Roughing it Easy

[westywoman (Melissa)]

A friend of mine gave me a copy of the first edition of this book. There have several later editions with more up-to-date cooking techniques (from what I gather). What I enjoyed most about this book is the simplicity of the cooking techniques. Much of the cooking was accomplished with a wood fire, a cast iron pan or dutch oven and a simple grille. I happen to be a camping /cooking gear-freak, but I am inspired to pare it down to the essentials on an upcoming trip and try some of these super easy cooking recipes. Or sponsor a Roughing it Easy themed cookery campout this year!

[Romy]

I'm intrigued by this and might pick up a copy.  Jenn and I definitely are NOT cooking gear freaks (anyone else eat straight from the can?) but some simple stuff sounds interesting.  And the book is cheap on amazon.

[westywoman (Melissa)]

Romy, if I see you soon, I'll bring along the first edition. The fact that it is so dated is part of it's charm.

[westywoman (Melissa)]

One of the key cooking features in the book is the "keyhole" shaped fire pit. Build the fire in the upper, larger fire ring and drag hot coals to the smaller "keyhole" part of the ring. This becomes the cooking area. Of course, this can also be adapted to most campground fire pits that have a grille that flips down.

[westywoman (Melissa)]

Finally got a chance to cook over a keyhole fire recently. We made cast-iron skillet cornbread. Coals were a bit too close to the pan and we burned part of the bottom but it sure tasted good! We didn't have a dutch over, so we made a "lid" using a second skillet and  put coals on top to even out the heat. No bad for a first try.