Camping Food / Skills for Kids [General]
2010 May 31
i find all recipes for bannock are pretty much the same. the dough is flavourless, so you definitely want to top it with something. you can cook it on a stick, but i find the outside gets burnt and the middle is raw. much easier to have the boys mix up their own bag of bannock and the cook it in a pan.
this link has some good points and ideas.
my.tbaytel.net
and, leftover bannock dough can be rolled out, covered in cinnamon sugar, roll up, slice and put in pan and cook over the morning fire for cinnamon rolls.
this link has some good points and ideas.
my.tbaytel.net
and, leftover bannock dough can be rolled out, covered in cinnamon sugar, roll up, slice and put in pan and cook over the morning fire for cinnamon rolls.
2010 May 31
Last October I went on a trip with a colleague, I took an accorn squash. Cut it in half, scooped the goop, tossed in some salt and pepper with a dash of maple syrup (I always bring maple syrup for pancakes), wrapped the halves in foil and tossed them in the coals. It came out very nicely. A bit smokey/ maple syrup flavored.
I always take bannock too, though I avoid wheat so I make a different mix:
3 equal parts rice flour, buckwheat flour, corn flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp guar gum
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Add water, form dough, cook. My wheat free one won't really cook on sticks, it has to go in a pan over the fire. Smear it with peanut butter and honey.
Quinoa and Sun Dried Tomato Pilaf
Both ingredients are practically imperishable and make a great combo.
1 cup quinoa
2/3 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 tbsp dried basil
salt and pepper
Soak tomatoes for 15 minutes. Drain liquid and reserve. Cook quinoa in sun dried tomato liquid (and any additional water needed). 1/2 way through add tomatoes and basil. Finish off, season with salt and pepper (though it's probably salty enough already). Very tasty, easy and lightweight camping meal.
You could make a tripod using lashing to hang a pot over a fire, or to dry clothes with. Ashley Book of Knots # 2105 has a good description of how to do this. A couple outlets of the Ottawa Public Library have copies of this book. It's worth checking out, perhaps photocopying some of the pages, if not just buying it. It's encyclopedic and has very clear descriptions and diagrams. Interesting anecdote in the introduction: "Several years ago, fro my printed directions in the _Sportsman Magazine_, and with no other assistance, my cousin, Hope Knowles, tied without error Knot # 2217, which has forty-nine crossings, making therewith a covering for the knob of her father's automobile gear-shift lever. She was barely eleven years old at the time." Also in the introduction Ashley discusses his learning of knots from the age of 3 (starting with the Reef Knot). Anyone, interested and motivated, can learn simple and complex knots.
For starting fires you could play around with a magnesium fire starter. MEC and Canadian Tire carry Coghlan's Magnesium Fire starter for under $5. You scrape off a loonie sized pile of magnesium shavings with a knife then use the ferrocerium rod on the side to make sparks which ignite the magnesium. Spectacular display, though tedious to do. The stuff burns off very quickly so have your tinder - birch bark preferably - lying right on top of it. Windy conditions can make this a pain as the magnesium shavings will just blow away. With the ferrocerium rod on the mag stick, or a separately purchased ferrocerium rod, you can also play around with using sparks to catch different kinds of tinder. Fluffy plant seeds - like dandelions, cat tails and milkweed - will burst into flames if a spark hits them. They burn off very quickly so it's a bit tough to get a fire going with them, but quite possible. I assume you'll have a first aid kit, you could show them how to use a cotton swab with some rubbing alcohol or alcohol based hand sanitizer to make fire. Soak the cotton swab, rough it up, send a spark at it. It should burn for a minute or two. Char cloth is a classic stand-by. Charred cotton catches a spark and grows into an ember very easily. You'll need to know how to make and use a tinder bundle, but that's not too difficult. This web site has a lot of very useful info on tinder, tinder bundles, making char cloth, etc.: www.wildwoodsurvival.com
Tinder fungus is fun too. It's a black lumpy fungus that grows on birch trees. The inside is reddish-brown and, dried out, catches a spark easily like charred cloth.
Somewhat related to this, Martha Weber does children and family related orienteering stuff throughout the year from day camps to monthly hikes. She's a wonderful storehouse of information. www.dandelionjam.com/
I always take bannock too, though I avoid wheat so I make a different mix:
3 equal parts rice flour, buckwheat flour, corn flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp guar gum
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Add water, form dough, cook. My wheat free one won't really cook on sticks, it has to go in a pan over the fire. Smear it with peanut butter and honey.
Quinoa and Sun Dried Tomato Pilaf
Both ingredients are practically imperishable and make a great combo.
