Medicine Lake

We went camping at Medicine Week on Wednesday. Well, not so much camping as drove down/up there (it's South but about 1,000 feet higher in elevation), ate dinner, swam, got eaten alive by mosquitoes, drove the 45 minutes down a road that hasn't been paved since around 1969, and slept on a friend's couch at Lava Beds. Which was far more comfortable.

Anyway...



There was also a picture-perfect sunset, a really pretty Cheshire Cat moon, and some incredible acrobatics by bats and night hawks. But by that point, the camera was dead. Always an excuse right?

There were about 20 of us, which meant an amazing array of hummus, roasted garlic, and salad. Healthy people who know how to cook? FANTASTIC! There was also some great grilled chicken in a mustard-soy marinade, which I really want the recipe to, chocolate-coconut cookies, which I'm getting the recipe to, and my contribution, grilled teryaki vegetables. Which I also, very slackingly, didn't get a picture of. But I do have the recipe. Cause I made it.


Campfire Sweet and Salty Vegetables

For Teryaki
1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce (or regular, if you don't mind bloating)
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
1/3 cup brown sugar

Combine in a sauce pan and over medium heat bring to a simmer. Let simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until the sauce has a viscous, honey-like consistency. Remove from heat and let cool. The sauce can still be warm, but should not be bubbling.

Vegetables
1-8oz package white mushrooms
1 medium onion
1 large red bell pepper
1-16oz can of pineapple chunks, drained

Wash all of the vegetables and peel the onion. Discard the seeds in the bell pepper. With the mushrooms, cut into quarters. Chop the onion and bell pepper into large, bite size chunks.

Combine the vegetables and the teryaki sauce in a plastic bag. Let sit for several hours, until all the yummy flavors have been absorbed. I did this in tin foil, so I could just throw them onto a fire. The teryaki went everywhere. Use plastic.

At this point, there are a number of ways to cook it. Use skewers to make Shish kababs (sheesh cababs... how the heck does one spell that?), put 'em on a grill for 3-4 minutes, or do as we did, wrap them in tin foil and chuck it onto a fire for about 5-6 minutes. If there is no grill or fire handy, or if it happens to be snowing/raining/way too hot to use an outside cooking method, throw them in a 400 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Serve hot and enjoy!


And then eat the marshmallows if you're at a campfire. Even a bunch of health nuts jumped like rabid dogs on a package of marshmallows.

Love from what can pass as civilization,
Lily