The best part of camping

Some will disagree with me here, but I think the best part of camping is the food. I remember camping as a kid in the North Carolina mountains of Pisgah National Forest and the food is foremost in my memory. Unfortunately, I did not get in on the food prep, just the eating, so I am begging for recipes to these wonderful dishes.

One thing you could always count on when returning from a hike, was a big black pot of stew. It would be sitting on hefty logs bubbling and perfuming the air drawing us hungry campers to it like bees to honey. We would fill big enamelware mugs full of stew and sit on boulders near the fire to eat it. It was a meaty stew with thick brown gravy and vegetables of every variety. While we ate the stew, we had a small stick wrapped with bread dough at one end, thrust into the hot rising air above the fire. When the bread was brown, we would pull it off of the stick (ouching and squeeling), fill it with butter and scrape the stew mug clean with the last of the bread.

Then as the coals from the fire dwindled to a soft glow and evening settled around us, there were Indian stories by the campfire, and always, ALWAYS, S'mores for dessert. That recipe did stick in my mind as we assembled the sweet treats ourselves. Roasted marshmellow, 4 squares of Hershey bar, sandwiched between 2 squares of graham crackers.

It was far too hot to make stew during our recent camping trip, but it is never too hot for S'mores.