THE BEAR!!

Also on Sunday we had a visitor outside the kitchen. The campers who were going to church were eating early and all of a sudden they yelled, The bear!" Grabbed my camera and caught a picture of him heading up the rocks away from us. He strolls around looking for food so everyone is warned NOT to keep food in thier cabin!.

One More Week!!

Almost can't believe my Colorado summer is almost over. Lots of lessons learned, met many wonderful people and have seen some beautiful scenery!! In the kitchen I believe we have made some delicious meals and satisfied many hungry campers. On Sunday we make homemade cinnamon rolls and granola with yogurt, strawberries and blueberries. Here is a picture of Sundays rolls. We were quite proud of how they looked and tasted! On Saturday we had a theme dinner, Mategascar, and we all dressed up as penguins( pic posted). We were pretty funny looking but the kids loved the meal of chicken tenders, fruit salad in pineapple and watermelon boats, homemade breadsticks, salad and Kansas Dirt for dessert complete with the worms!

Making Cookies with the Campers

Had a great day yesterday. In the morning 4 campers and 2 counselors came to Chipeta kitchen with the desire to make cookies institutionally. Since I have kind of been labeled, "Miss Betty Crocker" in our kitchen I was assigned the duty of leading the pack. I had made " Grandma Dots Chocolate Chip" cookies for the full house one night for dessert and everyone loved them of course so decided to do that recipe with the campers. They were all about putting on the gloves and diving into the margerine, shortening, flour and sugar! Of course we used lots of chocolate chips! I did show them the proper way to lick the paddle and we had great success. Everyone wanted the recipe and it just might show up in the "Cheley Camp" newsletter as a camp favorite!

More Visitors

This past week I got to enjoy the company of friends from Manhattan and Kansas City. Missy and Anna Schrader came and stayed at a local bed and breakfast, The Baldpate Inn. Missy is my replacement at Food Stores for the summer. We went swimming, horsebackriding, toured my camp, and ate at several local restaurants. We met Doug, Jamie, Jack and Kate Miller at Poppys,
one of my favories, for pizza and chicken nuggets!! The Millers stayed at the YMCA camp in Estes. Doug is the Campbells soup rep in our area and Jamie is Whit and Blaises upcoming wedding photographer.

Sat 7/25/09

Christmas in July"

Lots of the locals celebrate Christmas in July and we were no different. We dressed up in red and green and decorated the dining room. Several of the campers also dressed up. Santa, Don Cheley, owner of the camp, also showed up to throw candy to the campers. The weather also corporated with a "little white stuff". (hail not snow but the same effect!)

Family Visiting

First term at Cheley is over and said goodbye to the first group of campers sadly. Had gotten to know quite a few of them and enjoyed joking around with them in the kitchen when they would come and get their food. Happily though I got two and a half days off and Mom, Bruce and Jeanne arrived to visit the area. Bruce had gotten a condo on line and it really turned out to be a nice one with a beautiful view of the Rockies. Mom and I are pictured here with the view in the background. We walked the streets of Estes Park and ate lunch at one of my favorite eateries, Poppys on the River where I took a picture of the 3 of them. On Monday we drove in the Park, stopping at Bear Lake and Sprague Lake to eat lunch and travel up Trail Ridge Road to the top of 12,000 feet where there still is snow!! That evening we ate at the Ballpate Inn and right before we got there we had a dark cloud pass over which is the dark picture posted. This area is really getting a lot of rain this year, more than normal so daily one has to be prepared for the rain showers that pop up.

Estes Park Parade

My day off today so went to Dads Laundry and then went to the parade. Our campers had a float and several got to ride in the parade. Lots of cars, tractors, horses and a couple bands. Headed to Boulder to shop around.

MY BIRTHDAY!!

At breakfast the Chipeta kitchen staff were just sitting around the table discussing the calendar and how many days were in July and I just announced it was MY Birthday! Everybody thought I was joking or just remembered it was my birthday. I wish I could have caught their expressions on film. After that the WHOLE camp knew it was my day and made it a great one! Lots of calls from home and family which always makes the day special, got to clean the ovens in the kitchen(afterall I was working and the inspector is coming this week), Ruth Ann bought me a cake I could share with everyone and Angie surprised me with a gettogether at Marys for wine, chocolate covered strawberries and creme brulee'! I topped it off with a piece of mixed berry pie that Theresa a fellow worker gave me for my birthday. Needless to say I needed to run the next morning! I ran to Marys Lake and it is so beautiful in the morning with no wind and the beautiful blue sky.

