Please don't confuse 'Camp' with 'Camping' - OR the life-changing power of camp love.

Darlings,As you may or may not (have you been living under a rock for the past five and a half years?!) know, camp is incredibly important to me.Now, let's get one thing squared away before we begin. Camp is different from camping.I don't love camping. I don't love sleeping in tents, I don't love peeing outside and I certainly don't love being so far away from the rest of the world. In fact, the only thing I do love about camp is the campfire, more specifically the marshmallows and the singalongs.I do love camp. I've loved camp from the moment my dad dropped me off at camp in 1999. I'll never forget it. We drove up to Maine from Philadelphia in a minivan and we stopped for a lobster roll at McDonalds (darlings, it's a real thing up here). We got to camp, we walked into the lodge, I saw the Diet Coke free flowing from the fountains (alas, this is no longer) and I decided I was done with my dad. So as soon as he helped me unpack my bags (and darlings, there were ALWAYS a lot of bags), he was off, back to Philadelphia in the minivan. And there I was. Heaven on Earth.Over the course of almost twenty summers, camp has been the place where I met the majority of my greatest friends, made some of the greatest memories and of course, met the man who would (quickly) become my husband.Camp for me was comfortable. It was a reprieve from life. From the summer I was an awkward 13 year old with a blonde pixie cut who no boys wanted to make out with at home, but whose weirdness was welcomed on the pond to the summer I found my raison de etre in something as silly as power-walking to the summer that the isthmus under the stars re-affirmed our marriage.It has always allowed time to think, time to breathe, time to be.As a kid, camp was Maine Teen Camp - a camp for teenagers, all of whom it seemed, were just a few degrees from normal, which was a dream for a weirdo like me, darlings. Camp was important when I was growing up, but in my opinion, it's even more important now. A place for kids to find a new point of view, void of their crutch, their screens.For me,  it was  life-changing. As an adult, camp began to include something else that would have one of the largest impacts on my life. When I started working at MTC in college, I had the rare opportunity to join the Camp Camp community. An LGBT adult summer camp -  it is an incredible week-long experience full of so much love.The love at Camp Camp is life-changing.Camp Camp love is warm and unwavering. It stands the test of 51 weeks a year without physical engagement, but when summoned, it returns immediately and immensely. When you are around it, the love is all encompassing and when you have to leave it, it physically hurts. The love reminds you that who you are could quite possibly be the best version of you and to not let people make you think differently if you don't want to. Camp camp love is the love found between people who have known each other for the quickest, most intense 7 days of their lives and the love found between people who have known each other for 20 years. It's a love that's built to last.At Camp camp, you became family.Leaving each summer became harder and harder. The bonds became stronger. And life outside of camp became more real. Jobs replaced school, a mortgage replaced the cheapest rent we could find and a little brooding canine joined our clan. And so for a few years, I eschewed the need for that love, just because, you know, #reallife.As a kid, there is a magic to meeting people on Stanley Pond. As an adult, the magic is exponential, because the context of life creates more of a demand for appreciation for whatever time there you get to spend. And this year, I went back. It just happened to work. And darlings, it worked.So tonight, I'm going to share with you a recipe for pork chops. A strange recipe based on my experience at camp, you might say? Well, not entirely. This recipe takes advantage of the late harvest of the Maine summer, embraces the buttery skillet of the south (where many of our CC friends hail from) and provides a decadence that you sometimes need on a weeknight to remember that it's fun to break routine.Or as Hannah Horvath  would say: The Perfect InBetweenSeason Pork Chop. INGREDIENTS2 Bone-in Pork Chops1 cup button mushrooms, quartered3 medium sized tomatoes (mine came from the garden, so I suggest the sweetest you can find)A bunch of carrots (Darlings, you know I hate precision), cut into thirds and simmered until tender, but still firm.1 onion, thinly slicedSome kind of pepper (I used a few shisitos from our garden)A few green onions (I used scapes instead)A few cloves garlic, 5 or 6, rough chopButter, lots of itAbout 1.5 cups of whatever wine you've got lurking (it should still taste good enough to drink, but if you have another bottle that you've hoped to open, this is a good excuse to do so)METHOD

1. Well first, if you are making this, it's probably the end of summer. It's probably dangerously close to fall. So if I were you, I might pour myself a glass and a half of maybe a Sancerre Rouge and either put on an episode of BH90210 (I'm on Season 3, so very close to getting to run around the house chanting "Donna Martin GRADUATES") OR some music that evens you out. For me, it's Regina Spektor or Dandy Livingstone.
2. Take your pork out of the fridge. Don't be silly, you (probably) won't die from bacteria from letting your meat come up to room temperature. And it will make your meat cook evenly.
3. Now, get your life together (for this recipe, at least). Get your vegetables ready (I know you haven't yet) - quarter your mushrooms, slice your onions, take a knife to the garlic and get your carrots softened.
4. That pork? Season it. Salt and Pepper. Both sides. Thoroughly. Otherwise, even with the sauce, it's going to taste bland.
5. Now grab your skillet. Make it hot. Melt some butter.
6. Add your onion and garlic to the butter, saute until transluscent, over high heat.
7. Remove your onion and garlic from the butter. Add your pork to the pan and sear each side for about 3 minutes.
8. Return the onion and garlic to the pan, along with the rest of your vegetables and your wine (not the bottle you're drinking, the bottle you were drinking earlier this week and now are cooking with). 
9. Turn the heat down, cover and cook for about 25 minutes. You shouldn't have any problem at all getting here, but this is just a friendly reminder that the luscious pork chop should read 145 degrees before it is ingested by anyone who you care about.
10. Serve it up! I served mine with a dollop of goat cheese, lemon and pistachio. 

Darlings, enjoy it. If you have any questions ask.And forget about the pork. Love tonight and love tomorrow. Love hard and mean it always. xoxolcf