5 Food Recipes to Try when Camping

A big part of camping is the food you eat; oftentimes people settle on canned food because they think that cooking while camping is too much of a hassle. They think that cooking is a luxury and it’ll be a waste of space by bringing ingredients to their camping trip. But what they don’t know is that cooking food while camping helps heightens the enjoyment they experience. Also, most places actually recommend cooking food while camping because they want the campers to make the most out of their stay. One such place is in the Philippines; luxury camping is actually highly recommended – some even provide the ingredients for their customers.

If ever you want to try cooking while camping; here’s a list of recipes, you may want to try:

1.   Campfire Bacon

Photo Courtesy: zestuous.com

You’ll be needing:

-       Skewers/Barbeque sticks

-       Pack of bacon

What to do:

Start the campfire. While waiting for the campfire to get hotter, prepare the skewer and bacon. Now, to insert the bacon (it’s up to you how many strips you can fit into the skewer) into the skewers, if you want the bacon to be extra crispy, you should weave the bacon while leaving gaps between each weave; make sure to leave a few inches of space at the tip of the skewer to prevent the bacon from falling from the skewer. You can rest the skewers on wood or rocks that are placed on each side of the flame. Rotate the skewer every few minutes, and alas! You have extra crispy and smoky bacon on a stick!

2.   Campfire Pizza

Photo Courtesy: kffsfoodporn.wordpress.com

You’ll be needing:

-       A pan with a metal lid (should fit the pizza dough)

-       Vegetable oil

-       Tube of pre-made pizza crust

-       Small can of tomato sauce

-       Shredded mozzarella cheese 

-       Grated cheddar cheese

-       Salt and pepper to taste

-       Pepperoni Slices

What to do:

Start heating the charcoal and when it’s all nice and hot, prepare the ingredients. Put vegetable oil all over the pan, then place the pizza dough on the pan, while rolling the edges so you can have a thick crust on the edges. Pour the can of tomato sauce on top of the pizza dough and spread. Put pieces of pepperoni on top of the tomato sauce and sprinkle the seasoning for more taste.

Now, place the pan on top of the hot charcoal and put the metal lid in reverse (the handle should be inside the pan), put hot charcoals on the lid to simultaneously cook it from the top. Let it sit there for 10 minutes to bake the dough. After 10 minutes, check if the pizza is cooked and the dough is baked, if it is then time to add the 2 kinds of cheese; don’t be stingy, put as much as you like on top of the pizza! Again, cover the pan and put hot charcoals on top, remember, the more charcoal you put on top, the faster the cheese will be melted. When the cheese is finally melted, you can the pan off the hot charcoal and you can start eating!

3. Camping Quesadillas

Photo Courtesy: daringbakerduluth.blogspot.com

You’ll be needing:

-     Flour tortillas

-     Chicken breasts, grilled and sliced

-     Salsa

-     1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

-     Grated cheese

-     tin foil

What to do:

Spread salsa on the tortilla, put chicken on half the tortilla and sprinkle the beans and cheese on the same side. Be careful of spillage! Remember to only use the appropriate amount. Now, fold the tortilla in half and put it on the tin foil, put the foil on a grill and let it sit until the cheese melts. Voila! You now have a camping quesadilla! Don’t worry about holding the quesadilla because you can hold it using the foil.

4.    S’moreos!

Photo Courtesy: Youtube.com/popsugarfood.com

You’ll be needing:

-       Oreos

-       Marshmallows

-       Chocolate

What to do:

Roast the marshmallows and melt the chocolate over the campfire. Twist and open an Oreo cookie; put the roasted marshmallow and melted chocolate in between the Oreo and you now have a s’moreo! Easy to do dessert with the satisfaction of both the Oreo and s’mores.

5. Camping Sangria

Photo Courtesy: treksw.com

You’ll be needing:

-       Assorted berries (or any fruit you like)

-       Vodka

-       Wine

-       Jar/bottle with a lid

What to do:

Place the berries or fruits in the jar, fill up ¼ of the jar with vodka and use wine for the rest of remaining space of the jar. This is better to keep chilled overnight, so its better to prepare this before your camping trip but if you’re already at the campsite, you can di this then keep it in the cooler surrounded by ice. This is a great drink to celebrate you camping trip but remember to drink responsibly!

