streamlining the process of camping

[chuck893]

[quote source="/post/18178/thread" timestamp="1454167829" author="@leslie"]Chuck, you bring up an interesting point about cooking and cleaning up sucking up a lot of time. Streamlining this process is a necessity.

So, what are other campers doing? I cook outside and try to keep meals as simple as possible. We use paper plates and plastic cups, except for coffee and soup, when we use ceramics. My husband cleans up, using the outdoor shower - his toy. Sometimes he "accidentally" sprays me - right!

We like GOOD coffee, so I use a French press and a manual grinder. The water has to come to a boil anyway, the coffee beans are ground while waiting for the water, and it only has to brew for 4 minutes before it is ready.

Posted by Sean...
The biggest thing for me when it comes to reducing cleaning time is to reduce the number of items I dirty while cooking. It's easy enough to wash/rise a few plates and cups but washing a bunch of pots and pans add up. Especially if they have "burnt" on food. If I can cook a meal in 1 pot then it's ideal for me

[/quote]Yes! We also keep a supply of paper plates and even bowls. They can be disposed of in an evening fire, even used as fire starters. We keep a supply of plastic cups for the very rare guests. Otherwise we use our oversize ceramic coffee cups for everything else, kinda backpacker style. We want as little as possible to wash. We cook outside (when we cook) because we occasionally camp with bears and never want odors inside the tent, although as mentioned I will boil water for instant coffee, which can also be used for instant cup Ramen &c. But any serious cooking is done outside, usually on a 2-burner Coleman propane.
 I have one of those monster umbrellas ==>   [a href="https://flic.kr/p/ajWgyo"]
One pot meals are terrific, and if we are really ambitious (not often but y'never know) we will sometimes drag along a cast-iron Dutch oven (ours is a 4-qt I think). If you've never used one, you can pretty much make anything in one that you can make in an oven. Camp Dutch ovens have little tripod legs on the bottom and a rim around the lid. You put coals top and bottom. I use briquets (cheater!) because they're more predictable than waiting for your fire to die and using those coals, which can vary widely in heat. A properly seasoned Dutch oven (you can buy them pre-seasoned) only needs to have water in it and be put back on the coals while you eat. Swishing it out is all that's needed. Most books recommend never using soap or detergent.

[pinstriper]

[quote source="/post/18178/thread" timestamp="1454167829" author="@leslie"]Chuck, you bring up an interesting point about cooking and cleaning up sucking up a lot of time. Streamlining this process is a necessity.

So, what are other campers doing? I cook outside and try to keep meals as simple as possible. We use paper plates and plastic cups, except for coffee and soup, when we use ceramics. My husband cleans up, using the outdoor shower - his toy. Sometimes he "accidentally" sprays me - right!

We like GOOD coffee, so I use a French press and a manual grinder. The water has to come to a boil anyway, the coffee beans are ground while waiting for the water, and it only has to brew for 4 minutes before it is ready.[/quote]First thing happens is the dogs go out for potty walk. On their return, they are being fed while I start the campfire. I cheat there, the hexane tabs from the Army-Navy surplus make great firestarters. $1/3.

Breakfast is systematic and easy. Bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, cooked outside on the Coleman stove. We cheat and use the preformed hashbrown patties from Trader Joes. I have strong black tea (TJ's Irish) and she makes her coffee with a Melita drip. It brews while it drips, fast as instant! Ground at home and carried in a sandwich baggie, resupplied from time to time. Stuff like that we always keep enough for two trips in the trailer, in case we forget. Electric kettle makes the hot water. We have 20oz (!!) plastic mugs from...eh - Oh! Stanley. Unhappily, I think they are a discontinued item.

It all comes together by the campfire.

Lunches are generally our eat-out opportunity, if we are near a town. We camp a lot on the coast, so we seek out deep-fried seafood and chowdah (chowdaire). Still, we generally have sandwich materials along as a backup. If we are not near towns we take along hot dogs.

Dinners vary. First night dinner is often prepared, like a casserole from home (home-made chicken pot pie !) that can be heated in the convection micro. We do this as we are generally still on the road at suppertime, or just arriving and setting up.

Take a peppergrinder, put a layer of pepper on a plate. Throw a slab of brie on it, top with more black pepper. Microwave for 45-60 seconds. Serve with crackers and champagne For The Win.

Other dinners involve steak, kabobs, sausage, chicken breast, shrimp, etc. on the grill, grilled vegetabables. Take a plastic baggie, add cut up veggies (mushrooms!), a little light olive oil, salt/pepper/herbs. Slide it shut and toss. All of this is on the portable Coleman grill we take along with the stove. We almost exclusively use baby new potatoes when camping. Boiled, mashed, smashed, grilled, diced/sliced/cubed then pan fried.

