Fall meet-up with friends #3 -- A hot dog roast at our little camp

 

 I failed to get photos of this one, but it was a wonderful Tuesday afternoon.  So I'll just use older photos and tell the story -- and maybe share a recipe or two.  Our friends Rick and Bethany and two of their adult kids are visiting from Indiana, and we absolutely had to carve out some time with them.  We invited them, plus Bethany's parents whom they are staying with, over for a lunchtime hot dog roast at our little camp.  This is such a fun place from which to extend hospitality!

Our daughter Carrie and three of her kids walked through the woods to join us for lunch, making the time even nicer. 

Roasting hot dogs over a campfire is so much fun and makes a simple main course.  I also made macaroni and cheese and a baked bean dish, and my friend Lynne (Bethany's mom) brought a quinoa and cabbage salad.  For dessert, I made an apple crisp in a 13x9 pan.

Ordinarily I make homemade baked beans for this meal.  But in this case, our plans were sort of last minute and I didn't have time to soak dry beans.  So I did some looking through my Gooseberry Patch cookbooks and found this recipe, which I adapted a bit, so I will give you my quantities: 

OLD SETTLERS' BAKED BEANS

1/2 pound ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
A handful of bacon bits
1 can baked beans
1 can butter beans, with half the liquid drained off
1 can kidney beans, same
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1 to 2 Tablespoons prepared yellow mustard

Brown the beef and onion together in a small skillet.  Toss in the bacon bits and mix well.  Combine in a 3-quart slow cooker and cook on Low for 6 hours or so.

This was a pretty casual recipe that didn't give can sizes or tell whether or not to drain the beans.  The butter beans and kidney beans I used were about a 1-pound can, and the baked beans were larger -- possibly 28 or 32 ounces.  I drained half the liquid off the butter and kidney beans as a sort of compromise, but added the full contents of the baked bean can.  My bean dish turned out more liquid-y than I would have liked (maybe because I didn't drain the beans fully; maybe because I cooked mine on High due to time constraints), so I served them with a slotted spoon.  People liked them, so I would probably do this again.

We have chairs around the campfire ring and a table and chairs inside the camp and made sure people knew they were welcome to eat in either location.  Everyone ended up outdoors, as it was such a beautiful afternoon.  It was warm and sunny around the firepit.  Leaves were falling gently, making it necessary for us to watch what we were eating!

 After lunch Mr. T took the menfolk up to show them the spring and his ingenious system of getting a seasonal water supply to the camp and shower house.  The young women talked writing (an interest they have in common) and we older ladies chatted, admired our few surviving flowers, and did a little clean-up.

Just a wonderful time together surrounded by the beauty of God's glorious creation!