Monday, August 26, 2013

Grilled Chicken Salad

     Remember the chicken on the grill from the Pulled Pork recipe post? It's time to take care of that chicken with my favorite summer salad (I make it in the winter once in awhile, too.) It is another really easy recipe and travels great as long as you can keep it cold. We like to bring it along as the meal to eat after we get the RV set up the first night. It is really good as a sandwich, as a wrap, on a lettuce salad or on it's own. Even though we plan it to be the first night's quick dinner, it usually makes it to many other meals during the trip (including breakfast).
 
 
      First, season 3 chicken breasts with season salt and cook them on the grill. Let the chicken cool while you gather and chop the rest of the ingredients. You also need:
5 hardboiled eggs, shelled and diced
3-4 stalks celery, diced
1 apple, diced
1/4 cup sweet pickle relish
1/4 cup mayo
1/2 - 1 cup Miracle Whip
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 - 1 cup chopped pecans (was left out of this batch due to a nut allergy)
 
 
      Put all ingredients except the eggs in a bowl (the bowl you are going to transport it in works really well) and stir them together until everything is mixed together. Once everything is mixed together add the eggs and mix them together with the other ingredients.

 
      Refrigerate the salad and serve cold. It is really good the day after you make it because it is the perfect temperature and all of the flavors have melded together.

 
          Sharing this recipe REALLY makes me want to go camping. I think I may have to make it for this weekend so we have a nice cool lunch to come into while we're outside painting our house in the heat......or maybe for lunch before this weekend.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Yummy Pulled Pork

     I have an easy and yummy recipe for pulled pork to share with you. You can make it at home and bring it along with you on a camping trip and reheat it for sandwiches or add it to burritos, breakfast or by itself. The pictures in this post are of a double recipe, so if you follow the measurements of this recipe your grill and crockpot won't be as full.
You need:
2 pounds boneless pork roast
Cajun Seasoning (or your favorite BBQ rub)
1 Tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, chopped or cut into strips
4 cloves garlic, crushed (or 4 teaspoons jarred minced garlic)
4 cups water
1 Tablespoon Liquid Smoke
 
 
Cut the pork roast into large chunks and season generously with the Cajun seasoning (or other seasoning).

 
   You can either use the grill for this next step (which is how I prefer it) or you can do it in a frying pan with a little butter. Brown the pork on all sides. You aren't cooking the pork, just browning the outside and adding a little flavor. (Ignore the chicken in this picture, we'll take care of it in the next recipe.)

 
          Next, melt the butter in a flying pan and cook for a few minutes until they are tender.

 
         Mix the water and liquid smoke together in the crockpot and add the pork, onions and garlic. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or until the meat is falling apart when pierced with a fork.


     Remove the pieces of pork and as many onions as you can and let them cool off for awhile (until it is cooled enough to shred).

 
      Pour the cooking liquid into a large saucepan and boil until there is half the amount of liquid.

 
      Shred the pork while the liquid is reducing.

 
      Once the liquid is reduced and the meat is shredded, add the mead to the liquid. This will help keep the meat juicy and also warm the meat back up.

 
      You can add BBQ sauce to the meat or serve it without. Pour the liquid in the container when you refrigerate the leftovers.


     We love this recipe and have even had people tell us they couldn't believe we didn't cook the meat in a smoker. The leftovers are a fun way to get the entire family involved in deciding what is for dinner. Tonight, we had the pork wrapped in a tortilla with cilantro lime rice. That was AWESOME! Pork nachos are really good and it is also really good mixed with some scrambled eggs. Hope you enjoy this recipe!

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Adventures Of Buying The New (To Us) Camper

     Last weekend we went to buy our new to us camper! This past spring we decided to change our style of camping. The motorhome was great and we had a lot of fun in it, but we decided we needed to go a little bigger so all of the family would fit easier. We decided we wanted to go with a camper instead of a motorhome. A 5th wheel camper will be great because we can pull doubles (atv trailer or boat) and the amount of space that is added both inside and outside would be wonderful. It's going to be AWESOME! I will miss being able to get up and go get a snack or drink whenever I want when we're going down the road, but I'll get used to planning ahead and packing a cooler before we leave.
     Here is the pictures and story of our adventure from last weekend:
 
 
     I was very excited to go on this adventure! We haven't been doing much outdoors this summer because we've been in transition mode and getting stuff done around the house.

