Camp Food

As I mentioned in my last post, we went camping with some friends last weekend. We were each responsible for one meal, and Z decided we should do something involving foil packets. She scoured the internet, and found a recipe for foil packet fish. We mixed all the spiced in a small ziploc bag before hand, and sprinkled them on the fish packets and then squeezed the lemon juice on them. Then, we sealed the packets and cooked them over hot coals for 20-30 minutes (likely to vary depending on how hot your coals are). The foil packets basically allow you to steam the fish, something you can't normally do over an open fire!

Lemony Fish Packets

6 halibut fillets (any white fish would work)
3 teaspoons dried dill weed
3 teaspoons onion powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
Seasoning salt to taste
1 pinch lemonpepper
1 pinch garlic powder (or to taste... we like garlic)
1 lemon

Combine all dry ingredients in a small bowl. Place fish on a square of tinfoil. We made three packets of two fillets each. You could do them individually. Sprinkle dry mix generously over fillets. Flip and repeat. Cut lemon in half and squeeze juice over fillets, being careful to avoid seeds. Seal packets and place over coals for about 20 minutes. Mmmm.... tasty.

We didn't have any picture of the final product (we were quite hungry), so instead, here are pictures of us seasoning our foil pouches.

Also, we made "home fries" over the open fire. This turned out to be quite successful, in large part because Amanda's cast iron pan is finally seasoned enough to be non-stick (cooking bacon in it earlier in the day had to help). We boiled some redskin potatoes the night before we went camping and then chilled them and stored them (in our cooler) in a ziploc bag. Then, we diced them, threw in some diced red onion (lots of red here) and generously coated them with olive oil and seasoned salt.


The real success of this dish, however, is how well it cooked on the open fire in our iron skillet. I'd always heard that a well-seasoned cast iron pan is basically non-stick, but had never experienced it. My parents had cast iron skillets, but typically washed them using soapy water, which prevents the buildup of so much "seasoning," and thus, their pans were far from non-stick.


Notice how, much like the fish, I don't have a picture of the finished product. We were very hungry :)

How (not to) cook a sausage

OK - so a few of us went camping last weekend. I'll post more about the food later, but thought I'd share some observations on how not to cook Italian sausage over a campfire. Everyone knows you can cook hotdogs on a (long) fork over an open fire, as these pictures indicate. However, as you'll also see, we also tried cooking Italian sausages in this fashion as well. One of my friends, who we'll call "J," was the first to try this, and we all quickly learned from his mistake (his is the sausage in the front of this picture).


As you can see, his is starting to split already, which is perfectly fine. However, a sausage splitting (unlike a hotdog) is NOT a sign it is done (or even close). When J took a bite of this bad boy, we quickly discovered that it was not, in fact, done. Instead, it was bright red and oozing blood (great food image, I know).

Learning from his mistake, I decided to cut mine open after the outside had cooked a bit (which is actually how I normally cook them anyway). As you can see, mine look delicious, while his (the one to the left now) has a permanent place reserved in a circus sideshow (right next to the bearded lady).


This was a great camping trip, because we were able to cook almost everything over an open fire (we only started the grill once). It made us all feel rustic, which is entertaining if you actually know us.