Camping is a wonderful thing. Sitting by the roaring fire, sleeping under the stars, snuggling into a sleeping bag, and of course, eating the fire grilled food.
So far in Calgary it hasn't been much of a summer for camping, but we've managed to get out a couple of times. With any luck the Sun Gods will smile upon us again and we'll make it out once more.
Of course the best part of camping is deciding what kind of food to make. First I look through my cook books, then I make a list and finally I go on a marathon shopping trip and buy enough groceries to feed a small, alright a medium sized, country. Whoever camps with me is guaranteed to eat well, eat lots and eat often. Good times.
For breakfast bacon is the fundamental building block. I don't eat bacon at home, but when I camp there are no holds barred. Fried bacon with egg-in-a-hole (a piece of toast with a center circle removed and an egg is broken and fried in the middle), bacon-tomato-egg sandwiches, or fried eggs, bacon and potatoes. However, when crisis strikes and the bacon runs out, I've been known to make blueberry pancakes.
For lunch I stick to the basics, like hot dogs and other such processed meat by-products packaged in synthetic casings. Similar to bacon, I don't generally eat hot dogs at home. But when I'm sitting around the fire it's hard to resist the sound of a sizzling, blackening smokie. Yum.
But one hot dog a day is enough, so for dinner it's back to the real food. Sometimes hamburgers do sneak onto the menu, but I often take this time to experiment with new things. The exception being that I almost always make roast veggies with bruschetta, but sometimes there's a grilled chicken breast added to the foil package to change things up.
My most recent experiment was with store bought conveniences and I discovered flame grilled rising crust pizza. I put the thawed pizza on a cast iron griddle, tented it with foil and placed it on the fire. In the beginning it worked quite well, the cheese melted and the crust browned, but the fire was too hot and the bottom burnt. I'll be trying this again next time, but I'll be more patient and wait until the flames die out. Patience, patience.
And then dessert. Pillsbury country biscuits. This might sound odd, but I tell you once you've tasted these grown-up marshmallows you'll never need anything else. Pop them out of their container (with caution), wrap them around a roasting stick and take a seat around the fire. When they're nicely browned and puffy give them a roll in butter and then cinnamon sugar. Mmmm. On our last trip we tried the Pillsbury cinnamon buns and they were heavenly too. The big bonus here is the tub of yummy icing.
Ahh the food... Brie in foil with sweet chili sauce, roasted garlic cheese toast, homemade salsa and tortilla chips, hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls, grilled mushrooms... Yeah sure there may be bugs in your drink, smoke in your eyes and ashes in your food, but that's what camping is all about, and isn't it great.
Oh my gosh, you have made me so hungry! We are leaving for a camping weekend tomorrow night. We certainly won't be eating as good as you! I had the same experience as you trying to cook pizza while camping. Black pizza is not a hit at dinner time when there are no stores nearby!
Posted by: Sara | August 17, 2005 at 10:37 AM
Hey Sara! Your certainly brave to camp right now, have you seen it outside? :o) Have a great time and save the pizza for the oven.
Posted by: Liz | August 17, 2005 at 04:38 PM