 
      When we go on adventures, it is my job to take care of the dogs, read the directions & map (or Lola the GPS), watch for interesting landmarks, make sure my husband has snacks and drinks and take lots of photos. It's a lot to do, but we wouldn't get very far very fast if I was the one driving so I proudly take on these responsibilities.
     For some reason I find runaway truck ramps fascinating. When I was a kid and we'd go on mountain drives, I would get excited when I saw the signs saying they were coming up. On this trip, I discovered I still get excited about watching for the ramps!

 
      We saw the smoke from this fire from many miles away. After a summer of watching Colorado fight fires and being so close to a couple of those fires, this sight made us a little nervous. The people that lived on this property were nearby so we decided it was a planned burn and from the size of it, they must not have wanted to watch the fire burn for long.

 
 I have never been to Blue Mesa...well, not that I can remember anyway. When we came to the inlet of the lake I thought it was a river and then I realized it was a lake. I was amazed by the size and wondered why I have never been here before! I think we will have to plan a trip to Blue Mesa for camping, fishing and boating in the next few years.

 
      Apparently, this is where all of the fish were because this is where all of the boats were.

 
      More of Blue Mesa. The water level is really low due to the drought in Colorado.

 
      Another thing I like to do on road trips is to read traffic signs (and of course take pictures of the really interesting ones). It is interesting how each state has their own way of handling certain types of traffic situations. I had no idea that Colorado had day time and night time speed limits! It made sense along this road. If we were coming through this area at night I would prefer to go slower.

 
 More of Blue Mesa. It's a very beautiful lake.

 
 Even more of Blue Mesa. The largest lake in Colorado.

 
      Another interesting sign right before we arrived at the house where the camper was. I had no idea McDonald's only had one arch at some point! This was a really cool old sign next to a newer building.

 
      FINALLY after driving almost 5 hours, we made it to the sellers' house. We looked at the camper and fell in love with it! It was a little.......okay, a lot bigger than we had originally planned for but once we started picturing everybody hanging out in our new camper we couldn't say no. Having all of the storage was exciting, too.
     I have waited all summer to see this:

 
      On the ride home we enjoyed more scenery. There were a lot of cattle in this meadow.

 
      When we started going around these curves, I got a little nervous since we were a lot longer than when we went through them that morning. Thankfully my husband wasn't nervous at all.

 
      By the time we got back to Blue Mesa, we were starting to deal with some rain.,

 
      There are deer crossing signs all over Colorado and many other states, but have you ever seen an elk crossing sign?

 
      We stopped at the top of Monarch Pass for a break and to check the truck and the camper.....and to take a picture of our truck and camper at the top of Monarch Pass. The air gets a little thinner at 11,312 feet on the Continental Divide!

 
      We enjoyed some more mountain views and decided that no matter how comfy your vehicle is, 10 hours riding in it makes for a really long day.


      I pointed out that there was a sign saying we needed to pull over and go camping, but my husband said that's not what that sign was really saying. Since we didn't have any bedding, cooking utensils, food or water, change of clothing or our dogs I decided he was right.
 
 
      You're welcome!

 
      It was nice to get home and park the new camper in our yard. It looks a lot bigger in our yard than it did in the sellers' yard. Here is the passenger side and the "front" door

 
      It's HUGE inside! I will share more photos once we start personalizing it. Right now it has a "country cabin theme" and we will be converting it to our "outdoor theme." We went ahead and moved all of our stuff from the motorhome that was stored in the garage to the camper and we have a lot of extra storage space leftover. Right now we have a shelf just for pudding!

     
     One of our favorite features is that it has a back door! When the slide is in, you can't get from the bedroom to the "main" door so having a "back" door is a safety feature, but also a REALLY handy feature.

 
      Kaos says she's ready to take it out for a trip.

