The Recipe, the Revelation

Since my post about camp bread, several people have asked me for the recipe. Here's the one I came across a while back in my Texas Ranger cookbook:

2 cups flour

2 tsps baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp oil

1 cup milk

Mix dry ingredients. Add oil and milk. Roll out 1/4-inch thick like biscuit dough. Preheat covered skillet for 5 minutes on medium low heat. Put in dough and spread it out to cover bottom of 10- or 12-inch skillet. Cover and bake 6 or 7 minutes. Turn and bake 5 more minutes.

So that's the recipe that I've not gotten right for so many years. I was telling my husband that my PaPa's camp bread seemed to be lighter, fluffier, and more biscuit-like, and that mine was always too dense. Well, my mom dropped by one afternoon and read the post. We shed a few tears together before she turned to me and said, "Didn't your PaPa use Bisquick to make his camp bread?" All of those years, all of those failed attempts, and to think that all I needed was a box of Bisquick. I still think that the camp bread, if made with Bisquick won't taste quite the same made by my own hands, in my house, but it might have more of that fluffy biscuit texture that I was missing.

On another note, last Father's Day was doubly special because we celebrated not only a great daddy, but a great person as well. My husband's birthday just happened to fall on that special day set aside for father's everywhere. We spent the weekend with my in-laws, ate yummy pound cake, and just about passed out trying to blow out the candles on the cake with party horns.



I'm sorry this is late, but Happy Birthday/Father's Day to my best friend and the greatest daddy my children could have!

And to all the "dads" in my life, I want you to know just how wonderful you are!

Love,

Nessa Dee

One Man Show

In my house, it's not unusual to see the occasional pirate running by, or a spy lurking through the hallways, or even a princess/knight all in one ensemble. We like to dress up around here ......a lot. Someday, when I have a little more time, I might post a collection of pictures that shows our numerous outfits over the years, but for now, I'm going to post a few pictures of Finn. The following pictures (with the exception of Finn in his army helmet) happened in a time span of about 15 minutes. I think he had a little help and prompting from his sister, but it was entertaining nonetheless.

Nessa Dee

IF: Forgotten

Sometimes we feel as if our friends have forgotten about us.

I haven't posted in a while, mainly because we got a new computer and we're still trying to get everything hooked up and installed. I had something to post last week, but didn't have the means. Anyway, this was a quick painting between projects.

Have a good weekend!

ND

Almost perfect, but not quite.

Camp bread. The recipe is simple, mix flour, milk, baking powder, oil, and salt. It's quick and easy to cook, put it in a skillet on top of the stove, heat for 5 minutes on each side. That's it, you're done. A delicious compliment to any meal, or add honey and it becomes a tasty dessert.

My love for camp bread stemmed from childhood. It wasn't a staple in my own household, but in the house right up the street from mine. A lot of good memories of delicious food came from my grandparent's home. My MaMaw was an excellent cook, making everything homemade from butterhorn rolls to chocolate sheet cake to chicken fried bacon, but camp bread.... that was my PaPa's domain. I remember him standing in that old kitchen, his cane propped up against the cabinets, rolling out the dough, and then setting it into the hot skillet. The smell of freshly baked bread filled the air, and although the bread was ready in no time, it still seemed like an eternity before it was done. My favorite things to pair with camp bread? A bowl of pinto beans, or some peach jelly.
There's only been a handful of times that I've attempted to make this simple bread. The first time, still a child, my brother and I had a craving for camp bread. We decided that it would be quicker to make it ourselves instead of trekking just up the street to see if Papa could make it. It was way too salty. Another time, during my "everything should be healthy" phase, I made whole wheat camp bread. Not bad, but not great either. Several other failed attempts, and I determined that camp bread was beyond my cooking abilities. Well, today my daughter asked if I could make "that bread you make on the stove, in the pan." So, I pulled out my cookbook, turned to page 31, and with determination, started to prepare the dough. I made sure everything was measured to a tee, and I tried not to over mix. I placed the dough in the heated skillet, covered it, and even set the timer to make sure each side of the bread was cooked just so. I removed the bread from the heat, cut it into manageable pieces, and tasted. It was good, really good!!