If fishing is a possibility, we take along a fresh lemon. If you have lemon, salt, pepper, and butter, you have all you need for any fish.

We generally avoid paper plates. Having a low volume of garbage is important in a small trailer, and we don't leave it outside overnight (due to BEARS! BEARS! BEARS!). Many state parks only have one garbage site near the park exit.

Our plates are the best melmac you can find at the dollar store or Salvation Army. Flatware the same. I wash just about everything outside at the shower in dish tubs from Dollar Store which btw are an exact fit to our factory sink. 4 tubs gives you soap, rinse, drain, mistake. All the water goes to putting the campfire out before we go to bed after dinner, or before we leave the campsite after breakfast.

Paper towels used to soak up the bacon fat or other such goes right on the campfire (stand back!) I suppose we could do this with paper plates as well. Which would work because we use chinet from costco, not the waxy or plastic-coated jobs  you find elsewhere. That may become our solution for dry camping to save dishwater.

[mitch]

This!


http://smile.amazon.com/Ready--Genuine-Military-Surplus-Assorted/dp/B009ZIDU0U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454175223&sr=8-1&keywords=mre

[leslie]

This!


http://smile.amazon.com/Ready--Genuine-Military-Surplus-Assorted/dp/B009ZIDU0U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454175223&sr=8-1&keywords=mre

A culinary delight?

[mitch]

Everything a body needs!

[chuck893]

[quote source="/post/18183/thread" timestamp="1454175308" author="@mitch"]This!


http://smile.amazon.com/Ready--Genuine-Military-Surplus-Assorted/dp/B009ZIDU0U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454175223&sr=8-1&keywords=mre [/quote]I think they are perfect for backpackers, but frankly awfully spendy. We never used them for that reason, preferring to come up with (relatively) lightweight grocery store substitutes. 

(Purely sidebar, when I was in the army--1963--I actually developed a taste for Korean war issue C-Rations. Far too heavy to pack (they are canned), I was dropped on a hill during a field exercise with a radio and a case of C-Rations for two days. I was bored so I ate.    )

[catmanriff]

Part of the fun for me is cooking outside, and having a simple yet no compromise breakfast, lunch or dinner. I really love cooking though, it's not just an obligation.  I typically go for 3 items at dinner: meat, starch and vegetables/salad. Could be meat, salad and veggies .. The exception might be spaghetti night, but that's still sauce pan, noodles and a vegetable. Lunches are the simplest. Breakfast is the typical scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, toast. This year I'll probably do some instant oatmeal with toast and jelly. I really need to get some one sauce pan meals happening. Mac & cheese perhaps..  

Keeping the cooking down to two pots/pans is tough but the grill gives that one extra heat source that doesn't need washing like the pots/pans do..
We use plastic plates and real metal silverware. Ball jars for glasses. So, we have some clean up. The usual M.O. is to have two buckets, one wash, one rinse.

I've been looking at cookware that can be packed away in tubs , just for camping. To me, two sauce pans(like a 2 and 4 quart) and two skillets(10 & 12) is perfect. The camping stuff isn't very interesting to me. i'd rather have some decent clad Farberware or maybe some non stick skillets. Cast iron is great but the weight..

I'm very happy with the 10' EZ up I bought last year on sale. Yea, it's big, heavy and takes two people. But it's way better than that kludgy awning in the QS.. great shade. You can sit outside in the rain even This year I want to add a side wall or two. But, it is one more thing to load.

just ordered a 4" firm bed topper. We'll see how that works as mattress.

[pinstriper]

Oh, yeah. Our cookware is 2 non-stick fry pans, and a 2-quart. Retired from duty in the home. No cast iron - too heavy, too sensitive to being mishandled.

We have a 10x10 we got at Dick's. Also got the wind walls and bug screens, can configure it any way we want. One person up/down.

[chuck893]

[quote source="/post/18191/thread" timestamp="1454208544" author="@catmanriff"]Part of the fun for me is cooking outside, and having a simple yet no compromise breakfast, lunch or dinner. I really love cooking though, it's not just an obligation.  I typically go for 3 items at dinner: meat, starch and vegetables/salad. Could be meat, salad and veggies .. The exception might be spaghetti night, but that's still sauce pan, noodles and a vegetable. Lunches are the simplest. Breakfast is the typical scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, toast. This year I'll probably do some instant oatmeal with toast and jelly. I really need to get some one sauce pan meals happening. Mac & cheese perhaps..  

