Eating is my favorite part of car camping, and I can tell you that I did not feel this way when we were young people backpacking our earnest way across the Sierras. Those were the days of freeze-dried something-or-other that was always rehydrating awkwardly in our bellies because we'd wolfed it down too soon and too fast. Those were the days of too much jerky, too little yumminess, no cold beer, and a dreaded implement we called "the dung trowel." What were we thinking?
Because now we are all about the good camping food -- which doesn't mean we're always or ever especially fancy about it. In the ravenous fresh air, a hot dog browned and blistered on its stick is as good a meal as you're likely to eat anywhere. As is cheese melted stinkily on a log near the open fire and served with boiled potatoes and cornichons -- our camper's version of the French dish raclette. We fry bacon on thick sheets of foil (crimp the edges up so the fat doesn't run off and catch fire), we roast potatoes and corn in the coals, we prepare various camp classics featuring the word "hobo" in their names, because what could be more enticing than the culinary output of penniless train-riding vagabonds?
We eat and eat, with a kind of righteous ravenousness born of the great outdoors: chips and salsa, crackers and cheddar, sandwiches of goat cheese, cucumbers, and fresh dill. In the mornings we sit with our muesli and our smoky fire-brewed espresso and watch the sun glittering on the pond through the trees. Under the stars, we pop corn and roast marshmallows and gaze sleepily into the flames. One year, on my husband's birthday, we even steamed lobsters in an enormous pot and ate them, dripping with butter, off of paper plates. And when it rains, there are always the clam shacks, where we stall over steamers and fried bellies and onion rings and wait for it to let up. But mostly we cook, and the three recipes below are the ones we return to over and over. If you eat them with a tent and a roaring fire and lots of gigantic clacking beetles nearby, they will be mind-bogglingly fantastic, but here's a secret: you could actually make them at home on your gas grill or in your fire place, and they'd still be good. Excellent, even.
The Packing Lists
A milk crate packed with:•Stove and fuel •Matches •Pot with lid •Cast iron frying pan •Wooden spoon, spatula, tongs •Can opener •Pie iron •Metal espresso maker •Mini cutting board and knife •Half-pint jelly jars with lids (to drink from, measure in, hold bouquets, and store leftovers) •Metal or plastic plates and bowls •Paper plates (for when you can't bear to wash dishes) •Mugs •Forks, spoons, knives •Heavy-duty foil •Paper towels •Sealable plastic bags •Wash basin •Sponge and eco-friendly dish liquid •Dish towel •Trash bags •Oilcloth tablecloth •Candle for the table
A large plastic bin packed with:
•5-gallon jug of water •Coffee and tea •Sugar •Olive Oil •Salt •Smoked paprika and black pepper •Hot sauce •Oatmeal and granola •Marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate •Couscous (premeasured in a sealable plastic bag) •Canned Beans •Canned tomato sauce and paste •Bread and buns •Peanut butter •Jam •Ketchup and mustard (if you forget, swipe a few packets from a restaurant) •Onions and garlic •Chips and salsa •Crackers
A cooler packed with ice and:
•Cheese •Milk •Butter •Fruit, lemons •Veggies (cukes and zukes) •Fresh herbs •Eggs •Bacon •Hot dogs •Beer and wine
Catherine Newman is the author of the memoir Waiting for Birdy and writes for many different magazines, including FamilyFun, O: The Oprah Magazine, and Body + Soul. She writes a weekly food and parenting column, "Dalai Mama Dishes," on family.com, and wrote "Bringing Up Ben and Birdy" on babycenter.com. Her work has been published in lots of anthologies, including the New York Times bestselling The Bitch in the House. She lives in Amherst, MA, with her family.
When my kids were little we camped a lot. I used to cheat on one meal. I'd make a big pot of sauce with meatballs and sausgage and freeze it. It was our first meal- all defrosted by the time we got to the Sequoias and we would just h heat it up, make a sandwich, smothered with cheese. on huge Italian rolls, wrap in foil, and place ove fire a few minutes. Relly tasted good.
I have camped for years! No way you can get all that stuff in a milk crate, unless it is child size.
where the recipe for one pot couscous?
I also camp all the time, and I think you can get these items in a milk crate. I like to take aluminum foil spray with oil, put in chopped onion, chopped green pepper. meat/what ever you desire, I use ground beef. sliced potatoes, carrots, any vegetables;e you want. Put in aluminum foil salt and pepper. Fold over and seal the ends. You might want to double seal with another sheet of foil. When you have a nice fire going not a raging fire, just nice simmering coals. put your aluminum meals in and cover with coals. leave on 20 to 30 min. Take off check on to make cure the meat is cooked and the vegetables are done. You have a nice meat/vegetable meal. I like to make these up and freeze several of them. Then when a camp trip comes around I just throw them in a cooler and off we go. They are so Yummy and healthy. You can put anything in it, from pasta with sauce, meat , vegetables. Rice, vegetables, meat. Just let your imagination go crazy. You know that little bit of left over after a meal throw it all together in an aluminum foil seal it and your ready. It beats hot dogs especially if your like us and like to camp for several days at a time.
When we camped years ago it was with tiny individual tents and a screen house. But, the screen house was set up like a kitchen... all brought in our mini van.
I brought a mini fridge, hot plate, mini microwave, set of pots, pans, dishes, dish pan, etc.
I cooked home made spegetti with hamburg and sauce, beef stew, pancakes with maple syrup, mashed potatoes..yep, brought along the elect hand mixer, and so forth. Food was our focus too... Oh, we had the campfire for sitting around, talking and toasting marshmellos..and also brought a grill, charcoal, for hamburgs and hot dogs...LOL...
yep, camping in tiny tents, but at a campsite with electricity...yes, in the woods... I noticed those big camping trailers coming and going. Joined some of them and they joined us some nights. Noticed some of my homemade ideas..as in the wrapping individually each outfit and putting in plastic bag and squeezing out the air...noticed them modified and on sale later.. Guess one of those big rig campers was a business man? LOL...
Anyway, yep, we lived sleeping on ground in tent, but in that screen house...in home comfort foods..
Folks,
I have been camping since 1959. You can certaily fit all that in a milk crate if you are talking backpacking size. Just don't expect the stove to be the same as your 5 burner BBQ grill.
If you put thinfs inside things, you will have room to spare. For example, I always put things inside my large pot and stuff a round metal cookie tin with untensils, salt & pepper, etc. Then when I get to the campsite I use the cookie tin as an oven to make a pineapple upside down cake. If you think that does not rais eyebrows, try it. Use a wood fire and some charchol...5 brickettes is plenty...put the tin up over coals on flat rocks, charchol on top at center & cardinal points & rotate every 10 minutes...bake per the box.
Use Bisquick. Make biscuits, pancakes, even a passable bread. Add a small can of sliced peaches for a real treat.
Want to live well on the trail? Take an old Boy Scout with you. We know to stockpile wood under a tarp, have water nearby and eat well!
This is a really great article. There is only one thing you forgot. The Camping Rack. You can get your family one at www.Campingrack.com and Catherine, if you type OUTDOORFUN in the coupon section you will get three dollars off. Have a great summer and keep up the great research.