We had an awesome summer of camping in our new-to-us trailer this year, and we ended our season on Thanksgiving weekend with a grand finale trip to Cape Breton to travel the Cabot Trail.  I can’t believe that after nearly 15 years of living in Nova Scotia, this is my first time really exploring the Trail.

And what a gorgeous place to celebrate Thanksgiving. 

At the beginning of the summer I figured I would try my hand at some new and interesting recipes that were camping-friendly. 

My ambition started out with these gourmet s’mores – one with peanut butter cookies, white chocolate, haskap jam and homemade vanilla marshmallows, and the other with ginger cookies, homemade chai marshmallows and dark chocolate.  Unfortunately, those ended up getting eaten in our back yard because we weren’t able to get organized enough on a Friday night to actually get out camping one weekend.

Then there was this awesome Twisted Skillet Chili, which was a huge hit on a hiking/camping trip we did mid-summer:

And then, as it turns out, kind of like camping with a toddler, this camping recipe project was slightly more ambitious than first anticipated, and needed to be scaled back a little bit – for reality’s sake.  Indeed, as it turns out, most of the recipes I tried either a) sucked; b) were made after dark and therefore precluded photography – you should have seen the macaroni and cheese!  The hobo packs! or c) needed to be consumed immediately by my ravenous self/family after a long day of hiking/playing/napping/reading/driving. 

So, instead of recipes, a continued photo montage of our awesome summer outdoors:

A girl still needs espresso, even in the woods…

Hobo packs made in my portable kitchen

The best part