Camp And RV Cook

Friday, August 18, 2017

Camping Cooking Like You Mean It!

Here every Friday, see a Camp and RV Recipe of the Week, Campground Potluck Recipe of the Week, Foil Recipe of the Week and Tips for the Camp Cook. Y’all come back now, hear?

Subscribe to this blog for Kindle and Amazon sends it to your device automatically each week. Free trial.

Camp and RV
Recipe of the Week
Chewy Cheese Bites
Just add a mug of steamy, creamy tomato soup and you have a hot supper for a cold camping night.

Butter or shortening to grease pan
Cornmeal
3 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons milk or water
1 ½ cups self-rising flour
12-ounce package grated cheese such as sharp cheddar

Set the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 13 X 9 X 2-inch baking pan generously. Sprinkle lightly but evenly with cornmeal. Dump out excess cornmeal
Whisk eggs, oil and milk or water. Fold in flour and cheese just until everything is evenly mixed. Dough will be stiff. Scrape into the pan. Spread evenly and bake at 400 degrees about 25 minutes or until springy. Let cool, then turn out on a cutting board and use a long bread knife to cut into 4 lengthwise strips . Then cut strips into fingers. Makes 4 dozen.

Tips for the Camp Cook

*DOUGH-RE-ME. Buy a pound of pizza dough at the deli or bakery and make meals for 2 people, 3 days.Divide dough in 3. Wrap. Keep cold. On Day 1 make pizza, Day 2, cinnamon rolls, Day 3 meat-filled patties or empenadas.

* Stuff old socks with kitty litter and put in tennies, boots and hiking shoes to absorb odor. Also good to soak up stinks in a refrigerator or ice chest. Clean thoroughly, dry, then add some of these odor absorbers and leave overnight with the door closed.

* To make an easy dessert, “butter” the inside of hot dog buns with Nutella. Lay in half a banana cut in half lengthwise. Stuff with miniature marshmallows and nuts. Wrap tightly in foil and heat.

* Whisks are work savers in camping, especially if you don’t have an electric mixer. I like a good, strong balloon whisk for batters and beating eggs.

* Designed for tent campers, this battery-operated, hang-up lantern with fan is also ideal to hang under an RV awning.

* Make up a packet of sausage gravy mix, stir in a can of pork and beans, and spoon over rice, campfire-baked potatoes, noodles, biscuits.

Campground Potluck Recipe of the Week

Tomato Cobbler
A crusty biscuit topping gives tomatoes a crown of golden glory. For family reunions I make this in a big, disposable foil baking pan. For safer handling, put any foil pan on a metal sheet pan.

28-ounce can diced tomatoes
28-ounce can plum tomatoes
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 can condensed tomato soup
3 cups biscuit mix
1 teaspoon onion or garlic powder
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes (optional)
Water or milk

Butter a large casserole and set the oven for 425 degrees. Drain liquid from canned tomatoes into a bowl and whisk in brown sugar and condensed tomato soup. Put diced and plum tomatoes in the casserole. Top with the tomato soup mixture. Bake 15 minutes.
Mix dry ingredients with enough milk or water to make a thick dough. Carefully remove hot casserole from the oven and dot the surface with teaspoons of biscuit dough. Return to the oven until biscuits are golden brown. Serves 15 to 20.

A camp and RV cookbook just for you. Its recipes are smart but shortcut. Makes a nice gift too. See Cooking Aboard Your RV, 2nd Edition.

Foil Recipe of the Week
Cook in foil. Eat from the foil. No dishwashing!

Hammy Cake
This foil meal does not need turning. Just set it on a grate over medium heat from well-started coals, not licking flames.

Per serving:
1 or 2 slices Canadian bacon
1 slice of canned pineapple
1 slice of banana
For the batter:
1 box Jiffy cornbread mix
1 egg
Water or milk

Prepare coals in grill or fire pit to provide medium heat. Lay out squares of foil and spray centers with a nonstick spray. Place Canadian bacon in the center and top with a sliced of pineapple Put a banana slice in the hole. Bring up corners of the foil to form a dish.
In a bowl whisk egg, cornbread mix and enough water or milk to make a thick batter. Spoon 1/4 cup batter over pineapple ring. Join corners of the foil and twist to seal the package and to form a handle. Cook 15 to 20 minutes over medium heat until cornbread is firm.

