Cooking successes

[moxieman]

Just to be fair, in addition to disasters, here are some successes:

 

One of the patrols in the troop I use to be SM in took 2nd place at district cooking camporee with a multi-course meal with dessert and live music: beef noodle soup appetizer, main course with salad, homemade ice cream on top of baked apples for dessert. One of the scouts played guitar for the judges as they dined.

 

Showing off to the scouts I and one of my ASM's ate for a whole weekend and ate well without the need to do any dishes. We did this to open the boys' eyes to other possibilities for their menus after hearing them complain too often about hating to do dishes. So we went utensiless for the whole weekend by preparing some stuff in advance--for example, precooking our bacon at home and then just reheating it over a stick over the fire. Stick toast method. Paper cups filled with water to boil eggs in, etc.

 

Lunch was Tarzan Roast, Roast Potatoes, Roast Corn and stick bisquits.

 

For the roast, take a half-gallon ziplock bag, toss roast and a jar of Dijon mustard in it. Seal and let sit in your cooler overnight marinading. Get a good hot bed of coals. Open bag and "Ungabunga" put meat in fire and bury. Forget for an hour. Take big sharp stick. Stab meat "ungabunga" cut off outer burnt crust. Eat rest.

 

For the potatoes, cover them in wet mud and place'em in the coals.

 

For the corn, peel back the husks, remove the hairs. Butter (optional) pull husks back over the cob. SOAK in water for a while. Then place them near the coals and rotate every once in a while.

 

For stick biscuits look in an older scout handbook--use bisquick-type mix. Make a thick dough and wrap around a stick and toast over a fire 'til done.

 

We had also tossed onions in the fire. The outer few layers burned, but the inner layers were nicely baked.

 

The boys were impressed. Yet, on future campouts, the decided they preferred to do dishes. Oh, well.

[scottteng]

Most scouts have mothers that would freak if her precious baby came home and told her that this is what he ate on camp out and despite what we think mom is an unseen presence whispering in the boys ear. To gain mom's seal of approval and remain dishless I would add alum foil, all of the above dishes would be great in foil. Here is another taste treat wrap a potato in several strips of bacon more fat the better. then in two layers of foil roast in coals like the unga-bunga beef tasty beyond belief. Sweet potatoes also roast well without the foil but the foil does keep mom happy! I have always liked the concept of Frisbees for camping plates they will hold a stew , a soup , a regular meal or a opened foil pack and also give you something to play with the rest of the day.

[Lisabob]

Hey now, I've met plenty of dads who freaked about this stuff too! Not just moms, and not all moms either. Maybe more accurate to say "suburban parents?"

[orennoah]

Lisabob. You'd be right, of course.

 

However, I've yet to have a Dad mention any of these things. Moms, on the hand, have raised these issues with me many a time. There are significant differences in the way that Moms and Dads see the world and how their children fit within it.

[Lisabob]

That's kind of an interesting point Oren and I'll buy that moms and dads tend to see things a bit differently. What's funny is that I *have* had dads of new scouts mention this to me - at least one or two every year for the last three years now. Maybe they're just less likely to say anything to other guys?

 

Anyway, my kid's biggest "success" to date: learning to make pancakes! This cracks me up since we do make pancakes at home...not hard...but they did them at a campout last fall and I swear we had to have pancakes for about three weeks straight - cooked by chef son of course - after that. At last night's troop meeting after our new scouts' first campout a couple of new parents mentioned they'd been eating foil dinners for a couple nights as a direct reflection of their sons' patrol menu from the campout. Good signs, all.

[resqman]

Last year as a den meeting for my Webelos, I had them make a box oven. Half the guys made the box oven while the other half mixed some Just Add Milk muffins. I was heating some charcoal while all this was happening. Upon completion, I had the boys put the muffin mix in a pan, place in their newly made oven and wait 15 minutes. Then they opened a pouch of ready made cookies. Break apart and put on a cookie sheet. Pull muffins out of oven and pop in cookies. 12 minutes later hot cookies. One of the more successful den meetings.

 

We planned a den campout a little later. They wanted Pizza. We brought along 6" tortillas, pizza sauce in a jar, grated cheese, pepperoni, canned mushrooms, canned olives, olive oil, and Italian seasoning. Had the boys sprinkle a little olive oil on the tortillas, 2 spoons of pizza sause, a sprinkle of seasoning, a handful of cheese and topping of thier choice. Place on foil lined cookie sheet and into box oven. A few minutes later, cheese is melted and ready to eat. We could only make 2 pizzas at once due to size of oven but they took turns and were very proud of their ability to cook real food.

 

At the next menu planning session, I had asked for a cold lunch. In typical fashion of "go with what works", they choose pizza in a box oven. I again requested a cold lunch. They were determined to have box oven pizza. I made them understand that I was not helping in an way and it was their decision. One boy volunteered to make the oven and the grubmaster would purchase the necessary supplies.

 

At the campout, the boy assigned oven duty had researched on the internet and had designed a different style oven. Instead of having a box on its side and opening flaps, he placed coals on the ground, used a few rocks to support a wire rack and then placed the box over top the entire setup. Pizzas were made and enjoyed by all.

[Venividi]

Not sure if this should go in the success or disaster thread...

 

Had a new scout patrol, first campout, made dutch oven pizzas. Bisquit dough for crust, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese. Wasn't long and the smell of pizza wafted through the air. The new scouts took their pizza inside to eat (Winter campout, but we cooked outside).

Ten minutes later, one of the scouts came out and told me that the other scouts (middle school age), ate most of their pizza.

 

I found out that the older scouts showed interest in the pizza, and the new scouts, quite proud of their meal and wanting to score points with the older ones, offered them some of thier pizza. The middle schoolers took advantage of the offer, and helped themselves to generous helpings of the pizza.

[gwd-scouter]

Dutch oven cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Scouts watched the adults cook this on a campout and decided they wanted to do it for themselves on the next. It actually turned into a competition, with the adults and the boys each cooking their own. Scouts won! Adults used too many coals and their rolls were very well cooked on the outside - raw on the inside. Scouts were enormously proud of their achievement in outdoing the adults that weekend.