Tag Archives: camp cooking

Camping LIst

My camping List part 6

Nothing says camping like a campfire. Even if it is simply a firepit in the back yard having a fire to sit around and talk, cook food on, and warm up by as the night cools down seems to satisfy a deep human need. I feel like being able to build and maintain a fire is a basic skill that everyone should have. Spending time by the fire can help build relationships and de-stress. Maybe it sounds overly romanticized, but don’t tell me it doesn’t work. Of course you do need to remember to bring a few things with you for your campfire.

Campfire

  • Matches or Lighter
  • Tinder (Newspaper or junk mail does fine)
  • Firewood
  • Hatchet or survival knife
  • Poker
  • Roasting Forks or Sticks

Developed campgrounds tend to come with a designated firepit. Use it. Fire season has to be extremely bad for campgrounds to ban fires in the sites. If you end up camping in an undeveloped area then pay attention to fire bans and use established fire rings if you find one. Make sure that the ring is not on top of tree roots or near flammable foliage. Any time you make a campfire be certain to tend it carefully and make sure that it is nothing but cold, dead ash before leaving or going to bed. Do everything in your power to NOT be the person who destroys your favorite retreat! And be sure that your kids absorb respect and healthy fear of the power of fire as they learn to tend your campfire.

Firewood can be bought in many places. You might see places along the highway where someone advertises bundles of camp wood for sale. Or the camp host usually can sell you a bundle. I have found that usually one bundle is enough for a night if you are cooking on the fire or two nights if you are just running the fire for a couple hours before bed.

If you have never laid a fire before I am sure there are a million tutorials on YouTube. Watch a few and experiment. Get the kids involved. This is a wonderful time for them to learn to handle tools. Yes, it is a terrifying thing to hand an 8-year-old a hatchet and tell him to chop some kindling. But if he (or she) has seen you do it already and you set them up safely then success and proficiency will come, along with the pride of being able to do something useful. Just be careful about letting them loose. Trees of any description around the campsite are not to be chopped on. Any brush that is gathered as tinder should already be dead and loose on the ground. There usually isn’t much around a well-used site. Roasting sticks are also better brought from home. It’s one thing for a single person to cut a branch, but another thing for dozens of people to do it every weekend. Your goal is to leave your campsite pristine, not wrecked when you go home.

Let me read by the fire while dessert packets roast on the grate…

I was going to leave the food for a later post, but no campfire is complete without something to cook over it. Every camping trip gets marshmallows and hot dogs put on the menu. Many people love the challenge of making the perfect s’more where the marshmallow is just the right shade of gold and the chocolate is on the brink of turning into a puddle…sweet sticky goodness! I prefer the challenge of trying to get the maximum rounds of toasting a marshmallow and pulling off the skin before it catches fire or falls into the coals. Hot dogs or spicy sausages are also great to roast over the fire, but my boys have found that thinly sliced carne asada meat, marinated in garlic, cumin, and lime is wonderful when threaded onto a long toasting fork and slowly smoked to perfection. These things need a good bed of coals with minimal flame. Again, I am sure there are plenty of videos where people explain how best to achieve this, but I have found that building up a large fire with a good amount of wood all at once is best. Then when it is halfway burned you knock it down with your poker and settle it into a bed of coals. The heat of coals will brown your marshmallow where the flames will quickly set it on fire.

I am a bit obsessed about fire safety. I was burned as a toddler and spent quite a few years terrified to work with fire as a result. I’m fine with it today, but I still hold a healthy level of fear and respect for the power of even a small fire. I strongly believe that children should be encouraged to help tend the fire. I also believe that any misbehaviour should be stopped immediately. My kids were allowed to poke the fire with their own sticks, but they were not supposed to hold their stick in the fire to burn. It’s one thing to catch the stick on fire and another to do it deliberately multiple times and wave it around throwing embers like a sparkler. They got one warning and if they did it again they would lose the stick…usually to the fire. Their tending privileges were gone with the stick.

