The Campground Pizzeria From Seward to Yellowstone!

Pizza is a perennial favorite with my family. We enjoy it at home and while camping. Over the years, I’ve served a lot of pizzas while traveling the highways and byways of the Pacific Northwest. I’ve loaded frozen pizzas into the oven. I’ve cooked it from scratch. I’ve served takeout pizzas  purchased while traveling. And, I’ve crafted unusual ones over a campfire.

Before leaving home,  I often stash the Amy’s organic  frozen pizzas into the bottom of  my little camper freezer because they are compact and cook quickly in my camper oven. They make a great kid friendly snack and are always there when I need them.  I started using the Amy’s pizzas when we lived and camped in Alaska about five years ago. I purchased the pizzas in packs of three from my local Costco. Amenities were few and far between when we traveled and camped throughout 
America’s Last Frontier, so I needed to always have a family friendly option on hand.

My children have a particularly  fond family memory of these pizzas, because one weekend when we were camping in Seward, I burnt not ONE but TWO of those pizzas. I was distracted while watching the cruise ships and photographing a rainbow over the water. Hence, I  set the fire alarms off and created quite a comedy show for the rest of the campers!

This summer, while driving the sixteen hours from Seattle  to  Yellowstone National Park, we opted for the super convenient affordable route and ordered a baked pizza from the food court at the Costco in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. That approach worked great, because we served it with a Costco Caesar salad and  ate it at the “kitchen table” right there in the Costco parking lot! Cleanup was kept to a minimum, the price was right, and we were back on the road in a flash.

When we finally settled down at the Madison Campground in Yellowstone, I took my pizza crafting technique to a new level. We didn’t have any hookups and didn’t want to rely on the camper oven because the mercury was rising in the park. Hence, we stoked a campfire and made Pie Iron Pizzas and Biscuit Pizzas. Both creations were crafted by me off the cuff,  but they worked. I had packed mozzarella, tomato sauce, white bread, Pillsbury biscuit dough, the pie irons and my cast iron biscuit pan, so I had everything I needed in order to experiment.

Once the coals were ready, I sprayed my pie irons with a little oil, lined them with white bread, and added the sauce and mozzarella. We leaned the locked pie irons along the fire ring and they cooked slowly. For the biscuit pizzas, I sprayed my Lodge biscuit pan and lined each mold with a biscuit. I created an indentation and added the sauce and the mozzarella. My husband set the biscuit pan over the fire and covered it loosely with foil. The pizzas cooked accordingly and had a lovely crispy bottom thanks to the cast iron pan. They were the perfect kid friendly size!

How do you serve pizza when you are camping? Do you use dough, tortillas, biscuits, bread, pitas, or even naan bread??

–Melissa A. Trainer