Another Camp Out

Ok. So we're going camping. Again. With the cub scouts. Again.

Don't get me wrong. I'm looking forward to it. But I also kind of figured I had done my quota growing up, you know. One great thing, however, about having a woman committee chair for our pack is that the campsites, while inexpensive, tend to have actual bathrooms and usually showers as well. The only bathroom at the site we used growing up was some logs someone had cut and stacked together behind a bush. And, yeah, a teenage girl was SO using that.

But we bought a lot of equipment last time because my children have decided along with the cub scouts that camping is the STUFF! So we figured we might as well be prepared. However, after all that expense, we kind of balked at paying $10 each for some TINY iron skillets to use on the camp stove. So I bought one at the dollar store (for $1) and, thankfully, had planned to throw it out afterward because it was ruined by the sky-high flames on the stove. You can only turn it down so low. A week after the last campout, I was in the great Family Dollar store and saw normal sized iron skillets for $10 so I decided to get one of those before our next one.

So here I go to the great Family Dollar to purchase my skillet. I noticed they also had a cast iron tortilla pan and lo, there upon the shelf, a tag that read "Clearance $4.19." I thought -- Pancakes! Hey, hey. So I carried it up there to find out if the skillets were still $10 because I saw no tag for them.

By the way, do NOT make a joke about "straightening someone out" while hefting a cast iron tortilla plan. I know that the clerk was planning her testimony in my murder trial as I left from the look in her eyes. Even though I made a weak little comment about going camping. I'm telling you, she didn't believe me.

Guess what, the skillets were also clearanced for $4.19. I got two. Now I feel set. Except...

The skillets were seasoned already but not the tortilla pan. Here's a tip: turn on the exhaust fan before sticking the thing in the oven covered in shortening. So I sit here, gagging on smoke and waiting for the smoke alarms to go off while Rocky is barking at the highest possible pitch (FOR THE LAST 5 MINUTES STRAIGHT) because a school child dared to walk past my house.

Where's that cast iron tortilla pan?