Who says you can’t have luxury while camping! Prove them wrong by doing these camping recipes. Enjoy!

About the Author:

             Esther Diaz

A 22-year-old graduate of multimedia design, DIY enthusiast, make-up lover and has a love-hate relationship with desserts. I dream to be soon one of the known bloggers.

Read more...

The Benefits of Letterpress and Embossed Invitations

Wedding invitations are more important than the average invitation to an event. For one, they are still expected to be printed and sent through the post. In most contexts, you probably get an invitation to an event through a text message from someone you know or through an invitation via social media. With a wedding, however, you are expected to go the extra step and actually send out physical invitations. That way, people will post the invitations to their refrigerators or bulletin boards. Often, the friends and family of the bride and groom will make collages with the invitations. The photographer will take photos of the invitation for the wedding album. Also, many people like to keep their invitations around for their scrapbooks. All of that is to say your wedding invitation will be around for a very long time. You should make sure that it is a well-designed invitation. An invitation is a visual as well as a tactile experience. 

Tactile Experience

The paper used for wedding invitations is different than other types of paper. Instead of the thin printer paper that is used for many different applications, wedding invitations are typically made from a more fibrous material that is slightly closer to fabric. Cotton fibre is a popular option. Inspired Designs uses cotton fibre for their embossed and letter pressed invitations. A few benefits of using cotton fibre are that it is softer than other types of paper, and is also heavier. Such heavier paper is more durable and more official. Someone is less likely to ignore or discard an invitation printed on a sturdy, weighty paper. It’s a tactile experience in itself. The letters can then be embossed or receive a letterpress design to enhance the tactile experience.

embossed -image:pinterest.com

Embossing and Letterpressing

Embossing and letterpressing are two processes that are fairly similar. Embossing is a process that uses heat and pressure to reshape the actual paper to form certain letters. An embossed envelope has raised letters to create a tactile sensation when you touch the invitation. Instead of raised letters, a letterpressed invitation has depressed letters. Letterpressing is a process that was invented in the 1300s to replace calligraphy. The letters could be performed on metal plates and simply pressed into the paper. That’s essentially how it is still done to this day. The letters are pressed into the paper to create a depressed look. They can also then be filled in with ink or gold foil. Such a design creates a visual experience as well as a tactile one.

You can also choose to invest in foil pressed invitations. Foil lettering is fairly simple process. Instead of using ink, a precious metal foil will be used to create the letters and adhered to the surface of the invitation. Gold foil is a very popular choice. One of the benefits of using this design is that the invitation will be instantly recognisable and very distinctive. The use of precious metals is also a sign that the invitation itself is precious. Expensive metals show that an object has a lot of value as well as adds value to the object.

Read more...

Caring for Your Aging Parents—5 Things to Talk About

It used to be your parents talked to you about your health and made sure you were eating right and staying healthy. As our parents age, however, the care giving roles get reversed and there are certain conversations that we must be the ones to initiate. If you have parents who are in their late sixties and early seventies, now is the time to talk with them about their health. Here are some points that you should plan to discuss with your parents sooner rather than later.

Health-related concerns

Conversations centering around one's health and wellness may seem daunting. Do not let that stop you. An important aspect of caring for an aging parent is that of exploring and discussing ways to improve their quality of life. Would hip surgery allow him to enjoy his nature walks once again? Perhaps your parent may be a candidate for LASIK surgery, allowing greater use of her eyes? Explore the possibilities and then discuss them with your parents. Be a source of well-researched information for them.

image:pixabay.com

Other questions to ask include whether they are going to their scheduled health appointments. Are they taking their medications? Do they have any new aches and pains that they are dealing with? At this age, minor afflictions can lead to complications if one is not paying close attention.

End-of-life requests

Perhaps you feel that it is too soon to discuss end-of-life care with your parents? It is exactly during this time when they can make thought-out decisions about such matters that you want to have these discussions. Sometimes all that is needed to initiate this conversation is a question as simple as, "Is there anything that worries you about the future?" Matters that you should discuss and know their wishes on include funeral requests, will and estate directives, etc.

