campfire cooking

Dutch Oven Dinner: Sloppy Joes

Campfire Eats
Sloppy Joes. It doesn’t initially make people’s mouths water. There’s a certain skepticism about the idea. Sloppy Joes? That’s what they served in the cafeteria. When they ran out of real food. Adam Sandler. It’s just bad. But we decided to try it anyway in our dutch oven, camped along our favorite spot on the Eel River, and guess what? It was damn good! And our friends even had seconds. So there. Recipe below.
cramped up sloppy joes green pepper
Tools:
12″ dutch oven
stirring spoon
cup
hot fire

 

Ingredients:
2.5 lbs ground beef
2 tablespoons butter
half a large onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 cups of ketchup
1 cup of water
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Worcestershire sauce
salt + pepper
Buns of your choice

 

Do:
A lot of this you can prepare at home so you have it ready to go to toss into your hot dutch oven. So at home dice your onion, green pepper and garlic and throw into a ziplock. Also at home combine in another bag the brown sugar, chili powder, and red pepper flakes. Get your fire nice and hot with a good bed of embers. Find a snug spot for your dutch oven and get it heated, which only takes a minute, but make sure it’s not getting too much direct flame.
Melt the butter in the dutch oven, then add your ground beef and cook/stir it until it’s all brown. Try to drain most of the fat if possible. Then add in the contents of your onion/pepper/garlic bag, and let these cook until they are getting soft. Squeeze in your ketchup, and then add in the seasoning bag, salt + pepper to taste, Worcestershire sauce, and the water. Stir this all up and then let it simmer for about 15 minutes.
Now you are ready to feast. Toast up your rolls on the fire and top them with a helping of Sloppy Joe. Take a big messy bite, and enjoy!
cramped up sloppy joes green pepper 2
cramped up sloppy joes ketchup

cramped up sloppy joes cooking

cramped up sloppy joes fire cooking

cramped up sloppy joes fire messy bites

All Sloppy Joe photos taken on an iphone 5.

Backcountry Dinner: Burritos

Campfire Eats

cramped up burrito recipe 1

This is a bit more complicated than our usual ramen or tortellini dinner in the backcountry, but it’s relatively easy, feeds at least 6 people if needed, and is damn good!
– Burrito Recipe –
Tools:
2 Pots and 2 Cookstoves
1 Hot Fire (or a 3rd Pot/Cookstove if no fires allowed, or you’re using dehydrated beans)
Spoons/sporks
Ingredients:
6 Flour Tortillas
1 Can Refried Beans (or dehydrated beans for less weight)
2 Pouches of Instant Rice
1 Lb of Lean Ground Beef, Dehydrated
1 Packet of Taco Seasoning – mix with dehydrated beef in a ziplock at home
Block of cheese of choice
Avocado
Bell Peppers (optional)
Hot Sauce Packets (steal from your local taco bell)
Water
Do:
Boil two pots of water (one full, one 1/4 full). In the full pot toss in the instant rice packets (follow the box instructions, usually needs to boil for 10 min). In the 1/4 pot, stir in your dehydrated beef with taco seasoning, add more water if needed. Keep cooking and stirring for about 10 min until the beef is hydrated and tastes flavorful. Meanwhile have a friend heat the can of beans in the fire, or re-hydrate your dehydrated beans in the third pot.
As an extra not-necessary-but-delicious addition, we fire roasted some bell peppers. Once hot and lightly charred, slice up for serving. Slice up the avocado. Slice up the cheese into thin easily meltable shreds. Display your hot sauce packets.
Once everything’s cooked, lay out your tortilla, load it up with all the fixings of your choosing, and roll it up tightly. Burritos!
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Cast Iron Cooking: Quiche

Campfire Eats
IMG_2865
   Everyone loves a good camping breakfast.  While bouncing around the Plumas National Forest, we decided to experiment with a Campfire Quiche using Spinach, Tomato, Bacon, Cheese. It takes a while to cool, so if you want to eat it for breakfast, we recommend cooking it the night before while you’re cooking everything else for dinner. This is really great for 4 to 6+ people – we were just 2 people, so we still have quiche left that is still being eaten for breakfast (and other snack meals). Anyway, put this together with some coffee in the morning, and you’re ready for a full day!
– Quiche Recipe –
Tools:
Hot Fire
Cutting Board or Cardboard
Cast Iron Pan (12″)
Bowl
Fork

 

Ingredients:
Pie Crust (we buy ours pre-made)
5 Pieces Cooked Thick-Cut Bacon, Chopped Up
1.5 Cups of Spinach, Chopped Up
Handful of Cherry Tomatoes, Halfed
1 Cup of Shredded Cheese
6 Eggs
1.5 Cups of Heavy Cream
Salt + Pepper

 

Click below for full recipes + more photos
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Dutch Oven Dinner: Enchilada Casserole

Campfire Eats
One of the easiest Dutch Oven recipes we have come across and despite it’s ingredients being on the ‘not so healthy’ side of things, is absolutely delicious.  Also, who in their right mind would turn down the opportunity to use Doritos for your car camping dinner in Yosemite.  Embrace your gut and get down with this incredible campfire dinner treat from your own Dutch Oven.  We served our Casserole with roasted sweet mini peppers in our Lodge cast iron skillet.
– Enchilada Casserole –
Tools:
10″ Dutch Oven
Stir Stick (Spatula, Spoon, Piece of Wood, etc)

 

Ingredients:
1 Can Chilli
1 Can Tomato Sauce
1 Can Enchilada Sauce
1 Bag Red Doritos
2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 Cup Sour Cream
1 Onion
Click below for some photos!
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