Feature/General
Camp cooking and clean-up gets easier with good cookbooks
By Nancy Omdahl
April/May 2004

I used to dislike camping because cooking and clean-up were so difficult over a small campstove. Then I discovered two books that help campers forget the stove altogether and use disposable sticks and tinfoil to make clean-up easier.

Pat and Betty’s No Fuss Cooking
by Patricia A. Schweitzer and Betty T. Morton

This book is published by the Reynold’s (as in aluminum foil) test kitchens, so they would like you to use a lot of aluminum foil and disposable cooking products. But they have a whole chapter that includes packet meals – one-dish meals that can be entirely cooked in an aluminum foil packet, which makes them great for camping.

Sausage and black bean dinner
1 tbsp. flour
2 15-oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed
2 10-oz packages frozen whole kernel corn (can substitute cans)
1 16-oz. jar chunky salsa
1 pound smoked turkey sausage, sliced
1 cup shredded colby and Monterey jack cheese

Have double layers of heavy duty aluminum foil, about 18-inches square, ready to make a packet, or buy a large pre-made aluminum packets. In a bowl, stir together flour, beans, corn, salsa and sliced sausage. Put in center of packet, and double fold edges.

Place carefully on coals or grill for 20 to 25 minutes until hot. Remove with oven mitts and cut open. Sprinkle with cheese before serving.

Cooking on a Stick Campfire Recipes for Kids
by Linda White, illustrated by Fran Lee

This book is written for kids 8 and up and has some great recipes. Many need to be prepared at home, and packed in a cooler until cooked, but for all of them, there are no dishes. Some samples:

Snail on a Limb
2 cups biscuit mix
1/3 cup water
nonstick spray

Squish water and biscuit mix together in a large zipped bag. Use extra biscuit mix as flour on your hands when removing it. Roll pieces like a snake and coil around end of a stick. Cook over fire for about 8 minutes until golden brown. Carefully remove from stick.

Add ham and cheese strips in one end, if desired, or put a hotdog on stick first and coil mix around that.

Honey Bear’s Delight
1 apple, cut in small pieces
1/4 cup raisins
1/8 cup chopped nuts
3 marshmallows
1 tsp. butter
1 tbsp. honey or syrup

Put apples, raisins, nuts, marshmallows and butter on a piece of foil 12 inches square.
Drizzle honey or syrup on top. Fold foil into a pouch and place in hot coals. Cook 10 minutes. Open carefully.

Hibernating Bananas
1 banana
1/2 flat chocolate bar, in pieces
1/8 cup mini-marshmallows
Peel back 1 section of banana peel, but don’t remove. Slice across banana, making 1-inch pieces, and remove every other piece. Eat those now. Fill in blanks with marshmallows and chocolate. Replace peel and wrap in foil. Put in hot coals 10 min. Open carefully.