How to Feed Your Friends.

And a giveaway!

Last weekend I celebrated my birthday with my 3rd annual Camp Cruz shenanigans. Each year we (my friends and I) rent a house somewhere upstate, bring lots of food, board games, lawn games, our pets, and just unplug from city life for a whole weekend. Camp essentially forces us to slow down from our daily busyness and reconnect with each other. This year we snagged a place with a beautiful pond to swim in and acres of wooded forest.

Super gorgeous view to wake up to every morning.

Our mythical looking forest behind on the house.

This table saw so many games played that weekend.

In my happy place 😊.

I wanted to do something special that would feed the ten of us and also stretch our meals for the weekend so I made two pernils (roasted pork shoulders). Yes, like a nutcase I turned on my oven in the summer but it was so worth it! Look at how beautiful they came out.

That skin was super crispy!

Exceptionally juicy and tender with a crisp skin.

We had the roasted pork shoulder the first day with rice, beans, Dominican style potato salad, and roasted corn salad. The second day we chopped up the second roast pork shoulder and made Cuban sandwiches with all the fixings: Swiss cheese, ham, mustard, and of course thinly sliced pickles. The Cuban sandwiches were definitely the highlight of the weekend.

Cubanos ready to be served!

Inside view of this massive sandwich.

My friends are definitely “food people” so it wasn’t surprising that everyone went in hard on all kinds of awesome snacks and foods to munch on the whole weekend.

I’m not a fan of Doritos, but these were quite tasty.

Someone brought pizza “cupcakes” which were just muffin sized pizzas with fresh mozzarella and pepperoni. Did not know I needed pizza cupcakes in my life until I snacked on one of these pups!

I definitely ate A LOT that weekend. Esquites (which is elote off the cob), shrimp roll, bratwurst, grilled veggies, and probably my 3rd pizza muffin lol.

This was a late night charcuterie board my wonderful friend prepared for everyone to snack on.

Of course there was cake.

Since I consider my subscribers my pals I bought a delicious jam and jelly from a farm stand on the side of the road called Green Acres Farm as a giveaway! If you tell me in the comments how you’re spending your summer you will be entered into the contest.

These can be yours!

Cook. Eat. Repeat. Good Luck!

Natalie ❤️✨