I was sitting down to eat tonight (grilled, but not over a campfire), and I began thinking about campfire cooking. I personally like kebabs, or pancakes. Both are easy to make, the one only requires skewers the other a frying pan and a bowl (or cup) to mix batter in. What do other people go for when they cook over a campfire?

I have always been partial to fresh caught fish...

I'm really starting to like Dutch Oven cooking. Easy to do, fun to put together (chopping veggies and such) and VERY easy cleanup. The only problem is that if I want to have both the main meal and desert (cobbler!!) - and who wouldn't - then I'll need to buy a second oven.

Biscuits and sausage gravy, eggs over easy, crispy fried tater tots, a pot of strong coffee.

It just doesn't get any better than that. Can't think of anything short of Miss September that'd be better to wake up to.

Pie irons with pizza filling, it doesn’t get any better.

If I am car camping:

Supper (1st night) - Hamburger and Beans over rice in a dutch oven.
(1LB hamburger, chopped onion and bellpepper, 1 can of Pork & Beans, Tony Chacherie Seasoning, rice.)

Breakfast - Scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits (via dutch oven), and grits, salt and pepper seasoning.

Lunch - MRE or heated commercial C-Ration


If I am backpacking:

Supper - broiled fish (if I can catch them) or heated canned roast beef, heated canned beans/peas, baked potato, salt and pepper seasoning.

Breakfast - hard boiled eggs*, fresh grits, biscuits*, bacon, salt and pepper seasoning. (*-cooked/baked before leaving home)

Lunch - MRE or heated commercial C-Ration.

I admit that when I am backpacking I eat dried foods like oatmeal, rice, beans. With some assorted dried fruits, hard breads, PB, gels. I try to eat a lot for the weight.

I will admit that I have no finesse in cooking on any platform bigger than my camp stove. I am a mess in a kitchen, absent at the grill and well....its doesn't take any brains to char a dead animal over a fire, so I am okay there.

Pancakes are good - with real maple syrup.
Steak - marinated prior in wine and cooked bloody red rare.
Onions and mushrooms and garlic in foil with a bit of butter and Worcestershire sauce.

Do we make you hungry, SP?

I have a hard time chosing.....

*grins*

Freeze dried corn, rehydrated with a bit of lime juice crystals, dried chilies and butter powder. This goes great with fish, crawdads or partridge or squab.

Instant mashed potatoes with bacon bits, a trail stable cheese, and powdered sour cream and butter. I throw sunflower seeds into the mix, but I throw sunflower seeds into almost everything.

Chili or beef/chipolte ramen, with some canned chicken or rehydrated beef jerky, a packet of bbq sauce, and a big charge of peanut butter. Tabasco to taste, if you want to insult the chef. Way better than it sounds- peanut sauce is much more common over seas. Alternately, use beef or chicken non-spicy ramen, with curry powder, and a pinch of dried but unsweetened coconut. Very good.

Hard sausage, hard cheese, and hard boiled egg sliced and piled on a bagel or english muffin.

Couscous with veggies and mushrooms, hydrated in the bullion of your choice, and a small packet of extra virgin olive oil. With a sizzling kebab.

Corn bread turned into a cake- rich with butter, cinnamon, sugar, fresh apples, pears or berries. Or well drained canned pineapple.

Fresh baked dutch oven bread (Red Mill mixes are great for this) with butter or bacon grease. If with dinner, plenty of dried garlic and onion soaked in a little red wine, bullion or *shudders* water, mixed into it at the batter stage.

Whole wheat noodles with a packer's red sauce- tomato powder, dried onion and garlic, dried mushrooms, and salami and/or pepperoni.

If I'm not really cooking, just pour a packet of Idahoan instant potatoes, a can of chicken or ham, crushed ramen and their seasoning packet, and a package of gravy mix into the pot, with enough hot water to get it to your texture of choice. Let it sit for five minutes, check the texture, add water if needed. Ate a LOT of this in the dorms, to.

In winter, the cold becomes your friend. Corn bread and either a THICK chili (maybe made with beef, chicken, AND ham, with plenty of rice) or jagd (a red beans and rice mix, spiced, with a lot of onion, a little red wine and plenty of good beef or pork sausage)- freeze it, park it by the fire over night, have it for breakfast.

So... how's the hungry treating you, Sockpuppet? *evil grin*

Where do you find powdered sour cream?

Ditto on that,

For light weight food to heat on the trail that will stick to your ribs, instant mashed potatoes with bacon bits are cheaper and better tasting than much of the fancy Backpacker Food. And available at the local grocery store.

Bacon bits are light weight and can be added to all kinds of stuff to add flavor. I like to add to grits. Also good in rice, couscous, scrambled eggs ...

Another variation on this is to put beef jerky in a food processor (before the trip) and reduce it to something that looks about like coffee grounds. Store in a zip lock bag . Put the ground jerky in with the amount of water you need for your instant potatoes. Heat and stir in the instant potato mix.

Provident Pantry does a big, one pound can. Alpine Aire does little pouches. Save money, and look for it in a baker's supply or health food store. Any place where you could get butter and cheese powder (NOT Butter Buds and nuke orange sprinkle on popcorn flavor, but the real stuff) should have it if it is a catalog or online, if a brick and mortar, they should be able to order it.

