Camping adventures!

It's going to take me a very long time to get through my three Weight Watchers cookbooks at the rate I'm cooking. Last week, I think I only cooked two meals! Thursday night I made Jalapeno Chicken from Day to Day. All I had to do was mix up a marinade of jalapeno peppers, chicken broth, cilantro, lime juice, salt, pepper, and something else, but I don't remember what it was, and I didn't have to foresight to look before I left the house this morning. Then I blended it all until smooth, put it in a ziplock bag with the chicken, and left for work. Thursday night Manny grilled it on the grill (I'm not adding grilling to my new-found list of cooking skills) and we were good to go. It turned out to be very moist, and not too spicy. I was afraid it would have too much of a bite, since we used three jalapenos, but the kick was just right. I served it with rice and beans (specifically, white rice that I mixed with a can of black beans and some saffron thrown in for good measure). For those of you counting points, each chicken breast was 3 points. Very economical from a points perspective!

We went camping over the weekend. It was a fun trip - we spent all day Saturday at the river kayaking, swimming, reading, talking, dozing - a perfect day. However, at my age, one would think I would have learned about the use of sunscreen. I'm a little crackly today - hopefully I won't peel, but experience tells me that is too much to hope for. At least I had the good sense to use spf 45 on my face!

The only down side was showering. As with many campsites these days, showers are available, and after a long day in the river, they always seem like a good idea. However, by the time I gathered all my showering necessities and clothes together, headed to the shower, realized I forgot something, and returned to the campsite before setting off to the bathrooms once again, reality began to set in. I had plenty of time to think while I was waiting in line for the next available shower because there were only two, and others had the same idea as me - shower early and beat the rush. Please let me share my showering thoughts with you. First of all, doesn't everyone want to shower in the same place as hundreds of strangers? Did I remember my flipflops? Yes, thank goodness! Once it was finally my turn, then it was time for the balancing act. I had to balance on first one foot and then the other while undressing without touching anything in the shower, and I then hung my clothes...all of them (the clean ones and the dirty ones I just took off)...together... on one little hook in the shower and hope that the water didn't get everything wet. As it turns out, not a problem, because the water pressure was so low that I had to bend down to get my head right under the spout and then stand up to let the water run down the rest of my body. Repeat for maximum dampness. With the water pressure a trickle, I had to be sure not to use too much shampoo, because I would be there all day if I needed to wait for enough water to rinse the shampoo, and then conditioner completely out of my hair. Then, the balancing act started all over again, because after drying off, without touching the shower floor with the towel (thankfully the towel hadn't already fallen off the one little hook!), I had to manipulate the clothes on the one little hook so I could get dressed in my clean clothes. Next it was gather everything up and move to the sink where I could balance (again, that word) everything on a skinny little shelf while I brushed my teeth and combed my hair. Of course, everyone I know (because this is a group trip) came into the bathroom while my mouth was full of toothpaste and wanted to talk. Makes NOT showering on Saturday and Sunday morning seem like a much better alternative!

And let me say this - when the bathrooms are a ways away, why is it that we have to use them several times during the night? The first night, I didn't go at all because I didn't want to walk all that way by myself and I didn't have the heart to wake Manny up and ask him to go with me. So, I didn't sleep a good part of the night. Not very smart. So Saturday night, I stopped drinking water early, walked down to the bathroom just before climbing into my tent, walked back to camp, said goodnight and went to sleep. Manny came in at about midnight, and crawled into the sleeping bag, waking me up in the process. Of course, my first thought was about whether or not I had to go. I finally decided not to make the same mistake I had made the night before and so I made Manny get up...

And on that note, tonight it's pork chops. I'll keep you posted.