Physical duties

As parents age, their ability to do what they were once capable of diminishes. But their awareness of this fact may lag. And for parents who enjoy their independence, they may not desire to rely on others to do what once came so naturally for them. However, as we age, muscle weakness means we are at greater risk of falling. And if we do fall, injuries take longer to heal. Offer to help with specific tasks. Instead of, "Is there anything I can help with?" Go for "I would love to go shopping with you for groceries on Sunday. What do you think?" Make it easy for them to say yes. Drop by for weekly visits and while you are there, clean any hard-to-reach places while you are at it.

Social activities

Making sure that your parent stays active mentally and socially can help decrease their risk of dementia. One study states that it decreases dementia risk by as much as 70 percent. Introduce clubs and events that might be interesting for them to attend. Be particularly attentive to their socialization if you have recently lost a parent, and he or she a spouse. Widows and widowers have a higher risk of becoming socially isolated right after the passing of their loved one. Exercise groups, book reading clubs, charity events are all popular and beneficial options. Offer to drive them to a weekly meetup if transportation is an issue for them.

While most of us wish that our parents would live forever, science has yet to prove helpful on that front. There are, however, discussions that you can have with your parents that will ensure a better quality of life during the time that they do have. For those who are close to their parents, both physically and emotionally, these conversations may be easy. For others, they may prove challenging, as these topics are generally of a more sensitive nature. But the peace of mind that comes will be well worth the effort and time invested in doing so.

Read more...

Simple but effective tools for farmers: The Pecan Picker and Broadfork Tool

Pecan Picking Tips For All

It is advised that whenever pecans are ripe, you can help by shaking the tree trunk, the limbs or branches so that the ripe ones will easily fall off. When they do, you have to gather them immediately in order to save the freshness. Depending on the amount of pecan you want to harvest, you might do this by picking with your bare hands. However, gathering pecans in large quantity with the pecan picker makes the entire process easy and enjoyable. If you leave them to drop on their own or allow them to stay long on the ground before you gather them, they may spoil and become useless.

Some Benefits of Harvesting with the Pecan Picker

One of the advantages of buying a pecan picker is that the stressful process of bending down to pick those small nuts with your hands is taken care of. In the past, some people used to resort to crawling to pick the pecans when they get tired of bending over to pick these nuts. These days, with the pecan picker, all you need to do is place the picker on the turf or field where the nuts are scattered, roll the tool front and back, and in the process of rolling, all the nuts on its way will be picked up. It simply transforms the hitherto hectic work of picking the pecans into a very easy walk. If you have lots of pecans to pick in your farm or garden, then you may have to go for the older version of this tool. It comes with a clamping device that makes it possible to pick an increased quantity of pecans. It can even do more than a dozen.

The Broadfork Tool: Plowing, Aeration, Digging, and more

The broadfork tool comes in handy when you need help tilling new or existing beds. It is easy to use and does not require much energy. All you have to do is to step on top of the crossbar with your body weight, apply a little energy so that the tines are pushed into the ground, then step down from the crossbar and pull it backward in a way that the tine will pull upwards through the soil. This is simply how easy aerating the soil with a broadfork tool is; now you can just repeat the process till you have covered the required area of your garden floor. However, there are several kinds of broadforks according to design and purpose, which means you have to decide your purpose before selecting one. There are quality reviews at https://broadforktool.com, from where one can comfortably select among the best broadfork tools according to the appropriate purpose.

What You Stand to Gain Using the Broadfork Tool

Broadfork tools actually make gardening easier on many grounds. The other positive effect is that Broadfork makes you aerate the soil in a healthier manner because it provides the chance for natural aeration. According to the experience of many farmers, it prevents weeds from multiplying by not mixing the soil during tilling.The tines of a broadfork - unlike the motor operated rototiller - can get as deep as 16 inches, making it possible for the roots of your plants to have enough space to grow deeper. This gives room for more bumper yield. They are also the best for tilling the soil in all conditions. The broadfork is ideal for work both on dry and wet soil, which means you can save a lot of time instead of waiting for your damp soil to dry up.

 

Read more...