| Camping Out and Cooking -- Favorite Recipes |
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By Rebecca Simmons
Scripps Howard News Service The sight and smell of food cooking in the great outdoors is a wonderfully pleasant assault on the senses. A seasoned cast iron skillet or Dutch oven, charcoal briquettes or the earthy scent of a wood-burning fire give the food a rich, textured aroma. Add a few hungry campers to the mix and you have got a culinary experience to savor and remember. When I was a counselor at Camp Pinnacle in Clayton, Georgia, the midweek campfire cookout was one of the week's highlights for our girls. Since I didn't like Beanie Weenies or sloppy Joes, I only learned to make slumgullion, a skillet meal that consisted of ground beef or turkey, chopped onions, stewed tomatoes, bacon, several slices of American cheese, chili powder and salt and pepper to taste. The portions varied depending on the weekly size of my cabin and the girls' individual tastes. Eaten with potato chips and topped off with a s'more and I mean that was a fine meal. Cooking alfresco takes preparation and patience, especially for children, but the ultimate reward is worth the extra effort. Here are some recipes and tips for cooking outdoors. "People are really interested in outdoor cooking," says Brooke Bradley, director of outdoor programs and property for the Tanasi Girl Scout Council in Union County, Tennessee. The camp director found out just how enthusiastic people are about the topic when a March adult development program called "Julia Child of the Wild" lured 83 men and women, mostly Girl Scout troop volunteers, to Camp Tanasi on Norris Lake in Union County. The adults learned to bake in box ovens and cook over the fire in cast iron skillets and Dutch ovens, taking what they learned back to their troops. Add to your campfire culinary repertoire by trying these two recipes they learned:
Shepherder's Breakfast Ingredients: 1 lb. bacon
1 large onion, chopped
One (32 oz.) bag thawed hash browns
1 dozen eggs
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese Preparation: Cut bacon into 1-inch pieces and brown bacon and onions in a large Dutch oven or skillet. Drain excess grease. Add hash browns and cook until they begin to brown. Make wells in hash browns and put an egg in each depression. Cover and cook until eggs begin to set. Cover with cheese and cook until cheese melts. Serve immediately.
Brown Bears in an Apple Orchard Ingredients: 2 boxes gingerbread mix, mixed according to package instructions
Two 15 oz. cans applesauce Preparation: Spread applesauce on bottom of Dutch oven. Spread prepared gingerbread mixture on top of applesauce and cover with an oven lid. Place the pot in hot coals and shovel coals on top of oven. Do not place more than 10 coals on the oven lid. Bake approximately 30 minutes. No pan is needed for this hobo-style dinner. Just remember to bring along some tongs and potholders.
The following foil recipes are from Tanasi Girl Scout Council. Spread applesauce on bottom of Dutch oven. Spread prepared gingerbread mixture on top of applesauce and cover with oven lid. Place the pot in hot coals and shovel coals on top of oven. Do not place more than 10 coals on the oven lid. Bake approximately 30 minutes. No pan is needed for this hobo-style dinner. Just remember to bring along some tongs and potholders.
Foil Pouch Dinner Ingredients: Aluminum foil for making packets
Hamburger patties
Sliced potatoes
Sliced onions
Sliced carrots
Salt and pepper to taste Preparation: Place hamburger patty and one serving of vegetables on individual squares of aluminum foil, arranging vegetables on top and bottom of the hamburger patty. Add salt and pepper. Fold foil into a packet and cook on gray coals 15 to 20 minutes on each side. Variations of foil meals include ham slices and pineapple rings or hot dogs sliced up in baked beans.
Campfire Yum-Yums Ingredients: 1 angel food cake
1 can crushed pineapple
Brown sugar Preparation: Cut angel food cake into slices about 1/2-inch thick. Place in foil. Spoon pineapple, juice and all, over cake. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Cake can be made in large or individual packets. Close foil packets and cook in coals until warm.
Campfire Banana Split Recipe courtesy Lyla Boehms, Girl Scout, Knoxville, TN. Ingredients: Ripe bananas, one per person
Milk chocolate bar or chips
Marshmallows
Fruit or jam, optional Preparation: Hold the banana so it curves up like a boat and cut the top segment of the skin along the natural ridge; leave it attached at the stem and make a flap. Scoop out a trough, leaving an even amount of banana in the skin on the bottom, sides, and at both ends. Fill the trough with small pieces of chocolate and marshmallows; add fruit or jam if desired. Place the flap back on top of the filling and put banana in hot coals until skin is dark brown. Use tongs to remove the banana and eat with a spoon.
Campfire Biscuits Recipe courtesy Doris Kenney of Clinton, Ohio. Preheat a skillet with a tight-fitting lid. Melt a quarter stick of butter in the pan. Open a can of refrigerated Big Country biscuits and put them in the skillet. Cover with lid and allow biscuits to take shape. Turn biscuits every few minutes, adding more butter to prevent sticking. Biscuits are done when they are brown and crispy on the outside. Cooking time: approximately 15 minutes.
Potatoes and Onions Recipe courtesy Diana Marsh of Louisville, TN. Peel and slice about two potatoes per person, or three if you want to reheat the next morning. Onion amount is optional, but one per person works well. Add pepper and salt to taste. Heat oil in a cast iron skillet over fire. Drop a potato sliver into oil. If it sizzles, then you're ready to cook. Fill skillet about half full of oil. Drop handfuls of potatoes and onions into the oil and cook until potatoes are browned, occasionally moving food around while cooking. Season with salt and pepper. Dish is complete when potatoes are tender and translucent. According to Marsh, the dish reheats well in aluminum foal packets for the next morning's breakfast. Note: "I never feel completely clean when camping and hate sometimes to engage in food preparation, so I pick stuff I can do at home a day or two before going. This is one of those things. Washing and cutting up the potatoes and onions ahead of time, I put them in freezer quality Ziploc airtight bags, then throw them in the ice chest when time to go."
Coffee Can Casserole Recipe courtesy Diana Marsh of Louisville, TN. Ingredients: Can from a 2 lb. can of coffee
Vegetable oil
Stew beef, hamburger or pork sausage
Canned corn, drained
Canned new potatoes, sliced, drained
Canned green beans, drained
Canned, stewed Italian-style tomatoes, undrained, or one 12 oz. can V-8 juice
Aluminum foil Preparation: Pour a small amount of oil in the bottom of the clean coffee can. Place meat in the bottom of the can and allow to partially brown. If using hamburger or sausage, form a good-sized patty, which covers the bottom of the can. Layer with corn, potatoes, green beans and tomatoes or tomato juice. Cover the can with aluminum foil and set it in among hot coals. Cook for approximately one hour. Serves: 5 Note: As you dish it out, you have a hearty supper to serve with a loaf of French bread, or with biscuits that you roll out and make long and thin like a Play-Doh snake. Wrap this around a stick and cook until brown over the fire.
(Rebecca Simmons writes for The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee.) (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.)
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