Come 'n Get It

Someone once said (maybe my Mom) that when you are camping, putting up with the elements, lack of hygiene, and missing your bed and the comforts of home, the food had better be good. I agree.

Troy and I have always enjoyed camping and I'm glad to say that our cuisine has definitely improved over the years. I remember when we were first married, cooking hot dogs and foil dinners in an actual campfire - I don't think those are even allowed in Utah anymore. The fires, that is. Foil dinners and hot dogs are alive and well in scout camps across the state.

I had some decent foil dinners on the menu. My main goal, of course, was to eliminate all washing of dishes. I used small, disposable foil pans and assembled stews and casseroles (lots of gravy) and then covered them with tin foil on the top. My 99 cent dutch oven. They cooked up great and cleaned up even better. Wasteful? You better believe it. We went through stacks of paper plates and bowls, boxes of utensils, and whole rolls of tin foil. But I never washed a single thing.

The next phase of camp cooking started when we got our trailer that has a stove, oven and running hot water. I remember one summer getting all Betty Crockerish and making cakes and corn breads to go with whatever I had simmering in the crock pot. I'd throw a roast in there to cook all day while we went out hiking or something, and when we'd come back, the trailer would smell so good. Our dog, Jeffrey, always stayed in the trailer, smelling the food cook and we wondered if we'd ever come back to an empty crock pot and a guilty-looking dog. He never got into it, but he did drool some. Okay, a lot.

What, you say, there's a dog? And she's never mentioned him? Well, I'm sure I will write about Jeffrey someday, but I can't just now. He died a few months ago and honestly, I can hardly type his name without crying my eyes out. So no Jeffrey stories for now.

Anyway (dabbing my eyes), we're changing the way we cook again. Last Christmas, my parents gave us a bunch of Camp Chef gear - a propane stove, grill box, griddle, and then for Troy's birthday, he received a couple Dutch Ovens and some cast iron cookware. Now we're talkin'!

We've been pouring over the cookbooks and imagining the fabulous meals we're going to crank out by the side of our trailer. It's been a fun thing to do together. Irene and her fire restriction put a damper on some of our meal plans, but we managed to get a little use out of one dutch oven before she caught us.

We made rolls! Imagine that - hot buttery rolls! We're first-time Dutch Oven users, so it was a little stressful when the dough rose so high that it lifted the lid off the bottom. Troy moved the whole oven at one point, and the lid that was balancing on top of the dough slid right off and fell to the ground, scattering coals everywhere. It was a panicky moment, but he put the coals back on the lid and the lid back on the dough. When it started smelling done, he lifted the lid and saw all the little pieces of grass that had baked into the top of the rolls. Nothing that couldn't be picked out though, and we called it a success when every last one was eaten.

The next morning we discovered that our leftover bread dough had tripled itself in the night. I'm talking biblical proportions - a bag of dough that should only feed us for one meal, now growing and able to feed many people for many meals. Freaky, I know, and there's really only one way to celebrate the miracle of the dough.

Scones.

Lots and lots of scones.

Kristine had brought along some homemade strawberry butter and maple pecan butter that truly added to the celebration. Yum!

So that's about all the fancy cookin' that we did. Kristine's husband, Mike cooked some yummy things for everyone too. We enjoyed...

Hash browns and all manner of sausages,

eggs,

and pancakes.

Thanks, Troy and Mike. The food was delicious!

When you go camping, what do you like to eat and how do you cook it?