Camplore

Reunion Recipe Favorite Number One has to be homemade cinnamon rolls for Sunday morning breakfast.

The teenagers in camp for the reunion are the workhorses for this event/meal. So this year, there were three 14 and 15-year-old guys, Ben, Michael and Brad. They turned out to be pretty good in the kitchen, amiable, a little smart-mouthed, and a lot of fun. They even found a radio station that worked for all of us.

You certainly wouldn’t want to try this on a campout, but if you have access to a reasonable kitchen, try out this recipe for homemade cinnamon rolls.
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Here’s another recipe that begs to be made on a frontcountry camping trip. It’s a nice variation on the old hobo dinner/foil packs that call for a little carrot, onion, potato and hamburger patty wrapped up in a foil envelope and cooked on coals.
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I have coveted the bakepacker oven since I saw it demonstrated a few years ago back at Scout Show. I think they made muffins in it, and I was fascinated that you could bake in a pot on top of a stove successfully. Not that anything browns, mind you, but it was definitely cooked. I have friends who love their bakepackers, but I am so cheap I haven’t managed to plop down the $17-$18 for one. So I heard a rumor of a homemade replacement and decided to try it out at home.
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A little planning and shopping at the regular grocery store can save a world of trouble when cleanup time rolls around for the lightweight backpacker, even without freeze dried backpacking meals. Just remember to pack it out, and you’re in business with even a potentially messy meal when you use oven bags to line your pots.
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Translating termperature from that handy dial with the numbers on it at home to the campsite can get a little on the tricky side. It still is, if you’re using wood coals. But cooking with charcoal gives you a little more structure, at least.
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Thanks to reasonable recent success moving a home oven recipe to the Dutch Oven arena, I am inspired to try another favorite over charcoal. My old cookbook calls it “Chicken Baked in Sour Cream”. My niece thinks they should’ve added “and Mushroom Soup”, but I’ve learned to modify that ingredient to suit her taste sufficiently.
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It’s fairly agreed upon that almost everything tastes better when it’s cooked outside. A wood-burning fire’s coals are the classic, but eventually campground areas and vegetation are negatively affected, so these days you have to bring your own wood to established campgrounds. A campfire burning directly on the ground can have long-lasting impact to the soil and microorganisms for a good distance around the fire. All the more reason to use only established campfire rings in camp, whether you’re burning wood or using charcoal.

A camp stove or backpacking stove is the best alternative, though, for lighter impact as well as efficiency.
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Here’s a classic moved to the campfire. Our Boy Scout troop usually prepares a cake mix as directed on the box, then pours it over a couple of cans of pie filling, which is pretty impressive. Back in my young camping days, we skipped adding the eggs, oil, water to the mix, just sliced up a stick of butter and topped the dry mix. Here you have it - it’s still delicious (just make sure you’ve included the long hike to work a little of it off!).

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We tried a new dutch oven recipe this weekend, and it met with approval all around. This was prepared for adults - I am not certain how well it would go over with youngsters, as it has green chiles in it.
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You can find quality dehydrated food and meals for backpacking at most sporting goods stores, some grocery stores, and online. This article is a review of specific meals by certain brands, and only an indicator of whether people liked it or not. I will try to give an idea of the age of the reviewer and any comments they may have about the product.
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