Flexible Food Techniques and Cooking While Camping

I think part of why people like camping is that it pushes you to the edge of what you find comfortable – you don’t quite have all the things you are accustomed to, even if you are camping at a campground with running water and lots of convenience. I know Husband loves this experience. For me, it’s an opportunity for a different set of taste sensations, and definitely for different ways to cook food.

We bring a portable grill with us when camping, and did so this weekend, but Husband has a favorite method for boiling water: campfire-style. He builds up a strong fire, places two thick, similar-sized logs across the fire pit as a “grate,” and balances a pot of water such that the handle is out of the flames but the water is directly in the heat of the fire. This makes me nervous, because if the logs burn through before the water boils, a big pot of hot water splashes down into the flames, creating steam and splashes and ruining the fire that everyone is sitting around and enjoying. In the best case scenario (which happened twice this weekend: once for green beans and once for coffee water!), the water boils, Husband removes it from the flames, and the logs later crack and fall into the fire pit, neat and tidy.

We also learned to live without a variety of cooking oils – because the only thing Husband packed was olive oil, that’s what we had to drizzle on our toast and to cook our eggs. It was not a problem, and if anything I discovered a new tasty treat. It’s also helpful that usually, I’m hungrier on camping trips than other times: just to get to the bathroom required a 15 minute walk, so I’m just much more active in general. It sure makes food taste good when you have to come up with work-arounds based on the food you have, and based on the heat sources you have, to be able to make do!