The Art of Camp Cooking - Dinner

For our camp dinners this summer, we really went with the tried and true.  The first night we roasted hot dogs over the campfire, and then made s'mores.  The second night we made foil dinners and dutch oven dessert.  We seasoned our hamburger and divided it into patties at home.  Then at camp, we only had to slice vegetables and assemble the dinners.  We used potatoes, carrots, green peppers, and onion.  Assemble everything on your sheet of foil, season as desired, and fold the foil into a packet.  We double-wrapped ours.

Putting together a foil dinner

We started a fire to prepare coals before putting the dinners together.  Our fire was very hot, and the coals actually died out rather quickly (apparently the type of wood you use matters), so we ended up using some charcoal we had started for the dutch oven dessert.  Then, of course, we had to start more coals for the dutch oven, but one of the fun things about camping is changing your pace of life and not being on the clock, and just rolling with things as they come up!

Getting coals ready for cooking

Cooking the foil dinners on the coals.

We cooked our foil dinners about 20 minutes per side.  You can hear them steaming and sizzling when they are getting done.  Mine turned out great!  No raw hamburger or crunchy potatoes this time!

One of our campers shows off his foil dinner.

A large salad balanced the meal.

Before eating our foil dinners, we made a simple dutch oven dessert.  This cobbler requires hardly any preparation.  First, we opened 2 cans of pie filling (we chose raspberry).

Starting the dutch oven dessert - pie filling

Adding the cake mix.

We then added a box of white cake mix.  After that, we poured a can of lemon-lime soda (I used Sprite) over the whole thing.  Pour slowly to keep fizz at a minimum.  Then we cooked everything in the dutch oven.  We used about a 3 to 1 ratio of top to bottom coals...7 -8 coals on the bottom, 21 - 24 on the top.  Our dutch oven is a 12 inch "deep" oven, so with a shallower or smaller oven, you could probably use fewer coals.  This dessert took about an hour.  Turn the lid and rotate the oven a couple of times while cooking.

Dutch oven dessert cooking while the foil dinners finish in the firepit.

Raspberry cobbler - dig in!

It was great eating a warm cobbler by the campfire.  We even had whipped cream to top it off.

Note:  heat water and clean your dutch oven after use.  We scrubbed ours out with a bristly brush and hot water, then put it back on the coals until the water evaporated.  Afterwards, coat your oven with a thin layer of cooking oil while still hot.  This keeps it seasoned for the next use. 

Happy camping!