Friday, August 11, 2017

Easy Does It! Camping and RV Meals

Subscribe to this blog for Kindle and it’s sent automatically to your device every Friday by Amazon Free Trial.

Camp and RV
Recipe of the Week
All Day Beef
No need to brown the pot roast first. Put everything in slow cooker and let flavors come to the fore.

3- to 4-pound pot roast
Medium onion, sliced
3 medium potatoes, scrubbed and sliced
1/2 cup red wine, water, broth or grape juice
1 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon each Dijon-style mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon each vinegar, sugar

Trim excess fat from pot roast. Spray slow cooker and add potatoes and onions. Drizzle with liquid. In a paper cup, stir remaining ingredients into a paste and “frost” the top of the roast. Put roast in slow cooker and cook 8 hours on Low or 4 hours on High. Beef should be falling apart

Spoon into shallow soup plates and spoon pan juices over all. Serves 6.

Campfire or oven method: Proceed as above using heavy duty foil. Seal edges of foil and cook, “frosted” side up, in a 325 degree oven or over low-medium coals
Cook’s note: to make this even more of a one-dish meal, slice three peeled carrots with the potatoes and onions. You might also add a cup of thawed peas for the last few minutes of cooking.

Campground Potluck Recipe of the Week
Gravel
This is the easiest dessert on the potluck table and the most popular. Everyone will grab a chunk.

1 pound almond bark (white, dark, milk chocolate)
1 cup chunky peanut butter
Broken pretzels
2 cups broken nuts

Lay out a large sheet of waxed paper or nonstick foil, about 12 X 16 inches. Cover with pretzels and nuts. Nuke or heat almond bark to melt it and stir in peanut butter. Carefully drizzle or spoon over pretzels and nuts. Let cool and break in chunks. Makes 2 pounds pf Gravel.

Tips for the Camp Cook

* Cook carrots in beer instead of water. Season with butter, salt, pepper and a little dillweed.

* If you make a lot of smoothies freeze your favorite flavored coffee creamer (I love amaretto) as ice cubes and add a couple to the blender with fruit, etc.

* Designate one ice chest as your camping dishpan or wash basin. Wash water stays warm longer. It’s easily emptied by attaching a length of tubing to the drain hole in the bottom.

* Make a paste with instant coffee and water to make a temporary scratch remover for dark woods. Letit soak in, dry, wipe off excess. Use iodine to cover scratches in reddish woods such as mahogany.

* In a blender or food processor, reduce a packet of ramen, including flavor packet, to crumbs. Watch closely so it’s just right, not a powder, not chunky.. Use crumbs as breading for fish or chicken.

* Instead of graham cracker crumbs, use crushed pretzels to make a pie crust.

* Use a rubber scraper on dishes before washing. Rinsing wastes water and clogs up the drain.

Foil Recipe of the Week
Porcupine Sweet Potatoes

Vegetable oil
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled
2 apples
About 24 whole almonds
Maple Syrup

Set out 4 squares of nonstick foil and spread centers with a little vegetable oil. Cut sweet potatoes in half lengthwise and place on foil, cut sides down. Peel and slice apples. Using a small, sharp knife, make random, shallow cuts all over sweet potatoes and stick almonds and apple slices in them, like bristles. Bring up corners of the foil and twist to seal and form a handle. Place on a grill or grate over medium heat about 30 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender.
Take care when opening foil. Steam will be hot. Drizzle with maple syrup and serve. .
Cook’s note: This makes a good side dish with meat from the grill. If it’s to be a vegetarian/vegan main dish, add more almonds for protein and healthy fats.

.

Friday, August 04, 2017

Camping and RV Meals Mean Good Eating

What happened to that recipe you liked last month? It's gone now. Never miss another recipe or tip. Subscribe to this blog for your Kindle and Amazon sends it to your device automatically every week. Free trial.

