Camping & RV Food for Thought

Sweeten Summer Memories When 

Everyone Pitches In 

RV & CAMPING RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Summer Slaw Salad

Yogurt and walnuts turn fruit salad into a protein-rich main dish. Save the pineapple juice to make fruit punch. 

3 cups packaged shredded cabbage coleslaw mix

1 cup plain yogurt

1 teaspoon salt

Medium banana, cut up

20-ounce can pineapple tidbits, drained

2 or 3 small mandarin oranges, peeled and separated

1 cup golden raisins

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

2 cups vanilla flavored yogurt

Toss cabbage with plain yogurt. Sprinkle with salt. Add fruit, coconut and nuts and toss lightly with flavored yogurt. Serves 4 to 6 as a main dish salad and up to 8 as a side salad. 

JUST IN TIME FOR FATHERS DAY 

COOKING ABOARD YOUR RV

    For yourself or a gift,  Janet Groene's timeless RV cookbook is packed with shortcuts, tips and 270 easy, delicious recipes to cook inside the camper or outside on the campfire, camp stove or grate. Amazon will wrap and ship it for you. 

https://amzn.to/3nNndWY 

BONUS RECIPE

Wilted Lettuce Salad

1 big bowlful of torn red and green leaf lettuce

Sliced fresh mushrooms ad lib

4 thick bacon slices, cut up

½ cup red wine vinegar

About 1/2 cup salad oil

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons grainy mustard

Prepare salad bowl. Fry out bacon and drain crisp bits on paper toweling. Add salad oil to bacon drippings make ½ cup oil. Return to skillet with the vinegar, sugar and mustard. Heat, stir and drizzle over lettuce. Toss salad and serve.  

SKILLET MEAL OF THE WEEK

Granny’s Pork, Potatoes & Apple

Cooked outdoors in a skillet on the camp stove, this smells wonderful. This my shortcut version. If you use fresh potatoes instead of the hashbrowns you’ll need two or three, scrubbed and diced. 

8 fully cooked sausage patties, thawed

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced

Medium yellow squash, diced

Medium onion, diced

1/4 cup water, broth, apple juice or white wine 

2 tablespoons flour

½ teaspoon each salt, poultry seasoning

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup cold water 

Optional:

2 teaspoons sugar

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Add water to the carton of hashbrowns according to package directions. Set aside to soften. Sizzle sausages in hot oil, gradually stirring in apple, squash, onion and the rehydrated potatoes. Press potatoes into pan drippings to brown them,

Add the 1/4 cup liquid of choice.  Cover and cook over low-medium heat until vegetables are tender.

Whisk flour and seasonings into the cup of cold water and stir into skillet to make a sauce. When it’s thickened, stir mixture spoon into plates, allotting two patties per portion. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Serves 4. 

BLACK POT RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Backwoods Boiled Meatloaf

There are still a few of us left. I mean campers who like a secluded campsite in the woods, a crackling campfire, and a black pot tended by a cook who makes an hours-long production out of it. This recipe is good eating as well as good theater.

Unlike my other camping recipes this one does not save time, space or work. However, the meatloaf can be mixed ahead and frozen to thaw and cook later in camp.  

1 ½ pounds each lean ground beef and pork

Large onion, diced small

1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper

1 ½ teaspoons poultry seasoning

½ cup dry bread crumbs

1 cup milk, water or broth, whisked with 1 large egg

4 medium potatoes, scrubbed and cut in bite size 

20-ounce package baby lima beans, thawed

Combine meat, onion, seasonings, bread crumbs and milk with egg and form into log. To cook now, wrap in cheesecloth. To cook later, wrap in plastic wrap for now and chill or freeze it. To cook remove plastic, thaw and wrap in cheesecloth.

Put meatloaf on a trivet or rack in a large pot. The purpose is to keep the meatloaf from direct contact with the pot. The meat will be fully or partially immersed in the water. 

Bring two quarts water to a low boil/active simmer and add the meatloaf. Keep at an active simmer for two hours.  Add water if needed. Add potatoes, cook another 30 minutes and add limas. Simmer 30 minutes more. Remove meatloaf to a cutting board, cool for 10 minutes and remove cheesecloth. Slice meatloaf.

Add salt and pepper to broth to taste. Serve slabs of meatloaf in soup plates with potatoes, limas  and the rich broth that has formed. Serves 8 to 12. 

Cook's note: to thicken broth stir in dried potatoes flakes, 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring and allowing one minute before additions. 

WHEN FOOD EMERGENCIES 

TRIP UP YOUR CAMPING TRIP

   Stuff happens when you're away from home too. Be prepared for delays, sudden evacuation, refrigerator failure, supply chain interruptions, civil disturbances.    http://amzn.to/1WdYqbe How much food will you need for a week in the woods for two adults and two kids?  A month in a remote fish camp? A two-week power outage camp? Survival Food Handbook for tips on buying, stowing, and make meals from ordinary supermarket supplies that need no fresh ingredients. 

Campers have limited storage space for emergency food.  Survival Food Handbook  is just for campers, truckers, RV travelers and boaters. Make the most of every ounce, inch and dollar. Have a stash of staples you will use and replenish.  http://amzn.to/1WdYqbe

Herb Butter Helper

Melt this flavor booster on hot sweetcorn, burgers, grilled fish, steaks, chops, vegetables and omelets.

