cooking eggs on hot rocks

Linette, the baby and I are going camping later this summer, and, as I’m an Eagle Scout, I suspect they’ll probably be looking for me to come through when it comes to getting the fire going, getting the shelter up, keeping us fed, and making sure that we don’t get eaten by wild animals. I’m pretty confident that I can do most of that, but, as it’s been a while since I’ve cooked over a fire, I’m not so sure about preparing meals. So, here’s my question for you — Do you know of any good camping recipes? (Thanks to Kez for the image.)

Oh, I should also add that this isn’t “real” camping. We probably won’t ever get more than fifty feet from the car, we’ll have a big cooler full of ice with us, and I’ve even heard that there’s a grocery store a few miles away. (Please don’t tell any of the other guys from my old troop that it’s come to this.)

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27 Comments

  1. Posted August 7, 2005 at 1:04 am | Permalink

    Steve’s quick breakfast burritos

    You’ll need some dehydrated refried beans from the co-op, tortillias, eggs, and a bag of grated cheese.

    Heat up some water and rehydrate your refried beans. Assemble all the stuff you’ll need before you start with the eggs.

    Put a little bit of oil in a small frying pan and put it directly on the fire making sure not to melt the handle. Scramble your eggs.

    To serve: smear refried beans onto tortilla, place some scrambled eggs on the beans, then sprinkle on some cheese. Salt, pepper.

    Add salsa and heat up the tortillas for extra points.

  2. Posted August 7, 2005 at 1:08 am | Permalink

    I usually make Chicken and Tuna Helper with meat in foil packs, Zatarain’s pasta dinner mixes, Lipton 5-minute Sides, and Near East couscous sides. I replace any butter with a little olive oil and follow the directions as best I can.

  3. ChelseaL
    Posted August 7, 2005 at 10:46 am | Permalink

    I’ve heard you can start a fire with a soda can and a chocolate bar. Google “Coke” + “chocolate”+ “fire” and you should be able to find it. Good luck!

  4. Posted August 7, 2005 at 11:38 am | Permalink

    Before Sus and I quit eating meat, we were big fans of ‘silver dollar dinners’ along the line of Hillary’s suggestions. Basically wrap up some hamburger, potatoes, your own personal mix of other veggies, and spices in foil and let ’em cook on the coals. When you don’t feel like going all out, the dehydrated, prepackaged pasta/rice dishes are ok too. Then again, as a fellow Eagle Scout, I’d expect you to be rigging up snares to catch rabbits, fishing with hemp fiber and bone hooks, gathering honeycombs, and digging up wild onions for stew.

  5. Posted August 7, 2005 at 11:42 am | Permalink

    mark, you didn’t clarify what camping/cooking supplies you have, so the recipe may need some adjustment to suit your needs. Just don’t forget the needle and thread to sew up the cavity with.

    Regardless, enjoy.

    Stuffed and Baked Racoon with Apples

    1 medium raccoon
    4 lg. onions
    4 strips salted pork
    2 c. beef stock

    Stuffing:
    5 lg. tart apples
    2 T. butter
    1 t. cinnamon
    1 c. dry bread crumbs
    1 t. salt

  6. mark
    Posted August 7, 2005 at 12:06 pm | Permalink

    How do you suggest I kill the racoon, Brett? Generally speaking, I like recipes that start with either bludgeoning or drowning animals best. The meat, I find, is more succulent.

  7. mark
    Posted August 7, 2005 at 12:13 pm | Permalink

    When I was younger, camping always involved hiking, so weight was an issue. I took dehydrated and freeze-dried foods, nuts, seeds, dried fruit. And, before I became a vegan, I’d take dried meat… Bringing a cooler changes everything, as does the fact that there’s apparently a store just a few miles away. So, that kind of changes everything… Thanks for the suggestions so far. This is incredibly helpful. (And I did see that “start a fire with an aluminum can and chocolate” thing on-line a few months ago, Chelsea. I’d forgottten about it though. Thanks for reminding me.)

  8. Posted August 7, 2005 at 12:44 pm | Permalink

    How do you suggest I kill the racoon, Brett?

    You’re the Eagle scout, mark, don’t ask me.

    I just made it as far as “Webelos”, and then dropped out because I felt that the boy scouts were a disturbed group of geeks that had no life beyond their troop, and certainly never got laid. As a ten-year-old intent on growing up to be a secret agent, I knew this lifestyle wouldn’t suit me.

    when I was older, and realized the scouts were an american equivalent of the Hitler Youth (i.e., a military division composed of children with the initial intent being to provide defense in case all the adult soldiers were killed), I felt even further vindicated.

    So, do you still have your Brown Shirt?

  9. Posted August 7, 2005 at 3:50 pm | Permalink

    I have no idea what you’re going to eat, but who’s going to delete the spam while your gone?

  10. john galt
    Posted August 7, 2005 at 3:58 pm | Permalink

    Can’t go wrong with Kraft Dinner.