Camp and RV Recipe of the Week

Pig ‘N Potato Skillet
1 pork chop per person
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 medium potato per person
1 teaspoon crumbled dried rosemary
2 dried apricots per portion
1 small navel orange for every two portions
Pancake Syrup (optional)

Trim excess fat from pork. Salt and pepper lightly and sizzle in hot oil with garlic and rosemary, turning until chops are brown on both sides. Scrub potatoes and slice thin. Slice unpeeled oranges and remove any seeds. Arrange sliced potatoes over chops. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add apricots and orange slices. Cover skillet and cook over low-medium heat until potatoes are tender and pork tests at least 160 degrees.
Put a chop on each plate, distribute potatoes and fruit and drizzle lightly with pan drippings and syrup.

See more of Janet Groene’s quick and easy galley recipes at BoatCook.

Campground Potluck Recipe of the Week
Seafood Casserole for a Crowd
Prepare this easy casserole with any seafood including your own catch or a combination of canned and frozen fish. Seafood can be grilled, poached, steamed, fried or a combination.

4 pounds cooked seafood
2 boxes (6 servings each) rice and wild rice mix (e.g. Uncle Ben’s)
2 cups thawed peas
1 cup each sour cream and mayonnaise
8-ounce package shredded Cheddar

Prepare seafood and cut in bite size. Cook rice mix and spoon into greased casserole(s) alternately with the seafood, peas and half of the cheese. Whisk together mayo and sour cream and spread over the top. At this point it can be covered and refrigerated for future baking.
To cook, cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees until it’s heated through (time will vary depending on whether casserole is chilled.) Sprinkle with remaining Cheddar and return to the oven to melt cheese. Makes 12 main dish servings.

Camp Cook Tips

* Make homemade applesauce over the campfire. Have family fun at a u-pick apple orchard then have an apple paring party to see who can make the longest peel. Simmer 6 cups chopped, peeled apples with a can of 7-Up and ½ cup brown sugar. Cook, stirring occasionally, until apples are tender and sauce thick.

* If you don’t have a stir-fry pan for vegetables on the grate, use an ice pick to punch holes in a disposable aluminum pan and use Vise Grip pliers for a handle.

* You control the wow factor when you make your own hot pepper oil. Heat peanut oil to about 350 degrees F. (Peanut oil has a higher smoke point than many other oils.) Stir in 2 tablespoons dried pepper flakes per cup of oil. Cool 24 hours. Strain.

*Make a more colorful succotash by combining a drained can of whole kernel corn with a can of drained and rinsed kidney beans. Heat, butter, season to taste.

* Use your coffee grinder or blender tp pulverize dried mushrooms. Sprinkle this powder very sparingly into soups and stews.

Foil Recipe of the Week
Sausage Burger Towers
For each person:
3 to 4 slices from whole sweet onions
2 thin, lean sausage patties
3 to 4 slices from whole, cored apples
1 teaspoon cherry jam
Set out a square of foil for each portion. Butter or grease foil and put an onion slice in the middle. Top with a piece of sausage, slice of apple, slice of onion, more sausage, more onion. End with an apple slice and put jam in the center.
Bring up edges of the foil and twist to seal and to form a handle. Place on the grate and slow roast over medium-low heat 35 to 45 minutes or until onions are tender and sausage is in the safety range (165 degrees F. for pork; 175 for chicken or turkey sausage.) Careful! Steam will be HOT.
Foil “kisses” can also be place on a sheet pan and baked in the oven at 350 degrees.

Make your own trail mixes, snacks and gorp to save money, control ingredients, measure portions. See recipes at Create A Gorp.

Friday, July 28, 2017

Campfire, Camp Stove, RV Range, We all Eat, Cook, Camp

Kindle subscribers to this blog receive it automatically from Amazon each week. Try it free for two weeks.

Thanks to Judy Faro, an RV-er from Georgia, for sharing this easy, pleasey recipe for two. She loves her electric pressure cooker because it produces this boffo one-dish meal with eight minutes of prep, eight minutes to pressurize, eight minutes to cook, eight minutes to clean up.

