This meal is out of order, but it comes to me by email from our CFO (Chief Food Officer) Mr. Fred Niell. Fred writes:

Meal 0.5 was Friday Lunch, which was as unplanned as it was thrown together. Copic walked into the kitchen at 11:30 and mentioned that there were 3 lbs of dry pasta in a bag in the corner, 1 quart jar of Ragu. I felt like it was an episode of Iron Chef, except that the challenge ingredient was the lack of time, menu, or preparation. But, we had wine, tomatoes, squash, carrots, onions, garlic, basil, oregano, mushrooms, and whatever else was nearby. I can’t really remember what all went into the 4-ish quarts of sauce I made. I may have also added the remainder of the pizza tomato sauce. I boiled the pasta to al-dente in salted, oiled water. Then I tossed the pasta into a steamtable tray along with sauce, and tossed with 1.5 cups parmesan cheese. Then topped with more cheese - all while hot. Voila. Hardly gourmet, but hey - it was on the table by 12:10, and all gone before I finally had a chance to sit down to eat it.

Bill and Dorothea Coleman took charge of breakfast on Saturday, and they got some help from spoons’s sister, Rachel, and dad, Tom. The meal included pancakes, bacon, eggs, and omelets made-to-order. Since most of the preparation for Saturday’s dinner happened on Friday, the breakfast-makers did their best to use up extra mushrooms, bell peppers, and anything else leftover from early preparations. We don’t have crazy recipes to share from Saturday breakfast, but here are some notes on ingredients. (And don’t worry: the caramel French toast is coming soon!)

Eggs came from Mick Luber at Bluebird Farm in Cadiz, OH (thanks to Laura Wies and the Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association for giving us his contact information and to Ryan for picking them up at the Bloomfield Market) and David Yodel at NuWay Farm in Cochranton, PA. The bacon came from Niman Ranch.

We bought coffee from our favorite Pittsburgh roaster: Coffee Tree Roasters. Maple syrup (grade B!) was from Fuller’s Sugarhouse in Lancaster, NH and imported by Aaron and Eileen.

On Thursday morning, spoons and I made a produce run to a couple of local farms and farm stands. We stopped at a farm stand in Allegany, NY* and picked up all the apples, pears, peaches, plums, and other fruit used at breakfast and throughout the weekend. Except the bananas… ’cause they don’t grow in New York.

*Google has totally failed us in remembering the name of this farm stand. We think something like “Bachmeyer’s” but it had some other spelling. We found it again on Google maps, but we still can’t come up with the name. Bonus points to anyone who can find it!

Want to find out what other campers have been doing since camp? Or before they got there? Check out these Spoonhowopian blogs and websites (in no particular order)!

Stags!
Stefan (with Elephant Larry)
Biz
Kat (here is her camp post!)
Stephen
Ryan
Alana
Rose (veggie recipes)

Eagles!
Jeff (with Elephant Larry)
Jaime (and her camp post)
Cortney
Tom 7
Fred (science!)

Lions!
Jason (camp posts 1, 2, 3, 4)
Adam
J (camp posts start here)
Martha (great photos!) (camp posts start here)
Brian (and his camp post)
Aaron & Eileen (or read older adventures)
Heather H (science!)
Babak (science!)

Turtles!
Tina
Liz
Kate (food, books, more)

Music, Photos, and other stuff people make:
Jeff (music)
Jason (music) (fonts)
Jason and Adam (prints, t-shirts)
Jason and HH and spoons (music) (and this one, too!)
Cortney (photos)
Tom 7 (photos) (music) (books) (fonts)
Kat (music) (more music)
John (music)
Aaron (fire juggling, music)
Heather P (photos)
Martha (photos)
Bo (photos)
Cyndi (book)
Ryan (amazing compendium of 80’s sax solos)
Alana (photos)
Jeff and Stefan sketch comedy (this too!)
Biz (comedy)

Did we miss anybody? Let us know.

Also, there are over 30 camp alumni on Facebook. It’s not so bad, really. There is Scrabble. If you succumb to Facebook, join the Camp Spoonhowopic group there.

Another way to keep in touch is the Spoonhowopic Forum. Let us know if you have questions about it.

Nothing satisfies traveling campers like barbecue! On Friday night, we served up a hearty meal of brassica mixta, corn on the cob and corn bread, and barbecued chicken and tempeh.

Brassica mixta (or as my brother called it, basilica sarcastica) was our hastily re-branded coleslaw. Why re-branded? For some reason, coleslaw is the most over-served, under-eaten dish in the history of cooking. We really like this dish, and we were afraid that if we called it “coleslaw,” no one would eat it. (Someone later confirmed our suspicions by saying “That was great! What was it? Coleslaw?! I hate coleslaw.”) Credit for the naming goes to Aaron: the name comes from the genus brassica, which includes cabbage and other mustard-like vegetables.

Brassica Mixta (aka Texas Slaw)

We’ve linked to the corn bread recipe below, but the key to this dish is really just good course-ground corn meal. Our came from the Littleton Grist Mill in Littleton, NH. Independent scientific research by Rose has shown that the corn meal makes all the difference. (To make this recipe work for 100 people, we used baking pans instead of a cast iron skillet, and we browned some of the butter before pouring it into the pans.)

Skillet Corn Bread

The barbecued tempeh (it’s actually baked) recipe comes from Rose and is based on a recipe by Peter Berley. We followed it more or less as it appears here, though we used freshly ground chipotle for some extra punch!

Barbecued Tempeh

The chicken came from Bell & Evans and was butchered for us by Azman’s in Cleveland, OH. To keep things moving, it was par-baked in the kitchen and then finished and sauced on the grill. Unfortunately, this barbecue sauce is, and forever shall be, a closely guarded secret of John A. Copic. To create something similarly delicious at home, we like this recipe from Fine Cooking for grilled, bone-in chicken. The maple-bourbon glaze they suggest is amazing!

Heya, campers! We are beginning to post some of the details of the “making of” Camp Spoonhowopic, starting with food! Only a few people arrived at Camp in time for Thursday night dinner, but those who did were treated to pizza on the grill, courtesy of Aaron and Eileen.

The pizza dough recipe comes from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. (This book is pretty great and highly recommended for both bread wannabes and experts. In addition to an eight page discussion of leavening, it has a story (about bread) that ends with one person fuming, “You’ve ruined me. Are you happy?”)

Pizza Napoletana

• 4.5 cups unbleached flour (bread or all-purpose)
• 1.75 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast (a little more than half a package of active dry yeast)
• 1.75 cups water, ice cold
• olive oil (optional)

1. stir together flour, salt, yeast, and enough water until the flour is absorbed
2. cover and put the dough in the refrigerator overnight (use some oil to prevent sticking)
3. 2 hours before making pizza, remove the dough and divide into balls (1 per pizza)
4. just before cooking, form the dough, 1 pizza at a time

The grilling part goes like this:

1. brush one side with oil
2. put oil side down on grill, cook
3. brush other side on oil and sprinkle with salt
4. then flip, add toppings, cover, and cook

The trick is to make sure the fire is not too hot!