Cooking While Tent Camping

There is a reason I am addressing cooking last on my preparation list.  It scares me! I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t have to be a gourmet chef when we camp out, but I do have to provide something for us to eat or I will have a mutiny on my hands. Seriously, any pressure I feel about preparing well-balanced meals when camping is pressure I have put on myself.  My husband and son are self-proclaimed “meatitarians”, so they would be happy eating hamburgers and hot dogs every day!

 I have researched this topic extensively, and I read so much about cooking over a campfire, that I jumped the gun and bought a four-quart dutch oven with a camping lid from Lodge Logic. The more I thought about it, I realized that I need to start with a two-burner propane stove. I love cooking with gas, so this will be more familiar to me than cooking over an open fire.  With all of the new things I am learning, I need something that is familiar.

We will probably cook over the campfire a little.  What is camping without roasting wienies and marshmallows on a stick?

 I know we will be selecting campsites with grills.  Dennis does an excellent job of grilling, so I am looking forward to some great burgers and barbecued chicken.  David and I were looking through our copy of Woodall’s Campsite Cookbook that we got recently.  There are some great recipes there for everything from grilling to dessert, so I look forward to trying some of those.

One of the most helpful things I found in the Campsite Cookbook is a list of basic equipment I will need for cooking while camping and a list of what I will need in my “pantry”.  I know I will have to tweak the list for my particular needs and menu, but it is a great place to start.

There were two great tips that I learned while doing my cooking research. The first was to pack meats we plan to cook frozen in the cooler.  My favorite tip was to pack the cooler with the food for the last day at the bottom of the cooler and the first day at the top.  I was glad to find that nugget of information, because I could just see myself digging through the cooler every day to get to what I needed.

 If you have a recipe for your favorite easy meal that you enjoy while tent camping or a recipe for a great snack, please leave it in the comment section.  I sure would appreciate it!