Wanna Snnnnaaaaaccckkk????

Last weekend we went camping. This sounds like a pretty normal statement had it been July or August, maybe even September, but this was October. Not the beginning of October, the END of October. You know what happens at the END of October? It's cold! FRICKIN COLD!

Now I knew it would be cold. Don't get me wrong, I knew it would be cold. I knew we would be in a tent, I knew we would have a heater and warm sleeping bags. All of this I knew. What I didn't know was that the wrong rain cover for the top of our tent, which coincidentally is all screen, was packed. Our tent is a 12 man tent. The cover we had with us in the dark of a cold October night was made for a six man tent. At first we thought we just had it the wrong way on the tent. Round and round we went trying to make that cover fit. Why isn't this working? Hmmmmm...BECAUSE IT GOES TO THE OTHER TENT!

We made due and did our best to get it to cover as much screen as we could. Let's just say that once you were inside the ventilation was superb and the view of the stars was good too on one side of the tent. Anyway, we blow up the air mattresses and get all of the blankets set. Turn that little heater on full blast. My famous last words, I think it is getting warmer in here already.

We were there with Kim, our sitter, and her family and some of their friends. They all had campers, so no one else had any tent drama. We go and enjoy a nice WARM campfire, which always includes lots of yummy snacks. We may not have been prepared with the tent, but we were prepared with the snacks. All of you that know me know that I always am ready with snacks. Wanna snnnnnaaaaccck?

They look innocent, but so do babies and any mother
knows how innocent babies really are.

I busted out the pretzels. You may be thinking pretzels, really? Yuck. I know that is what I usually think about pretzels unless they are dipped in chocolate, but these are no ordinary pretzels. These pretzels come straight from Noni's kitchen. I have no idea where or when she got this recipe, but I have been eating these pretzels as long as I can remember. These pretzels are addictive. You will not be able to eat just one. I challenge you to try.

Here is what I did:

2 bags of pretzels, those mini ones,  not sticks or rods, regular pretzels
1 1/2 cups of Butter flavor Orville Reddenbacher Oil, the kind you use to make popcorn in a pot
1 tsp lemon pepper, heaping
1 package of powdered ranch dressing like Hidden Valley


Whisk together the oil, lemon pepper and the powdered dressing so there are no clumps. Put the bags of pretzels into a really large bowl. I actually used my roasting pan, so that I could easily mix them with out them spilling everywhere. Take the liquid mixture and pour it over the pretzels and then mix. I like to use a rubber spatula to mix, so that I can scrape the bottom and get the pretzels fully covered. You are going to let them sit and then turn them again, trying each time to get them covered with the oil mix. This is going to take some hours, yes hours, so do it on a day where you have time or will be in and out. Continue to turn them until all of the oil has absorbed into the pretzels. Store them in a ziploc bag.

That's it! Go ahead and try to eat just one. You won't be able to.

Although camping was freezing at night and NO it was not getting warmer in there, we did have an absolute blast on Saturday. The kids loved it and so did we. Thanks Kim for all of the fun!