Royal Llama Adventures, LLC

 Royal Llama Adventure photo from 2005

I was worried that I needed to get right to work this morning and not post, but I realized that I could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.  I of course would never even kill one bird, but you probably have already gathered that by now-ha!  We have a family coming for a llama adventure tomorrow and so today is the day that I will prepare for said adventure.  Instead of making my lists on paper, I will share my prep work here with you, my dedicated readers, which gives you an insight into our adventures and will help me prepare for our big day.

Our guests are a family of four.  Two adults and two teen boys, the teen boys have me a tiny perplexed as I hope that our hike in interesting enough for them.  I am hoping that like most teens they will bring their ipods or whatever to tune out Tom and I droning on and on about the cool history of the area, and the B52 plane crash that ended with one of the flight crew hiking out to The Royal Ranch.  See, I have been telling you we are steeped in history, but is it enough for teens?

So, back to me preparations.  I need to go over all of the food.  Lunch will consist of Royal Chicken Salad, homemade potato salad, cut up fruit, chocolate covered strawberries (always a huge hit on the trail) and chocolate chip cookies Royale (notice a theme here?).  We will also provide multiple snacks throughout the hike, like fresh watermelon, pineapple and nuts.  And oh lord, don't forget the water, I even bought bottled water, which I hate to do, but guests don't like to use our old yucky reusable water bottles!

So, the day has passed by, before I was able to get this post published, but once my family and critters start rising, the day gets busy, but I still wanted to share the work of the day.  I started with the potato salad.  While the potatoes boiled I pulled anything I might need out of the freezer, including the banana bread I will serve at one of the snack stops.  

I then moved on to my cookies and discovered that I was out of brown sugar, which led me to our new favorite cookie, Chocolate Chip Royale.  It is really quite simple, just follow the directions for chocolate chip cookies on the Nestle Toll House package, except use all white sugar, add 2 Tablespoons cocoa and 1 teaspoon dried orange zest.

Chocolate covered strawberries are  a breeze, look fancy and make a big impression on guests.  I made those with leftover chocolate chips and just a touch of vegetable oil.  One of the fantastic things about hiking with llamas is being able to take this type of thing.  I will even pack real plates and silverware for our guests.  It makes for a fun picnic, we have plenty of room, and it is very green and environmentally friendly; and with the gentle gait of the llamas, you could take the fine china!

I used the BBQ for the chicken for the Royal chicken salad.  Keeps the kitchen a little cleaner, and I threw on a few extra and called it dinner as well.  My momma didn't raise a dummy, if I'm going to be in the kitchen all day, I;m going to have a meal for my family, and a container of each item for the kids for tomorrow while we are gone.

Tom worked on getting the packs and various bins that I will use to pack the food in together, and the llamas, well, they just ate and enjoyed a little bit of dryer weather.  They will do their part tomorrow, as for me, I will get to enjoy the feast I made along with my guests while sharing the wonder of this spectacular area.  I will try to take lots of pics and post them when we get back.  Have a great Sunday.