I have a few camping tips for cooking. I also would love it if you will share some of your recipes you have. It is always nice to get tips on food they are hard to find for camping.
We bought a Pie Iron and this little pie maker is great. I guess what a lot of people do is buy one for each person in their family. This way you can each cook maybe one meal with everyone cooking something different. What I would love is the recipe for pizza because I have heard it is great!
There are recipes on the inside cover of the pie iron for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. You can also go to http://www.pieiron.com/ for recipes.
On the night before you leave, have a leftover night if possible. Everyone has something left over from another night they like. This helps to avoid bringing home a lot of food you usually have to toss. As each person can just chose something they like leftover from dinner two nights before.
One other thing we bought (I can not for the life of me remember the name but I will describe it as best I can):
It is a lot like a grill, however it works a little differently. You set up a tripod over the spot they designate for campfires, the grill is hooked to chains on the tripod. It is set so you can raise and lower it. You can cook as close or as far away to the fire. This is great in the fact it allows you more ways to cook different things the way you need to cook. Also it locks in place to avoid accidents. It comes apart and does not take up a lot of space which you know you never seem to have enough of.
I hope this helps somebody I know a lot of people know about these things but when we first started camping we did not know much and it worked on the we learn as we go principle. Talk about your good times! Well the time is coming soon. Have fun camping this summer, I know I can not wait!
By Darlene from Fairview, PA
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Pizza in the pie irons is really easy! Use store-bought bread or tortillas... spray the Iron with cooking spray or lightly butter one side of each slice or bread (this keeps it from sticking) Lay one in the Iron, add a teaspoon or two of sauce (we just get a jar of spaghetti sauce) top with your favourite pizza toppings and cheese then lay a second slice of bread or another tortilla over it and clamp the iron together.... put into the coals for... maybe about 4 mins. a little more or less or until done. They're really great...
Foil dinners are a great, fun way to cook over an open fire. These are great for the first night of a backpacking trip too. Prepare and freeze your foil dinners the night before you leave, then put them in your backpacks for the first day of hiking. By the time you get to your stop for the night, the dinners are thawed and ready for the fire. Foil dinners can be as simple or exotic as you want to make them. We use chicken breasts or ground beef, with potatoes, onions, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, etc, and add a touch of butter.
We use to do the foil dinners but always had trouble with turning them or juices boiling out of them. Then we switched to aluminum disposable pans, using the small ones for individual tastes. We like hobo stew and put cut up steak, potatoes, carrots, onions, celery and mushrooms using whatever suits your taste and pour beef broth in for moisture.
the most delicious potatoes I have ever tasted were simply scrubbed, buttered, wrapped in foil, and buried in the coals of the campfire before we went to bed. The next morning we dug them out, cut them into the pan with our eggs and breakfast meat, heated them up, and enjoyed a breakfast feast. Those foil meals are also GREAT with salmon, potatoes, and carrots. Anyone who doesn't camp is missing a lot in our book. Enjoy and God Bless, Sharon
We made pizza like the gal above suggested. Store bought bread ,cooking spray for your iron and pizza sauce, toppings ,cheese etc. We also did a BBQ one with barbeque sauce, chicken, re onion and smoked gouda cheese, very good. For dessert use blueberry pie filling and a few marshmallows in white bread yum yum!!!
All the links below are to PDF cookbooks for camping/dutch oven cooking. The last is for my Scout Troop's famous Beef Stew recipe.
Dutch Oven Cookbook:
www.mediafire.com/
Geezer Cookbook:
www.mediafire.com/
Philmont Cookbook:
www.mediafire.com/
Troop 928 Cookbook (not my troop):
www.mediafire.com/
Troop 242 Hearty Beef Stew Recipe:
www.mediafire.com/
Remember when purchasing dutch ovens to buy ONLY CAST-IRON and make sure they have tripod legs and a rimmed lid so you can put embers on top to bake stuff inside. There's many other recipes I've got if you want some recipes for backpacking where you can't take cast iron cookware. One-pot meals are the best in those cases; it saves you from having to sump more than one pot. Enjoy! PMZ
We made "mountain pies" with p-nut butter and the jelly of your choice. Great for picky kiddos. You can make p-nu butter and choc chips for an awesome dessert for those chocolate peanut butter addicts out there....like me!!! Also, sliced deli ham and swiss cheese is great. We even have spread a little mustard between the ham and cheese....not on the bread though - too soggy. We haven't been camping in a while but we use the chimenea out back for our campfire.
When I was groing up we went camping alot. My dad made one of those tri-pods for cooking when we went camping. Now I am trying to talk my DH into making one, if he will only take some time away from his truck, he can have one made in no time.
Here are a few things we do when camping:
We make ahead some meals (like chili or stews) and freeze them in the metal coffee cans. Transport them to the camp site in a cooler. They can then go straight from the cooler to your campfire (reheat right in the metal coffee can). After dinner there is nothing to clean up as you can just toss the can away!
When we go camping with other families, we usually make a menu ahead of time and each night one family is responsible for cooking!
Just about anything you bake in the oven can be baked in a dutch oven! I love mine! Last time we went camping I made a wonderful coffee cake for breakfast - used a pre boxed cake mix (cinnamon swirl) and a can of apple pie filling. Poured the cake mix in first then the pie filling! Yummy!
S'mores are so over done according to our kids, so we have been doing banana boats as of late. Take a banana and unpeel one strip, do not remove. Make a cut down the length of the banana and slightly pull apart. Place mini marshmellows and chocolate chips in the slit. Fold peel back and wrap in foil. Place in the coals of the fire while you are eating your meal. When it is time for dessert, you will have an ooey gooey treat.
Thanks for the Banana Boat recipe. It sure took me back though we made them in Girl Scouts when I was much younger. We won't go there. I remember they were delicious and I could not remember how to make them. Thank You again God Bless!
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