Camp cuisine

Okay, here's my food recap from our camping trip last weekend.

Friday dinner:

We copped out on dinner on Friday. We didn't get down and get our camp set up until after 6:00, so we knew it would have to be a fast dinner. We really wanted to stay vegetarian as much as possible, but we just couldn't imagine a camping trip without hot dogs over the campfire. We didn't even consider the tofu dogs because we tried those last summer and they were Nasty (with a capital N!). So we just had hot dogs, vegetarian baked beans and potato chips with soft drinks. We followed it up with dessert - what else but smores.

Saturday breakfast:

Saturday morning we were up by 7am and we started the coffee. We've tried different things over the years, but we've found that the best option for camping coffee is Folger's Coffee Singles. We have a huge jug that we fill with water and keep at the campsite for cooking, washing dishes, brushing teeth, etc. We pour some water into a coffee pot and boil it on our propane stove. Pour the boiling water over the coffee singles and brew and we are good to go. For the boys we tried something new this year. We brought several bottles of bottled water and put some in our cooler with ice. I found some of those new "On the Go" packets that are flavorings you can add to bottled water. I bought the orange flavor that has extra vitamin C added. I added packets of that to some bottles of chilled water and the boys had orange drink for breakfast. They loved them and it was sooo easy. It was worth the slightly higher price to have something so easy to use (and it tastes good!).

I made a new concoction for breakfast. This wasn't really even a recipe. I just thought it up myself and threw some things together. In a cast-iron skillet I poured in some canola oil. I'd chopped an onion at home and brought it in a ziploc baggie. I threw the onion into the oil along with about 2/3 bag of frozen hash brown potatoes. It took a really long time, but I fried it up on one burner of the propane stove. (I almost never make fried foods so this was a real "treat" for my family. I wouldn't do it all the time.) Meanwhile, on the other burner I used a non-stick skillet with a little squeezable smart spread (butter-like spread in a bottle) to scramble 5 cage-free organic eggs I'd brought from home. I added a little salt and pepper to both the eggs and the potatoes. Little J used our dutch oven and some aluminum foil to warm up some flour tortillas. To serve, we put a little of the eggs and a little of the potatoes in each tortilla, added some bottled salsa, and rolled them up. We each had one "burrito" and it was delicious and filling.

Saturday lunch:

For lunch we kept it simple with PB&J sandwiches, leftover chips, and some apples I'd brought from home. (The apples weren't a hit though. When I told the kids I had apples, only one was interested. The other two looked at me like I'd sprouted an extra head.) We also had some leftover hot dogs that Big J, Little J, and I had.

Saturday dinner:

We were adventurous again for dinner. We used our dutch oven to make pizza. We lined it with aluminum foil and laid a small boboli bread inside the bottom. (Our dutch oven is so small that we had to get 8" crusts which made small pizzas. We had to make two to feed our crew and probably could have made 4 now that I think about it.) We put bottled pizza sauce on top and spread it around and then added shredded mozzarella cheese. On one of the pizzas I also added fresh mushrooms I'd brought from home. Next time I may try some other toppings as well. Anyway, to use the dutch oven, you put the lid on. You have heated charcoals on a flat base (we used the gravel near the firepit). You set the dutch oven on top of the hot coals and then use tongs to add more hot coals to the lid. You basically create an oven that surrounds the food with heat. You let it sit about 10 minutes or so, checking to see if the pizza is done. Be careful with this step! Our first pizza was perfect, but the second got a little burned on one side from being in a little too long. We finished off with the rest of the smores.

Sunday breakfast:

We made pancakes on our new cast-iron griddle which we used with our propane stove. I'd bought the plastic bottle of bisquick (not very green, I realize) because you add the water directly to the bottle and shake and the batter is ready. Then you just pour the batter from the bottle. We used our squeezable fake butter and a bottle of lite syrup and the same drinks as Saturday. Big J wanted some protein with breakfast so we had some Morning Star Farms sausage links that I cooked on the griddle. They were okay, but I could have done without.

This was a challenging trip because we all worked up to the last minute and had to try to plan around the rest of our lives. Later in the summer when I am not working, I can devote more time to planning our next trip(s). I am still looking for some *good* replacements for hot dogs and chips. Until I find something that works, we'll probably stick with them. :-(