Fall Camp Cook Out

Fall is nearly here and red leaves will soon be falling on top of our heads! What better time to plan a fall camp cookout? Here's a great supper menu for all of us who have picky eaters, messy fingers, and wiggly lil' campers! Beware: Your kiddies are going to want to help. Make sure you've brought plenty of soap and wash cloths for all. 

Supper by the Fire: 

Camp Kabobs, grilled corn on the cob, and a yummy blueberry cobbler for desert!

Camp kabobs

No mess and easy, they're also fun to skewer.  Kabobs can be roasted and toasted like marshmallows. 

While we all like our kabobs made with different foods (my kids won't touch peppers of any color), the fun part is selecting the ingredients you would like for your own personal kabob and then putting them on a hot dog roasting stick.  For the camp kabob it's easiest to pre-chop ingredients and season at home.  If you like to do your slicing and dicing outside in the open air and have a great camp table to assist, simply mix up your seasoning and apply just before roasting!  

Suggested Ingredients:

Peppers (red, yellow, orange or green, they're all lovely and delicious)

Mushrooms 

Zucchini

Crook neck squash

Tomatoes (cherry tomatoes work best, but if you have any kind of garden tomato, simply slice and skewer!)

Red onion

Steak

Chicken

Lamb

Seasoning:

1 1/2 cups oil (olive oil is fantastic at home, but burns quickly in a camp fire.  For camp kabobs I recommend Canola oil or vegetable oil)

3/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 tsp salt

3 tblsp chopped parsley

1 tsp ground pepper

1-2 tblsp minced garlic (if using garlic salt, substitute for salt)

 

Directions:

Select the vegetables and/or meats for your personal kabob.  Skewer them on regular kabob sticks and place over grill on the fire, or utilize hot dog sticks if you are roasting old school style over the flames!  

Blend all the seasoning ingredients for 30 seconds by briskly whisking them with a fork.  Marinade vegetables and meats for up to 8 hours, or apply directly before roasting by rolling a skewer or hot dog stick in the seasoning.   

Grilled corn on the cob

The secret to great corn on the cob that's prepared by cooking directly in a fire pit is easy peasy!  Follow these quick directions for tender, grilled corn on the cob every time.

Ingredients:

Several ears of corn

Salt and Butter to taste if desired

Directions:

Prepare your corn for fire roasting by first soaking it inside of its husk for a few hours.  Once you've got it out, don't worry about letting it dry.  Immediately wrap it up in a good-sized sheet of aluminum foil.  Wrap it up again in a long sheet of newspaper.  Then wrap it up one last time in another sheet of aluminum foil.  Voila!  Nuke proof and fire proof and ready to roast.  

Once in your campfire coals, give it a good 30-45 min. before seeing if it's ready.  These ears taste amazing without any butter of salt on them (I know... it's hard to believe!  We're butter lovers too).  If you like camping as simply as possible, feel free to leave the butter at home!  You're not going to miss it. 

Blueberry Cobbler

Now for the main dish..... er..... I mean dessert ;) 

Using frozen or fresh blueberries always makes the best cobbler.  Dutch oven cooking need not be intimidating.  Basically, throw it all in the dutch oven and set over hot coals!  

Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups milk

4 cups blueberries, frozen or fresh

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp grated lemon zest

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 cup water

Directions:

Melt butter in a 12-inch dutch oven.  You'll want to be sure that you have a good amount of hot coals underneath, but not too many.  You want the equivalent of in coals of 10-12 briguettes underneath your dutch oven.

Wash blueberries and drain, or thaw frozen blueberries.  Then combine the berries, 1/2 cup sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, cinnamon, and water.

Coat the blueberries by stirring.

In a separate bowl combine 2 cups of sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Stir, add milk until the batter is smooth.  

Pour the batter over the melted butter in your dutch oven.  Do not sitr.

Spoon blueberry mixture over the top of the batter.  Do not stir.

Sprinkle remaining 1 tsp cinnamon over the top.

Cover and bake over the eat of your coals.  Add the equivalent of 18-20 briguettes over the top of your dutch oven lid.  Keep them there for 45-60 minutes.  Be sure to rotate your oven and lid 1/4 turn in opposite directions every 10 minutes until crust is golden brown.  Enjoy! 

Serves 8-10

Find the original recipe here at DutchovenChef.com! 

Camping in the summertime is hot work and traditional fun.  Camp outs in the autumn are cool, crisp, magical, and (with this great supper menu) delicious! 

 

 

Come Back to the Desert

What are "Simple Questions?"

Things are progressively getting more insane in the Desert. Up is declared to be down, and out is declared to be in. But these declarations cannot change the laws of nature. They may insist that something is here, when it is not. But I cannot see it, and they cannot prove it to me. It's time to ask some simple questions.

Asobi Sesku is sounding better and better

"Playful Sex," a band fronted by a Japanese-American cherry blossom Yuki Chikudate, has some amazing tunes to its credit. A lot of filler (for example, an awful cover the Crystal's "And then he Kissed Me") takes up much of the lot of their first two albums-- but offers some great gems in between. Their third album "Hush" is much more refined to their unique pop-dream style. You can check out some of their greatest tunes on their Myspace page here.

