Eating well makes camping easy

For all too many camping meals means goulash or hot dogs. Certainly not a prescription for an easy trip. We try to eat the same as we do at home. This means a rotation of chicken, pork chops, steak, salmon and hamburgers. We get the meat from Omaha Steaks and the salmon from Pike Place Market. Add in fresh/frozen vegatables and rice or potato and we have the same meal on the road that we eat nightly at home. One of the best things about our Lance camper is the refrigerator/freezer. This freed us from the need to buy ice daily and allows us to bring much of what we eat from home. We add in local fruit and produce by stopping at fruit stands along the way. Yesterday we stopped to pick up Michigan peaches and fresh sweet corn. Its our attempt to eat local, altho the use Omaha Steaks is another matter.

We require a gas stove and a grill for the meat. The camper has a 3 burner stove. Our grilling needs are met by our 25 year old Pyromid grill. We bought this grill in the early 80's from a Gardener Supply catalog. It was about $60 then which made it real expensive, but to us its worth it weight in gold. It fold down to 12" x 12" by 1", cooks anything with only 9 Kingsford briquettes and since it made of stainless steel cleans up easily. It seem impossible but I can get the coals ready to cook in under 5 minutes.

Over the years we've added every option to this grilling wonder. We have a griddle, an oven and the chicken roaster. The griddle lets us cook pancakes in the morning and deserts in the evening. The oven (now think about that - a charcoal oven) lets us bake quesadillas, pizzas and cookies.

Tonites meal was steak, baked potato and our fresh sweet corn. For desert we had carmelized peaches and vanilla ice cream.

I have only used 3 cook books in my life: From the 60's "The Foodstamp Gourmet", an old Betty Crocker cookbook that Melodee brought into our marriage and the "Pyromid Cookbook". The recipe for carmelized peaches comes from it. Heat butter and brown sugar in the griddle. Add sliced peaches and cook until they look done. Spoon the peaches into bowls and pour in the butter/brown sugar mixture. Eat and enjoy.

Bon Appetit