I do NOT however love the thought of camping. I don't understand why this has to be part of the Girl Scout culture. I am not an outdoorsy person. I don't like to be dirty, I don't like bugs and in general I don't really care to be out in nature. I can appreciate the beauty of the world without getting all up in it. My general stand on camping is why when I have a nice little house and there are wonderful things in the world called hotels would I want to go out and pretend to be homeless.
Here at the foothills of the Adirondacks, camping seems to be a way of life. I have never encountered so many people who camp! And LOVE it. It seems to be something in their DNA. I am not talking slide out Class A RV camping. I am talking tent and pop-up camper camping.
I don't know if it because I am allergic to every type of tree and pollen in existence or because just the thought of campfire smoke sends my asthma into overdrive, the thought of camping makes me break out in a cold sweat. I blame my mother for raising a girly girl who does not like to get dirty. My one prior camping experience was when I was in college. It was a nice evening with the Sigma Nu's until I saw where I was expected to sleep. I promptly walked out of the woods, got into my car, and drove back to Greensboro in the middle of the night. Back to my nice warm bed in my nice warm HOUSE.
Ok, so we get that I don't like to camp. The thought of it causes involuntary shudders to run up my spine. Well, this year...
I took my girls camping.
Here is a little bit of what my poor camping deprived child thought she would be doing.
Go ahead click the link. It is worth a good laugh.
I promised them we would go and we did. Two nights in the woods. It could have been much worse. We were camping at a former Girl Scout camp called Camp Little Notch. My troop was assigned to a cabin. So the big inconvenience there was that I did not bring an air mattress and we had to sleep on the floor. But we did have power and running water, although no shower or bathroom.
My girls were in their glory. They loved every minute of it. We had lovely cabin mates who introduced me to something called a Banana Smore! The girls swam and sang and we had a dance. In the week leading up to Encampment I cooked and froze 7 gallons of spaghetti sauce for our big spaghetti dinner in the dining hall on Saturday night. After which they had a dance. There is nothing funnier than 75 little girls dancing Gangnam Style.
I know my Beauty had a wonderful time. On the way home in a very quiet voice I asked my little campers of they would like to do it again and was met with a resounding YES! I am not saying I will take them next year but I do have a tote of camping supplies and gear in the basement.
I found this recipe for Grilled S'more Banana Packets from Neighbor Food blog and I am totally stealing her picture so you can see it.
Ingredients
- 1 banana
- Handful of chocolate chips
- Handful of marshmallows
- 1 graham cracker
- Other additions, if desired: peanut butter, nuts, nutella, jam, etc.
Instructions
- Heat a grill to about 350 degrees.
- Using a knife, cut out a small strip of peel from the top of your banana, leaving one end intact. Pull back the strip, and use a knife or spoon to carve a shallow “canyon” down the center of your banana. Eat the piece of banana you carve out.
- Fill the canyon with chocolate chips and marshmallows and other mix ins if desired. Stuff it as full as you can! You can also smear some peanut butter or Biscoff spread on before you start.
- Place the peel back into place then wrap a square of foil tightly around the banana.
- Set foil packets directly on the grill, cover, and cook for 10-12 minutes or until marshmallows and chocolate are melted.
- Remove from the grill and carefully pull away foil. It may take some marshmallow with it…don’t worry! Pull back the peel and dig in!
