Camping season has come to an end for most of us in Western Washington. Props to you die-hard campers that will be continuing on. I shall not be joining you, but admire your lack of concern for the rain and cold. My family was fortunate enough to find a new camping spot this year, up by Bellingham, called Larrabee State Park. We stayed three nights over Labor Day weekend. It was a beautiful weekend with mild weather, and only a few hours of rain during the daylight hours. We went on a gorgeous hike up to Fragrance Lake, although if you ask my daughter, it was awful and far too long. I think she's just plotting to destroy everything I love and enjoy. The one thing that we can all agree on as a family is that fires are Nature's television, and making meals while camping is a joy. One of our favorites is Hobo Pie.

I do not like the name of this food, but I do love the food. We make ours with whichever ground meat we have on hand, and whichever veggies need to be used up. This last trip we made our pies with ground turkey, red onions, green pepper, carrots, and potato. The term hobo bothers me some so I decided to do some research, and learned that these tasty treats can also be called: mountain pies, campfire pies, toasties, jaffles, and pie shams. I also learned that many people make mountain pies with bread, and they're often a dessert, not savory at all! My favorite camping dessert is the s'more, or a nice baked apple. I don't think I need another recipe for a sweet, but I was excited by some of your favorite recipes: quiche-in-a-bread-bowl, pancakes, egg-in-a-bag, roasted corncakes, trout, and dutch oven lasagna. Some of you are mighty ambitious camping cooks, and I would like to be invited on your next camping trip, or at least bring you along on mine.

It's been a while since my last food challenge, but let's just say that Jim Gaffigan is my spirit animal. So far I've finished Beth's 12 egg omelette for lunch, and returned to work. I've also completed the 7 deadly wing challenge at Wing Dome. That was a tough one. I love spicy food, but I had to call in sick. I do not think that spicy food challenges are in my future. So, for my latest challenge I decided to eat a disgusting amount of food. I found this one online. Jersey's Great Food & Spirits has a challenge called The Farm. I was terrified. In the past, I've tried splitting The Behemoth from The Ram with my husband. The Behemoth is a 5 pound burger. I ate exactly half of the burger and half of the fries and felt sick. I couldn't even stand walking by the food court after that experience without feeling nauseated. Based on that experience, I was hesitant to undertake The Farm.

Here is Jersey's description - "Straight out of Man vs. Food, this is the baddest sandwich we have to offer. We pile on the meat, 1/2 lb turkey patty, 1/3 lb angus patty, 1/2 lb of hot pastrami, 1/4 lb thick cut bacon, 2 eggs, a blend of a 1/2 lb melted cheese with grilled & fried onions, tangy house spread and 1 lb of fries! Good luck—you have 30 min."

You can't really see the burger in all it's glory because of the fries. I honestly thought the fries would be my undoing, but it was the fatty meat that was a real struggle towards the end.

What can I say? I got the t-shirt. I also found out a bit about you all this past week.
No one admitted to a crazy amount of food, minus my dear friend Kent, who ate 2 pounds of broccoli at once. Can you imagine? But you have eaten some strange things including: escargot, octopus, alligator, herring eggs on kelp, termites, sea snake, and my personal favorite - chips ahoy with canned cheese. Besides gaining 4 pounds in one day and an XL t-shirt, I don't have anything to show for this challenge, but I'm glad to be a part of this crazy food nation. I could feel really guilty about eating like a Roman, and overindulging, but I did harvest potatoes the next week for local food banks. They cancel each other out, right?