Judy Faro’s
Shrimp Creole and White Rice

The list of ingredients may sound like a lot, Judy says, but you probably have all of the spices handy and she finds the chopping of the celery, onions, and garlic is fast.

Ingredients (for 2-3 adults):
- 12 jumbo to 18 large peeled and de-veined shrimp. (Raw would be preferable, but I had already frozen cooked jumbo shrimp which were okay but a bit chewy.)
- 1 can (14.5 oz.) petite diced tomatoes in tomato sauce (or can of stewed tomatoes, squished)
- 1 can (14.5 fl oz.) V-8 juice plus approx. 1/4 cup water (wash out your tomato can with the
water) to equal 2 cups liquid
- ½ cup long grain raw white rice, washed and drained
- 2 chopped celery stalks (no leaves), approx. ½ cup
- 1 small white onion, sliced
- 1 green pepper, sliced (I always have some slices on hand from the freezer.)
- ½ tsp. celery seed
- ½ to 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (depends on how hot you like)
- 1/4 tsp. black pepper
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ to 1 tsp. Italian seasoning or oregano
- 2 cloves minced garlic (or you could add 1 tsp. garlic powder instead)

Method for Pressure Cooker:
Add tomatoes and liquid
Add rice and then the remaining ingredients
Stir

Set pressure cooker on White Rice setting (or manual for 8 minutes). Do a manual release - QR -(rice will get too mushy with a natural release). Serve!

Last 8 minutes: Clean your PC and put the rest in the dishwasher!

Janet Groene adds:
To cook this in a non-electric pressure cooker, assemble all ingredients as listed. Bring to 15 pounds pressure, cook two minutes and set aside until pressure returns to normal. Open pot when it’s safe and the meal is ready to eat.
To cook in a skillet, assemble in a large skillet or saucepan, bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat. Cook over low heat 20 minutes or until rice is tender.

No matter what the emergency, you can always make a meal from supplies in your pantry at home or on the go. Survival Food Handbook is a guide to stocking your RV at the supermarket. No high-priced survival rations needed.

Campground Potluck Recipe of the Week
Broccoli Custard Squares
Not just a bread. Not just a vegetable. It’s a perfect side dish for the potluck but also hearty enough for a family main dish.

10-ounce package frozen, chopped broccoli
4 eggs
1 stick butter, melted and cooled
1 box of Jiffy cornbread mix
Small onion, finely chopped
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Set the oven to 375 degrees and grease a 9 X 13-inch baking pan.
Thaw broccoli thoroughly so it drains well. Cut up any large pieces. Whisk eggs. Whisk in melted butter. Stir in cornbread mix, broccoli, onion and cheese. Put batter in the pan and bake 30-40 minutes or until firm. Let cool 15 minutes. Cut in 15 to 20 squares and remove to a serving tray. Serve warm, at room temperature or chilled.

For yourself or a gift, Janet Groene’s book Cooking Aboard Your RV, 2nd Edition.

Tips for the Camp Cook

* Make your favorite hush puppy mix with beer or lemon-lime soda instead of other liquids.

* Leave store-bought pound cake or angel food cake in the foil pan and make poke cake. Use the round handle of a wooden spoon to poke holes all over the cake. Boil two cups sugar with a large can of undrained crushed pineapple until it’s thick. Spoon slowly over the cake until it won’t hold any more. Chill.

* Grease a skillet and set aside. Whisk 2 eggs and fold in a can of spaghetti and meatballs and a cup of Italian flavored croutons. Cook in the covered skillet until it’s firm and puffy. Serves 2

* For each can of chili without beans, add half a can of broth. Heat to an active simmer. Stir biscuit mix with milk or water to make a thick dough. Drop by tablespoons and cook 10 minutes uncovered, 10 minutes covered.

* Mix a can of cola and a cup of ketchup in a skillet. Bring to a low boil and add 4 servings of bone-in chicken. Cover and simmer 40 minutes. Serve with chunks of bread to mop up the sauce.

* Heat canned New England clam chowder with a splash of Worcestershire sauce. Fill bowls and top with tufts of shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Pass the Tabasco.