Meanwhile, enjoy this video of their hit "Thursday", full of nostalgic magic, neglect, regret-- a great sound.

Laid----Dye My Eyes LINK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkqIHWAMSJ4

Dye my eyes and call me Pretty

I am the Man Who Loves His Life

the most amazing song ever by the Tornados

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5kYcoD5U2wo&feature=related

Luna Meets New Friends

I'm constantly meeting strange folk in the Desert. They get in my face, they double cross me double quick, finding their own way through the heat. But this time, I met two classy gents who gave me hope that there's a shady tree waitin' for me to get to it. I cross my chest as I wade through this infernal oven.

You Gotta Love a Rebel

Heaven

Just saw the film "Heaven". It was euphoric and ego-drowning in a way that was not sick or disturbing-- you know those films I'm talking about-- sick and disturbing for us-- coke candy for looters and moochers. Like "Grizzly Man". Where you end up becoming obsessed with story and characters to the degree that it is disruptive to your life. Bad dreams, constant confusion regarding the dilemma of evil and human nature and their complex, projecting domino effects.

No, "Heaven" was redemption in a non-depressing way, in an aesthetically-pleasing manner, with a particularly beautiful ending of hope and triumph and sheer coolness. Freedom and the human spirit shine, and you can't help but think that helicopters don't fly that high, but who cares? They do in "Heaven". Giovanni and Cate made magic together. Loved it. 10 stars.

Part I -- Father, Good Godzilla

My father was a good man. At least he was to me. Tried to be, for me. Other people loved him too. (In the clip below, he's the one on the red tractor).



It was my mother who didn't always think so. Which was funny, because he was so charismatic when he was "out there". You know, saving the world with his smile. Maybe that's what it was, for my mom. Maybe what it was, for my mom, was that "smile" and everything behind it. It was like she had x-ray glasses, seeing the sockets of lightbulbs, the inner workings of clocks.



After a few years of marriage, a smile can cease to be a smile anymore. It can be-- well, you know, not fake-- not intentionally anyway. One can feel good and have legitimate problems. But I suppose, it can be a facade-- but only if what is beneath it is always left unexamined. Always swept under the rug, as-it-were.

Perhaps that is how it all began for him. My father, I mean. Most people don't examine what's under the rug for examination's sake. They look so that they can remove what is causing the uncomfortable bump in the floor. Right? Right? I think my father could see that my mother oftentimes got rather addicted to looking. Even when nothing was there. That was the rabbit in the hat for them. She became a hook for him to hang his coat on-- the all-encompassing thick, wool, black coat. The one with the hood. It was so easy for him to hang it on her. You see, he could sense in her this compulsive detective work. I think she seriously resented being his coat rack. But it was so easy for her to stand there, holding his coat for him. Her muffled protests coming up between the seams.

Part II-- Father, Good Godzilla

There were pictures of them falling in love from the beginning. She often confessed that she felt akin to those eyes of his, all-a-twinkle, right from the start. Now that I'm an adult, I can speculate that for many couples it begins thataway. That "driveless drive", that ambiguity of quote, unquote love. After a month, two, three, whatever it takes-- the masks come off and the projections begin to circulate like so much bad breath around the room.



My father was a good man. At least he was, to me. But there it was, this small thing-- he'd forget to put a cork in his alembic and there were many times what was brewing inside of him would simply spill out all over us. He couldn't seem to be able to distinguish what was himself, and what was my mother. It was as though all boundary lines had ceased to exist, and his own interstellar wars from within became major battles within our kitchen, living room, car-- on our outings and on the phone; no place was safe.

The beast came out unexpectedly, and when he did why, he'd smash up everything in site. Even the hearts belonging to the people he thought he loved. As I got older, I began to suspect that my mother would actually go crazy, with this false picture of reality always presented to her as a mirror. Either that or die of a heart attack. But she didn't. She got angry. She became an all-consuming tornado tearing it up on every divorce blog she could find. Self-defeating behavior, finally acquiescing to the images Godzilla threw at her face.

It didn't take Mom long to figure out she didn't like being the bride of Frankenstein. She didn’t threaten to leave. She sadly acknowledged that she would.




(Or, if you prefer Xena)

Part IIl-- Father, Good Godzilla

As strong as my mother tried to be for herself, in the end, she didn't have to leave. It's simplistic to say that Dad simply learned how to tame his anima, but indeed that is what happened. Like spontaneous combustion. That hag within him, his all-consuming Hydra, learned how to speak. English, too. And that's when everything around us started to change. The world suddenly seemed lighter, the air easier-- everything took on a sort of roundness to it. It became, enjoyable. For all of us. All the time.



