Camper cooking

[DirtyDog]

Anyone have any easy to make recipes that you enjoy while camping? Here's something I threw together this summer - Seasoned burger with carrots, yellow peppers and onions. The burger came from Whole Foods and was a mix of jalapenos, bacon, cheddar cheese, and seasonings. Good stuff!

 

[simimike]

That looks good! We like to travel but don't like the road food. So we prepare food in advance. Such as, vegetable stew that we put in plastic containers and freeze . It helps keep things cold in the ice chest or refer. Another one is chicken cacciatore, I precook chicken breast strips in olive oil. Zip lock sand which bags work here. A can or jar of cacciatore sauce, some pasta a little red wine and you're living large. This always ends up with left overs so now I have a use for the empty plastic food storage containers.
Living in SoCal does have one big advantage. Food from around the world.When I travel solo I buy instant noodle bowls from the oriental market. These are much better than the cup"o"noodle type and are easy to store and use. Check the oriental food section in your local market.

 

[Kilroy]

Ever cook on the engine while driving? I've meant to try it but wife was adament she wasn't going to be a part of it. Techinique was discussed by couple of guys who brought it up in a magazine article. They eventually wrote a little book called "Manifold Destiny" that gave suggestions and reciepe's to try. To key points to keep in mind when trying are use heavy duty tin foil double wrapped, and learn best places to put food on engine (where food won't fall off and how hot it gets)

Never got a chance to try this, meant to years ago but never did. Your posts dredged this up out of my memory. May be I'll get around to it this time.

 

[DirtyDog]

Ha! I've never heard of such a thing Kilroy. Let us know how it goes!

 

[Dawn]

Ever cook on the engine while driving? ...
Okay that's funny. I don't think I have the right kinda luck to give that one a go.

 

[chnlisle]

I did it years ago when I was in the Army. We hooked up a container on the exhuast manafold of my Opel and cooked C-rations on it. It worked all the way from Germany down to the Grand Prix in Monaco. We also used a big can with holes in it and sand at the bottom. Fill the can just until the sand is very moist but not soaking with --- you guessed it--- gas and light it. Boils water in about 4 minutes. It was my first camping stove...Oh my wasted youth.

 

[benburnett]

cooking on engine

Years ago in my misspent youth I lived in Oklahoma for 9 years and worked in the oilfields for 6 of those years. There were many times on the way to a rig or at a fishing hole that we would put a burrito or sandwich wrapped up in tin foil on the intake manifold to heat it up. Worked great.

Back then though, you could actually see the engine in a vehicle and find large areas for heating food. The new vehicles these days it might be a little harder to do.

Of course (here is a plug) with a camper you would have a stove and have no need to heat your food in such a crude and barbaric way.

Sincerely,

Ben
www.allterraincampers.com

 

[chnlisle]

Even a better reason to buy a Dodge with a CTD, lots of places to put burritos. And here's something unique to modern trucks, you can see the ground when your looking under the hood. I'll be using both the camper and the Dodge this weekend in Anza Borrego NP. BRRRRRRRRRRRR
Jay

 

[WarpathEngineering]

Is there any real difference between the cooktop that is in the camper and say a coleman propane stove? I'm in the process of renovating my FWC and am thinking about not reinstalling the cooktop. I cook over the fire most times but it would be nice to have a back up or on rainy days. The manuals for the colemans say not to use them indoors for any reason. Maybe their just covering there rears but....... Any thoughts?

 

[benburnett]

colman stove

The camper has a regulator mounted in the propane box that regulates the amount of propane going to an appliance. This allows you to safely use the stove in the camper. We still recommend that you vent the camper while you are cooking though.

The Coleman works straight off its fuel source and produces a lot more fumes. I would not want to use one inside a small closed area such as the camper. I know of some people that have used them. I would not recommend it though.

Sincerely,

Ben
www.allterraincampers.com

 

[homemade]

I had the same Q about indoor use of propane stoves. One alternative is a portable butane stove, they are widely promoted for indoor use including indoor home or camping. There are lots of sites online to check them out - I looked at a local GI Joes sporting good store and found them for $20, they come with a carrying case. Fuel cartridges at GI Joes (not really a discount store) are 7.8oz, cost about $2.50 and look like spray paint cans. One web site indicated one can lasts about 10 hours at medium heat (whatever that is). Coleman even makes one and Costco sells it for $30.

 

[Dughlas Stiubhart]

I too try to cook outside my camper shell but sometimes cook inside using a portable two-burner propane stove or a smaller propane backpacking stove. But make sure you've got vents and windows open or you'll be overcome by fumes!

I'd would avoid using a white gas stove inside a camper--too explosive!

Stew

 

[Brian]

Egg-wa-cado......

One of our favorite and easy dinners is Egg-wa-cado....
Dice some onions and garlic, avocado, tomatos and cheese....Heat up a pile of fresh corn tortillas in a fry pan, when hot stick them between two plates to keep warm.....add a bit of oil to the pan and saute the onions and garlic til translucent, add eggs and scramble....when firm add the avocado and tomatoes ...warm a minute, take off fire set pan on hotpad, sprinkle on cheese and get to work loading up those torts...some nice hot sauce of your choice and you are in a little bit of heaven.....!
Providing you used a teflon lined pan, you can just add a little water to the empty pan, a dash of Dr Bronners soap and clean it out....done and off to bed...Brian

P.S. we have many more one pot specials that we use since we cook on one burner for months at a time.