outdoor feasting!

Tips for keeping cool camping

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Camping is a nice thing to do in a heat wave, but it can need some careful planning to keep your food and drinks cool all weekend. Here are some tips:

  • pre-cooling. Use your fridge at home to thoroughly chill your drinks so that they really cold before putting them in your cool box
  • separate bar box. You need to keep drinking to stay hydrated, but every time you open your cool box some coldness gets out and some warmth gets in. Have two cool boxes – one for drinks and other items you want to access regularly and another for food which you are trying to keep cold for as long as possible.
  • ice bucket. In addition to putting frozen ice packs in your cool box, add a bag of party ice. It will melt to become cool water, but unlike air it won’t escape every time you open the box
  • frozen towel. Cover your ice box with a damp towel which has been frozen. This will melt and slowly dry out, but the evaporation will help keep it cool and it’s another layer of insulation too.
  • reflect the heat. I haven’t tried this one, but covering your cool box in something reflective will help keep the heat out
  • bring frozen supplies. Keeping food safe is very important – no one wants a tummy upset on a campsite!! Plan your menu and for the dishes you are having later in your trip freeze the meat. Cutting up the meat first can be a good idea, as if your cooling has worked well it may still be frozen when you come to cook it! Small bits will defrost quickly. Cooking large pieces from frozen runs the risk of the middle not cooking properly, but tiny pieces will defrost as they hit the pan and cook through safely.
  • bring frozen drinks. You could take with you some bottles of frozen water, which will initially act like ice packs, but can also be enjoyed as a cool drink. Remember water expands when it freezes so don’t fully fill the water bottles.

Hope these tips help you have an enjoyable camping trip in the hot sunny weather this summer.

R

Martin’s cheesy balls

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Last time we went camping together we were fortunate to manage to pick a dry, sunny weekend – although the nights were a little chilly reminding us it was autumn.

We revisited a favourite campsite – Hale Farm. We hadn’t been for a few years, partly as we have to drive past some of our other favourites to get there, and party because it is often fully booked! The facilities had been improved since we last stayed, so we updated our review.

There are good footpaths for walking straight from the campsite. We had hoped to call in at the nearby cafe & village shop on the way home, but for some reason it shuts early on a Saturday!

It’s a great site for taking children as the farm is open each morning to visit the animals. There is something therapautic about stroking a friendly donkey! The farmer also sells lamb burgers, sausages and eggs – we purchased some burgers, but they are still in the freezer so we can’t give you a proper review of those yet!

What we can review are Martin’s cheesy balls!! You might remember this was a recipe picked up from a fellow camper Martin whilst on a road trip. Well, we’re pleased to report that they turned out to be very tasty! They worked well as a starter while we waited for our main of pulled lamb to slowly cook on the fire.

Here’s the recipe:

Martin’s cheesy balls

Ingredients:

Torn bread, egg, grated cheese, finely chopped garlic

Method:

Mix everything together and leave to soak. Shape into golf balls and fry in oil.

They will be crispy on the outside but soft and squishy inside.

Enjoy!

L & R

Mystery revealed

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It was a cube!!… with exciting attachments!!

Following Gary’s sad demise, a new gazebo was in order. This isn’t just any gazebo… but more of that to follow!!

We were grateful that it arrived in time for our latest camping trip as Monday was pretty rainy. We abandoned our plan to walk the fourth part of the pilgrims way (again more on that to follow) and instead hunkered down in the gazebo with mugs of coffee.

Fortunately it wasn’t rainy enough to prevent us cooking breakfast – this is our latest breakfast find, Irwin’s potato breads. Available in Sainsburys in packs of four, they are easy to warm up on the days when you haven’t the time to make potato cakes from scratch. It was pleasing to discover that 4 fitted perfectly on the griddle pan that cam with the primus stove. We had them with bacon and fried eggs – tasty way to start the day.

L & R

This goat has wheels

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You already know that goats like to camp in style, but last week I was super brave and not only tried out campervanning for the first time, but also did my first night of lone camping.

The advantage of a van is that you can lock the doors, so it gives an added feeling of security to camping on your own. Driving this van was actually quite easy and it’s not actually any bigger than a big-ish car. I tried it out in a couple of car parks as well as on country lanes and dual carriageways. It’s an NV200 and hired from Sussex Campervans… I’m very tempted to get my own one!

I tried sleeping in the top bunk the first night and the main bed the second night. Sleeping up top would take some getting used to, but down below I slept very comfortably. I stayed at Riverside Farm Campsite. It was a lovely location by the river, but I felt it was overpriced for what it was.

The first night I tried out a new recipe and cooked it in the van – mushroom risotto. Very tasty. For pudding I had one of those little individual pots of fruit salad. The photo is of the second night when I cooked Rowbury Lamb stew over the fire for dinner – also very tasty!

L

Happy Pancake Day!

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I’ve made lots of things in a field…but oddly not normal pancakes. Banana pancakes, yes…but not the normal sort you have on pancake day.

I’m sorry to disappoint, but I’m not currently standing in a field in the dark cooking tonight’s treats…I’m not even in the garden, but I did take the opportunity to practise the quantities ready for my next outdoor culinary opportunity!

Camping Pancakes (serves 2)

Mix together:

2 dessertspoonfuls dried milk powder

4 heaped dessertspoonfuls plain flour

1 egg

2 cups water

Heat oil in a frying pan. Pour in some batter. When one side is golden brown flip & cook the other.