I asked my mother several times, "what happened?" How did it work, exactly? I wanted the tips for any marital catastrophes looming in my own future. She didn't know. She said something like I could take care of myself, figure out reality from where I stood. In the end, it was all about that. When I approached my dad a month before he passed, he listened in silence, hearing what Mom had told me years earlier before old age had finished its last pages upon their faces. Was it the mirror, Dad? Did you finally take a good look in the mirror? Was it Mom? When she said she was going to leave if you didn't give your monsters a name and a place, was it that? Dad?

Silence.

"The monsters are still there. Always will be," he said. "But that's not really why she wanted to leave." He paused. "Yes. Giving them a name, and a place-- it encouraged me to see them-- help them. But what it really was, is that they helped me. Yes . . . yes, they helped me in point-of-fact, to see her. Your mother. My wife."

Online Fiction

I haven't posted because I haven't even begun to come up with a coherent plan. I had wanted to make a home for Luna's Desert, but I don't know if this will qualify as online fiction, first of all-- and I don't know that I have the time or expertise to even do this. Basically, it would be Luna's apartment and links to shots of the city in Australia where she lives. There would be her bedroom and links to the characters in the story. There would also be bits and pieces of the story through linking to this and that-- like an easy maze-- just link to this and link to that.

The other idea I had was to find already existing video clips and photos from free photo stock sites and link them in a sort of manner which would connect them to a background story of my choosing. This idea is probably easier to do-- it is online fiction-- don't know about copyright issues so much. And there you have it.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2006) is a Korean film with beautiful cinematography, stark colors and contrasts, and a solid narrative which is told via great dialogue and superb editing. "Be white, like this"-- a great finish to a story of justice and atonement. As soon as the intro-credits roll with the swirling and indents of finger pads, red liquid akin to red blood rolling down, you're hooked-- and it's not corny or cliche' at all. The unique dark humor reflected in the drama surrounding a prison inmate nicknamed "The Witch" as she throws her weight around, and the revenge enacted on her by her roomies is a great backdrop for the real conundrum ahead: Do you leave scum-sucking dirt bags to the state? Do you pronounce and enforce sentence yourself? "Big sins, big atonement. Small sins, small atonement." It can be gruesomely painful to watch at times, but on the whole, you appreciate the sensual ride and the conclusions our heroine comes to make in the end. As part of a revenge trilogy by Park Chan-wook, I look forward to the other two: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy.

Snowflake Smashing

She's blonde, she's five, and she's trapped in The Desert.

----------------

Luna's relationship with her parents leaves much to be desired. They love her, but they're too busy to help her make sense of her expanding world. When a brass key to their business is lost, Luna must enter The Desert to try to find it and restore balance to not only their world, but hers as well.

----------------

more to follow to finish up the "snowflake process"

I make up stories quite a bit. I especially do so for my daughter, Gretel petal. What would be a lot of fun is compiling them together into a site with photographs of enacted scenes, music, etc.

It'd also be a lot of fun to make an interactive site for my screenplay "Luna's Desert". You could visit Luna's room, visit the Desert, meet creatures there, see Luna's parents-- their places of work, etc.

Another interest I have would be to create a nonpolitical political site. Something like: Obama, Clinton, and McCain have all been shot by a team of unknown sniper ninjas. Oh wait-- perhaps that wouldn't be so nonpolitically political. "All Presidential Ass Candidates Shot" sure does have a nice ring to it though.

Online fiction is awesome- as long as you're sitting at the computer, you might as well jump into a fictional story or enjoy the interaction between real-life computer nerds who are role playing as themselves in fictional circumstances.

There are some fantastic narratives being created as I type. What I find so interesting are the spin-offs of fiction and the different ways to relate and connect with others through fiction. For example, an amazing first-of-its-kind hypertext book "Patchwork Girl".
Now, this book isn't available online, and I don't think you can even download it. So I don't know that you would classify it as online fiction. However, I did find this great review of the book in which the reviewer professes to be the girl in patchwork girl. What's so interesting about this, is that a real review of a real work of fiction is written under the auspices of a fictional character who creates a new fictional reality.

This next reference is a bit tricky. There's a blog spot called "Our Souls Journey" which seems to be maintained and subscribed to by every hippie burnout who's obtained "enlightenment" on the planet. However, the key is that however mystically esoteric much of the drivel may be, the blog seems to operate from a place of nonfiction intent. That being said, I did find a bit of obvious fiction on the site, just scroll down until you read:

'On the very
inner fringes of
primordial creation there was born a constellation of
Seven Stars. As
time passed each was ruled by a Prince and a King
bound them all. They
evolved from the material to the spiritual. In the
spiritual they sought out all creation, seeking to
harmonize, to learn,
to grow and to acquire understanding. Their threads of
consciousness
spread over the Universe as a closely woven yarn,
making the vastness . . .'

You get the point. What is interesting about this particular fiction is that the bloggers generally utilize fiction to emphasize nonfictional beliefs and lifestyles.

How is Liberty Best Preserved in the Desert?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_encroachment

It's an extensive topic and I'm movin' as fast as I can. The research is fun, but editing in Wiki is not. Please let me know what sounds like gibberish, what sounds like opinionated rhetoric, and what you like too-- that last bit is what keeps me motivated.