Last Fling at the Lux's

It has been a tradition to go to the Lux's house after the Parish Festival on Sunday.  We gather to see if we have won the raffle prizes ($1500) and this year we had a big winner in our group.  Then we meet for relaxing, conversation and leftovers.  I had a made a chicken salad to take to school for lunches but brought that as my leftover.  Leon also shared his homemade salsa.  I will let him post that later if he wants to share his recipe.  The chicken salad was good and would either make a great sandwich, wrap or just as a salad.  
Avocado Chicken Salad
Great grab-and-go lunch.” 5 Servings Prep/Total Time: 20 min. 
Ingredients 
1 medium ripe avocado, peeled and cubed 
2 tablespoons lemon juice, divided 
2 cups cubed cooked chicken 
2 cups seedless red grapes, halved 
1 medium tart apple, chopped 
1 cup chopped celery 
3/4 cup mayonnaise 
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted 
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 
Lettuce leaves, optional 
Directions 
•In a small bowl, toss avocado with 1 tablespoon lemon juice; set 
aside. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, grapes, apple, celery, 
mayonnaise, walnuts, ginger and remaining lemon juice. Stir in 
avocado. 


Another tradition of the Parish Festival is Leon using the end of the ruhbarb to make our family favorite (okay Daira & my favorite) jam.  He makes enough for us to have for the year which usually doesn't last and then he has several pints he gives to the Parish Festival bake sale.  This recipe comes from the Howells Centennial Cookbook which was given to us at my wedding shower from Leon's Aunt.
 Apricot-Rhubarb Jam
5 cups ruhbarb, cut fine
1 cup water
5 cups sugar
1 can of Apricot pie filling
2 (3 oz.) pkgs. apricot gelatin

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Cook rhubarb in water until tender.  Add sugar and cook a few minutes longer, stirring constantly.  Add pie filling and cook 6 to 8 minutes more.  Remove from heat and add gelatin.  Stir until completely dissolved. Leon uses a stick blender to break up the larger chunks. Pour into jars and seal.  Store in refrigerator or freezer.

Knights Of Columbus Camping

Camping to us is just not the regular fare of hot dogs, s'mores and hamburgers. We have expanded our taste and look for fun , easy interesting meals to prepare while on the road. We started out tenting with our good friends The Hamik's Of course these meals were simple and easy. This lead to a pop-up camper and a way to bring more food. Leon discovered the dutch oven while camping in Ponca at a class the park rangers gave and that was all it took! We have now graduated to a travel trailer with a larger refrigerator and more space to bring along crock pots, electric skillet and the dutch ovens.

This last weekend was the annual Knights of Columbus Family camping weekend with 14 families camping together. All sorts of meals were prepared and I decided to try French Dip for Friday night. I found this easy recipe and it was a winner. I will be making it this at home also.

Leon suggested that next time we might do a stout or dark beer and see what the taste will be.

Easy Slow Cooker French Dip

Ingredients:

4 pounds rump roast

1 (10.5 ounce) can beef broth

1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed French Onion Soup

1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle of beer

6 French rolls

2 tablespoons of butter

Directions:

Trim excess fat from the rump roast and place in the slow cooker. Add the beef broth, onion soup and the beer. Salt to taste. Cook on Low setting for 7 hours.

Split French Rolls and spread with butter. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until heated through

Slice meat on the diagonal, place on the rolls. Serve the sauce for dipping.

Leon always has a request for Dump Cake. Dump cake is one of the easiest deserts I make when camping.

I use a 12" - 14" dutch oven for this recipe.

2 cans of pie filling

1 box cake mix

1 stick of butter or margarine.

The abbreviated directions for this is easy, dump it the ingredients and put dutch oven on coals.

The details directions...

Line dutch oven with heavy foil.

Dump in pie filling

Sprinkle dry cake mix over pie filling.

Cut butter into pats and put on top of cake mix.

put dutch oven over coals, 15 on bottom and 20 on top.

Desert will be ready in 30 to 45 minutes.

Clean up by throwing away the foil.

We have use the following combinations...

Apple pie filling and Spice Cake mix

Apple pie filling and Carrot Cake mix

Cherry pie filling and White Cake mix

Cherry pie filling and Chocolate Cake mix

Lemon Pie filling and Lemon Cake mix

Peach Pie filling and White Cake Mix

Try your own combinations and Enjoy!