Serve with white sugar & lemon juice (from a bottle) or syrup or chocolate spread…or whatever you have to hand in your camp kitchen.

Remember you always need more oil & a hotter pan than you think you do!!

My batter was lumpy, but this made nice thick pancakes so I couldn’t tell once they were cooked!

Enjoy!

L

Tuna pasta

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Even when I’m not camping I often use my camping recipes as they are super reliable – if you can cook it in a field, it ought to turn out ok in a domestic kitchen!

I also like to practise recipes that I think might make good additions to my caming recipe book. This week I discovered this very simple meal:

Tuna Pasta (serves 3)

3 cups pasta

1 tin mushroom soup (400g)

1 tin tuna (145g)

1 tin sweetcorn (200g)

Put pasta in pan with soup. Refill soup tin with water and also add this to pan.

Boil until pasta soft.

Stir in drained tuna and drained sweetcorn and warm through.

Super simple! This was the first time I’d tried it. Another time I might experiment with adding a tin of sliced mushrooms too as it might add a nice variety of textures.

If you’d like to read about our camping food suggestions, check out this section of the website Campsite Cooking.

L

Betty’s kitchen

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Firstly, who is Betty?! She is my Skoda Yeti – and I love her because she is reliable and she has a decent sized boot. You can also take the back seats out, which is very handy to squeeze in lots of camping stuff!! But on our last trip she really excelled herself… and doubled as our kitchen!

An 84 litre ‘really useful’ box with some drawers from Ikea sitting inside formed our kitchen unit. I put a little peice of wood under the box to make sure that the drawers opened easily over the lip of the boot.

The top drawer had plates, bowls, mugs, goblets, kitchenfoil, the teapot and a collapsible kettle. I also stowed a hanging toiletry bag in there which I repurposed as an organiser for our cutlery and washing-up supplies. On arrival it hung from the Betty’s boot struts.

The bottom drawer was our food store. The square storage boxes you get from Lakeland fitted perfectly. We didn’t get round to labelling them, but the coloured lids allowed for a bit of colour-coding! Jars of spices etc also fitted nicely in there.

On top of the drawers I stowed my collapsible washing-up bowls – one for washing up (black) and one for our handwash station (grey). Our chopping boards also fitted there – we have a set of thin colour-coded ones from Robert Dyas, which we are very pleased with, plus a bamboo bread board. Down the side of the drawers, I stowed cleaning spray, salt & pepper pots and Henrietta, but at the campsite these things were in use and we used this space to store tins of food. (Spot the nice perch Henrietta found in the pictures above!)

Next to the ‘really useful’ box I put my outwell storage caddy with our pots & pans and other utensils.

It was very pleasing to set up the ‘demonstration’ table (we call it that because it’s height makes it look like you are giving a cooking demonstation to those sitting round the campfire!) at right angles to Betty. At it’s highest height the demonstration table (from lifetime) was tall enough to fit the big cool box (from iceytech) underneath and still be able to open the cool box.

Our stove (primus) sat on the table and meant we had a very practical cooking space. We had thought that the open boot would give a bit of shelter from the elements, but we didn’t get the opportunity to test that out as happily we were camping in a heatwave!

R

Look what we found!

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Look what we found… a nice shady spot to camp in a heatwave! We had a lovely couple of nights at Pit Hill Farm – the campsite we stumbled across when walking the Wayfarers walk in Hampshire.

We kept things simple this time. We had a new simpler camp set up to try out (more about that next time!). We also tried out some new easy camping food called ‘Look what we found”!! Very easy to use and tastey too!

Very pleased with both our finds!

R & L

Goats have strong stomachs!

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I’ve started volunteering at my local Trussell Trust foodbank. A lot of the food they give out is tinned and the foodbank is always grateful for donations of cans of food. Although tinned food lasts a very long time, it does eventually go out of date. Sometimes people clear out the food item lurking at the back of their cupboards and give it to the foodbank even though it is out of date by the time it reaches us. The foodbank’s policy is not to distribute out of date food – but the volunteers are encouraged to make use of it, so as not to waste it.

Goats have strong stomachs, so I’ve been making good use of this!

On our last trip we used up out of date tinned tomatoes, pineapple, evaporated milk and stock cubes. But the piece de resistance was trying a new recipe for pudding out of Jack’s tin can recipe book. It worked super well as a recipe to cook over the fire with only 5 ingredients – out-of-date condensed milk, out-of-date tinned prunes, eggs, flour, baking powder. Jack bills it as a sticky toffee pudding…. it comes out quite different to a normal sticky toffee pudding, but it is delicious and easy to make.

Pudding cooking – spot the condensed milk tin at the front of the fire & the recipe book on the chair!

I’ll be making this recipe again – I assume it will come out just as well with in-date ingredients!

L

PS I can’t find this particular recipe on Jack’s blog – but she has lots of other bargain recipes available if you want to try them out.

Anticipating tasty camping trips ahead

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I got a new cookery book for Christmas – and I’m hopeful it will provide inspiration for some good camping meals!

Long-life ingredients are ideal for camping when you have limited space in your cool box. I’ve already adapted some recipes from Jack’s earlier book (A girl called Jack) for previous trips. So I’m hopeful of some new inspiration for 2022’s camping trips!

As you can see, I purchased some tins to start trying it out straight away!! The first recipe I tried was tasty, but not ideal for campfire cooking as it was a pie!

L