1 cup quinoa
2/3 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 tbsp dried basil
salt and pepper
Soak tomatoes for 15 minutes. Drain liquid and reserve. Cook quinoa in sun dried tomato liquid (and any additional water needed). 1/2 way through add tomatoes and basil. Finish off, season with salt and pepper (though it's probably salty enough already). Very tasty, easy and lightweight camping meal.
You could make a tripod using lashing to hang a pot over a fire, or to dry clothes with. Ashley Book of Knots # 2105 has a good description of how to do this. A couple outlets of the Ottawa Public Library have copies of this book. It's worth checking out, perhaps photocopying some of the pages, if not just buying it. It's encyclopedic and has very clear descriptions and diagrams. Interesting anecdote in the introduction: "Several years ago, fro my printed directions in the _Sportsman Magazine_, and with no other assistance, my cousin, Hope Knowles, tied without error Knot # 2217, which has forty-nine crossings, making therewith a covering for the knob of her father's automobile gear-shift lever. She was barely eleven years old at the time." Also in the introduction Ashley discusses his learning of knots from the age of 3 (starting with the Reef Knot). Anyone, interested and motivated, can learn simple and complex knots.
For starting fires you could play around with a magnesium fire starter. MEC and Canadian Tire carry Coghlan's Magnesium Fire starter for under $5. You scrape off a loonie sized pile of magnesium shavings with a knife then use the ferrocerium rod on the side to make sparks which ignite the magnesium. Spectacular display, though tedious to do. The stuff burns off very quickly so have your tinder - birch bark preferably - lying right on top of it. Windy conditions can make this a pain as the magnesium shavings will just blow away. With the ferrocerium rod on the mag stick, or a separately purchased ferrocerium rod, you can also play around with using sparks to catch different kinds of tinder. Fluffy plant seeds - like dandelions, cat tails and milkweed - will burst into flames if a spark hits them. They burn off very quickly so it's a bit tough to get a fire going with them, but quite possible. I assume you'll have a first aid kit, you could show them how to use a cotton swab with some rubbing alcohol or alcohol based hand sanitizer to make fire. Soak the cotton swab, rough it up, send a spark at it. It should burn for a minute or two. Char cloth is a classic stand-by. Charred cotton catches a spark and grows into an ember very easily. You'll need to know how to make and use a tinder bundle, but that's not too difficult. This web site has a lot of very useful info on tinder, tinder bundles, making char cloth, etc.: www.wildwoodsurvival.com
Tinder fungus is fun too. It's a black lumpy fungus that grows on birch trees. The inside is reddish-brown and, dried out, catches a spark easily like charred cloth.
Somewhat related to this, Martha Weber does children and family related orienteering stuff throughout the year from day camps to monthly hikes. She's a wonderful storehouse of information. www.dandelionjam.com/
2010 Jun 1
In summer I try to plan dishes that make use of cured meats and veg that doesn't need refrigeration (potatoes/onions/carrots/canned etc). In fall/winter/spring the outdoors is your refrigerator! Some of my favorites for camping off the top of my head:
Breaky
Frittata in cast iron pan
Tomatican soup with eggs poached in it (argentinian/chilean stale bread/tomato soup... great start in cold months)
Oatmeal
Roasted slab of peameal (cheap and great for sandwiches later)
Snacks
Bagels/fruit
dried sausages and jerky/hard cheeses
GORP/trailmix/nuts/dried fruit
Meals
Chicken Tajine in cast iron skillet w/couscous
chickpea/chorizo/spinach stew in skillet
black bean/bacon/celery/pearl onion stew in skillet
Any dehydrated veggies/meats reconstituted in a soup or stew
Homemade Mac and cheese
Fish, steamed in tinfoil packets
Salt cod and tomato stew
Baked potatoes in tinfoil
Breaky
Frittata in cast iron pan
Tomatican soup with eggs poached in it (argentinian/chilean stale bread/tomato soup... great start in cold months)
Oatmeal
Roasted slab of peameal (cheap and great for sandwiches later)
Snacks
Bagels/fruit
dried sausages and jerky/hard cheeses
GORP/trailmix/nuts/dried fruit
Meals
Chicken Tajine in cast iron skillet w/couscous
chickpea/chorizo/spinach stew in skillet
black bean/bacon/celery/pearl onion stew in skillet
Any dehydrated veggies/meats reconstituted in a soup or stew
Homemade Mac and cheese
Fish, steamed in tinfoil packets
Salt cod and tomato stew
Baked potatoes in tinfoil
2012 Jul 8
We did tent camping for years both alone and with another couple of foodies, so have a fairly large repertoire of all kinds of camping food. Even now that we have an RV we still do a lot of outdoor cooking. One of my favorite tools is a cast iron dutch oven, with which you can cook directly on coals. There are tons of recipes for savory dishes, breads and desserts online, and they usually will do a crowd nicely. It does take a bit of a knack because you do have to learn to rotate the oven on the coals for even cooking, and you sometimes have to get to know how many coals on the top and bottom will give you the right cooking temp.