2 sticks salted butter

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

1 tablespoon each dried dillweed, tarragon, chives and parsley flakes

Let butter soften to “room” temperature and mash in herbs with a fork until thoroughly mixed. Chill and cut in individual wedges or squares. Serve on a chilled plate.

FREEZE AHEAD RECIPE OF THE WEEK 

Mom’s Multi-Task Meaty Meat Sauce

Cue the meat and lots of it...

Make this all-purpose sauce by the gallon and freeze it in right-size portions for future camping trips. It’s the only sauce you’ll need to make a main dish out of whatever you have on hand.   

Serve it in lasagna or over grilled polenta, boiled pasta or egg noodles, steamed rice, campfire- baked potatoes. Make “loaded” hot dogs. Thin it with beef or chicken broth to make soup. Add beans and zucchini and it’s minestrone. 

Never be without a supply to grab-and-go on every camping trip.

1 pound lean ground beef

1 pound bulk Italian sausage

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 large onions, diced fine

2 tablespoons minced garlic

½ cup robust red wine

2 cans, 6 ounces each, tomato paste

28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

28-ounce can diced tomatoes

    Brown meats in hot oil, breaking them up into crumbles. Keep stir-frying while adding onion, tomatoes and garlic. Cover and simmer 20 minutes or so over low heat, stirring occasionally.  Cool and measure into packages for the freezer. In camp, thaw and heat. 

Cook’s note: do not add salt. Later you can season the finished dish to taste. 

GIVE THE GIFT OF FREEDOM TO DAD

Where to go on your next road trip? See destination ideas near and far, sooner and later, here and there, all in the USA. 

NO BAKE DESSERT OF THE WEEK

Connecticut Yankee Pear Pie

1 store-bought crumb crust,  or make your own with 1 1/2 cups crumbs made from vanilla wafers and a few ginger snaps

1/2 stick butter, melted

Large can pears, drained (you may not need them all)

1 package French vanilla pudding mix

1 ½ cups milk

Small tub whipped topping

About 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Drain pears and save juice to make fruit punch. Combine crumbs and melted butter and press into a pie pan. Chill. Whisk pudding mix and cold milk and spread in crust. Add a layer of sliced pears, pressed gently into the pudding. Spread with whipped topping. Sprinkle very lightly with ground nutmeg. Chill. Serves 6 to 8. 

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CUT IT OUT! Here’s a special recipe to make for yourself and give as gifts with copies of instructions for making a hot, savory survival soup. 

Janet Groene’s

Happy Camper Soup Mix

copyright Janet Groene.

Buy ingredients for this emergency soup mix, then package enough individual batches to last all summer.  Unlike some commercially packaged 15-bean soups, this one requires no soaking and it cooks in 30 to 45 minutes. To reduce cooking time,  pease and lentils can also be soaked 30 minutes or more. This soup is also ideal for day-long cooking in a solar cooker. 

After you’ve made your first master mix you’ll want to vary future batches your own way, using different rices, grains, pastas or seasonings.  Just don’t add dried beans that require hours of soaking.

Why two bags per batch? Dried peas and lentils need sorting and rinsing to remove dirt and debris.

Shopping list:

1 bag dried yellow split peas

1 bag dried green split peas

1 bag brown lentils

1 bag red or yellow lentils 

1 bag brown rice

1 bag pearl barley

2 small bags tiny pasta such as alphabet, orzo or small shells

Large bottle chicken bouillon cubes

Large bottle beef bouillon cubes

Large package Knorr tomato bouillon cubes 

Large bottle dried parsley

Large bottle dried onion bits

Bay leaves

To package soup mix for four servings each: 

1. Mix all peas and lentils. Put ½ cup in each snack size bag and zip closed. In a separate bag place: 

3 tablespoons each brown rice, pearl barley and tiny pasta 

1 each beef, chicken and tomato bouillon cubes

1 tablespoon each dried onion bits and dried parsley

½ teaspoon garlic granules or powder (not garlic salt) 

½ teaspoon celery seed

Put the two bags in one bag or jar with one bay leaf and instructions. Each package makes four servings soup. Keep dry. 

Instructions to make soup:

1. Discard bay leaf. Rinse split peas and lentils. Soaking optional. Drain. Bring 4 cups water to a boil and stir in pea and lentil mix. Unwrap bouillon cubes and stir them in with the bag of other ingredients.   

2. Cover, lower heat and simmer 30 to 40 minutes, adding water is needed, until rice and dried vegetables are tender. If soup is too thick add water, broth or tomato juice. Stir well, adjust seasonings and ladle into soup bowls. 

Cook’s note: To make a vegan/vegetarian mix, substitute vegetable bouillon for the beef and chicken cubes. 

Variations:

 To each batch of soup add one or two of the following ingredients to the boiling water: 

1 carrot, potato or parsnip, peeled and chopped fine

1 large rib celery, trimmed and chopped

Small can chunk chicken, turkey or ham

A few snipped, sun-dried tomatoes

Optional garnish for the finished soup:

Diced scallion

Sweet onion, diced

Shredded cheese

Shaved hard cheese

Bits of jerky

Seeded, diced fresh tomato

Croutons

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This blog posts every Friday. If you want a quick email when new posts go up, email janetgroene@yahoo.com and put RV YES in the topic line.