Staycation – a different type of summer
“Don’t worry we can camp out in the backyard” – my famous last words as we watched the final vestiges of our long planned trip to Thailand slip away. With literally nowhere else to go, the prospect of an imminent lockdown staycation was all I had to offer to placate our collective disappointment.
Our staycation or holistay rose from the ashes of that cancelled trip. Up went the 6 man REI tent, (albeit a little slowly as it was left in the hands of 11 and 12 year olds), out came the foldaway canvas chairs with cup holders, and in went the camp kitchen. Here is what we learned while camping in our own back yard:
- no grumpy midnight trips in the dark to communal toilets
- the luxury to sleep underneath as many duvets as necessary
- if it rains hard…well you can always retreat indoors
- it’s easy to recreate that authentic wood smoke infusion in your clothes when you sit around the fire pit making s’mores before bedtime
- it transformed the way I look at the garden
- real tableware is nicer to eat from than tin plates
- spills in an outdoor kitchen don’t matter so much
- handing over planning and execution of the entire menu for 2 days to 2 kids is liberating
Wrapped up in all of this was the pursuit of a girl scouts camping badge hence #8. New rituals we performed, new skills learned, and an opportunity opened up for me to relinquish control and allow it all to happen. A space in which to collectively breathe. And we regularly acknowledged our privilege at having a private green space to do it in.
As we embraced the brief respite from sheltering-in-place and looked back at the house from the garden, it was as if their roles had been reversed. All we needed was now outdoors, taking only brief trips indoors as somewhere to go to use the facilities and change it up a little.
A staycation unexpectedly became the gateway for a physical “shift” as our 4 walls closed in on the 4 of us. Graham was working all the hours 7 days a week on the Dyson Covent Ventilator project and the rest of us..well we were just working. So as our four walls expanded into the outdoors so did our minds.
We met each evening at 7pm around the campfire, the only hour that Graham emerged to relax over an al fresco dinner. We created a real space and mental break away from it all. We set tea lights and a simple table decoration using whatever we could find growing in the garden. Of course it helped that we had a mini heatwave to transform the experience. Sleep came easily because there was simply no traffic and we were all exhausted.
Being outdoors didn’t prevent me from sprinkling a little Zen into the menus. Lily’s potato salad was made using the Coq au Vin blend in a lemon and herb dressing. The beer braised brats recipe takes on the BBQ notes of our Smoky BBQ blend.
Herbed Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 lbs baby potatoes
- 2 eggs hard boiled, chopped
- 1 cup (1 small) red onion small dice
- 1/3 cup capers
- 1 Coq au Vin blend
- 1/2 cup yogurt
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- cook the potatoes in boiling salted water; drain and cool
- in a large bowl mix the potatoes, egg, onion and capers
- in a medium glass jar or a bowl shake (or mix) the dressing ingredients; Coq au Vin blend, yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and salt
- combine the potato mixture with the herb dressing and serve alongside your favorite sausages
As always after a camping trip we fully appreciated our comfy beds and smoke-free clothes. And once the tent was down all that remained was a small yellow imprint of our staycation etched into the lawn, a physical reminder of the new world we had created.
Looking ahead…
The beer braised brats recipe is coming here to the blog in the 3rd week of June in partnership 
with La Grow Beer Co. Organic Beer and it turns out that our worlds collide in more way than one. Our mutual friend Steve Madonna, Senior VP of Culinary for SVP Food & Beverage at Bar Louie, was my annual camp trip’s “head chef” when we ventured into the Wisconsin wilds with our families to holiday. He introduced us to his phenomenal slow cooked cryovaced brats in beer that he 
would drive, on ice, into the woods. “Sausage perfection” – Graham McKay, 2014. Join us on Friday, June 26th @11am on Instagram @zenofslowcooking for our demo.
Zen Moment
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”
― Walden 4) combine the potato mixture with the herb dressing and serve alongside your favorite sausages