Keeping the cooking down to two pots/pans is tough but the grill gives that one extra heat source that doesn't need washing like the pots/pans do..
We use plastic plates and real metal silverware. Ball jars for glasses. So, we have some clean up. The usual M.O. is to have two buckets, one wash, one rinse.

I've been looking at cookware that can be packed away in tubs , just for camping. To me, two sauce pans(like a 2 and 4 quart) and two skillets(10 & 12) is perfect. The camping stuff isn't very interesting to me. i'd rather have some decent clad Farberware or maybe some non stick skillets. Cast iron is great but the weight..

I'm very happy with the 10' EZ up I bought last year on sale. Yea, it's big, heavy and takes two people. But it's way better than that kludgy awning in the QS.. great shade. You can sit outside in the rain even This year I want to add a side wall or two. But, it is one more thing to load.

just ordered a 4" firm bed topper. We'll see how that works as mattress.[/quote]
Yes! Cookware "made for camping" is mostly a waste of money. Folding handles are nice but flimsy. Most "camp" cookware is pretty thin, likely to burn. As you wrote, "two sauce pans (like a 2 and 4 quart) and two skillets (10 & 12) is perfect." I bought ours at Voldemart with glass lids. Lids can be very useful outdoors since sometimes it's cool or breezy. Lids keep the heat in and bugs, twigs, and leaves out. I have exactly what you described (not sure of the brand) in a fairly heavy non-stick aluminum. My "pantry box" always has a can of Pam, another thing that helps with cleanup. Pots and pans are nested with the lids upside down in a plastic tote.

You fortunately like to cook. I'm not that crazy about it, which is probably why I'm not good at it, but I did learn some time ago that in camp cooking it's best not to stress about everything coming out together like you do at home. You don't have the facilities, the number of burners or the control (weather being a factor). We figured out early that you can serve stuff in shifts; it's better to eat it hot than wait for everything to come together like an 8-course dinner.   

[catmanriff]

yes, I do enjoy cooking. But, I don't do complex recipes at all. At the same time I couldn't do canned food or instant.  My meals are pretty basic. I'll venture into Kraft Mac & cheese or hamburger helper... Canned tuna is great of course
What I tried to figure out last summer was how meals might be able to share ingredients..or how I might create different meals with same supplies, prepared just differently enough that you feel like it's a new meal. 

Frozen hamburger patties can be: burgers, spaghetti meat sauce, sloppy joes, hamburger helper. 
Bacon: well, it's good on everything. burgers, breakfast, wrapped around meat for the grill, BLT, salads, in the mac & cheese
Head of lettuce: salad, BLT, on burgers
Loaf of bread: obvious uses. breakfast, sandwiches, grilled cheese, cinnamon toast dessert!
Potatoes: more obvious uses. Breakfast, baked, fried, mashed.  

I like frozen corn, peas, beans. Those can easily be cooked on the grill, wrapped in foil
Boil in the bag rice has been very convenient.

Lbs of butter! I also put wine in everything besides myself. 
Don Fransiscos coffee and hazelnut creamer. 

I bring butter, olive oil, Trader Joes salt & pepper grinders, garlic salt, soy sauce, milk. That seems to cover everything. Been looking for small condiments like ketchup, relish, mayo.
I brought popcorn last summer. Cooked on the camp stove, it was a hit.

On our 8 day trip last year I froze nearly everything, including the butter. Steaks, Chicken, veggies. In the Yeti it all stayed pretty well until about 5 days in. Beyond that it stayed fridge cold. This year I'll plan it out a little better per each day. 

I found this gas grill which seems like a convenient size for us and packable.. 
http://www.amazon.com/Napoleon-TQ2225PO-Travel-Portable-Orange/dp/B0075IIA02/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1454263205&sr=8-9&keywords=napoleon+grill

Oh, and Miller High Life comes in pony bottle now. 


ok, I'm rambling...and hungry!

[johnc]

I think Sean said that as much as we are different we are a lot alike. We tend to keep the camper packed with most of the stuff we use one regular basis so all we need to do is throw food and clothes into the truck and go. We like to do the longer road trips of two weeks but will have to change plans this year and look at more weekend getaways so keeping things packed really helps.

We looked at cookware that was for camping but ended up buying a set of pots and pans from Ikea that we keep in the bottom cabinet all the time. we also take our dutch ovens but don't always use them but it is nice to have that option. We find that we tend to use the dutch ovens more and more each time we go especially for the one pot meals. The biggest problem we have is planning one pot meals for two when most recipes are for 4+.

