The summer is finally here and with it comes soaring temperatures and beautiful weather. Both of these are the perfect ingredients for spending time outdoors with friends and family. Many people enjoy spending the day at the beach, or camping, or hiking, and essentially enjoying nature in every manner possible. Of course while time spent in the wild does typically entail sacrificing a certain amount of comforts, such as excellent home-cooked meals, with enough ingenuity campers can easily cook meals of the same quality from their campsite. No longer does a weekend hiking adventure also consist of surviving purely from canned goods. By simply packing a frying pan, a Dutch oven and following some of recipes presented here, hikers and campers can bring hot and delicious meals with them.

It’s not necessary to transport the entire kitchen in order to create superb dishes while trekking in the wild. All that’s required is a simple campfire, an iron frying pan, a Dutch oven for more advanced recipes, and the right ingredients. For those of you unaware of what a Dutch oven is, it’s a tiny portable oven with three short legs and a very flat lid. The advantage of this cooking device is naturally its small size and extreme portability, so that together with a frying pan, and utensils, you can easily bring your essential cooking supplies on even long hikes. In addition to its lightweight and manageability, frying pans also have the advantage of being very easy to use, even complete novices can operate them. Another useful cooking helper is charcoal for starting fires and ensuring they burn long enough to thoroughly cook the food. Some more experienced outdoors lovers may be able to get by with their own naturally made fires, but using coal is always a great idea for the rest of us, and guarantees there will be no problems in terms of keeping the fire steady. Moreover, coals can also be placed on top of the Dutch oven to help it cook from all sides. Now that we have all the important tools, it’s time to concentrate on the ingredients.

One of the most important tips when it comes to ingredients and cooking really excellent meals while camping, is to do as much preparation before hand in the kitchen at home. Of course, this doesn’t mean to do all the cooking at home and bring along the cold leftovers, but rather to make any seasoning or mixes at home. For example, a frying pan is great for making bread rolls in the morning, but it is best to have the mix of flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt already combined in a plastic bag. Then all that’s left to do is add the mix to the frying pan and enjoy your bread rolls afterwards. A frying pan is also great for frying bacon, eggs, beans (which are easily transportable in cans) or even already seasoned meat. One great recipe is seasoned trout together with a few lemon slices, capers and a little parsley all cooked in a frying pan. The oven is capable of even more, including cooking whole loaves of bread, roasts and stews, all in your campsite. Indeed with a little creativity and the right tools and ingredients, cooking a tasty meal far from home underneath the night sky has never been easier.

Tags: food, preparation, recipe