We have a small camping stove and we can cook pretty much anything on it. Sometimes I bring a container of frozen pasta sauce and we enjoy heaping plates of spaghetti with gusto. Other times we make oatmeal with fruit to warm ourselves on a chilly morning. It almost makes camping fun to try and top myself when I plan food for our next camping trip.
I try and keep the menu different so that we don't get bored with what we eat, but there is one thing that is in common for each and every meal I plan. It's got to be warm.
I freeze easier than an ice cream sundae melts in the hot July sun so I need to plan carefully so I don't freeze and complain the night away.
Last night I had on three sweaters (two of them were cashmere), two pairs of pants, two pairs of sock, a winter coat, mittens, and a hat. I am proud to say that I didn't need wear the pashmina I brought nor did I need to break out the hand and feet warmers I had packed. I was actually warm.
It probably helped that I also brought with me a goose down filled sleeping bag built for negative twelve weather and maybe the wine I carried through the woods helped a bit too, but I think the food I brought had more to do with it.
What did I bring on our last camping trip? Well it was one of my favourite things to bring camping and we didn't even need to break out that trusty camping stove. All we needed was the little package of fire starters and a big bag of logs.
Did you guess what it was yet?
I made s'mores and spider dogs! Nothing fancy or amazing to some people but on a cold and wet April night in the woods, nothing is better to me than a warm campfire complete with the crispiest treats I have ever made.
S'mores of course are marshmallows cooked with a stick over a roaring fire and burnt to a crisp, or over hot coals and slow roasted to a golden brown (for people more patient than I'll ever be), then stuffed with chocolate, and sandwiched between two graham crackers. Yum, I'll always want some more.
But spider dogs you might not have heard of. They are simple little treats that light a smile on both my own and a child's face. All you do it stick a hot dog on a stick, take a knife to both sides, and slice to create little legs- four on each side. Then you roast it in the fire and as the hot dog cooks, the legs begin to curl up and separate. Try one dipped in Dijon mustard! Delicious!
Check me out enjoying a hot dog cooked the old fashioned way. All I have to say is with a nose as red as mine, thank goodness we live on Vancouver Island because anywhere else in Canada would have been ten times as cold!
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