Camping has always been a thing in my family. I’ve been camping since I was 5 weeks old (I was such a trooper). Every easter our family goes camping & since our old camping spot dried up with the drought yearsssss ago, we now head down the great ocean road to camp with friends, in a caravan park, with a toilet block and plenty of (hot and cold) running water. 

The weekend always passes by so quickly, and I’m not really sure what I did with all the time. I know there was wine, and cheese, and wine, and more cheese and definitely wine. I finally introduced my family to the shadows of blue cheese which I picked up from Cheese World in Allansford, and they enjoyed it too. The Woolworths Fresh magazine (the only thing I managed to read flick through during those 3 days) aligned with me on putting peanut butter & banana on a hot cross bun.

 

I gave the usual eggs – Lindt bunny for mum, crunchy bunnies for the boys. My brother came through with the goods & gave me my red tulip bunny I always look forward to. Mum & I went to the annual Easter market in Port Campbell & came away with a delicious fruit & nut sourdough from the Timboon Bakery & some homemade apricot jam. The grandparents popped down & we went all touristy, attempting to see the twelve apostles with 4000 other people, enjoying a few licks of Timboon Fine Ice Cream. It was all very lovely and all very relaxing.

 

Amongst all this, I do try to encourage a bit of balance between all the cheese, chocolate and hot cross buns. We enjoyed a satay prawn & vegetable stir fry on Good Friday, overdone steak & salad saturday, and on sunday night I took on operation use all the vegetables and whipped up a spaghetti bolognese.

  

The latter was actually really delicious. So, I thought why not share it with you.

INGREDIENTS

(all amounts are purely guestimates)

1 tbsp extra virigin olive oil (I use Cobram, and have since purchased the garlic infused variety which I highly recommend for those people sensitive to garlic)

150g mushooms

1 brown onion

1 red capsicum

3 tomatoes

1x 400g canned diced tomatoes (we had the onion, herb & garlic variety)

1 massive (think odd-bunch massive) carrot

100g spinach, chopped

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup red wine

pepper, to season

Pasta, to serve

METHOD

This was all cooked on a campfire so there was no heat regulation as such.

1. Heat oil in a large pan over campfire. Add mushrooms, onion and capsicum. Cook for approximately 5 minutes or until the onion is nice and caramelised.

2. Add fresh tomatoes & give them a nice stir.

3. Add the mince and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up mince until browned.

4.  Add carrot, canned tomatoes, spinach, red wine. Cook & stir, allowing the sauce to simmer and thicken. Season with salt and pepper. Ours cooked for approximately the time it took for the water to reboil on the campfire & the pasta to cook.

To be honest, I made it up on the spot, so really this is just a guide.

Thanks for letting me waffle,

Emma xo.