OMGsh…the food was awesome

Do you remember summer camp?  Hot dogs, hamburgers, Hobo dinners, etc.  That has always been my idea of summer camp food. (Not to be confused with camping food.)  That is what I anticipated eating while at Falls Creek camp last week.  I took along a few snacks to get me through the week and had lofty thoughts of losing a few pounds by not eating much and walking and sweating off the extra pounds.  Well, apparently no one told our camp cooks about my plans to eat light and lose weight.  They brought everything but the kitchen sink, since the cabin already had one of those.  I went down a day early to help them get the last of the food at Sam’s Club and unpack the trailer, yes I said trailer, of food.  My first indication that this was not going to be my usual camping experience was when I saw the trailer with the food in it.

Yes, its a 10′ enclosed trailer!

It was packed to full capacity with ice chests full of frozen meat and food, boxes and boxes and more boxes of other food.  I thought to myself “Surely we won’t need to pick up much at Sam’s”  WRONG – We filled up the back of an Expedition with more food and even stopped just outside the camp area and bought all the milk, butter, eggs and other dairy products.

When we arrived at the campground it took us over an hour to unload everything from the vehicle and the trailer.  There were three of us and it took another hour to place everything in it’s proper place. (Let me tell you these ladies are so organized they made my head hurt.)  After getting everything in it’s proper place I headed up the stairs to stake my claim on my bed.  Low and behold they are all bunk beds.  I got a lower bunk close to the air conditioner, not too close to the bathroom and not  too close to some of the  other bunks.  Perfect!  I unpacked, fixed my bed and suddenly smelled something delicious cooking.  I quickly ran downstairs and, sure enough, they were already hard at it.  No hot dogs for this bunch!  Let me give you an idea of our daily menus.

Monday – Breakfast:  Pancakes, sausage, bacon, toast, scrambled eggs and fruit.  Lunch – Soft Tacos, salad, chocolate cake.  Supper – King Ranch Chicken (which by the way won the camp cooks cook-off), beans, cornbread and Ashley Cake.

Tuesday – Breakfast:  Scrambled eggs, toast, bagels, bacon, sausage and cereal. Lunch – Hamburgers, french fries, fruit salad.  Supper – Pulled Pork (this won the “Pork” division of the cook-off), baked beans, green salad, and chocolate, caramel, toffee cake.

Wednesday – Breakfast:  Breakfast pizza, fresh fruit, cereal.  Lunch:  Twice Baked Potatoes, salad and Honey Bun Cake.  Supper:  Brisket, potato salad, slaw and banana pudding.

Do you get the picture?  All week we had these awesome meals and no matter how hard I tried to just take a little bit….I still came away from the table feeling like I was going to explode.  Then we had things like Oreo ice cream, fruit pizza and cookies for our late night snacks.  Yes, lets give those teens lots of sugar and then expect them to go to sleep before 2 am………

When I got home I told Coach that I was almost positive that I had gained 10 lbs. in one week but I hadn’t gained anything.  How did I not gain any weight????  My pants won’t snap as easy and I feel like a bloated cow!!!!  BUT, the food was incredible!  I got all the recipes and will be glad to share them.  You must remember that they were written for 75-100 people so you might have to cut the ingredients down a little – or not.

Several evenings we would be getting ready to eat and a group of kids would wonder into our cabin and ask what we were eating because it smelled so good outside.  They would see our spread and tell us that they ate sandwiches every day and thought that was what everyone had.  Poor things!

So, to you – Konna & Deidra – hats off to the greatest church camp cooks in the world!