What kind of camp cook are you?

rusty_tlc

Explorer
Do you cook five course gormet meals in camp?
Or are you more the open the bag and pour in the water kind of cook?

Both have their merits and proponents.

If there is no fixed camp I like to have some stuff that can be fixed in a hurry with little fuss or cleanup for those days when things go wrong. Rigs get stuck, stuff breaks, can't find a good place to camp until late etc. etc. When time allows we like more elaborate meals, still nothing to hard to prepare. Relaxing in camp after a day on the trail is important.


When we have a fixed camp things are a little different. IMHO spending time on meal prep can be a relaxing way to kill the afternoon. And a big Sunday brunch is a nice way to extend the time before you have to pack up and head home.

So what kind of cook are you?
 

Grim Reaper

Expedition Leader
Day it is something quick or pre prepared.
Dinner....I love to eat a great meal. :chef:

Maybe its time to try to make :12_4_18: at camp.

Honestly, it is in the planning.

A good meal doesn't have to be real involved or time consuming. Thai and Japanese dishes are quite easy to make and often only one or two dirty pans. It is as easy as Spaghetti. Boil your noodles or Rice. Make the sauce and if you plan you can have the sauce ready to go just need to heat and cook the meat you want with it.
Fired rice is easy to make too.

Mexican/ Spanish dishes are the same. Most of the fixings are dry goods or veggies. Cook the meat throw a tortilla on a frying pan and instant burrito.
 

DesertRose

Safari Chick & Supporting Sponsor
I love to cook - anywhere! The challenges of camp cooking are not for me the cooking part but the transport and storage part. At home, I'm lucky enough to have plenty of time to prepare all meals from scratch - I don't buy any processed or packaged foods (I work at home, and since we live an hour from any grocery store, I stock a nice pantry).

So that means a bit more planning at home: make sure I take plenty of what I consider the three pillars of cooking (olive oil, garlic, and butter!) as well as some good spices and always things like onions, lemon, yukon potatoes, and rice; I might mix up a pancake mix and put into ziplocks; make my meals based around grilled or braised meats; use frozen vegetables; maybe grab a tupperware of frozen soup from the freezer for backup. (Another thread hereabouts had some great ideas for vegetables. )

When travelling just me or with Jonathan, I can plan to stop early and have a nice leisurely pre-dark cooking session (with a martini or glass of wine, of course). But when travelling with a group, someone made a good point: you should be prepared with quick meals, too, so if you roll into camp late you're not faced with an hour cooking session.

Best meals we've had, though, have been in coastal Mexico. Stopping at a fishing village to buy a just-caught bonita and then cooking it "al mojo de ajo" - in butter-garlic sauce. Or grilled, with lime or lemon sprinkled over - served with rice and some vegetables.

I'm hungry now and it's only 7 am!
 

rusty_tlc

Explorer
It is very true that cooking good food dosen't mean you need to work that hard.
I think it's as much about planning as prep. It's also about adapting stuff you do at home to stuff you can cook in camp. We have been a two income houshold for 28 years, so cooking dinner fast and easy is a part of everyday life for us. And since we cook on the grill except in the coldest weather it is pretty easy to take dishes we make at home with us.



But we still carry a few, gack, MRE's. Because you just never know when you will be setting uo tour tent in the headlights.
 

gjackson

FRGS
I love camp cooking. I'm okay at it, but Connie is awesome! Our feeling is that just because you are camping, that is no reason not to live well! As mentioned already, a lot of it is in the planning.

Maybe its time to try to make :12_4_18: at camp.

On a beach in Angola Connie managed to make sushi! Worst sushi we have ever had, but damn it was good! Getting something like that out in the middle of no-where is an amazing treat! And as you can see by the cutting board we are pretty big sushi fans. . .

cheers
 

jim65wagon

TundraBird1
The Expo trip to WVa was an eyeopener to me for cooking styles:
Us (Jim and Beth) - Big breakfast, bacon, eggs, pancakes, sausage,coffee, milk for the kids.
Chris (Cshontz) - cold poptart, small carton of orange juice.

Granted, no one went hungry (especially us) but I felt like Chris was spending a lot of time waiting on us to cook and clean! :coffee:

I was just happy to find out at suppertime that no one minded a bottle of wine opened up after chillin it in the crik!:friday:
 

oly884

Member
I find some good wood, pull out my grate BBQ, make an enclosure, and grill up some good T-bones. Pull out some lettuce and make some mashed potatoes.

I'll also do the fish in the foil thing if I'm near a lake.

You also can't beat wild rice, cut up hot links, and spicy spices!!!
 

rusty_tlc

Explorer
jim65wagon said:
The Expo trip to WVa was an eyeopener to me for cooking styles:
Us (Jim and Beth) - Big breakfast, bacon, eggs, pancakes, sausage,coffee, milk for the kids.
Chris (Cshontz) - cold poptart, small carton of orange juice.

Granted, no one went hungry (especially us) but I felt like Chris was spending a lot of time waiting on us to cook and clean! :coffee:

I was just happy to find out at suppertime that no one minded a bottle of wine opened up after chillin it in the crik!:friday:
I love a big breakfast but usually regret it. We pretty much stick to coffee and a couple of cups of coffee.
 
Last long trip I was on, we ate normal food in the morning to help move the MREs that we ate in the evening. I wouldn't recommend that...

I prefer what we did last camping trip, which was bring real food and a grill and/or camp stove and eat properly...tortillas are the perfect edible plate. So are pancakes.
 

offroadchef

Adventurer
I will bring with me whatever specials are left over from my cafe. Having the restaurant leaves me with many choices.


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