CAMPING TRIP!

Time for s'mores.

There's always room for s'mores!

Our family and some friends recently took a camping trip near St. Anthony, Idaho. I will never be The Campout Queen.  But being out in the Great Outdoors does seem to foster good memories. I'll never forget those crazy stories we told around the campfire.

 We had some great food. Angela Stanton made some fabulous kabobs of skewered shrimp, steak and veggies one night.  We had sausage, bacon, eggs, hash browns and french toast for our breakfasts.  We had hot dogs and burgers, too. And of course, we had s'mores.

 I get anxious about keeping all the food cold.

Here's why:  I was once driving a group of LDS Young Men/Women home from camping at Lava Hot Springs, and all the kids in my car got sick.  Every few miles, I had to pull over  to the side of the road so they could throw up.  Luckily I made it home, was able to unpack and scrub out the car before my stomach erupted as well, and I was absolutely miserable for the next 24 hours.  Turned out that nearly all the other kids and leaders had  also been sick.  I'm pretty sure it had to do with some hamburger patties gone bad. 

 So this is why I tend to be hyper-vigilant on camping trips.  It seemed that the fridge in our rented RV wasn't keeping everything cold enough, and the ice in the coolers seemed to turn to quickly turn to water in the warm weather.

When I came back to the convenience store for yet another two bags of ice, I said to the owner, "Gee, it seems like that ice sure does melt fast," and he smiled and said, "Yeah, that's the beauty of it."  I saw the dollar signs behind that smile.

Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler

Black Forest Cherry Cobbler

Jayden, Jess and Anthony share a ride.

I got a chance to use my Dutch ovens making "Dump Cobbler." For the Peach Cobbler,  I used two cans of peaches, topped it with a  yellow cake mix, and let it bake with eight coals on the bottom and about 15 on top, for somewhere between a half hour and  45 minutes, until the top was browned.


 For the Black Forest Cherry Cobbler, I used a large can of cherry pie filling, topped with a chocolate cake mix, and poured in a half-can of Dr. Pepper for  leavening, moisture and flavor.  I baked it with 15 coals on top, 8 on the bottom for about 20 minutes, then I added some chocolate chips on top and baked it about 15 minutes longer.  It was very dense and pudding-like, and I loved the cherries.

We offered some leftover Peach Cobbler to the father and son campeing next to us, and they marveled at my "homemade" dessert.  I don't know if a cake mix and can of peaches qualifies as homemade, but I'll take the compliment.