Foil Recipe of the Week
Salmon Loaf for Two

1 can of salmon, drained (save juice)
2 eggs
½ cup flour
½ teaspoon each salt, pepper
2 cups hashed brown potatoes with onion and red pepper, thawed
Lemon wedges (optional)

Set out two squares of foil and smear generously with butter or shortening. Drain salmon, leaving it in the can. Mash salmon in the can with a fork, adding a little of the juice to incorporate bones and skin. (Bones will pulverize and they are good for you.)
In a bowl whisk eggs until light. Stir in flour, then salmon and potatoes.
Mound on foil and fold foil to seal. Cook over well-started coals, turning several times, until firm. Serves 2. Open foil carefully. Steam will be scalding. Serve with lemon wedges or your favorite cocktail sauce.
Note: Packets can also be baked in an oven or baked in a covered skillet. No turning required.

Friday, July 21, 2017

More Food, More Fun with Camping and RV Recipes

When you subscribe to this blog for only 99 cents a month, Amazon sends it automatically to your Kindle or device each week. Free trial.

Campground Potluck Recipe of the Week
This colorful side dish serves 10 to 12. To add even more color, fold in a diced plum tomato.
Confetti Bacon and Bulgur
4 cups water
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
2 cups bulgur
Salt, pepper to taste
4 slices pre-cooked bacon, cut up
1/2 cup grated cheese
Bring water to a boil with vegetables and cook 3 minutes. Stir in bulgur and bacon. Cover, turn off heat and let stand while bulgur absorbs liquid. Adjust seasonings. Sprinkle with cheese. Serve warm.

See the Pantry Recipe of the Week, made with ingredients from your emergency food supply, at Boat Cook.

Camp and RV
Recipe of the Week

Creamy Corned Beef Hash
Picture a chuckwagon, a big iron skillet and hungry cowhands digging into this dish after a day on the range. The canned milk makes all the difference. Use a very low heat after adding the milk because it burns easily.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Medium onion, diced
12 to 16 ounces sliced deli corned beef, cut up
28 to 32-ounce bag hashed brown potatoes with onion and peppers
Small can evaporated milk (2/3 cup)
4-ounce package shredded mild cheese (about 1 cup)

In a large skillet, heat the oil. Stir-fry onion, corned beef and potatoes until crusty, then stir in evaporated milk to heat through. Stir in cheese to melt. Serves 4 to 6.

Camp Cook Tips

* Inexpensive cupcake papers, regular and mini size, are a neat, easy way to serve portions of nuts, cookies, small candies. portions.

* Boil a batch of cookie dough. Melt a stick of butter with a can of sweetened condensed milk and a 12-ounce bag of chocolate chips. Turn off heat. Stir in a cup of flour, pinch of salt and a tablespoon of vanilla. Bake as for drop cookies.

* Don’t have long matches to light that camp stove or camp fire? Light the end of a long bamboo skewer or a strand of spaghetti.

* Make “funnel” cakes with a turkey baster. Suck up batter, squeeze out in spirals in hot oil.

Foil Meal of the Week

All you need is one baking potato (or a pine cone) to use as a mold. Form the foil around the mold. Twist ends, remove potato. Repeat to make as many serving boats as you need. (This recipe serves 6).

Loaded “Stuffed” Potatoes
Forget the tiresome step of cooking and mashing potatoes first. Here’s how to make this favorite dish with less mess, less work, less fuel.

6-serving packet instant potatoes
Hot water
1 cup sour cream
1 can of corn, drained (large or small; you decide)
4-ounce package grated cheese
Small bottle real bacon bits
Optional:
Make it a full meal by adding canned chunk chicken, turkey, tuna, salmon, drained and broken up. Or cut-up cooked sausage such as hot dogs or kielbasa. Or stir in any cooked, diced meat such as rotisserie chicken or leftover meatloaf.

In a bowl mix hot water into instant potatoes until they are moistened. Fold in sour cream, corn, cheese and bacon bits. Fold in meat if you wish. Season to taste. Spoon into foil “boats” and heat on the grill or in the oven.
Serves 6.

Friday, July 14, 2017

Easy Meals for Camping and RV Trips

Subscribe to this blog for Kindle and Amazon sends it to your device automatically. Free Trial.