I have recipes for things that dump tons of stuff in the pot to reheat - baked beans, pineapple, dr. pepper, salami etc. (it's good, believe me) but have also done marinated roasted cornish game hens and amazing cherry cobbler with pie filling and cake mix. A lot of those recipes would be relatively easy for kids to do or to help with, but Akela would probably have to supervise the coals.
Here is a site I go to often, and if you follow the links they also have a special "boy scout" dutch oven site.
www.justdutchovenrecipes.com
And I remember doing "tin foil dinners" when I was a cub scout. Foil packet with a chopped steak, cut up onion, potato and carrot. We thought it was the best dinner in the world.
I have recipes for things that dump tons of stuff in the pot to reheat - baked beans, pineapple, dr. pepper, salami etc. (it's good, believe me) but have also done marinated roasted cornish game hens and amazing cherry cobbler with pie filling and cake mix. A lot of those recipes would be relatively easy for kids to do or to help with, but Akela would probably have to supervise the coals.
Here is a site I go to often, and if you follow the links they also have a special "boy scout" dutch oven site.
www.justdutchovenrecipes.com
And I remember doing "tin foil dinners" when I was a cub scout. Foil packet with a chopped steak, cut up onion, potato and carrot. We thought it was the best dinner in the world.
2012 Jul 8
Some of the things that we've done in the last few years that have and have not worked at cub camp.
Grilled cheese is easy and always a big hit
We like to do soups to go with them especially if it ends up being rainy and wet in spring or fall - to help warm the kids up. It was always hit and miss on how much to bring and make, and we'd always end up tossing out way too much. Then it finally hit upon me to bring cup a soup. Way easier to make. You can bring a variety so everyone gets what they want, and almost nothing goes to waste. Downside of course that it makes more garbage.
Hamburgers are always a big hit and easy to do.
Pancakes, bacon and eggs for breakfast are classics and easy to do. We used the PC Blue Menu whole grain pancake mix this weekend and it was really good.
I'll add some more as I think of it.
Grilled cheese is easy and always a big hit
We like to do soups to go with them especially if it ends up being rainy and wet in spring or fall - to help warm the kids up. It was always hit and miss on how much to bring and make, and we'd always end up tossing out way too much. Then it finally hit upon me to bring cup a soup. Way easier to make. You can bring a variety so everyone gets what they want, and almost nothing goes to waste. Downside of course that it makes more garbage.
Hamburgers are always a big hit and easy to do.
Pancakes, bacon and eggs for breakfast are classics and easy to do. We used the PC Blue Menu whole grain pancake mix this weekend and it was really good.
I'll add some more as I think of it.
2012 Jul 8
Interesting course coming up
www.algonquinpark.on.ca
How to create great meals for wilderness adventures. Have you always wanted to canoe or hike in Algonquin’s stunning Park backcountry? Or are you already traveling in the wilds of Algonquin but having troubles with lightweight food ideas for longer trips? Then this is the workshop for you. Become a Packable Gourmet, presented by The Friends of Algonquin Park, will teach you what you need to know about creating non-perishable menus that are tasty and lightweight. Imagine dishes like Linguini with Red Clam Sauce, Chicken Pot Pie and Hungarian Goulash made with ease in the wilds.
Laurie Ann March, author of A Fork in the Trail and Another Fork in the Trail, will discuss:
• how to preserve foods so that you do not have the bulk of a cooler;
• basics of food dehydration and rehydration;
• backcountry cooking gear;
• dealing with dietary restrictions;
• foods for children and pets;
• alternative packaging systems;
• bear proofing your campsite
• how to safely deal with cleanup in the backcountry; and
• any other questions you might have!
For this workshop, participants will be supplied with the following:
• a planning workbook on how to becoming a packable gourmet
• a copy of A Fork in the Trail or Another Fork in the Trail [vegetarian, vegan cookbook] (please specify)
• valid Park permit for the day of the workshop
• Laurie's expert instruction
Maximum 20 participants.
ABOUT LAURIE ANN MARCH
Laurie Ann March is an avid backpacker, hiker, and wilderness canoeist. The outdoors isn't merely a hobby for Laurie it is her passion. Laurie is the author of two wilderness cookbooks, A Fork in the Trail and Another Fork in the Trail. She also enjoys her work as owner and editor of the popular outdoors e-zine Outdoor Adventure Canada. Laurie is not just an author and outdoorswoman; she is also a mother, wife, artist, and photographer. Laurie lives in Ontario, Canada, where she backpacks, hikes, cycles, and paddles with her husband, Bryan, her two children, and the family dog. Seeing nature through her children’s eyes is one of her greatest rewards. Algonquin Park is one of their favourite places to spend time in the wilderness as a family.