My daughter asked me if it was just how I remembered to which I replied, "Almost." I want to pass this tasty tradition down to my own children, but I can't seem to get it quite right. Trying to figure out what it could possibly be missing, it finally hit me. The camp bread will never be perfect. It can come close, but never perfect. It's not because I've missed an ingredient, or that I overmixed it, or undercooked it. It's because it will never again be made by that man who stood in the old kitchen with his cane propped against the cabinets, who told us countless adventures of his days as a Texas Ranger, who swore my eyes were green when I just knew that they were brown, who played some of the best pranks on his grandchildren, who always greeted me with a kiss on the large freckle on the side of my nose.



No, it will never taste like it did when I was a child, but at least, in my kids' eyes, it's perfect.



ND

The Grass is Greener

This is how the day started....

Finn: "Tan we do to da park?" (Can we go to the park?)

Me: "Hmmmm..."

Finn: "Maybe later?"

Me thinking: "I must say that way too often if my 2 year old is repeating it."

Me, guilt stricken: "Okay, we'll go after breakfast."

Me to Audrie: "We're going to go to the park after breakfast."

Audrie: "But you said we could have a picnic at the park."

Me thinking again: "Did I?? I must have, my daughter has an elephant's memory."

Me: "Okay, we'll have a picnic breakfast."

Audrie: "We have to take the volleyball, too, and the basketball, and something to feed the fish, and we can picnic by the windmill, and..." her voice trails off into the hallway.

Me looking in our pantry: "Get your shoes on, we're going to the convenience store to get some Pop Tarts."

We then jump into the car, stop by then convenience store for a breakfast lacking any nutritional value, and then head back to the park that sits in the fairly new community across the street from ours.

Although I would love to one day own my own little piece of land with a house, uniquely designed sitting proudly atop a hill in front of our pond, I do so enjoy the amenities that come with a master planned community. It's all of the fun that parks and pools bring without the work it takes to maintain them. And one of the perks that comes with living in a rapidly growing area is that with new master planned communities popping up all around us, we have a lot of parks to choose from! But with a recent walk to the park across the road, it was determined by my daughter that every park visit henceforth should be to this particular park. What makes this park so appealing that it is now deemed the sole proprietor of our outdoor fun? Is it the newness of the playground? I would say so, except that our own community installed a third playground around the same time this one was put into place. Is it the basketball court, or sand volleyball pit? Nope. We have those, too, although we never use them in our own community. Is it the open fields of grass beckoning the children to run through its endless sea of green? I would have to say no to this as well because we have as much if not more grassy area set aside for such purposes. So, what's the catch? Here's what I have concluded:

1. This community has a pond, and although we have a couple of ponds too, none contain, to my knowledge, an eddy full of catfish awaiting a delicious meal of cracker crumbs.

2. This community has a windmill which acts as a decorative feature that pumps water to create a fountain-like effect. Now, to any child who loves stirring water with sticks, if you add a windmill into the mix, it apparently makes it much more exciting. Our community has no decorative windmill feature.

3. This community promises the discovery of things that I'm sure our community has to offer, but it has not been proven with actual evidence. Things such as a very large turtle that was spotted whilst borrowing the much softer crushed gravel trails on my morning jog; sitings of owls being chased out of a tree by the small mockingbirds who inhabit it; fossilized shells which are sprinkled along the paths; crystals that sparkle at the bottom of the shallow pool where the windmill pumps its water.

I don't know how long this park will hold its title. It seems like the new shine begins to dull all too soon these days. But I will gladly travel to the "other side" as long as this park induces excitement in my children's eyes.

Nessa Dee

IF: Wide

This little bird might have had a bit too much to eat!

I've been pretty busy lately working on some various projects, so I haven't had much time to devote to IF projects. I wanted to get something in for this topic, though, so I squeezed this little guy in between projects.

Have a great weekend!

Nessa Dee

Day 5

It's the final day of my commitment to post about our trip 5 days in a row. This little experiment has reminded me of the reason why I usually post once every 3 weeks or so. It's a lot of work!! Granted, I did have to go through about 700 pictures every day and try to narrow it down to a select few from our trip, and I'm still trying to figure out this whole layout thing through trial and error. (What you see on the draft is not the same as when you post it!) I think I can find a happy medium though, maybe 1 to 2 posts a week, for example.

Here it is, day 5. Well....we didn't really do anything on the final day of our trip except pack up our stuff, and also, our camera battery died, so we don't have any pictures from that day either. Instead, I will leave you with a plethora of pictures from the other four days.