Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Cooking by campfire 101

I'm really excited to talk about food with you all today. And not just any food. Food that is cooked over a real (made by the husband) fire. If you missed that hubby of mine and I's camping adventures you can catch up here. I'm going to share our camping menu with you and hubby and I have already decided to use the fire pit in our backyard to re-make some of these recipes. Since we only camped one night I have a dinner, a breakfast and some yummy snacks to share.
Dinner:
If you are going to cook over a fire you have to try making a Hobo dinner aka a tin foil dinner. They are called hobo dinners because you can make a handle out of the tin foil and when you want to check to see if your food is done you grab a stick and pick the dinner up (therefore looking like a hobo). I have made a few varieties of Hobo dinners and I usually use hamburger meat, but hubby and I decided to live large and try steak. We bought steak that was already cut up for stir fry, which made for easy preparation. Other ingredients:red onions, steak seasoning, green peppers and potatoes.
Step 1: Cut up all your veggies (and meat if necessary)
Step 2: Place a sheet of tin foil out on a hard surface
Step 3: Place the steak on the tin foil (add any seasonings you wish). It is best to have the steak on the bottom since it will take longer to cook and you don't want your veggies getting overcooked.
Step 4: Add the veggies (we decided to cook the potatoes separately since they too take a while to cook)
Step 5: Seal up the tin foil on all sides to ensure you don't lose any food!
Step 6: Place the food on a grate above the fire
Step 7: Turn the food a few times while cooking
Step 8: Check to see if all the food is cooked through and do a taste test
Step 9: Open and enjoy your dinner! Yum!
On to my favorite...Breakfast!
Menu: Biscuits, Bacon, Orange Shell Blueberry Muffins, Hot Cocoa
My hubby told me about how him and his cousin used to always make biscuits on a stick so we brought along biscuits. We didn't end up cooking them on a stick, but you definitely can do that! We put them in tinfoil over the fire. We also put the bacon in tin foil and cooked it the same way. But my favorite campfire food this trip was our blueberry muffins. Don't stop reading it is way cooler than it sounds. You haven't heard how you make them. Nope you don't need baking cups or a baking tin...all you need is muffin mix and a few oranges. Start by cutting 3-4 oranges in half. Then scoop out the insides and save them for later.

 Fix up your muffin mix (mine was an easy "just add milk" mix)
 Fill your orange with muffin mix!!!
 Put the top of the orange back on to the orange and wrap in foil
 Place your orange over the fire and be patient. They did take at least 20 minutes to bake properly.
 I was so excited about how well these turned out. They were moist, slightly orange flavored and delicious!
A few other must have camping snacks:
*You always have to take a bag of Jiffy's to pop over the fire...it's just so fun and the sound of popcorn popping is music to my ears.
*Trail mix
*Smores are an absolute must!

I'll end this post with a picture of us stuffing our faces, which is appropriate since this whole post is about food. :)

5 comments:

Betty said...

Love this! I'll have to try these out next time we go camping!!

Emily said...

AHHH - I love this post so much! Such great camping ideas. I am def. trying that orange trick next camping season. I think I have been inspired to post my own camp-cook-out tricks.

Sam W. said...

the muffin tip is AMAZING! how cool. never heard of that before!

Ashley Slater said...

so fun! I love the orange peel breakfast! such a cool idea!

Janell Happ said...

I'm so jealous that you got to go camping! I've been counting down the days until we are done with the crop harvest so Chris & I can go and do just that! Love that you switched up the hamburger for steak in your hobo meal. My family has been making "hobo sandwiches" on the grill at home and over the fire while camping for years. Our go-to is sliced potatoes on the bottom, hamburger in the middle, frozen peas & carrots all around the hamburger and a thick slice of an onion on top of the patty. Top it off with generous amounts of butter, salt & pepper, and there you have it! I'm definitely gonna try your version if we get a camping trip in before it snows.... AND your muffin making method is blowing my mind! Never knew that was possible :)