TeenPact, day 1 -- April 19

A while ago friend of mine asked me if I was available to help her cook for the week long camp TeenPact.  TeenPact is a Christian camp for teenagers, and its goal is to educate the campers on the legislative system of the Texas government.  They stay at a Christian retreat center tucked away in the little town of Buda; drive to the Capitol each day to learn about writing bills, passing legislation, and committee meetings; then return to the campsite in the late afternoon to debrief and have fun. 

I had a blast working with the Marques family and friends.  :-)  They are what you might call "foodies," in that they like to buy organic and natural stuff for their family, so we have a lot in common in that area.  You would be surprised at how much she got away with in her menus!  I enjoyed getting to prepare mostly "real" food, instead of what you usually think of as "camp food" (canned, prepackaged, and pre-prepared to the extreme). 

The week started on Monday, when Mrs. Apodaca dropped me off at Costco to meet Mrs. Marques for shopping.  With various delays and difficulties (Mrs. Marques' suburban wasn't behaving properly), we finally got through all the stores (only by God's grace!) and arrived at the campground a couple of hours later than we meant to.
We still had time to get dinner prepared, though we certainly didn't mosey around.  The menu for the evening was meatloaf, mashed potatoes (real, not flake!), green beans, buttered French bread, and salad. 
That was a lot of meat to mix up...  It took several bowls.

Besides myself, the Marques girls, and a friend of theirs from church, we also had Emily and two of her sisters for the week.  Here are Elena Marques and Emily working on one of the salads: an Asian salad with a delicious combination of ingredients tossed in a ginger/garlic/plum vinegar vinaigrette.

I was not the only one who brought her camera -- we were all snapping pictures left and right all week.  That was happy; it made me feel like I could document things without being embarrassed about taking pictures of random things like the pantry.  :-D

Here are Jennifer and Anna, Emily's sisters, still working on meatloaf.

Caro Marques and her friend Elizabeth (better known as Lizzi) buttering bread.

Mica Marques to the rescue!  There was a red wasp flying around our heads, until she managed to trap it and let it outside where it belonged.

Still working with meatloaf, though this time it was cooked.  ;-)  Mrs. Marques re-panned them to get more into each pan for serving.

Each evening a group of campers would come in after dinner to help us clean up the kitchen, which for them was mostly washing dishes.  That was a big help!