Ingredients:
4-5 pounds Pork Loin
1 onion Sliced into rings
1/2 C. soy sauce
1/2 C. brown sugar
6 Tbsp white wine vinegar
6 Tbsp water
4 garlic cloves diced
1 C. peanut butter-creamy
4 Tbsp peanuts chopped-optional
2 limes cut into wedges-optional

Metrics:

Directions:
Put onion slices into the bottom of your crockpot. Put the pork on top.
Mix brown sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, water, garlic, and peanut butter.
Microwave until melted and wisk to combine. Pour over top of pork. Cover
and cook on low for 10 hours, or on high for 6-7.
OPTIONAL:
Garnish with chopped peanuts, and serve with lime wedges. The lime
juice mixed with the peanut butter is delicious.

Ingredients:
1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
3 – 4 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 egg plus 2 eggs
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese softened
1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix
Butter for greasing pan, plus 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) butter,
melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped nuts

Metrics:

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Lightly grease a 13 by 9-inch baking pan. In a large bowl, combine
the cake mix, 1 egg, and 8 tablespoons (1 stick) melted butter, and
stir until well blended. Pat mixture into prepared pan and set
aside. In a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese
until smooth. Add the remaining 2 eggs, and the cocoa powder. Lower
the speed of the mixer, and add the powdered sugar. Continue beating
until ingredients are well mixed. Slowly add the remaining 8
tablespoons (1 stick) of melted butter, and the vanilla, continuing
to beat the mixture until smooth. Stir in nuts with a rubber
spatula. Spread filling over cake mixture in pan.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Be careful not to overcook the cake; the
center should still be a little gooey when finished baking. Let cake
partially cool on a wire rack before cutting into pieces.

Ingredients:
1 onion chopped
3 Tbsp butter
2 chicken breasts, uncooked cubed
6 chicken bouillon cubes
6 C. water
8 ounces rotini pasta
2 10 ounces pkgs broccoli frozen
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
8 ounces Velveeta cubed
12 ounces cheddar cheese shredded
6 1/2 C. milk
3 Tbsp corn starch

Metrics:

Directions:
Saute together butter and onion. Add chicken and cook until it just
starts to brown. Add bullion and water. Cook until chicken is done;
add pasta and cook for 3 minutes. Add broccoli and cook until
tender. Mix 1/2 C. cold milk and corn starch and add. Boil 1 minute.
(It will be thick.) Stir in garlic powder, pepper, cheese and milk.
Heat until cheese melts.

COOKS NOTE: You may use fresh broccoli, cut up. Using broccoli and
cauliflower would be good too.

I was sitting around the campfire over the weekend just admiring the wonderful creation that we’ve been blessed with. Our campsite was surrounded with some amazing Oak trees that seem to have grown nearly perfectly on their own. There is no evidence on these trees of human pruning or maintenance and yet, they have grown to a perfect shape in the canopy of the forest. Then there were the horses that were surrounding our campsite (since we were camping in the horseman’s camping area). These beautiful creatures are quite humorous if you sit and observe them. They seem to talk to each other and their masters at times during the day. When their hay or oats run out, they would stand and stare at their owners or whinny and neigh until their owners brought them more. At other times, I would look over and see the two horses at the campsite next to ours just staring at me. I finally realized that they acted just like our cat and dogs!

It is on these trips that I find myself sitting back and reflecting on the beauty that is so abundant in nature. So often I think we take that for granted because we get so far away from that most of the time. We surround ourselves with our “wonderful” technology and forget about all that our Creator has provided for us for not only our sustenance but also for our enjoyment. For example, this weekend we did nearly all of our cooking over our propane stove and the fire (no electricity) and kept ourselves entertained by hiking the trails, swimming in the lake, and exploring the woods. We didn’t need our radio, TV, Internet, etc. When it rained and we were stuck in the tent for an extended period of time, we played cards and talked!

I also like to think there is opportunity on these family camping trips to pass along some of what I have learned and experienced over the years tomy kids. Such as when my Taylor asked “How do you start your campfires?”, it gives me an opportunity to talk to her how I learned (through Firecrafter) to start a fire without matches, and how I was able to start a fire this weekend with a single match and make it last for 3 days and leave no unburned wood. Also, when the kids ask why I demand that the entire family participate in cooking and cleaning up at every meal so that everyone gets to enjoy every activity TOGETHER!

Call me old-fashioned, call me a tree hugger, but it pains me to see families where the husband and kids are out enjoying the activities of the day while the wife spends the day cooking and cleaning for the family. It bothers me when I walk through a beautiful campground only to see it trashed up with beer cans and cigarette butts in campsites or along the lakeshore. I don’t want my family to be that way. I want my family to be the one that is out hiking together, riding together, swimming together. I want my family to be the one that leaves the campsite better than we found it for the next camper.

Maybe I am old-fashioned, but “I want it the way it was when I was a kid!”