Burnin' it Down!

It was breakfast at the lake, and that means one thing. It means no brotein bars for me this morning. Oh no. It means bacon.

Bacon cooked on cast iron, to be precise.

It also means eggs. This morning, I thought I'd try a new method to make scrambled eggs. A couple days ago, Scott showed me a video of Gordon Ramsay preaching about scrambled eggs, so I wanted to try it out. It started with whole eggs and butter in a cold pot.

But it ended up with scrambled eggs that pretty much look like normal scrambled eggs.

A little bit of sour cream at the end finished them off, and they were pretty good. I still like my method, which calls for a little cheese to be mixed in.

Instead of traditional toast this morning, we had the leftover WheatFields baguette and some off-brand Boursin-like garlic and herb cheese.

This turned out to be more toast like than we anticipated, as the French bread was surprisingly hard in its old age. We quickly nuked it, which helped slightly, but even in its harder state it was still delicious.

The best part came when I created the bread/bacon/boursin combination.
;

I also had a little bit of fruity V8 to drink.

A little bit later, Sidney broke out the sea salt vinegar chips and was about to finish them off, so naturally I asserted myself and helped her in that quest.

I then felt the need supplement with some brotein, so I had a brotein bar.

There was some excellent scenery behind this bar, but I quickly went back inside when another great combination idea came to me.

This time, I took the caramel topping from my brotein bar set it atop a sea salt vinegar chip.

This was a glorious combination, and it got me rolling on to other combinations. I then placed a dark chocolate-covered pecan atop a chip.

This was another dynamite combination! I then took a break from these salty/sweet combos and had a proper lunch. I warmed up a brat and had some white cheddar bunnies with it.

The following picture is of our fire ring. You can't actually see the fire ring since it's buried underneath a dead tree.

These are the scraps from the redbud tree that used to be in my parents' side yard. It had been in poor health recently, and a big storm finally took it out. The fire ring it's covering is 8 feet in diameter. It's big.

But that fire would just have to wait. There was dinner to attend to! Tonight, we would have a lake staple. Burgers! It doesn't get much better than burgers smashed on cast iron.

Okay, here's the burger building sequence. It starts with a grilled potato bun and a healthy dollop of our imitation Freddy's sauce.

Then on go two patties with cheese.

Next is something a little different than we usually make. Tonight, we sauteed some onions, so I put those on top of the patties.

The only thing left to do was put the top bun on!

That is one good-looking burger!

And this is one good-looking plate!

There was the burger, some Bugles, and a baked potato with cream cheese. That's a good meal right there!!

I mean, just look at that burger!!!

Afterward, there was a patty left, so I gladly accepted it along with some more onions and more sauce.

Now, remember that big pile of tree? This is what it turned into:

This picture doesn't really do it justice. It was a big fire. One of the best parts came when my dad was lighting it. Always one with a flare for the dramatics, he doused the pile with a splash of gas. Deeming that splash not enough, he walked back and refilled his coffee can. He then tossed this gas onto the pile. He then went to spark it up, but the matches he had were a little damp. After a bit of searching, he found a dry match that would hold a flame, but by now a substantial fumage had built up within the pile of sticks. You can see what's coming. When the lit match hit the gas...BOOM!!! There was a non-volatile yet extremely exciting and satisfying explosion. Our neighbors came out in search of the source of their window rattling. It was the perfect way to start a fire!!!

The pile of wood became fire, and the fire then became this:

Oh yeah! It was the classic with a milk chocolate bar and toasted marshmallow between two graham crackers.

But I had more up my sleeve! I had brought the remaining chocolate frosting with me, and it came in perfectly handy tonight. I went inside where I assembled another s'more. This time, though, I exchanged the chocolate bar for, yes, frosting.

I then added a marshmallow and popped it into the microwave.

After a mere 10 seconds, this is what it had become:

I reassembled.

So, yeah. If you happen to have some spare chocolate buttercream, this is definitely the way to go. I would definitely recommend toasting the marshmallow over a fire instead of in the microwave, but the flavor is just so good. Chocolate buttercream >>> milk chocolate bar.