Snow Camp

If someone asks you to cook for a bunch of High Schoolers at Snow Camp just say NOOOOO! Run, I say RUN as fast as you can in the opposite direction! JUST KIDDING, well sort of. This past weekend I accepted the invitation to do just that very thing. The planning and shopping went off without a hitch. Then we get to camp. Its past dinner, so before unpacking, I start a pot of Chili for the Chili Dogs. Now, I had asked the camp director over the phone about the facilities. Yes, he assured me the kitchen was well stocked, and it was...with not so very good tools. Granted as a Pampered Chef consultant for 6 years, I have a pretty great kitchen at home. However, I just assumed that every kitchen that has a stove and oven would have at least one decent pot. Then again, that is assuming the the oven and stove even work! So, after ten minutes I test the chili and it is still totally cold. So I taste it...what to my suprise, it tastes burnt. Now how can cold chili be burnt. Let me tell you. It happens when the pot is so poorly made that only the bottom inch of food gets cooked (burned) while the rest of the food chills away. Sadly this was just the beginning. I called my sweet Hannah who was coming up to camp the next day. I asked her to bring my Pampered Chef cookware and a couple of stones. That was a good start. Unfortunately if the oven doesn't heat it doesn't matter how good the cookware. Sunday's dinner was suppose to be Pulled Pork Sanwiches. Well, I put my pork shoulder in my roasting pan from home turn on the heat and 5 1/2 hours later the pork is still raw. The outside was cooked...almost to a crisp but 1/2 and inch in...raw! AUGHHHHH. No joke. These kids snacked all weekend. I was mortified. It has been a long while since I burnt a meal or undercooked one for that matter. When we left we passed on the stove/oven/cookware information to the camp director. He said we haven't been the first to complain about the stove...that would have been nice to tell me on the phone.

All the kitchen drama aside we did have a really great time. I had Hannah and Brittney in my room with Lillian. This put Lilli and I right in the middle of Senior Class Pranks! I have to say, the boys won this one (for the first time). The guys went down under the building into the crawl space right under our room. Long after lights out, they start making some pretty freaky noises. My brave Hannah FREAKED out!!! She spent the next half hour up on top of the top bunk rails telling the "rats" to go away. Brittney refused to stay on the lower bunk alone so she joined Hannah on top. I knew what was going to happen but the boys asked that I play along. Now, I did tell the girls that I knew what the boys were up to, but they asked me not to tell them because the boys had yet to pull off a decent prank. I don't think they expected me to play along though. Hans even got in on the action by checking under the beds for the girls. He did his best to assure them until he screamed like a little girl at the next noise. He too knew what was going on but decided to help the guys out.

The guys also took the girls toiletries and suspended them in a jell-o mold. Hannah says her deoterant still smells like strawberries. So, do you want to know what the girls did to the guys....we took all thier luggage, put them in plastic bags and threw them off the back deck where underware proceeded to freeze. The boys figured us out and caught us sneaking in the window. The good thing was that we had multiple teams working at the same time, so while one group was getting caught the other two teams were gathering from other rooms. As fun as it was, I still think the boys one (see the pictures for proof).

I am not sure if I will ever be asked to do meals again I do hope that this wasn't my last Snow Camp.