Chris and I just got back from our honeymoon.  We drove from British Columbia (where my family is from and where the wedding was) to Tennessee (Where Chris’ family lives) in a diesel Ford pick-up truck with a vintage Slumber Queen truck camper.    The truck and Camper belonged to my daddy, who passed away a year and a half ago.  He had built his house on Gabriola Island while living in the camper and hauling material in the truck.  My mother gave us the truck and camper sort of as a dowry and also because Chris and I are travellers.  Daddy would be happy to know that his truck and camper was being used for adventure!

We more or less went on a reverse of the Oregon Trail.  We saw the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, Portland, Mount Hood and the John Day fossil beds in Oregon, a long straight road and a road side attraction with Llamas in Idaho, hot springs, drive-in movies, canyons, natural bridges and arches, hoodoos and back roads on the Grand Escalante that take you deeper and deeper into the geological history of our planet in Utah, a steep mountain that made our truck unhappy in Colorado, another straight road and good local produce in Kansas, The City Museum and Ribs in St. Louis, Missouri…..you get the idea.

Traveling and cooking are  two things are right up there with black tea, hot baths and my cats on the list of things that are key to my happiness.    I delight in trying out local produce and delicacies where ever I go.  However, actually cooking on the road is usually quite tricky….unless you have a camper.  Our camper is very small, but efficiently designed.  It has a kitchen sink, good cupboard and counter space, a fridge, four gas burners and a gas oven.  This is my ideal way to travel.

We ate very well while we travelled.  Here are some of the foods that we cooked and ate in our camper.  I will be posting some of these recipes in the future and you can link to the ones that are already posted here (they are underlined).

Washington and Oregon 

• Toast fried in Butter with home-made blackberry jam.
• Smoked Olympic Peninsula Oysters   (we gobbled up the oysters pretty fast and had to switch to tinned ones).
• Fresh Oregon Figs
• Aged Gouda Cheese.
• Pickled Plums (I bought these from a gourmet shop and have since reproduced them at home!)
• Greek Spinach Salad with Northwest Coast Hazelnuts and Blueberry dressing