If it’s raining, we must be camping

I need you, bloggy friends! I need your ideas, and I need your good wishes.

First, your ideas: we are going camping this weekend. It’s our second annual free camping weekend, and this year my brother, sister-in-law, 18 month old nephew, and the four of us will be joined by my mother and father – all in a one-bedroom cottage. One of those adventures that you just know we’ll be talking about for years, whether with affection or rolling eyes.

The weather forecast is not so good. Probability of rain varies from 80% to 60% to 100% over the three days we’ll be there. Yikes! (If we are ever having a drought of biblical proportions, just let me know and I’ll go camping. I don’t think I’ve gone camping once in the past 10 years that it hasn’t rained. The smell of rain in the morning invariably reminds me of camping.)

But what I really need, my bloggy friends, is ideas on what to eat. I’m not much of a camping person (thus the whole ‘camping in a cabin’ thing) and you know I’m not much of a cook. So besides the de riguer hot-dogs burnt on an open flame, can you give me any easy to buy for, store, prepare and clean-up-after camping food ideas? Elsewise we’re going to be eating a lot of Fritos this weekend, with maybe some apples thrown in for balance. And, of course, enough marshmallows that it will be another full year before I can even consider looking at them, let along eating them, again. And yes Marla, I did google camp recipes, but last time I tried a recipe off the Internet we ended up ordering pizza for dinner anyway.

And the other thing? At about 8:30 this morning, I’m going to be subjecting myself to yet another French test. This one is for all the marbles. Souhaitez-moi bien, s’il vous plait! (Or, you can wish me ‘merde’ if you must. It’s tradition, I know, but I still don’t get it.)

Bonus conversation:

Tristan: Girls suck and boys rock!

Me (sweetly): You know, Tristan, mommy is a girl.

Tristan: Well then YOU SUCK!

So much for mommy’s boy…

Author: DaniGirl

Canadian. storyteller, photographer, mom to 3. Professional dilettante.

29 thoughts on “If it’s raining, we must be camping”

  1. LOL Kids!
    Hmm. Camping food. You know, we always ended up eating chips, hot dogs and crackers. And those mini cereal boxes that come eight to a pack. That says “cottage” to me.
    I say you just bring up things that everybody likes and require minimal cooking and clean-up. It’s supposed to be a fun time for you, too.
    Good luck with the weather. How is it you found the one crappy weekend in a string of gorgeous weeks?

  2. LMAO! I get things like that too. I just tell Him “Remeber that when I’m ordering your supper!” 😉
    As for Camping NO CLUE. Not a camping fan.

  3. Chili always went over well on my grade school camping trips. I think you can even buy chili-in-a-can now. Peameal bacon fries up pretty well, but the pan is a bit of a pain to clean.
    I’m hoping for good weather for y’all.
    Bon chance on your test… you’ll do great!

  4. We used to have sloppy joes. We would make the filling up before we would go and freeze it so the meat was cooked and we didn’t have to worry about ground beef juices leaking all over the cooler. It was always made from scratch but I think it is Club House that has sloppy joe starters (sauce in a jar, just add beef. Canned beans were always a staple too.

  5. This is my favourite Campfire recipe. So easy and Soooo good.
    Campfire Green Beans
    INGREDIENTS:
    2 tablespoons olive oil
    1 large sweet onion, diced
    1 clove garlic, chopped
    1/4 cup slivered almonds
    3 (14.5 ounce) cans French-style green beans, drained (do NOT use frozen. Doesn’t work)
    salt and pepper to taste
    ——————————————————————————–
    DIRECTIONS:
    Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Pour in olive oil, then mix in onion, garlic, and almonds. Saute until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
    Stir in green beans and season with salt and pepper. Cover skillet with lid and cook for 3 minutes, stirring a few times so mixture doesn’t burn. Transfer mixture to a shallow dish and place in refrigerator to cool. When cool, pack into a resealable bag.
    At campsite, heat a skillet over the fire or camp stove, dump in contents of bag, and cook just until heated through.
    I even broil some chicken drumsticks or thighs before and then when you get to the camp fire, put a a bit of BBQ sauce on them and throw them in the pan with the beans. Bring some slaw or potato salad and you’ve got a meal!
    And of course, s’mores for dessert!
    For breakfast, there’s nothing like scrambled eggs and home fries cooked over the fire. Just cook up some diced potatoes and onions at home until they are almost done, put in a plastic baggie and then dump in the skillet with the eggs over the fire. Hmmm, Toast over the fire in a coat hanger is good too.