Cuts and burns and splinters will happen. Running is forbidden close to the fire. My youngest learned at an early age that the metal of the firepit can be very hot even after the fire has been put out. My husband was packing up to leave one trip and the 4-year-old was running wild with his brothers and landed with his hands against the metal surround. He got to ride home with blisters on the palms of his hands. (There is a reason that burn cream and gauze is in the first aid kit.) But he and his older brothers were a lot more careful around the firepit after that. Minor burns heal, but the lessons remain and become memories and stories to be told to others. I have caught him cautioning his younger cousin to be careful around the fire and telling the story of how he got hurt as an example of what not to do.

Don’t be afraid of fire. Embrace the beauty and wildness of it. Use of fire is part of what makes us human. Stories and songs around the fire are more deeply embedded in the fiber of our being than we realize. This is why we camp. We reconnect to the wildness that has been shut out of our urbanized lives. Without a bit of wildness our souls wither. I would never advocate for a full abandonment of civilization. That wouldn’t work for most people. But I believe that everyone would be better off if they can find a way to get a dose of the wildness a few times a year.

Camping LIst

My camping List Part 5

I could call this the Chuck Box Extras, except that they aren’t really extras. You could probably prepare food and eat without needing seasoning or washing dishes. You might even have some really good food that way. But most people are going to need some basics.

Cooking Kit

  • Salt and Pepper
  • Cooking Oil
  • A few favorite Herbs and Spices
  • Sugar

This is what I bring. I could probably leave some of it behind. The sugar is for my coffee because I am a wimp, but I am trying to cut it out as much as I can. If you want to be a minimalist just bring salt and oil. But if you want to cook a bit, even just an omelette, everything gets better with extra flavoring.

Dishwashing Station

  • Two Dish Pans or Large Bowls
  • Small Bottle of Dish Detergent
  • Sponge and Scrubber
  • Drying Rack and Dish Towels
  • Kettle to heat water

I guess this could be optional too. You could easily scrub your pots out with a handful of sand and rinse them in the creek. But that tends to be frowned on in more developed campgrounds. The more people you have in your group, the more important it is to get the dishes washed after each meal. Also, the more hands are available to get the job done. I’m sure my family is not the only one where the rule exists that whoever didn’t cook gets to clean the kitchen.

Dishes rinse best in warm water, so as everyone sits down to eat, set a kettle on the stove or campfire to heat up. Then get the dishes done before the water gets cold. When it comes time to dispose of the dirty water it is possible to throw it into the bushes at the side of the campsite, but it is often considered rude. Better to pour it down the graywater drain that is usually located every few sites in a developed campground.

I think that’s all for today. There really isn’t much more to say on these topics. Of course if I missed something, be sure to let me know. Tomorrow I’ll go on about the campfire.

Camping LIst

My camping list Part 4

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The Chuck Box

No, this box has nothing to do with anyone named Charles or Norris. Neither is it a place to just chuck things in, though if you get a large enough bin that may happen. This is named for the old Chuck Wagons that followed along on cattle drives to cook for the cowboys. I came across the term in a YouTube video where a guy proudly shows off a very functional custom made version that could not only hold everything in an organized fashion, it turned into its own table and stove stand. I want one like that someday…

My Chuck Box is a plastic bin. I used to use a larger one, but the lid disappeared and the inside got disgusting so it was time for a fresh container. Here’s what goes inside:

Chuck Box

  • Stove and Propane
  • Matches or Lighter
  • Kettle and Skillet
  • Stovetop Coffeemaker (and coffee)
  • Large Bowls for mixing or serving
  • Spatula and Big Spoon
  • Knife and Cutting Board
  • Dishes, Mugs, and Flatware
  • Can Opener
  • Aluminum Foil
  • Paper Towels
  • Storage Baggies and Trash Bags
  • Tablecloth
All the basics to keep the family fed.

