If you drive down our country road, you may see me sautéing chicken fillets on the grill. With caramelized onions and lime quarters ready to accompany the chicken, the Karoly?s will soon feast on another meal that was cooked under the oaks in our front yard.
This portrays my summer-long push to replicate our last Sierra Nevada camping trip. Since work keeps me from camping the summer away, outdoor cooking serves to fulfills my desire to camp.
From Navy cook to camp cook
My passion for cooking and my love of camping make the perfect combination. Everyone camps for differing motives. To me, it?s the smell of mountain cooking that draws me back into the forest every few weeks throughout the summer. It?s a stack golden hotcakes with hot maple syrup in the brisk morning air that awakens my senses for another day of camping. And dinners like herb-roasted chicken over a bed of rice pilaf revive me after a day of hiking and exploring the Carson Emigrant Trail.
Some camp to fish the alpine lakes and creeks while others hike the rocky trails in search of vibrant wildflowers. But if you spy a Karoly camp, you might just find me tending a battery of cast iron cooking implements. With my denim baseball cap tipped back, you?ll see me shifting red-hot coals from the campfire to the grill. While smoke gets in my eyes, it?s the challenge of cooking a meal in the open that makes it all worthwhile.
You may witness a pot of coffee and a skillet of chili verde on the gill. To the side will be a Dutch oven with steamed white rice and fresh ears of corn on the cob will be roasting by the campfire. With warming tortillas nearby, the Karoly?s will soon be ready to savor another of dad?s creations.
After a 30-year food service career, I find little time for hands-on cooking at work. Since I promoted to food service manager a number of years ago, home is the only place where I can practice the art of cooking. At work, you?ll rarely hear me utter terms bouquet garni or mirepoix, where I feed several thousand felons. And if you do hear them, it?s not because I?ve gotten myself embroiled in a conversation on how to prepare the beef stock for next week?s stew. It?s simply because an employee and I have taken a few minutes to reminiscence about our ?glory days? as cooks and chefs.
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