Christmas Dinner Menu:

Honey, Cranberry and  Pineapple Glazed Ham, Fresh Asparagus garnished with Caramelized Onion and Water Chestnuts and Parker House Rolls!

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Yes, Christmas dinner is being cooked in our little camper kitchen, for two! I was not about to spend my special dinner amongst strangers in a restaurant! I figured that since Thanksgiving dinner was a huge success, why not pull off a great feast in a camper once again.

The trick, is to organize and prep in stages! Taking turns in that small space and it has to be organized. John will prep the ham, put it in the oven and start the timer! I then dance around him, ever so gracefully mind you, and chop the onion and start them caramelizing! Setting aside my beloved water chestnuts, olive oil, butter and cayenne to combine later!

John will then spin around me to make the glaze for the ham. This glaze is going to be so good! It has corn syrup, honey, crushed pineapple, peach nectar, and a little grated ginger in it, and cooked slowly over  low heat to thicken!

Meanwhile, while I edge my way back to the stove every few minutes to stir my onions and water chestnuts, John will spin around me to glaze the ham every 10 minutes or so! What a team!

When the ham is almost done, I’ll start the Asparagus, we’ll use the caramelized onions and water chestnuts as a garnish for them later on! I learned a new trick from Alton Brown from FoodNetwork.com on how to keep fresh asparagus looking fresh and keeping that pretty greenness and still have that little snap! I put the recipe over at our cooking website, My Camper Kitchen!

We’ll bake those famous Parker House Rolls and prepare a quick and easy desert,Strawberry Cobbler in small Ramekins!

Christmas Dinner, Family Style… All cooked in a small camper kitchen!

We had to replace our Dish Tailgater with a new Winegard thingie; the Winegard thingie will do both eastern arc and western arc, which is a tremendous advantage. But the Winegard thingie is spooky. I call it Big Eye.

  You know how you can feel when someone’s looking at you? Even from behind. It’s that kind of spooky. Every now and then, several times a day, Big Eye will just crank up, scan and aim in various directions. Not when the DVR is recording something; Big Eye follows his own schedule. And obviously tracks me and monitors my every movement.

Where’s the tinfoil?

First of all, this is not a campground review in any way, just my thoughts and rantings!

I started out my day yesterday doing my usual morning walk, plus needed to go to the campground office to check us in as we had arrived there too late and after office hours the night before.

I knew I didn’t want to stay on the lot we were in as it was all mud. With decision in hand, I marched forward to the office. The office is about half a mile from our site. But, I was armed and ready to either get another lot that was drier, or, pay for last night and leave.

Then, suddenly I see a bunch of folks way down at the end of the street all gathered up looking at something kinda twisted up in the middle of the road. Well, I knew it had to be much more than an animal. It looked like a person, but, all sort of curled up!

As I approached, I suddenly realized it was a human being all curled up in such a manner,  they appeared almost twisted in a way.  I thought, Oh No!  I considered the 5 or 6 folks standing around the still, almost  lifeless body as onlookers! Curiosity seekers. Like cars lined up at a wreck all slowing traffic down!

It turns out they were simply there to greet the ambulance once it arrived. By the time I got a little closer so they could here me, I yelled… “Is this something bad, I can turn around?” I for one, was not going to walk passed a person with such misfortune!

Some man yelled and said, “No, it’s okay you can pass… he’s just fainted!” As I approached, it was obvious it was much more than that! He was laying there all contorted, blood running from his head and somewhere mid-section! Yet, I could swear I heard snoring! I sped up and got my self down to the docks as fast as I could and the little store by the pier!

I made it down to the office, no one inside but a yelping little peep squeak!  So, as I settled down my nerves, I looked around the store, Not much there, but it was something to do while waiting for someone to walk in to the store and ask me how they could help me.

I gave up and decided to just go back to the campsite, I’d take another walk to the store later on once my nerves settled!

As I walked across the parking lot heading back to my camper, I saw an ambulance there with the man inside! Such relief! A lady walked  passed me and I ask her if she was the one I was suppose to see to check in with, she answered, “yes”. I wondered if she even saw me at first!

Once inside, I told her I was the one on the muddy lot! Still cleaning the mud from my shoes as a matter of fact!  I told her I needed a dry lot, preferably with some grass on it. She said, “well, it appears that we are all booked up!” Well, I ask, can someone bring us some pine straw and dead leaves to spread over the lot? I was just desperate to fix the problem. I explained, the nice little Pallets some night worker was kind enough to loan us was only allowing us to get out the front door, the rest of the lot was just as bad and I’m going to be here a whole week!

Suddenly, her attitude changed and she said, “oh, well I can put you on lot 8”  Would that work for you? Yea, well, duh!

I got a fabulous lot! High ground, yeah! Lots of grass, shade, picnic table, fire pit and woods behind me!

Looking back, I realized the old man was drunk and had simply passed out and had had a bad fall in the middle of the street! Apparently, he’d done this before and they thought nothing of it! Just a routine. Such a routine, they seem to almost not care! Dead or alive, they’d do the right thing and watch over him until help arrived. It was a harrowing start to my almost perfect day…

I feel as if I should somehow find some humor in this story, if and when  I do, you’ll be the first to know!