Catmanriff is the yeti cooler worth the expense and does it really work as advertised?  We tend to do the same thing you do with the food for multiple meals but just never really realized that we were doing it.

All the talk of packing for camping is just making me want to get the camper out of storage and go for a weekend. Too bad we still have a few months to go, but when we do we will only have a few things to grab and go.

[pinstriper]

8 weeks until camping season !

One of the neat things about camp cooking is looking at packaged meals, and figuring out how to make them from scratch so they aren't crap. Home-made mac 'n cheese is wonderful stuff, and can be made ahead of time, frozen, thrown in the fridge and served as one of your weekend camping meals. You can do this with lasagna too. The aforementioned chicken pot pies you can make at home from scratch and still freeze and bring as convenient meals. "Prepared" doesn't have to mean "prepared in a factory and loaded with salt and HFCS". Also, there is something about "one pot meals" that just matches with camping. So we seek out such recipes either to make ahead of the trip, or to make on the trip.

On condiments, I have from time to time toyed with the idea of going to the restaurant supply and getting a box of ketchup packets, mayo, mustard too. But I look at the price and realize I can afford to buy a new bottle of mustard at the dollar store EVERY YEAR for like 16.76 years before I pay for that case of mustard packs. Ditto ketchup. It might make economic sense for mayo, but we use so little of it while camping...and really, if you need it for a recipe to make a baked dip or casserole, who needs to spend the time opening 45 packets of mayo ?

[admin]

With all this talk and nearly 70 degree weather over the weekend I opened up the camper just to toy around a bit

I did a quick inventory and a bit of a clean out of items we decided we didnt use. Even though I didnt really do anything, I just sort of felt like I was just opening things to look at them and then putting them away. Even now I'm chuckling at myself. At this point I'm confident with all the items we have stored and I finally feel like they are fairly well organized. Now I just need a reason to use them all!

The wife and I were talking about little projects/upgrades we want to do this year. One of the projects is an improvement to the bunk curtains (a full write up will come when they are done). I'm going to try to do a full write up or maybe a how-to guide on projects, so keep an eye out Now the hard part is staying grounded, I want so badly to do all my projects at once!

-Sean

[catmanriff]

[quote source="/post/18212/thread" timestamp="1454288587" author="@johnc"]

Catmanriff is the yeti cooler worth the expense and does it really work as advertised?  We tend to do the same thing you do with the food for multiple meals but just never really realized that we were doing it.

All the talk of packing for camping is just making me want to get the camper out of storage and go for a weekend. Too bad we still have a few months to go, but when we do we will only have a few things to grab and go. [/quote]I read a lot of reviews then decided to cash in my Basspro gift certificates and get one. I bought the little 45, which was $350 I believe.. I hadn't paid any attention to Yeti or ice chests/coolers to be honest...and I have never considered spending that much. 

It's amazing. Very solid, the lid is really tight, the rubber strap thingies are part of that seal. Great drain plug. But the best part is the performance. It really does keep everything cooler, longer. I may pop for the bigger 60 or 75 model and have one for food, one for ice and drinks. 

[catmanriff]

[quote source="/post/18213/thread" timestamp="1454289446" author="@pinstriper"]8 weeks until camping season !

One of the neat things about camp cooking is looking at packaged meals, and figuring out how to make them from scratch so they aren't crap. Home-made mac 'n cheese is wonderful stuff, and can be made ahead of time, frozen, thrown in the fridge and served as one of your weekend camping meals. You can do this with lasagna too. The aforementioned chicken pot pies you can make at home from scratch and still freeze and bring as convenient meals. "Prepared" doesn't have to mean "prepared in a factory and loaded with salt and HFCS". Also, there is something about "one pot meals" that just matches with camping. So we seek out such recipes either to make ahead of the trip, or to make on the trip.

On condiments, I have from time to time toyed with the idea of going to the restaurant supply and getting a box of ketchup packets, mayo, mustard too. But I look at the price and realize I can afford to buy a new bottle of mustard at the dollar store EVERY YEAR for like 16.76 years before I pay for that case of mustard packs. Ditto ketchup. It might make economic sense for mayo, but we use so little of it while camping...and really, if you need it for a recipe to make a baked dip or casserole, who needs to spend the time opening 45 packets of mayo ?
[/quote]good points on both pre made frozen meals and condiments. 

We are camping strictly out of ice chests so some items may not work so well. No fridge, no microwave.  But, for shorter trips, the pre made meals frozen would be great. 

The little packets are also sort of a mess. I'd be about 4 packets for one burger. Squeeze bottles of condiments make no trash.