Campin' Out

Camping can have a varied food effect.




For example, above is the effect mid-hike after reaching a scenic view, pausing for some PB&J, trail mix, and power bars ... and fruit, and cheese and crackers. And cookies. Campers become napping turtle-people, sunning on a large rock.

Trish had orchestrated a rather impressive camping adventure of 11 people, with both a Philly and a NYC group convening in the wilds of just-outside-of-NYC in Harriman Park.

This event created a food challenge. Camp food forces the cook to reach a new state of simplicity. Every ingredient, method of preparation and cooking utensil must be considered ahead of time. This is hard for me. I enjoy complicated and spontaneous cooking - experimenting for large groups of people with new recipes that have multiple stages of preparation and if possible, hard to find and somewhat mysterious ingredients. Food is flung around the kitchen in a fluster, and everything comes flying out of the cupboard in a time-sensitive search for the springform pan. This is the fun of cooking - doing it in a slight disaster area. Camp cooking, however, needs an uncluttered frame of mind. A strategic approach, if you will.

A good s'more, for instance, requires perfect timing. This is very important or you end up with a nicely toasted marshmallow sandwiched between grahams with a chunk of hard, cold chocolate. We did a fair amount of s'more trial and error on this trip. On the second night, we got it. The bottom layer of graham and chocolate must be warmed and ready to go at the same time that the marshmallow has been toasted to bulging, internally gooey perfection. If you are like Erin and myself, you just want a s'more right away and will do almost anything to get it. You will hover excitedly with marshmallow-on-stick, waiting for the fire to start. But we all became willing to time each element right and eat bare marshmallows in the desperate intervals. The s'more instructions are below.

As far as the actual sustenance, we go beyond s'mores. (Though, I admit nothing is truly beyond the S'more). I don't know where the thought "big pot of chili" came from. I had a sudden vision of warm, big bowls of ... stuff... being eaten by chilled, but happy people circled 'round the campfire. Working my way backwards from that vision, I came up with a way to do camp chili. I think we got it on the first go-round. All it really took was a giant pot, several ziploc freezer bags of diced onions and peppers, crushed tomatoes, beans and rice, and a baggie of various herbs and spices. And, uh, reaching into the cooler for a beer every now and then to add some more liquid to the pot when necessary.




I think people were happy with the outcome.

Now, it is true this was not the kind of meal you could prepare on a true roughin' it type of trip. My camp food skills have not yet evolved to there. We had a grate on the fire, could lug the big pot in our car and bags of ingredients in the cooler. But the meal totally worked for a large group of friends who drove out of the big city for a weekend in the cool and pretty, late-summer woods.


The Best S'more

Marshmallows (lots)
Graham crackers (lots)
Chocolate (lots)

1) Put on headlamp. Find s'more sticks.
2) Make assembly line of all ingredients.
3) Put bottom graham cracker/s and chocolate in pan over fire (not too close) to gradually warm.
4) Begin toasting marshmallow a minute or so later.
5) Get bottom layer of graham and chocolate from pan, place marshmallow on top, and add top layer of graham.
6) Eat best s'more ever.
7) Make another one. Use headlamp to check for inevitable chocolate on face, arms, lap.

Camp Chili

4 cans of beans, multiple varieties (e.g. black, kidney, garbanzo, white)
3 can of crushed tomatoes and their juices
1/2 a bag of rice
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 sweet onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 sack of mysterious spices (e.g. chili powder, thyme, basil, oregano, crushed red pepper, salt, pepper)
4-6 cans of beer

1) Put all ingredients in separate ziploc freezer bags (bag of diced vegetables, bag of tomato, bag of beans, etc
2) Pack all camping gear
3) Arrive at campsite and build fire with friends
4) Get out big (giant) pot with lid
5) Saute onions, peppers, and garlic
6) Add 1/2 of spice sack and saute a few minutes more
7) Add tomatoes, rice, the rest of spice sack and 1-2 cans of beer. Put lid on pot and cook, stirring occasionally until rice is done. Add more beer when necessary.When
8) When rice is done, add beans and additional beer as necessary. Cook until beans are hot and add additional seasoning as desired.
9) Scoop into mess kits, add cheese and crumbled chips.