The Never Ending Birthday

Our hike to The Crack in Killarney,  with a forest fire smouldering in the background.

It seems the festivities surrounding Andrea’s 50^th birthday have been going on FOREVER and it’s just about time for them to wrap up.  It started with a beautiful birthday dinner made by her Mom and kids at the cottage, followed by a picnic at Blueberry Island, then a wonderful surprise party hosted by Nancy, and it finally wrapped up with a hiking and glamping expedition to Killarney. 

Of course, food and grilling were central to all of these events, but especially on our glamping trip we kept everything as simple as possible.  Our plan was to start with a hike at The Crack, spend a night at the Killarney Mountain Lodge, then to paddle and sleep in tents for 2 nights, and then to have a grand finale at the Mill Lake Lodge, a rustic hunting and fishing lodge on Colin’s Inlet. 

  We set off full of optimism in our canoes and kayaks loaded with food and supplies.  The initial little river leading out from Chikanishing was calm, and the skies were only a little threatening, but once we got into the bigger water the situation changed.  We were still in pretty good humour as we powered on through headwinds gusting to 40 kilometres per hour.  But six miles into our journey, when the heavens opened above us, Charlie led in the revolt.  Much to Brian’s dismay and embarrassment, we pleaded with him to call for a rescue. 

Things were much less fun when the rain started.

We were all ready to kiss Gerry when he came with his big steel boat to ferry us to his Mill Lake Lodge.  So instead of cooking our first dinner over a fire as expected we were able to grill our steaks on a barbecue, and cook our vegetable hash on a stove.

We love you, Gerry!

Vegetable Hash for Glamping

This was the perfect dish for a first night of camping, because we froze the corn and peas and together they worked as cold packs for our coolers.

3 tablespoons olive oil or butter

2 onions, chopped

2 red peppers, chopped

10 cobs corn, grilled, husked and cut off the cob

1 bag frozen peas

Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat the olive oil or butter in a large saute pan and add the onions and peppers.  Cook until tender, then add the thawed peas and corn.  Heat through and season with salt and pepper.

Fortunately the next day the weather improved enough the next day for us to go fishing, and Reid and Brian caught some beautiful pike.  On our paddle home we stopped on a beach and Brian prepared a traditional fish fry over a campfire for everyone.

Brian’s Fish Fry

Freshly caught fish, filleted and boned

Gluten free Bisquick baking mix

Salt, pepper and steak spice

Lots of vegetable oil

Heat an inch of vegetable oil in a deep skillet over a campfire.  Dust the fish fillets with Bisquick mixed with some salt.  Add the fish to the oil, and cook to golden, about 4 minutes.  Sprinkle with pepper and steak spice.  Dig in!

Thanks, Mom!