  11. Ingrid
    Posted August 7, 2005 at 6:00 pm | Permalink

    Brett’s comment is very odd to me because I have a strange antipathy to camping for exactly the reasons that he cites. My father was forcibly extracted from his town in Northern Germany at the age of 9 to Austria to a Hitler Youth camp for several years while his home town was bombed to oblivion by the Allied troops. Guess what? We never ever ever went camping when I was a child. Nor were my parents too enthusiastic on me participating in scouting activities. Or saluting the flag for that matter. But, have a good time, Mark! Bring lots of baby wipes. Those dried rice and bean meals always work well in that kind of situation.

  12. chris
    Posted August 7, 2005 at 7:57 pm | Permalink

    OK, wait a minute. Noone is freaking on the fact that Mark is an Eagle Scout? That ain’t easy…or so I’ve heard.

    So my question is, what was your community service project that you:

    planned,
    submitted for approval,
    and executed?

    Pretty cool Mark.

    Regarding camp food-
    SPAM my man…or Vienna Sausage, or Lil’ Smokies in a vacuum pack. And a rice cooker that plugs into the lighter jack in the car.

  13. mark
    Posted August 7, 2005 at 7:59 pm | Permalink

    I joined the boyscouts for the gay sex, but I stayed for the camping.

    In all seriousness, the Boy Scouts, at least the group I was with, was pretty good. It was mostly about hiking, camping and canoeing. There was a citizenship component, but I think that it was pretty far from being Hitler Youth-like. Reagan was president at the time, I didn’t like him, and I wasn’t encouraged to. And, it wasn’t militaristic. (No one from my troop that I know of went on to serve.)

    I’m not defending the organization, and I don’t know that I’d encourage my son, if I had one, to join, but it was a good thing for me in that it got me and my dad out in the woods together, which, not being hunters, isn’t something that probably would have happened otherwise.

    One of the best things about camping, at least to me, is living without electricity. I always appreciate it more when I come back.

  14. mark
    Posted August 7, 2005 at 8:04 pm | Permalink

    My project wasn’t terrily creative, but it was necessary – I landscaped a hill next to a community center and repaired the walkway that ran up it… Like I said, not very exciting. If I were to do it again, I’d come up with something better. (Of course, if I’d done something else, who knows how many elderly people would be dead right now, having fallen down that hill.)

  15. chris
    Posted August 7, 2005 at 8:46 pm | Permalink

    At least it was tangible. My husband had fulfilled all obligations except this one. In part, because the only idea that he had at the time was a book drive…for orphans. I mean come on, orphans?

    And yeah, the chocolate beer can fire thing is true. Apparently, you hyperpolish the bottom concavity of the can w/ chocolate so as to concetrate the sun’s rays onto a pile of tinder.

    Enjoy, the camping. We keep meaning to do it. But, but, but

  16. mark
    Posted August 7, 2005 at 9:17 pm | Permalink

    One day we’ll have to have an MM.com Jamboree… Wouldn’t that be fun? John Galt, Tony Buttons, and the rest of the gang. It would be like Woodstock, only a lot smaller and without music.

  17. chris
    Posted August 7, 2005 at 9:46 pm | Permalink

    Anything that I attended which started out as “like Woodstock”, in my experience, has been blotted from my memory.

    Will you be doing Smores?

  18. chris
    Posted August 7, 2005 at 9:47 pm | Permalink

    Oh yeah, and the dudes in the picture don’t look like scouts to me. Unless, Eagle scouts graduate to camoflage.

  19. Shanster
    Posted August 7, 2005 at 10:33 pm | Permalink

    I always pack lots of the instant oatmeal packets. Just boil the water, and there you have it. I also load up at MacDonalds on the way there, and keep a bunch of burgers to eat cold. Don’t get suckered into getting the jiffy pop; it may be nostalgic, but it never works.

  20. Dick Cheney's Extending Taint
    Posted August 8, 2005 at 1:25 am | Permalink

    I wouldn’t recommend this for Clementine, but I always thought fasting and camping went well together. Two activities that clear the mind and cleanse the body. Do them at the same time and that pesky food problem is solved!

  21. Posted August 8, 2005 at 9:18 am | Permalink

    Mark, if you did host a MM.com jamboree, do you think you could you get Dubya to stop by? He might have some really useful words of wisdom.

  22. Tony Buttons
    Posted August 8, 2005 at 9:35 am | Permalink

    I’d settle for Chaney’s taint, assuming it didn’t keep us waiting too long in the sun.

  23. Posted August 9, 2005 at 10:18 am | Permalink

    Can people of the female persuasion join the MM.com Jamboree? I camp as long as there is running water nearby – and by that I mean showers and toilets. I do not pee in the woods, I am not a bear.

  24. Teddy Glass
    Posted August 9, 2005 at 12:53 pm | Permalink

    In case anyone is wondering, I am not a bear either. The claws are just prosthetics.

  25. mark
    Posted August 9, 2005 at 9:55 pm | Permalink

    Speaking of bears, I think I have a dead one in the back yard… If I have time, I’ll post about it tonight.

  26. Posted March 22, 2006 at 4:56 pm | Permalink

    Pasta To Go Dinner For 2
    corkscrew pasta 1/2 cup olive oil 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 1 small garlic clove, peeled A d d i t i o n a lThis is one sa…

  27. Posted March 24, 2006 at 11:05 am | Permalink

    Silver Needle
    Gathered only in the few days of early spring, the prFine needlework and counted cross stitch materials from The Silver Needle, Tulsa, Oklahoma….

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