Down South Camp Meetin’

Well, not really down south. Just south of Madison, but that’s good enough to warrant using a Benny Goodman song title, right?

We got Elenore out a few times before the summer got away from us, but that was mostly  because it was hot and humid and horrible for most of July and August. Joe’s a little more tolerable about that sort of thing than I am, but before we even started looking for a vintage trailer, I said I’d sleep in the pseudo outdoors during the worst of Wisconsin’s sticky summers over my dead body. We also cancelled an early July reservation at Brunet Island State Park to instead spend the sweltering, 90-degree weekend at the downtown Chicago Hilton. (We Vivianis are nothing if not well-rounded in our leisure time interests. 😉 )

We finally snagged a campsite on a late August weekend with the most perfect weather imaginable (read: comfortable), and took Luca on his first camping trip to Yellowstone Lake State Park.  It’s about an hour’s drive southwest of Madison, and I was expecting it to be pretty mundane, but we were pleasantly surprised: the campsites were clean, quiet,  and full of gorgeous white pines; the lake was warm and there was an adorable little ice cream shop/diner on the park property.

Yellowstone Lake is also unique in that it has literally hundreds of bat houses scattered throughout the park, so I honestly didn’t see ONE mosquito. It was absolutely heavenly. Viva la Eleanor!

Orange Crush

Although it’s super weird for winter in Wisconsin, we haven’t had any snow to speak of this year until last night, during which a snowstorm dropped several inches (and turned our relatively modest, 25-minute Friday evening commute into a snails-pace, hour-and-a-half ordeal. Ugh).

But this morning, all ’twas a winter wonderland outside our windows, and, pretty though  it might be, it also had me feeling COLD. I like to start my Saturdays with a little cooking or baking for breakfast, so I found this sunny, citrusy, whole-grainy, carroty recipe online, and let me tell you, YUMMMMM. I love orange-scented baked goods, because they remind me of these simple yet wonderful orange cookies that my Gram used to make when I was little – something a bit like this, but of course, nothing will compare to Gram’s original handiwork.

Luca is always happy to help with baking, and luckily, grating carrots is a favorite activity, because I was loathe to get the food processor out and wash that beast.

There just so happened to be a few random oranges in the refrigerator, and because we are a Montessori household, we have not one but TWO child-sized citrus juicers (another messy yet satisfying Luca pastime).  There’s only about a tablespoon of zest and 1/3 cup of fresh OJ in this recipe, but the resulting orange flavor is super bright and sunny. Viva la orange!