Our family loves to get out in the mountains and camp. We cook our fair share of hamburgers and hot dogs, but we also give it a good go on some pretty tasty dinners. My husband likes to smoke meats, so this past weekend he smoked prime rib for dinner, and as I was pondering what else to accompany the meat a couple of the recipes in our upcoming cookbook popped into my head. One of our friends had shrimp, one friend had tequila, I had horseradish, and ironically grabbed some gorgonzola, because I love to sprinkle it over the top of pretty much anything, somehow I had cocktail sauce...still unsure when I threw that in the cart as I was camp shopping, and then we all have plenty of butter. Perfect...we'd have Sugar Tequila Shrimp, pages 46-47, and an extra way to send a perfectly delicious smoked prime rib over the top was to make the Gorgonzola Butter, page 90. We took our camping dinner from great to "WOW"! The shrimp was so easy. Just soak in salt and sugar for about 30 minutes, and when they're ready to cook...they cook quick. The shrimp are finished in butter and Cajun seasoning. Everyone loved them. They went very fast, hence only three left on a friends plate, when I jumped from my camping chair and said, "Wait! I have to get a picture...don't eat anymore." My poor friends never know when I'm going to jump up and have a blog/photo/writing moment I 'have' to quickly document. Thankfully, she didn't choke as I startled her, and could salvage the last lonely shrimp for the photo op. The Gorgonzola butter is a cinch to make. Butter and gorgonzola at room temperature are mixed together until blended, lay on plastic wrap, roll it up and toss it in the fridge or freezer if you need it sooner. It melted across this caramelized crusted juicy, hot smoked prime rib. It was decadent to say the least! I cheated a bit on the cocktail sauce, but were camping and it still turned out great. Instead of making it from scratch I did have a jar of cocktail sauce, but I added a one tablespoon each of hot horseradish and tequila. (I had an extra regular cocktail sauce handy for the kids to dip.) The horseradish and tequila took the cocktail sauce to a new level. Just the two easy extra elements to our camping meal, just took our dining experience to a fun, different-creative level! We actually got 'real plates and silverware' from our camper drawers, but still balanced our meal on our knees and if anything dropped to the ground...the 5 second rule was definitely in play...well sorta. Who says you can't add a little gourmet flair while camping? And topping our burgers with the gorgonzola butter the next wasn't too shabby either.
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