4th of July

It was really crowed everywhere in Estes for the 4th. Lots of tourists and lots of rain showers. It cleared off for the nightworks which were outstanding. We served fried chicken, corn on the cob, broccoli salad and a dessert pizza made with a sugar cookie base and strawberries and blueberries for garnish. The campers loved it all except the broccoli salad. We had if for several days after!! Got to do 48 dozen deviled eggs for the cookout the next day. Don't think I will be doing deviled eggs at home for awhile!

The Hike

On Friday I hiked with some fellow campers up Longs Peak for a couple hours and then back down. I really thought coming down would be faster but really about the same. We hit snow and got above the treeline. It was really cold and needed to wear several layers. I enjoyed the hike and can see why people get into it because the sights you see are beautiful. Later on in the weekend I treated myself to a horseback ride with "Romeo" the horse and once again saw some beautiful scenery. "Romeo" was kind of a old plug but he was having to do the hard work of the hike and I got to enjoy the beautiful landscape!! Thanks Romeo!

More Rolls

Easy day today because most of the campers are out on a 3 day ride and campout. Big news today was I had not one screw but one screw and a nail in each of my front tires. I was pretty sure one tire was losing air but kind of clueless on the other one. There is a gravel road up to the camp and a lot of camp vehicles travel it daily shaking stuff off of them I guess.

Made a small batch of rolls tonight and put parmesan cheese, garlic powder and italian seasonings in the dough, smelled really good like we were making pizzas! Girls enjoyed them and we ran out.

My next day off is Friday and planning to hike as much as I can. I am such a flatlander that might not make it too far up but everyone hikes around here so have got to try.

Past Week

Days are passing quickly, even though they are pretty long, starting at 6 in the kitchen going until 1:30 in the afternoon, breaking which I usually jog around Estes Park Lake or go swimming at the high school indoor pool and then going back into the kitchen at 4 until 7:30. Here are some pictures of the Chipeka kitchen dining room and the setup of the dishes before a meal. Everything is served family style so lots of bowls have to be filled before everyone can eat. Our numbers can range from 9 tables of 8 to 26 tables of 8 and 10 depending on the meal and day. Most campers are in on Saturday night and Sunday breakfast and dinner so thats why our day off is during the middle of the week. I scheduled do go on a rafting trip on Thursday last week with the campers so I got on all the garb which included my swimsuit, splashjacket, safety vest, baseball cap, helmet, and sunglasses(quite a sight I assure you and thats why NO Picture!) and then they discovered there was two too many for the trip! So...got some good pictures of the campers floating down the river and changed clothes and headed to tour Ft Collins. The rest of the weekend prepared food which included 50# of potatoes for the cookout potato salad( a far cry from the 5# I prepared for Whits graduation party potato salad) and hot rolls. I really am enjoying doing the rolls from scratch and the campers do too!

The Stanley Hotel and Sunday lunch

Sunday was a packed day with cinnamon rolls and hot rolls for lunch. It was a half day but worked 8 hours! Go figure? Took a picture of the meal of sliced turkey, broccoli and cheese sauce, hot rolls and garden rice. For dessert was strawberry shortcake! I made the cake and hot rolls. Our full house of feeding is around 200 but lots of seconds are asked for which makes one feel like they are liking what we are preparing. After work I went to the famous Stanley Hotel where "The Shining" was filmed. We sat down and listened to live music. Everywhere it seems like they have someone singing at night which is very relaxing to hear and to view the mountains.

Baking cookies, Dinner meal

Got to make a batch of 360 cookies for the Munch Inn which is the location the counselors go to for their campout meals. They actually turned our, oatmeal coconut which is kind of like a ranger cookie in my opinion. This is a picture of Thursday night dinner which the campers really liked. The chicken is soaked in water then just baked with a mixture of parmesan and seasoning salt sprinkled over it. Got to shape the rolls also. The dough raises soooo quickly up in this altitude that you hardly get done shaping the pan and they have risen. Made 3 pans of 77 and we just had enough. Told the campers we would make more the next time for seconds! These campers ARE HUNGRY!!