The trip was cut short by a heavy cloud cover and the impending rain. To be clear, it was a food bust. The trip itself was still wonderful.

Not having camped in 2 years, not because I was unwilling, but because of the hordes of new campers brought on by the pandemic crowded at the place I like to go.

Finding a reservation (to me something is wrong with having to reserve a campsite online) amongst the big trees had been tough to get and when an open campsite comes up you jump on it.

This place is quiet, serene and without sign of vampires. It is hard to explain, but once you have been here you will remember it for life!

And even though the clouds were closing in fast, the beach was still nice to walk with just a little grey.

The company was more than wonderful, the best really and more than willing to try whatever dish I tried to make. I like to experiment with new ingredients for dishes over the fire, when it isn’t raining.

Our late arrival to the campsite, and the fast moving cloud cover, removed all possibilities of cooking in daylight.

Our unusually large logs, which included a stump, didn’t allow us to cook over the fire this night. So, we pulled out the Lodge Cast Iron Grill and cooked over binchotan. To get the binchotan going and glowing takes a lot of effort and time...but once it is hot and burning...wowsa!

Cooked the chicken thighs lickety-split. Binchotan is amazing! No wonder our chefs are crazy for it.

Some of the ingredients we had to test are in the recipe suggestions in this newsletter.

Click Here To See Everything Featured in This Newsletter!

Best thing about potato salad is that all you have to do is boil the potatoes and mix some ingredients and add some horseradish to give some extra flavor to that familiar bite.

See the Horseradish Potato Salad Recipe here!

If you love the taste of onion and mustard, then this is the grilled chicken for you. Easy to do and so tasty.

The creamy polenta creates a nice, creamy bed for the chicken, and is a wonderful way to both, use up leftover corn-on-the-cob and soak up the wonderfully mustardy juices of the chicken. If you use already cooked corn-on-the-cob, add the corn about 1 minute before the polenta is done.

See the Grilled Mustard Chicken with Fresh Corn Polenta Recipe here!

Fruited Couscous Recipe - adapted from Chef Tamara Murphy's cookbook, TENDER.

See the Fruited Couscous Recipe Here!

This delectable couscous is much larger and has a creamier texture than the tiny, fluffy North African version. Served warm, this pearl-like pasta is pure comfort food.

In Lebanon, where it may be known as "maftoul," it is traditionally served pilaf-style with chicken or lamb. Cook it with a little vegetable stock, and then add some petit black lentils, chopped peppers, olives, onions, tomatoes, herbs, a good squeeze of lemon juice and some olive oil for a superb salad.

Israeli Couscous is a small, round semolina pasta that should not be confused with the tiny, yellow North African couscous; it’s a different animal altogether! Sometimes called pearl couscous or maftoul, it resembles barley, or very small, white peas.

After being shaped and rolled into small balls, these semolina pearls are toasted in an open-flame oven. This distinguishes the couscous from most pasta, which is dried but not toasted.

Toasting lends the Israeli couscous a distinctive, nutty flavor and particularly satisfying mouthfeel, and it also seals in the starch and reinforces the exterior, allowing the pearls to absorb liquid without falling apart.

This is why Israeli couscous is ideal for saucy preparations – whatever the sauce or reduction, the couscous absorbs the flavor beautifully, and the sauce sticks well to every tiny pearl.

Although Israeli couscous does not cook quite as fast as the quick-cooking version of North African couscous, it’s much speedier than the traditional method of steaming couscous several times.

Shop now for Israeli Couscous!

These noodles are different from an Italian pasta noodle, and make a nice change.

Udon noodles are a staple food in northern Japan, and a wonderfully versatile food to have on hand for adding new flavor to your everyday meals. These wheat-based noodles differ from their Italian cousins with their slightly denser texture and wheatier taste.

They are chewy, soft, and fat, and make for a wonderful carrier for something green and a little protein.

A hot soup somehow can make a cold day seem just about right. Greens cooked quickly in a hot pot along with mushrooms and protein, like super thin uncooked chicken, or BBQ pork. It's a delectable meal that takes all of about ten minutes, the time it takes to cook Inaka udon.

Japanese Inaka udon noodles are eaten both, hot and cold, kept simple or transformed when tossed with ingredients like soy sauce, sesame oils, or oyster sauce. And, whether you fry them or soup’em, the softer, plumped up udon noodle is fabulous.

Shop now for Inaka Udon!

Finding French mustard made in France right now is tough. A bad harvest in France and Canada for mustard seeds has made finding mustard in Paris almost impossible! We have Edmond Fallot’s mustard right now, though we do not know when the next shipment will be.

I have gone this way and that when it comes to mustard...and in the end, this is the mustard I truly desire! Edmond Fallot Dijon to me is what I want my mustard to taste like!

Mustard coming from Dijon, France has to be made there, and you can’t just claim you do!

In 1634, out of concern for the quality of its mustard, the city of Dijon imposed the first statutes on the mustard-making trade.

The 18th century discovery of verjuice - juice from green grapes harvested in Burgundy - put the finishing touch of quality to this fine product. Adding verjuice to the brown mustard seed and grinding the mixture using traditional grindstones - so as not to damage the heat-sensitive paste - helped to earn DIJON MUSTARD a worldwide reputation for quality.

Shop now for Fallot Dijon Mustard!

If you love mustard this is the (bigger) jar to get!

Shop now for Fallot Dijon Mustard - large!