Truffle Mutt

Everything but the Cabin Sink

A couple of weeks ago I was lounging on the shores of Mara lake and actually enjoying the heat of the baking sun.  There's just something about being beside the water that makes the heat much more tolerable.

Our cabin is perched on a rock next to the water in a secluded cove that's the perfect place for a quite holiday.  It is however, only accessible by boat making it imperative that all types of food be stocked in case hunger strikes.  For me organizing this trip usually requires several hours of meal planning followed by a major shopping trip.  But I wasn't feeling great before we left I neglected planning knowing the grocery store out there to be well stocked.

When we arrived in town my cousin was just packing up to leave.  He had been out the week before skiing and drinking with his buddies and he told us not to worry about shopping because they were leaving us with tons of leftover food.  Yeah, the warning bells (more like sirens) were going off in my head, but being eager to get to the cabin, I pushed the idea of the grocery store out of my head. 

When we arrived at the cabin my fears were confirmed when we opened the fridge to 4lbs hot dogs, 5 lbs hamburger, 1/4 cow's worth of steak, 3 packages of buns and BBQ sauce.  The girls on the trip had nicely contributed a few bags of baby carrots, yogurt and 2 liters of milk.  So, technically it was true that we had lots of groceries.  But they were boy groceries!  And then it happened, the boat died.  Not all was lost at least we had lots of alcohol. 

Daily meals included yogurt and a grapefruit cooler for breakfast, hot dogs and tangerine coolers for lunch and steak and veggies with pineapple coolers for dinner.  And dessert?  A box of several-seasons-old brownies and a french vanilla vodka cooler.  It wasn't gourmet, but at least it wasn't survivor. 

In the end the boat was resurrected and we were able to buy some real food for the last part of our trip.  We also had to buy lots more alcohol, we'd become frighteningly accustomed to our meal-time imbibing.

The omelet above was an attempt to clean out the fridge before we left.  It's a 13 egg monster with 1/2 package of breakfast sausage, 3 portabello mushrooms, 3 baby potatoes, 1 onion, 1 yellow pepper, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 package of cheese, 1 bunch of asparagus and 1 tomato.  We still had some leftovers, but I drew the line at adding pickles...  And to go along with breakfast, my new favorite drink.  Milk - it was breakfast after all - mixed with Kahlua and Capitan Morgan's Parrot Bay Coconut Rum.  Mmm.

The Most Important Meal

Sorry all!  Camping food is going to be making a few more appearances on my blog before summer draws to a close, but it won't last too much longer.  Plus, I made a batch of twenty hour apples last night from Pierre Herme's Desserts, so you can see a glimmer of real food shining at the end of the tunnel. 

For now though, while the apples are doing their 10 hour chill, back to camping.  We went out again last week to take advantage of the sun's brief weekend long appearance.  The weather was great and the scenery was beautiful, but the food wasn't up to my usual standards.  Okay, that's not all true.  I did manage to get the breakfast part right. 

For example this was my scrumptious buttery and crisp ham, cheese, egg and tomato sandwich.  It was so good.  No it was great.  No fantastic.  Okay you probably get it.  Of course, everything was grilled in my cast iron skillet over the fire in lots of butter.  There's probably a lot of ash in there too and I ate it anyway. 

The other food I can't take credit for because the baking came from the local Black Diamond Bakery.  Sure, I did drive all the way to the bakery and buy it, but still.  We had icing drenched apple fritters,  sugar laden cinnamon puffs and a creamy honey cake with a candied almond topping.  There was also an icing dipped croissant but it didn't survive long.  The baking was, as always, wonderful.  However, my very favorite Black Diamond Bakery butter horns were all sold out.  Bummer, I was looking forward to that.

If you're ever out that way you should stop in to the Bakery for the great lunch.  And while your there you should probably buy some of their fresh made bread, and maybe a few bagels, a dozen or so cookies, oh and there's the savory section.  Maybe you should just go for yourself and see, and of course taste. 

Black Diamond Bakery & Coffee Shop
119 Centre Ave W.
Black Diamond, Alberta