all. I don't know what you mean) and planned a Glee camp for our girls. Excitingly we were to be joined by the rest of the Division which meant doubling the size of our camp. The girls had an amazing time, including a workshop with a local theatre's MD, Regionals, Sectionals, slushie wars, and cheerleading amongst many other activities.

I wish I had taken a picture of our stores tent, for those that think I'm cake obsessed - it was full of tupperware that was, in turn full of cake. Epic. Although I confess I didn't actually have time to make any myself so we all went without my parkin this year.

I love the food you eat on camp, eggy bread, coco pops (I eat coco pops at no other time of year than Guiding holidays) threesies and elevenses as legitimate meals, and then the surprise when people realise that on top of reaching our 5 a day with no problem (more on this in a moment) we eat amazing, normal food.

Just quickly to address the 5 a day issue: Fruit juice and fresh fruit with breakfast, fresh fruit for elevenses, salad with lunch (cherry tomatoes and chopped up cucumber and carrots are an easy win), vegetables always with dinner. Fruit chopped up and left under a wet muslin/ in the fridge for people to graze on.

Examples of camp meals outside of eggy bread. Which I could happily live on.

Fajitas - our girls love these, we cook the chicken with garlic, spices, onion and peppers over the fire, and have another pan that's just veggies. Served with wraps, guacamole, soured cream, grated cheese and salad. Clear plates and always always a queue for seconds.

Ratatouille - a new addition to our repertoire, onions, garlic, aubergine (don't say anything. I ate it) peppers, and courgettes. Add tins and tins of tomatoes, some tomato puree and you're good to go! Again cooked in a pan in olive oil - fancy(!) - over the fire, and served with grated cheese and baked potatoes. And here is the photo story of it being made... (I don't know why we added carrots this year, but it worked).

You can see the haybox in the photo below, it's just a tea chest, lined with hay that you put food in and it works a bit like a slow cooker, keeping it warm and cooking it on really super slowly. You have a big cushion of hay that goes on top and then the lid to keep all the heat in. Really terrific gadget there.

Baked potatoes - We cook the potatoes by building up the fire at lunchtime, letting it cook down to embers and then putting the potatoes (wrapped in foil) in. We fashion lids out of big baking tray type things and then after about 4-5 hours pop them in our hay box to keep them toasty warm until tea time.

We've also done camp roasts where we've cooked potatoes and chops over the fire, and veggies in big billies.

Spaghetti bolognaise - easy peasy, chuck everything in and cook slooooowly, stirring lots. Yum.

Sausages and mash - the cooks patrol hate this as they have to peel buckets of potatoes, but everyone loves sausages that taste of woodsmoke, and we also fry off lots of onions to go with. Baked beans too.

Basically, if anyone in the whole world anywhere ever tells you there's a reason to eat savoury rice, or meat out of a tin 'because you're camping' they're talking rubbish. Neither my girls nor any of our leaders eat anything other than fresh, relatively healthy (if you ignore the cake and the cheese) food when we're away. And when you've been outside all day keeping your site tidy, running or doing activities, collecting wood, managing your tents or playing baseball with added water you are hungry and everyone eats.

Our site

Making Gadgets

It's going to be a Happy New Year

As always for me, New Year was a quiet affair, it's a celebration that I don't really have much time for; parties make it feel anticlimactic, I can't bear the prospect of paying to get into pubs and then paying more for drinks and London itself is just bananas, and not having been part of a couple of late I am excluded from the nights in a lot of my peers indulge in. Anyway this year I decided to spend it with someone and just have a night in. I made us comfort food - cottage pie with lots of green vegetables, and bought some cava for midnight. It felt exactly right, relaxed, cosy and intimate.

I used the cottage/ shepherd's pie recipe I always revert to, which came from one of my Mum's Good Housekeeping recipe books from the 1970's. It was one of those books that was designed to help you use up your leftovers, and told you what you could freeze, and what could be made in a slow cooker and things. I have no clue where it is now, which is a shame as it would be really useful. Apart from the section on cooking things in aspic, I don't think anyone will ever want to revive that trend *shudders*

Anyway, so that was my new year, cottage pie, some winter Pimms (which I deserve commision on because I am encouraging so many people to try it!) and the heating on.

So, with a post title that finally bears some resemblance to lyrics from a musical (I'm hoping the launch of Glee will provide me with some new inspiration as of late I've been reduced to titles that actually resemble my recipe and not some vague allusion!)

Not making the Nigella cornbread stuffing had left me with a single orange and a pack of fresh cranberries. A morning spent googling for muffin recipes hadn't come up with anything much, and I wasn't sure where to go until a friend pointed me back to Nigella, and Domestic Goddess this time (I know I've been all about Feast of late). The Christmas Morning muffins were just what I had in mind, and took about 20 minutes to knock up.

Christmas Morning Muffins

200g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
75g demerara sugar
good grating fresh nutmeg
1 clementine or small orange - I would grate and add the zest aswell if making again
approximately 50ml milk
60g unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
150g dried cranberries
12-bun muffin tin with papers

for the topping:
2 teaspoons demerara sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 200ºC/gas mark 6.

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, bicarb and sugar, and grate over a generous amount of fresh nutmeg.
2. Squeeze the orange or clementine juice into a measuring jug, then pour in milk on top till it comes up to the 150ml mark. Add the melted butter and the egg, and beat to combine.
3. Pour the jug of liquid ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir till the ingredients are more or less combined, remembering that a lumpy batter makes light muffins.
4. Last of all, lightly fold in the cranberries and fill the muffin cases or cups. The amount of cranberries specified here makes for heavily fruited muffins; if you want them sparser, use half the amount.
5. Mix together the demerara sugar and ground cinnamon and sprinkle over the tops of the muffins.
6. Stick them in the oven and bake for 20 minutes

Nigella says to split them open and spread them with butter and marmalade, but we just ate them as they were. The cranberries make for fantastic pockets of tartness in what would otherwise be a quite sweet, but very light muffin, which is quite nice with a coffee for a late breakfast.

Next time, I need to find a way to use up the huge bag of oatmeal I bought to make facepacks with the Guides, and also more exploits in bread with Mabel the leaven.