 
    We may only get to do one camping trip this year so we're having a hard time deciding where to take that trip. We can't wait and neither can the dogs!
     Getting out on this adventure recharged me a little and helped me come up with some more blog posts. We will also be sharing some "How We Did Some RV Modification Posts" for both inside and outside.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Photo Contest Winners Announced

     We recently held a Social Media photo contest and it is time to announce the winners! There were so many great entries, it was very hard to decide on a winner so I chose 4 winners! Thank you for all of the entries and to make sure you don't miss out on a chance to win prizes be sure to find us on Facebook (Girls In The Outdoors), Twitter (@GirlsInOutdoors, Google+ (Girls In The Outdoors) and Pinterest (Girls In The Outdoors).

Winner #1: Angela Brockway

Her photo of a Sunset on Lake Superior in Ashland WI made me really wish we hadn't decided to make this a transition year and get stuff done year. This picture makes me want to go camping right now! Thank you Angela!
 
 

Winner #2: Kelly Villani

Kelly's photo is nice photo to share in the middle of a hot summer. I usually don't like riding my atv in the snow, but this photo makes me want to. I think this winter I will finally get to try out my new cold weather riding gear! Thank you Kelly!
 
 

Winner #3: Desiree Lallemand

Desiree's photo of a sunset at Brush Hollow Reservoir also makes me want to go fishing, especially because this lake is only about 20 minutes from my house! I have enjoyed many sunsets at this lake, also. Thank you Desiree!
 

Winner #4: Nicole Morton

Sunsets are a very popular time to photograph and Nicole captured a beautiful sunset on a beach. I'm not sure where this photo was taken, but I want to go there tomorrow instead of work. Thank you Nicole!!!
 

     Thank you to everybody who entered! The winners should be get a message from me soon with instructions on how to claim your prize.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

EXCITING NEWS! We Have A Dot Com!

     We are very excited to announce www.GirlsInTheOutdoors.com is now open for business! We have been talking about starting the website since we started the blog over a year ago. Now because of the support we have from our followers and customers, we are able to turn that talking into doing. Thank you to everybody who has followed, liked, commented, emailed and shared with us. Now that the website is up and running, we will be back to regular blog posting again. We will also be having a contest soon with some of the jewelry as prizes.
     Here is what the home page looks like! Of course we're going with a red theme. (The pictures of the pages really aren't the best so be sure to check out the website to see the pages better.)
 
 
      The blog tab will open a new tab that will open this blog. We are keeping our blogger page for the blog because I like Blogger and we also want to make sure everybody can still see all of our older posts.

 
      You can now buy our jewelry, burp clothes, curling iron bags and everything else we come up with in the future directly from us! We will still keep our Etsy store open but for those of you that do not want to set up an Etsy account to purchase from us, you can do that now! The Store tab will take you to this main store page with links to the individual store pages. At the bottom of this page is our payment policy and also our shipping policy. We use PayPal for payment (you do not have to set up a PayPal account to use it) and if you order from our website you only pay $3.00 shipping no matter how big your order is!
 
      On the Fishing Lure Jewelry page, you will see all of the fishing lure earrings and pendants we have currently. In the descriptions on this page and all of the others, you will see how many pairs or sets are available. I have to update the quantities myself so if there is a problem with selling more than are available, I will contact you right away. The person that ordered the item first will get to purchase the item.

 
 The Paper Bead Jewelry page is similar to the Fishing Lure Jewelry page, only there are more views of each piece. Click on the small pictures under the "Add To Cart" button and a larger view will open.


     The last store page has a mixture of items and will be divided up once there are more of the bag type items. It also has the smaller pictures that open to larger views.
 
     The Westhoff Designs tab will open a new tab with the link to that store. Westhoff Designs is a CafePress store we opened many years ago when were rock crawling a lot more. You can buy Girls In The Outdoors merchandise and Wheelin' Nut merchandise from this store. More items will be added to this store, with more themes and more sayings now that GirlsInTheOutdoors.com is ready.


     The last tab opens up the final page which is the contact page. If you have any questions or need to contact us for any reason, you can use this page. Anybody who sends us their address will receive a free sticker so if you don't have your sticker yet, send us your address and we will make sure you get one.

 
     We are very excited to share our new webpage with you and hope you enjoy it. We will be announcing how you can win some jewelry soon. Thank you again to all of our fans! We appreciate all of you and all of your support!