guys I need a little help
I have to make dinner for 12 on an upcoming trip. all I have for heat is a camp fire and a large Weber grill. I have been scouring the internet for some easy, good recipes. not coming up with anything. I am leaving on a Saturday and my night to cook is the following Monday evening. I will have to keep food chilled in a cooler until then. any ideas? I can assemble most of the meal before i leave and pack in cooler.
Hobo dinners, send PM
Lately I’ve been doing skirt steak on the grill, and cutting it up serving it on (fresh flour) tortillas, sides of sour cream, cheese, pico di gallo, and fresh homade guacamole. We also do some spanish style rice. It’s an easy meal and people have been raving about the steak, you can also do chicken. The best part is minimal cooking and most everything can be prepped ahead of time. Pretty much cook the meat you can heat the tortillas on the grill after the meat is ready. Rice wise I”m not totally sure how you’d go about cooking that unless you had a stove top/burner of some sort.
I’ve been real lazy in this forum, let me know if you’re interested in how exactly we do it, we don’t take many shortcuts, everything short of the tortillas (store bought, but fresh made tortillas) is put together by us. I’ll also have to actually sit down and put everything down in writing, since we do all of this without written recipes.
I suppose it would be a good start to my first attempt at blogging 
(just registered a new one the other day.)
If you have access to a Dutch Oven (basically a cast iron pot on legs with a lipped lid) you can do just about anything. As fancy or as generic as you want. Having been a scoutmaster, we lived and died with these things, but the best part might be the deserts you can make in them. Cakes, cobblers, etc. and for most of the stuff, you just put it in and leave it alone. You can use coals from the fire or be a bit more precise and use charcoal briquets. Many of the recipes these days tell you to put so many briquest under the oven (hence the need for the legs), and so many on top. Some recipes have you rotate the lid every 15 minutes to distribute the heat evenly. Lots of good information in “The Scout’s Outdoor Cookbook” by Christine and Tim Conners. I picked up my copy after I left Scouting on Amazon, but it looks pretty good.
If you don’t have access to a Dutch Oven (you should see if you can borrow one, just for the desert option, assuming weight isn’t an issue), pick up some “No-Name” steaks (inexpensive and surprisingly good or is it that anything tastes good after paddling all day?) and throw them on the grill along with some potatoes.
Our favorite potatoe trick is to slice them thinly, but not all the way through. Take butter or margerine and smear a little between each the slices. Sprinkle liberally with garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian Seasoning. Wrap tightly in foil and put on the grill or in the fire coals as you would to make baked potatoes. My kids like this so much, I do it in a casserole dish in the oven (slice the potatoes all the way through so they can be layered in the casserole dish) and slice up some onion and layer it til the dish is full so we have leftovers the next day. Bake it at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour (til the potatoes are at the softness/crunchiness you prefer)
Bon Apetite,
Dave
Try some baby back ribs, you can par boil them before hand and store them in the cooler. Put them on the grill and baste them until all the sauce is gone. Its easy and they are awesome. Cut some potatoes and onions and put them in a foil bag with butter. set them next to the fire and turn them every so often. Get a couple big cans of beans open them and set them next to the fire also. Its easy and I like to do this when its my turn when camping. Hopefully this helps, Dan
Hobo stew is great, easy, simple, and delicious!
Just make sure you use greasy meats otherwise it will get dry and another tip is to not pack it too tight or the center won’t cook.
“big breakfast stirfry” always works good too, especially for 12 people.
That would be:
6 “big” baking potatos or 12 average “reds”.
3 Onions
2lbs bacon
1lb sausge links
2lbs ground sausage
2 green peppers
cube spuds and chop onions and peppers, cook with bacon, links, grounds seasoned sausage in “huge” fry pan over camp fire.
When cooked, dump in 2 dozen eggs. Don’t scramble eggs, just push meat/veggies off to size and drop eggs in on other side. As eggs cook, gently spread the 1/4 cooked eggs over the meat/veggies, almost like an egg wash. Do this until all the eggs are washed over meat/veggies.
Cover mixture with cheese slices and place lid on until cheese melts into the meat/eggs/veggies.
Man, I need that right now. I’m making this one for sure. 
