White Rim Food and Caramelized Onion Notes

This post is mostly about keeping notes for a camping trip prep.  The crockpot will get a workout this week!

So, the trip might be between 5-11 people right now.

Meal plan:
Night 1: Curry and Spring Rolls (if the spring rolls still taste good the day after).
Night 2: Brats and French Onion Soup
Night 3: Fajitas-type stuff
Night 4: Chili

Beforehand:

8 hours in a crock pot: 4.5 lbs. chicken thighs, 1 jar tomatillo salsa (16 oz.)
Shred the chicken, drain a fair bit of the water out.  Will freeze in plastic bags.

Next day:
Chili:
Brown 2lbs. beef with onions, garlic, and chipotle olive oil
Chopped: 2 medium-largish sweet potatoes
2 red bell peppers
1 green bell pepper
3 stalks celery
Canned tomatoes: 1 large can and 2 smaller ones of various flavors.  (Basil, fire-roasted, garlic).

Crock pot is FULL.  Added some cumin and chili powder on top.  Don't know if it will permeate the whole she-bang.

Will freeze in large pitchers.

Caramelized Onions:
Filled medium purple prep bowl within an inch of the top.  Which filled the 12" electric skillet to the top.  Added a daub of butter to the top.  Paid more attention to stirring to prevent burning from last time.  Went well.

Gummy chews, take 2

So, based on homemade-energy-gummy-chews-attempt-1.

I took the fresh juice from 2 lemons and added it to another flavor of Naked.  It might have been pomegranate something.  Used the same method (half warm, half cold), but doubled the amount of gelatin.  Curious to see how they do out of the fridge for a few hours, attempt 1 became a little-too-mushy.  So far, they are much more solid and I like the kick lemon juice gives them.

Scoot

Update: they hold together much better just hanging out in my bag for the day.....they still get a little floppy, but it works.  I don't think I'd leave them outside of a cooler or fridge for more than a day.

caramelized onions

Take 4-5 onions (I used various types), slice them.
In an electric skillet set around 300 (F), add 3 T butter.  When it is melted, add the onions.
Don't stir them for about 15-20 minutes, then stir occasionally, using water to de-glaze as necessary for about 45 minutes- 1 hour.

Delicious.

Recipe from Alton Brown

Planning on adding these to eggs, soup, etc.

Scooter

Homemade energy gummy chews, attempt 1.

Basically, I made fancy jello with Great Lakes Gelatin.

I bought one of those "Naked" brand drinks - I think it was the pomegranate blueberry.

Added 2 T of gelatin to 1 cup of it cold, mixed it all together, put it in a pyrex 12" square pan.  The other cup of juice I heated in the microwave, then added it to the pyrex dish. (Why the hot and cold?  Cause the internet told me to.)

Basically, it's fancy jello.  But it's good.  I wanted it to be more solid - I will try adding more gelatin relative to the amount of liquid.  Future plans include adding honey or lemon juice to make it sour, such as:

Sour Watermelon Gummies

Or

Sweet and Sour gummy gelatin snacks

And I got the idea from various recipes linked on Chowstalker.

Scooter