Tag archive for camping

We are not the most devoted of campers, we pretty much stick to basic car camping in campsites where there are actual bathrooms. We pick campsites for scenic views and proximity to day hikes or breweries, depending on the situation. There is a little kid in my life and these things make camping easier. We pack coolers of ingredients for full-on fancy camping meals and a set of bocce balls for afternoon entertainment. Once we get out there, camping is a pretty carefree way to spend a weekend. There is little to do besides cook up the food we’ve brought along and relax. In the evening, we build a fire and sit around it. Sometimes we play card games or watch for stars in that dark sky.

This fall we’ve been doing a lot of camping. Maybe it is an unconscious attempt to draw out the season as the cooler weather and shorter days set it. On every trip, I’ve been returning to the same recipe for granola bars. They are tasty and portable. I’ve packed up these bars for early morning kayak paddles, long rides in the car and hikes into the hills. And on camping trips, they are the perfect snack to tide me over between an early morning wake up and actually being alert enough to start cooking breakfast at the campsite. We tumble out of the tent, start heating up water for coffee, pull out the pan of granola bars and everyone is happy.

I’ve been working to keep these bars from getting too crumbly and the best advice I have is to chop things up – the nuts, the cherries. The smaller pieces seem to stick together that much better. Of course, you can help matters out by storing them carefully. I’ve found returning them to their pan or some other container helps them keep their shape. And since these bars have become a breakfast staple, I’ve been using them to clean out the pantry, substituting different nuts, various chocolates and even some peanut butter chips I found, along with any kind of coconut flakes I can find lurking in the cupboard. Another breakfast note – I don’t like too much sweetness early in the morning, so I’ve been lighthanded with the sugar, even going with a little less than what I have listed here on a batch where I used up the rest of my sweetened coconut.

GOOD MORNING GRANOLA BARS

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Orangette

1 ½ cups (160 grams) quick-cooking oats

⅓ cup (35 grams) oat flour, or quick-cooking oats pulsed in a food processor

⅓ cup (65 grams) to ½ cup (100 grams) sugar (see above)

1 cup (110 grams) raw walnuts, chopped into rough pieces

½ cup (25 grams) unsweetened coconut flakes

½ cup (85 grams) chocolate chips or chopped chocolate of similar size
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¼ cup (40 grams) dried cherries, halved

½ tsp. fine salt

1/3 cup (85 grams) peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

6 Tbsp. (85 grams) unsalted butter, melted

6 Tbsp. (120 grams) honey

1 Tbsp. water

Heat oven to 350°F. Prepare an 8-inch square baking pan with a little butter or baking spray. Line pan with parchment paper so it covers the bottom and two sides of the pan with a little overhang. Lightly grease the parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, oat flour, sugar, nuts, coconut flakes, chocolate chips, dried cherries and salt.

In a medium bowl, stir together the peanut butter, vanilla, melted butter, honey and water. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and give everything a good stir to combine thoroughly. Transfer to a prepared pan and press the mixture into the pan. A spatula works pretty well, but a damp hand or piece of plastic wrap will help as well.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until the bars are golden all over with some browning on the edges. Don’t be surprised to find the bars are still a little soft to the touch, they will firm up as they cool.

Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely or even overnight. When cool, run a knife along the around the edges of the pan and use the parchment paper to lift the bars out of the pan. Cut into bars.

To store, place bars in an airtight container. Or do like I did and slide the bars and the parchment paper back into the pan for storage. I think it’s the best way to keep them from crumbling.

This weeks post is a bit of an experiment. As I mentioned last week, we headed out camping. This meant that I traded in my usual kitchen setup for a tent and a picnic table and most importantly, I put down my pots and pans and spent most of my time behind my camera snapping photos! Before we left on our little road trip I had it in my mind that I wanted to capture the weekend in a different way then just photographs that I would have to sift through and share only my top few picks. This weekend I threw caution to the wind and just started snapping pictures left and right. Don’t judge me!

Friday after work we packed up and hit the road. Destination, Paradise Valley, just a short hours drive out of the city. Paradise Valley didn’t disappoint. It was lush and warm with plenty of soft filtered light streaming through the canopy of trees. This is where we pitched our tents, nestled in between a swift moving river and a train track. Here we drank our morning coffee, hustled to the side of the tracks at the faintest sound of a whistle and watched the embers of our fire slowly fade at the end of a very good day.
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When it comes to camping there really are only two, maybe three things that I want to do while I’m out in the woods. First build a campfire, then spend a couple of sunny afternoons floating on the lake and perhaps most importantly, eat some good food.

The fun and the challenge of camping food is the restrictions that go hand in hand with camping and cooking. There are space constraints, I always need to have my floaty, three or more pairs of shoes and of course a plethora of outfit changes just in case the weather goes south, so there isn’t a lot of room for extra cooking supplies. Refrigeration issues is another big concern and of course there is ease of preparation to think about. Great camping food all comes down to being creative within these restrictions and of course not straying to far from the classic comfort food camping dishes that we all love.

When we go camping with our group of friends we have a few food items that are always on the menu. The big hit is actually a breakfast item that we call B’s McB’s. I’m fairly certain that last year these guys were sporting a different name and likely the year before that another name but the recipe always remains the same.

B’s McB’s are a nod to the traditional Egg McMuffin, the hand-held breakfast of champions. Well the whole champion thing may be a bit of an exaggeration. What makes these guys a great breakfast choice is that they are easy to make and can easily feed both a large or small group of hungry campers.

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Makes six
6 Eggs
6 English Muffins
6  slices Canadian back bacon
Mayo
Cheddar Cheese sliced
1/4 cup Dried Cranberries
Butter or oil for cooking

Bring a cast iron pan to medium heat over camp stove. Depending on how many sandwiches you are making you may find it easiest to work in batches cooking an even number of eggs and bacon in the pan at once. The goal is to have one sunny side up egg and one slice of bacon for each sandwich. Melt a little butter into your pan and begin cooking the bacon and eggs. While they are cooking slice the cheese and toast the english muffins either over the fire or your grill.

When we go camping each person is in charge of putting their own sandwich together and in doing so we all make our own a little differently. This is how I roll. Split the muffin in half, top one half with a couple of slices of cheese and the other with mayo and a few dried cranberries. Top the cheese side of the muffin with a sunny side up egg (this makes the cheese melt) and the other side with a slice of bacon. Slap those two suckers together and dig in!

*Caution: messy eaters often find themselves in need of a quick dip in the lake to clean off  if they aren’t careful.