  6. GORP. Granola, Oatmeal, Raisins, and Peanuts. It’s tasty, but mostly it’s fun to say ‘gorp.’ “Do you want more gorp?” “Dude, don’t bogart the gorp!”
    The possibilities are endless. Plus it has fiber.

  7. I don’t do this “camping” thing. There is no place to plug in the hot curlers and things outside are awake when you are asleep and I HATE that. I thought the whole point of progress and convenience was to evolve beyond living primitively and cooking food on a stick.
    Which reminds me, shish kebabs. You can marinate and pre-cook the beast products, assemble and freeze them, wrap them in tin foil and then throw the packet in the fire.
    There. Good luck with the your test. Because I care.

  8. je deteste le camping. mais mon petit ami l’aime. Quand nous y allons, nous mangeons les hotdogs et les autre mal nourriture. je n’ai pas les suggestions pour toi.
    merde de treize. ou, bonne chance, si tu preferes – pour le camping et l’examine français.
    (whew…that just about exhausted my abilities in french…and i’m sure there are many, many mistakes.)

  9. Sammiches.
    Oh! And for breakfast we have trash potatoes!! Potatoes diced big with eggs scrambled in, and cheese, and onions and peppers and mushrooms or whatever you like that sounds good. ONE pan, things can be chopped ahead of time and it’s EASY and everyone loves it – even my “no breakfast that’s not cereal EVER” 9 yr old.
    Steak over the fire rocks too. With potatoes wrapped in foil and baked on the coals. Yum!!
    I can’t wait to go camping!

  10. Uh, do peanut butter and jelly sandwiches count as cooking? You could, you know, toast the bread over the campfire or something.
    Wishing you sunshine this weekend!

  11. This is easy and really good! Take those store bought pre shredded hashbrown potatos, throw them in an aluminum foil pocket with some chopped veggies and teriaki sauce and throw on the grill! Yummy!

  12. We’re just getting ready for our own camping fest during the May long weekend. I always find that we eat more and we eat better while camping than we do normally. It’s very strange. We’ve had Cornish game hens cooked over a fire. Steak (of course) or ribs or chicken. Corn on the cob cooks well over a fire too. Leave them unshucked and the corn will steam itself. Hmmm what else… pasta was always a fan favourite and is fairly easy to make. One of my personal favourites though has to be crepes. One of my friends gets up early and makes crepes for everyone with strawberries, blueberries, whipped cream, etc. Mmmmmmmm
    Bon chance aujourd’hui! Je suis d’accord. Je ne comprends pas l’usage de merde dans ce cas.

  13. Wow, you guys are brilliant!!
    Jenn, funny, I’ve never actually cooked sloppy joes, but for some reason I was thinking about making them for this trip. It just seems like cottage-y food. I love the idea of making them ahead and freezing them – that woud have never occured to me. Thanks!! Sloppy Joes and JoJo’s green beans… that could work!
    And potatoes, lots of ideas for yummy potatoes – mmmmm. And we will have to try GORP, Dean Dad, because food with funny names is so much more palatable than food with boring names.
    Batman, crepes? Cornish game hen? You’ve eaten at my place, you should know I’d never be interested enough in cooking to put forth that much effort under the best of circumstances! But I do like the corn idea!
    Thank you all! I was dreading coming up with food ideas even more than I was dreading the rain, and now I’m excited to try them all. Keep them coming, please!!

  14. This may sound way ‘fancier’ than what it really is, but we would do kraft dinner, spagetti, baked beans (from a can), anything you can do in a pot – like saute some veggies, add water and couscous or rice.
    Breakfast = cowboy coffee (gag but necessary), eggs, bacon, potatoes – really! It CAN be done.
    Of course, copious amoutns of chips, beer, and marshmallows. Always a good menu for a few days.