HOW TO REGISTER
Pre-registration required. To register for this workshop, or for more information, contact Lori at The Friends of Algonquin Park at (613) 637-2828 ext. 236. When you call to register, please have the following items ready: a contact phone number and e-mail address; and a Visa or MasterCard number, and your choice of book - A Fork in the Trail or Another Fork in the Trail (vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free recipes). The cost for this workshop is $50.00 plus HST for members of The Friends of Algonquin Park. Non-members pay $62.00 plus HST for the workshop and a one-year individual membership.
All workshop proceeds support the charitable work of The Friends of Algonquin Park.
www.algonquinpark.on.ca
How to create great meals for wilderness adventures. Have you always wanted to canoe or hike in Algonquin’s stunning Park backcountry? Or are you already traveling in the wilds of Algonquin but having troubles with lightweight food ideas for longer trips? Then this is the workshop for you. Become a Packable Gourmet, presented by The Friends of Algonquin Park, will teach you what you need to know about creating non-perishable menus that are tasty and lightweight. Imagine dishes like Linguini with Red Clam Sauce, Chicken Pot Pie and Hungarian Goulash made with ease in the wilds.
Laurie Ann March, author of A Fork in the Trail and Another Fork in the Trail, will discuss:
• how to preserve foods so that you do not have the bulk of a cooler;
• basics of food dehydration and rehydration;
• backcountry cooking gear;
• dealing with dietary restrictions;
• foods for children and pets;
• alternative packaging systems;
• bear proofing your campsite
• how to safely deal with cleanup in the backcountry; and
• any other questions you might have!
For this workshop, participants will be supplied with the following:
• a planning workbook on how to becoming a packable gourmet
• a copy of A Fork in the Trail or Another Fork in the Trail [vegetarian, vegan cookbook] (please specify)
• valid Park permit for the day of the workshop
• Laurie's expert instruction
Maximum 20 participants.
ABOUT LAURIE ANN MARCH
Laurie Ann March is an avid backpacker, hiker, and wilderness canoeist. The outdoors isn't merely a hobby for Laurie it is her passion. Laurie is the author of two wilderness cookbooks, A Fork in the Trail and Another Fork in the Trail. She also enjoys her work as owner and editor of the popular outdoors e-zine Outdoor Adventure Canada. Laurie is not just an author and outdoorswoman; she is also a mother, wife, artist, and photographer. Laurie lives in Ontario, Canada, where she backpacks, hikes, cycles, and paddles with her husband, Bryan, her two children, and the family dog. Seeing nature through her children’s eyes is one of her greatest rewards. Algonquin Park is one of their favourite places to spend time in the wilderness as a family.
HOW TO REGISTER
Pre-registration required. To register for this workshop, or for more information, contact Lori at The Friends of Algonquin Park at (613) 637-2828 ext. 236. When you call to register, please have the following items ready: a contact phone number and e-mail address; and a Visa or MasterCard number, and your choice of book - A Fork in the Trail or Another Fork in the Trail (vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free recipes). The cost for this workshop is $50.00 plus HST for members of The Friends of Algonquin Park. Non-members pay $62.00 plus HST for the workshop and a one-year individual membership.
All workshop proceeds support the charitable work of The Friends of Algonquin Park.
2012 Jul 9
OK, our group brought in our own fire (propane) and did deep fried turkey and drumsticks. Yeah not traditional fireside cooking, I'm sure Robert Bayden-Powell would roll over in his grave - but I'm told it was very tasty. (missed the last cub camp out due to bbq judging). Plus you can cook 32 (chicken) drumsticks in minutes, which helps when you are feeding 50 hungry campers.
2012 Jul 9
We'll be camping up your way in August Caperbeachgal. Meat cove does not take reservations so we are passin g on it and going to one of the sites in the park. Ingonish I believe.
zymurgist
Some of the comments in my other thread got me to thinking about this.
What skills (cooking or otherwise) can / should I teach to 5 through 8 year old kids?
I've found from experience this year teaching Beavers that there are an awful lot of things you can teach to the older kids, that you cannot even hope to teach to the younger kids. So I may end up with things that I won't even bother trying to teach to the younger kids, and that is fine.
One thing I've already planned is some basic orienteering with a compass.
Various ways to start a camp fire (for cooking!) would of course be useful.
What camping foods? I remember as a kid on a Cubs trip wrapping potatoes in foil and tossing them into the coals of the fire.