Last weekend, I went camping with my significant other’s family. Although I am not a camping neophyte, I have never camped with them previously so I had no idea that I was in for a weekend of feasting in fresh air.
My normal camping larder includes soy milk and hot cocoa (usually fauchon cocoa packets), marshmallows, McCann’s instant oatmeal, graham crackers and chocolate for sm’ores, hot dogs and buns, and some sort of salty snack, plus beer. This weekend went way past that.
The key to eating well while camping, I’ve learned, is to bring a dutch oven, a camp stove and a big ice
chest (or two). And to keep the fire going at a steady pace to act as a warming plate.
The dutch oven (which I will be asking Santa for) was used to bake cheddar biscuits (bisquick recipe+shredded cheese) and a yummy peach "cobbler." The cobbler topping was yellow cake mix rather than biscuit topping which I had never seen done before. The result was very tasty, and gave the camp an amazing aroma when the lid was lifted after dinner.
Dinner involved hot dogs for the kids, steaks for the grown ups, plus corn, salad, and ravioli with pesto sauce. Breakfast the next day involved scrambled eggs, sausage patties, and mimosas. Definitely not roughing it.
I don’t know that I can commit to a big ice chest full of perishables, but this has given me some ideas for the next time we go car camping.