Camp and RV
Recipe of the Week

Yankee Pasta
    Here’s a way to make a tasty pasta meal in one pot.

1 pound of salt pork, diced
28-ounce can diced tomatoes with basil
1 cup water
12-ounce package of any pasta
Grated cheese

    In a saucepan, fry out the salt pork until dices are crispy. Remove to paper toweling and spoon off excess grease. (Leave some in for flavor). Add tomatoes and water. Bring to a boil and add pasta.
    Cover and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until pasta is tender. Fold in crispy pork bits. Pass the grated cheese. Serves 4 to 6.

Campground Potluck Recipe of the Week
Yum Yum Cake
    Why mix the batter in a saucepan? Because you’ll need the pan to make the frosting, so why wash a bowl too? Read these directions. They’re unusual.
20-ounce can crushed pineapple
2 eggs
1 ½ cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder

Topping:
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
Small can (2/3 cup evaporated milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups shredded coconut, chopped nuts or combination of both

1. Open the can of pineapple but don’t remove the lid. Hold it in place while pouring off the juice into a saucepan.
2. Whisk juice, eggs and sugar until light.
3. Add baking powder, then flour. Fold in pineapple. Mix well. Using a spatula to clean the pan well, put batter in a greased 9 X 13-inch baking pan. Bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees. NO need to wash the pan.
Topping:
Melt butter in the same pan and stir in sugar and evaporated milk. Boil 2 full minutes. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and coconut and/or nuts. Spread over hot cake. Serves 12.

How to fill your camper’s emergency pantry? How much food will you need for a week in the boondocks? A weekend in the woods? Survival Food Handbook is a prepper guide at home and a provisioning guide for camping and travel.

Camp Cook Tips
    * There’s SO much you can do with powdered gelatin desserts, regular or sugar free! Stir a little into hot tea. Fold a package into a tub of cottage cheese. Sweeten cranberries with orange flavor powder. Color a plain cake mix just by stirring the mix into the batter.

   * Buy flaky layer-style tube biscuits and arrange as many layers as you wish to make crusts in pie irons.
Round pie iron http://amzn.to/2uiAopR
Square pie iron http://amzn.to/2sQ7JUu

    * If you have a hotdog/brats/ wurst cooker, you can also use it to bake corn sticks using cornbread batter. Here's a great campfire hot dog cooker.

    * Skillet meatloaf cooks faster and more thoroughly if you make a hole in the middle. Mix meatloaf, grease skillet and place clean can (like a tomato paste can) in the center. Pack meatloaf in pan. Remove can, leaving a hole. Cover, bake over medium fire.

    * Save tomato paste cans to store tongs (keeps them closed and compact) and to use as a small biscuit cutter. When frying potatoes, grasp can with oven mitt and use as a chopper.

Foil Recipe of the Week
Seafood and Stuffing

1 box Stove Top Stuffing for Chicken
Water or broth
Per serving:
Nonstick spray
1 slice from a large, sweet onion
1 ring cut from a green sweet pepper
2/3 to 1 cup stuffing
1/4 cup crabmeat
1/4 cup salad shrimp
1 pat butter

    In a bowl, add hot water or broth to the stuffing until it is clumpy. Set aside. Thaw and drain crabmeat and shrimp.
    Set out a piece of foil for each serving. Spray the center with nonstick spray. Place an onion on the foil and top with a ring of green pepper. In the ring place a scoop of stuffing, make an indent in the stuffing and add crab, shrimp and a pat of butter.
    Bring up edges of the foil and twist to seal. Place over well-started coals to heat through. No need to turn. Be careful when opening. Steam will be hot. Eat right out of the foil.

Friday, July 07, 2017

Camping and RV Meals Make Your Day

Janet Groene and her late husband, Gordon, lived full-time on the go for 10 years, wintering in a sailboat with no oven nor refrigeration and summering in their camper.

New! A new feature in this blog is the Foil Recipe of the Week. Every week we will present a recipe for a dish you can cook in foil and eat right from the foil.

Subscribe to this blog for your Kindle and Amazon sends it to your device automatically. Free trial.