Mix it 1-1-2 or 1-1-3 with sugar cane juice and cocoa powder, and add enough water or milk to make a syrup. Yummy on ice cream.

I also sometimes throw a pinch into cheese cake (if I don't just simply put in a spoonful of the real stuff), or home made ice cream. Or into a shake, rather than malt powder, wonderfully different and very good.

And for those of you who have seen my picture, is there any wonder I'm always equipped with survival rations?

Main coarse for breakfast, lunch, and dinner home smoked salmon, sturgon or bison. Extremely rich and filling. Fruit is home dried huckle berries, blue berries, apples, bananas, dates, or bing cherries. Instant potatoes, rice, hard tack, or pilot biscuits take care of the rest. I also uses various spices including dried mushrooms but I am very carful to use them in small amounts since they can produce serious odoriferous results.

Man you guys know how to eat. Got nothin to add except a pretty simple pasta dish. Bowtie Pasta, Canned Salmon, Fresh Garlic, Olive oil, Butter, Fresh Rosemary, lots of Capers. And of course a cold beer.

That reminds me, here's a "Good Eats" episode on how to make beef jerky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJfuVl0BBlA It also talks about making beef stew from beef jerky. I haven't made either (I don't own a box fan, or a dehydrator). But it sounds delicious.

Poor folk eat pigeon, hobos sky rat. The rich and fancy eat squab. As words go, it's more shiny. *grin*

I always roast garlic. It's yummy and a super easy flavour boost for anything from Day 1 steak and potatoes, to Day 7 pitas. Just trim off the top, pour on a smidgen of olive oil, wrap it in tin foil and throw it on the coals for a while. You'll know it done when it squishes a bit when you squeeze it. mmmMMMMMM

Thanks for reminding me about carry tin foil. Put a fresh caught/cleaned fish in tin foil with a few veggies like dried bell pepper, onion, shrooms) and bake it over an open fire for about 30 minutes.

You'll be bringing back things that you hadn't even thought about stealing!!!! Now that's GOOD!!!!!

The best steamed fish I've ever had, was fish steamed in coconut milk instead of water. As far as campfire food I learned how to dry out ground beef so that it will last for awhile. Then I take hamburger helper (without the box). Works great.

Pot roast in one dutch oven, cherry cobbler in the other.

Sue

Hellooo, the camp. Smells mighty good. Wondered if I could trade firewood gathering and dish-washing for a little of what you got going for dinner?

This thread is making me wanna run off and live in the woods for a couple of days...lol

And if no one else will share with you, you are welcome at my chow line anytime.

Jalapeno/chedder sausages, avacados, and stick bread made up with Italian seasonings. Top it all off with a small flask of Maker's Mark Whiskey.

Breakfast is either instant oatmeal mixed with instant hot chocolate or now that Clark has chickens, fresh eggs mixed with cheese, peppers, onions, and a bit more of the j/c sausage.

Life is good.
-Blast

Chili or stew over rice or chicken and dumplins.

I missed that episode of Rachael Ray. What brands? What proportions? Use hot water or hot milk or what?

It sounds strange enough that I am going to have to try it.

Thanks! Same back at ya.

Heck Blast, I thought the first list was your breakfast!

One packet of "store brand" maple & brown sugar instant oatmeal plus one packet of instant hot chocolate mix. Mix them together and add hot water. On a cold morning or if it'll be a hard day backpacking I squeeze a shot or two of peanut butter into also. That's good eating.

Oh, make sure neither are low fat/sugarfree versions!

-Blast

Nah, only the whiskey shows up in both breakfast and supper!

-Blast

In the wild, they are called doves.

Anyone here ever have the pleasure of eating Lebanon Bologna ?? Well, I have & I love it!! It makes a great trail food & if you crisp it up over an open fire it's even better. Whenever I make it out to the Amish area of PA, I make sure to buy some to bring back home. I also have it shipped to me sometimes...it's that good...lol

#1 whatever you are cooking lots of.

#2 foil wrapped chicken, sausage, onions, carrots, celery, etc. baked in the coals and poured over lots of pasta - preferably angel hair.

"Fresh coffee in the woods has got to be up there on everyone's top ten."

ABSOLUTELY!!

It's YUMMMY!! A great way to start the day! mmmMMM

Blast:
after reading all the posts I am surprised that you are the only one the mentioned Bannock or stick bread.

big_al,

I think stickbread is a dying art. It's not hard to do, but it does take a little practice. Hard to beat it out in the woods though, isn't it?

I use a $1 package of pizza dough mix, add in a bunch of Italian seasoning and crushed garlic. Mix it all up in the pouch, wrap it around a peeled green stick then slowly bake it over some coals. After it's cooked I drizzle some olive oil on it. *drool*

That plus some sausage and I'll proudly feed a king.

-Blast

"...peeled green stick.."

Uh oh, here we go again, cutting up a living tree! We once had scouts make stick bread. Prior to leaving on that particular outting, I visited an out of control stand of bamboo and cut a bunch of that, it worked great. But only 'til it gets dried out...