  15. My sister in Law is a mom of 5 who went camping for 3 weeks at a time. She has all kinds of recipes.
    I just keep it simple.
    Frozen brochettes keep pretty well in the cooler. Bring some tzadziki and pita.
    Cheese Quasadillas (sp?) cheese and peppers and a bit of sala on tortillas, wrap in foil and roast over the fire.
    Chilli served with tortilla chips and cheese on salad (like Wendy’s mexican salad) We’ve used canned chilli and the kids love it beans and all.
    Pita pizzas mozzarella cheese, peperoni, peppers, mushrooms and sauce tucked in pita and cooked until cheese melts.
    Once we went on a hike and brought along wine and cheese and paté and grapes. It was so nice to enjoy our lovely picnik in the woods.
    Wine, beer, unshelled peanuts, fun for the kids, MARSHMALLOWS, Smirnoff Ice, beer did I say that allready? The only way I can sleep when we go camping is if I have some wine or beer or something to knock me out.
    I looove the taste of toast cooked over the camp fire. Bring peanut butter!

  16. Another option for campfire cookng is making bannock. Great for kids as a bit of a hisBannock is a quick bread, similar to a baking powder biscuit. It is also nice if you add a bit of cinnamon and served with sauteed apples.
    Ingredients
    4 cups flour
    8 tsp. baking powder
    1/4 cup lard or shortening
    1 Tbsp. white sugar
    1 tsp. salt
    3 cups cold water (approx.)
    Instructions
    Mix together first 5 ingredients until crumbly. Add about 3 cups cold water and mix until it is not sticky.
    Wrap on clean, green stick and cook over coals until golden brown.
    Where open fires are prohibited, cook in frying pan until golden brown and turn. Cook until done.
    tory lesson.

  17. I had a huuuuuge menu in a Word file somewhere and I can’t find it now.
    This page mentions a few things we learned to bring with us when we go, including a recipe for quickie campfire pizzas, which we all love: http://www.quietfish.com/words/camping2.pdf
    (Nevermind the pic of the shorts. Somehow they got streched in the process and they really aren’t that short. Or that wide. Hmpf.)
    Other things:
    – pancakes … oohhhhh nothing beats pancakes while camping. We also buy the readycrisp bacon. It’s pretty good. Hash browns would be good too.
    – I pre-assemble english muffins with slices of ham and cheese in between and wrap them up in foil. We throw these on the grill as a snack when we arrive.
    – hots and hams, of course! We grill the dogs on spears. If you slice a deep X in each end you’ll get a hotdog flower. Each eat lots of chopped veggies to go with it.
    – banana boats are oft-requested dessert items: slice lengthwise down the middle of a peeled banana. Don’t remove peel. Stuff with mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips. Wrap with foil. Toss on the grill. The innards turn to hot mush. Yum.

  18. I’ve never been camping that the only thing worth remembering was how bad the food was…girl I am a a city girl living in rural Alabama…if that don’t make you laugh nothing will….

  19. Another easy potato one here…
    Peel and slice potatoes (scallop style), place on buttered tinfoil, add, onion, butter, salt and pepper. Seal foil to form a packet, and cook for about 10 mins on each side….goes great with steak!

  20. I was going to chime in to say that the tinfoil packet thing works really well. You just cut up a bunch of vegetables (you can have chicken for non-vegetarians), have each person make their own tinfoil packet, use either oil or butter or barbecue sauce, seal it up, and cook it on fire. Everyone can make their own, eat off the tinfoil, and nothing to wash afterwards except the sharp knife.

  21. Not exactly gourmet, these are my essentials:
    1. beef jerky.
    2. anything in a can especially chocolate pudding.
    3. minute steaks fried in butter.
    4. powdered donuts.

  22. looks like you got lots of great advice, took a few notes myself, not that I’m a camper or anything, the alst time I went camping was 21 years ago, it was a miserable cold rainy week-end but the highlight of it was that hubby proposed to me 🙂
    have a great time dani!

  23. Thanks for the Bannock recipe. I’m going to try it. Snackmommy, I cook potatoes the exact same way. They’re excellent and there’s not a lot of cleaning up to do.

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