Camp and RV Recipe of the Week

Fresh Tomato Pizza
Hurray! It’s tomato season. Fire up the grill at your campsite and treat your family to this healthful mouthful! For this recipe I buy thin style, ready-baked crusts such as Freschetta or Boboli. Warm them directly on the grate or use a pizza stone.

2 12- to 14-inch baked pizza crusts or one larger size
Olive oil
½ cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup prepared pesto
8 pre-cooked bacon slices, cut up
Sliced ripe tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon mixed Italian seasoning OR
Chopped fresh basil leaves to taste
3/4 to 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese from a jar

    The grill should be well started to a steady, medium heat. Lightly brush top side of the pizza crust(s) with olive oil. Whisk mayo and pesto together and spread on crust(s). Sprinkle with cut-up bacon and top with a single layer of sliced tomatoes. Sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning or basil leaves. Sprinkle with grated cheese.
    Place on the grate or a pre-heated pizza stone. If grill has a lid, close it. Otherwise tent the pizza loosely with foil. Heat through until cheese melts. Serves 4 to 6.
    Serving suggestion: Turn this into a knife-and-fork BLT meal. Toss a salad of butter lettuce and all the trimmings. Put pizza slices on plates and smother with dressed salad.

Survival Food Handbook is a complete guide to provisioning your camper or home pantry with shelf-stable supplies from the supermarket. No high-priced survival rations needed.

Camp Cook Tips

* Buy deli potato salad and fold in a well-drained jar of diced pickled beets. It’s now “homemade” potato salad with extra vitamins and a pretty blush.

       * In a blender or food processor, reduce a packet of ramen, including flavor packet, to crumbs. Not powder, not chunks. Watch closely. Use as breading for fish or chicken.

    * Attach an inexpensive, old-fashioned scrub brush, bristles up, to a plank or other platform and place it outside the RV entry door for cleaning shoes. Better still, keep a boot scraper by the RV or tent door Book scraper

* Cut an Astroturf door mat to fit RV steps. It can be glued on permanently or attach and detach it using Velcro strips.

   * Let the kids make dessert. Unwind Twizzlers and string Cheerios on the strands. Tie ends.

    * Use pie irons to make s’mores using leftover pancakes instead of crackers.

    * Make ”upside down cake” using sauteed onions on the bottom and cornbread batter on top.Serve as a side dish.

Campground Potluck Recipe of the Week
Apples ‘n Cheese
    This makes a tasty side dish with hot dogs, ham steaks or brats from the grill.

1 can of apple pie filling
1 can of pie-sliced apples
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup sugar
2 sticks butter, melted
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

    Set the oven to preheat to 350 degrees F. Mix apples and apple pie filling in a buttered 9 X 13-inch casserole. Whisk dry ingredients together and mix in melted butter. Fold in cheese and spoon dough evenly over apples. Bake about 30 minutes or until a toasty crust forms on top.
    Stove-top method: Proceed as above using a covered skillet or Dutch oven. Cover tightly and cook over low-medium heat until topping is firm to the touch. It will not brown, so sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar for a toastier appearance.

Make your own trail mix for better health, less money. See recipes for pocket snacks at Create A Gorp.

Foil Recipe of the Week
    In this new feature we present recipes to cook in, and eat from, foil.

Tutti-Fruitti Breakfast
For each serving:
3 pancakes (homemade or store-bought)
2 strawberries, sliced
Large marshmallow, cut up
Banana slices
1 slice canned pineapple, drained
1/4 cup pancake syrup
½ cup vanilla yogurt

    Lay out a square of foil and spray lightly with butter-flavored nonstick spray. Lay down a pancake and cover it with sliced strawberries and marshmallows. Top with a pancake and cover it with sliced bananas. To keep your tower from toppling over, bring up edges of the foil to form a shallow bowl around the pancakes. Add the third pancake and top it with a drained pineapple slice.
    Top with a second piece of foil and fold edges several times to seal.Cook on the grill, turning several times, until heated through. Open foil carefully (steam is hot!) Drizzle with pancake syrup and vanilla yogurt.