When I was about 12-years-old, my cousin and I wanted to campout overnight at my grandfather’s pond. But my dad told us that we could only campout if we found our own food because we would not be able to take food from home. The only thing that we could take from our house was cooking oil, cornmeal, a frying pan and salt and pepper.
While camping, we would have to catch or find things to eat that night and the next morning. And we agreed to the terms because we wanted to prove that we would be able to survive. We decided that we would campout on a Friday night and go to pond after dinner to get set up, and try to catch some fish for supper that night.
We caught a few fish and fried them for supper. After supper, we started looking for frogs.
Around midnight we fell asleep and woke up around 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning. We got the fire started and got the frying pan and grease to cook the frog legs. After, we coated the frog legs with cornmeal and salt and pepper. I put them in the hot oil and boy did they jump and kick in the pan!
Unfortunately, we made the mistake of adding cornmeal to the oil in the pan. It thickened into a paste, and when we tried to pour it over, our frog legs were stuck! Cornmeal and oil do not make a good gravy. To top it all off, when we tried to eat the frog legs they were under-cooked. Camping was shaping up to be a challenge.
There we were with not a thing to eat for breakfast and we had not slept much the night before. However, going home and admitting our failure was not an option. So, we started walking through the woods to see what we could find.
Eventually, we came across an apple tree with bright green apples. We picked a few and kept walking. A little later we found a walnut tree which we climbed and picked some walnuts that were also green. When we arrived back at the pond, we peeled our apples and roasted the walnuts, but apples and walnuts are not good on an empty stomach.
Our camping trip came to an end faster than we would have liked. We may have gone home hungry, but we did learn a few things; don’t eat green apples on an empty stomach, green walnuts will never taste good, and cornmeal and water do not make gravy.