There are all kinds of camp stoves out there. The best one will vary by what kind of camping you want to do, but for my purposes a simple 2-burner propane stove that runs off of the small bottles of propane is just fine. For group camping we have had someone bring a big multi-burner stove with a griddle top, but if it’s just you and the kids, this one will do just fine. Don’t forget that you need to light it!

A lot of the other things can just be gathered from your own kitchen, or if you want to keep the box packed and ready then you can visit a thrift store. There is really no need to buy new and expensive items to use a couple of times a year. Although…if you want to invest in some cast iron, that could be a worthwhile decision. Especially if you learn to use it in more ways than camping. Dutch Ovens can be used outside of a campfire. There are even ways to control the temperature by how many charcoal briquettes you use. That’s worth looking up if only for an interesting read.

A kettle for cooking soups and heating water, a skillet for hashbrowns and eggs. Cooking utensils and things to eat with and out of. Make sure that you bring cups that can hold the heat. It’s hard to drink hot chocolate from a paper cup that sheds the wax into your hand. I’ve tried! Aluminum foil is useful for so many things. Making pouches to cook food in the fire is only one of them. Storage zipper baggies of various sizes are invaluable for holding leftovers that you can’t bear to throw out. Paper towels and paper plates can be stored clean by tying a plastic grocery bag around them…if the bags haven’t been banished in your area yet. A set of enamel dishes is a good investment, but often I decide I don’t want to wash dishes and just use paper instead. Flatware can be plastic or thrift store. A table cloth is another little luxury that takes up very little space but goes a long way to making your site look cozy. Plus, it removes the mystery of what the spot on the table might have been. Get a plastic flannel-backed one or just use a cotton flat sheet.

Enamel Percolator and Moka style espresso maker. Both okay over the fire, but the enamel is better.

I have two kinds of coffemakers. One makes espresso, the other is a percolator that makes more regular American style coffee. Both cost around $20 and both are perfectly fine for camping. I kind of prefer the enamel one. I like it because it makes more and there is less fighting for the last drop and because it can also be used to heat up water for dishwashing or hot chocolate. The enamel one lives in my bins. The moka lives in my kitchen. They usually both end up coming along with us.

Two kinds of kettles. One is better if you have to cook over a campfire.

I’m happy to be getting input from several people already. Rochelle reminded me yesterday that a grate to put over the fire can be a lifesaver when you forget the campstove. And my son who helped me assemble everything for the photoshoot last night made a very good observation about the kettle that lives in the camping bin. He wanted to completely reject it because of the handles and the non-stick. I kinda agree. If you are going to only cook on your campstove and this is all you have then you are perfectly fine. But plastic handles are not a good idea at all if you ever have to put that kettle on the campfire. He chose the stainless cookware with the longer handles so they could be more safely handled when hot. Just something to keep in mind. Also, add hot pads to the list!

One other safety note: in the photo at the top you will see two knives. One of them is out so you can see it, the other is wrapped in a kitchen towel. Make sure that when you aren’t using them your knives are kept safe. I learned that one the hard way a couple years ago and it is why butterfly bandages are on the first aid list. My boys panicked when I sliced my arm on an unsafe blade and I had to show them how to improvise when Urgent Care stitches aren’t an option. Fortunately it wasn’t deep, just stupid. Live and learn!

I almost feel like the categories of Cooking Kit and Dishes should go into the Chuck Box. A slightly larger bin would help them fit. But I’m running out of time for today so I’m going to leave them for tomorrow’s post. Here’s what the pile looks like once the cramologists have done their job:

Kitchen supplies ready to go!

I’ll have to find the link for that video that I found so inspirational. I might leave it in the comments. And I will warn you that since my son was so very opinionated about what should go in the box I told him I am going to make him write a post of his own. It may or may not show up soon. In fact, I’m very open to feedback and if anyone wants to give me their version of The Camping List I would be delighted to share.