When I take a biggroup of kids out, I do a midwest version of a seafood boil. It becomes all about the timing. All you need is a big pot and hot coals. I use my pot that I use for frying turkeys. Fill it half full with water, add a two seasoning packets of the ‘Ol bay seafood boil (festival or woodmans) and then add the veg accordingly. Potatoes, carrots, beans, onion, asparagus, whatever. I usually cut up some kielbasa, and then add shrimp at the end. I then dump it out on a disposable tablecloth (plastic variety) with newspaper to sop up any drippings and serve with any dipping sauce people like. This is always a big hit with kids and adults alike because there is no need for utensils or plates. People just dig in and enjoy. You can make it as fancy (crab legs, scallops, and fresh clams or as easy…sausage, veg, corn-on-the-cob, etc.) This is very tasty and super easy to clean up.
When I am on fishing/hunting trips I like to precook meals at home and vacuum seal them. All you have to do on your trip is warm the meal by boiling the vacuum sealed bag in water. Makes for easy clean-up and allows more time for fishing. Soups, stews, and casseroles work great for doing this.
Quote:
Our favorite potatoe trick is to slice them thinly, but not all the way through. Take butter or margerine and smear a little between each the slices. Sprinkle liberally with garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian Seasoning. Wrap tightly in foil and put on the grill or in the fire coals as you would to make baked potatoes.
another easy way to do it is use italian dressing. the oil helps prevent it from drying out. and the vinegar adds another tangy flavor. my mom tried this a while back and its one of the only ways she makes potatoes now!
hobo dinners are always a hit. along with 5-alarm chili, and thats perfectly fine vac sealed.
ooooh just hit me… how about spaghetti? only thing you have to keep cool is the sausage/meatballs. boil water over the grill. if godfather taught you anything its that spaghetti feeds mafia armies…
Nothing easier/better than bratwurst and a beer!!!! Hot dogs on sticks for the kids to roast over the fire.
If its in season, don’t forget the local, fresh sweet corn from the the roadside stands… Get some sort of grate for the fire and roast the corn over some even coals, or do it on the Weber. If you want, you can use the top for the weber to cover the corn over the fire/grate. Forms more of an oven that way.
Keep the corn submerged in a cooler with ice water until ready to cook – it will keep it nice and cold, very fresh and crisp for a number of days that way… Then after you roast it in the husk until the outside husk starts to burn (but the corn itself shouldn’t burn), put the cooked cobs of corn, husk and all, in the cooler to stay warm until ready to eat (empty the ice water ahead of time). You can even cook the corn ahead of time – they will stay warm for quite a while in the cooler. Don’t forget the butter and salt!
For a dozen people, I would get 2-3 dozen ears of corn, depending on how many “corn hounds” you have in your group.. I myself love sweet corn, and have been known to sit down and eat over a dozen ears at a time.. 
Good grilled corn on the cob is always a HUGE hit, especially for folks who don’t eat corn often (and double especially for those who have never eaten grilled corn on the cob… its the best!!)
Whitt
all great ideas. thanks for the input. lots of great potato ideas. I think I am going to do some marinated pork tenderloin, potatos and sweet corn. should be perfect.
Another tip/idea for ya. Saturday to Monday is not too long. What ever you decide on it can be frozen and packed in a cooler with dry ice. Then duck tape the cooler lid shut until the food is needed. This is nice on camp trips because you can hang the entire cooler from a tree branch (or burry it) if there are bears/critters around. The cooler will stay frozen and no liquids will leak out. (Dry ice evaporates rather than melting.)
-J.
Also, some of the best tasting venison I have ever had usually comes after sitting (cold, but thawed) in a camp cooler for a number of days before cooking it. Some people age or hang thier deer for a week or more before butchering.. We usually don’t do that, but I think the venison sitting thawed out in the cooler for a while helps to tenderize the meat.
At home, we will often take venison out of the freezer a week to a week and a half prior to eating it just so it “ages” a little in the fridge. Improved flavor from what I have found.
JJ love the dry ice idea. RJ Meats here in Hudson sells it.
there is a black bear potential up there. we had something go thru fishcamp last year. didn’t tear things up too much but it was big..
speaking of RJs… their southwest and philly brats are amazing!!!! thats all i ate for lunch and dinner when i was on my last camping trip!
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