Summer is winding to a close and while I am a little bit sad and I will miss the schedule-free time I am ready for routine. Especially because I work from home and while my kids are pretty self sufficient, it still makes it really hard for me to get much work done during the day. So I am thankful that all three kids will be in school full time tomorrow and I will be a full-time photographer!
That being said, I have to share with you one of our all-time favorite summer time meals. This meal works well for camping or if you have a fire pit in the backyard.
A few weeks ago, I had a bit of the summer time blues. It seemed like everyone around me was having fun, going on vacation and all around having a wonderful summer. I was sitting at home trying to nag my kids to pick up the house and try to work for a few hours a day in the midst of chaos (read: 3 children) on a daily basis. I finally had enough and decided we needed to get away. My oldest still had swim practice leading up to state and my husband had to work so they had to stay home. Meanwhile, I packed a few quick things, a tiny bit of food and put the younger two kids in the car and headed for the hills.
We are lucky enough to have family cabin up in Fairplay and no one was using it so we headed up there. On the way up, we decided to have an adventure and we pulled off the main road and followed a dirt road up to a lake that I didn't even know existed. It was wonderful. We walked around. Took pictures. Skipped rocks and had absolutely no agenda. It was one of the most fun and freeing times I have ever had. A memory for a lifetime. I will have to share the rest of those pictures later!
I was only planning to stay one night, but we were having such a good time and I had a meeting get cancelled so we decided to stay another night. We went into the "Family Dollar" to try to find something for dinner and came across ingredients for pizzas so naturally that is what we made.
These have become a family favorite and we love to make these whenever we have friends up to the cabin. We made them again last weekend when we were up there! You can't go wrong with these.
It is especially nice if you have picky eaters or allergy kids like I do.
Here is what you need.
A camp cooker, pizza sauce, bread (lots because you need 2 slices per pizza and usually people want seconds so figure 4 pieces per person), pizza fixings, cheese, butter, knife and spoon.
I like the squeeze "butter" because it isn't messy and my dairy free kid can have it because it doesn't actually contain butter (don't judge).
I also like the squeeze pizza sauce (yes it is a thing) because it is easier to spread than the jar kind but at the Family Dollar we were limited in our choice of pizza sauce.
This time I didn't have any of the shredded cheese and was going to "make do" with the provolone slices I had left over from french dip sandwiches the night before. And now I won't do it any other way. So much less messy than shredded cheese. But you are free to chose your cheese at will.
Here is a step-by-step for you. Just for fun because they are pretty self explanatory.
1. Start the fire. (we have even done it over the gas stove when there was an unexpected fire ban and it worked like a charm).
2. Take the bread and butter it.
3. Put the butter side down toward the inside of the cooker. Do this to both pieces of bread. Similar to how you cook a grilled cheese sandwich.
4. Spread pizza sauce on one or both of the non-buttered side (the inside of the pizza).
5. Add the toppings. Note: if you add toppings to both sides it can be tricky to sandwich them together without spillage. So take it from me when I say, load up one side as much as you want and then put the blank bread on top when you sandwich them together. #experiencetalking
6. Put your beautiful creation into the fire. Turn it often and check it often. It browns quicker than you think and no one wants a burnt pizza. #experiencetalkingagain
7. Put a plate on the ground. Trust me.
8. Open the sandwich cooker over the plate and let that toasty goodness fall onto the plate. Let the cooker sit open on the ground so it can cool. Because in a few minutes you are going to want to make a second pizza.
9. Let it sit. Trust me. I know you want to eat it right away. But that thing is hotter than the sun and you don't want hot cheese burning a hole in your tongue. #againwiththeexperience
10. Finally it is time to enjoy.
11. Repeat. Be careful as those cookers stay hot for a REALLY long time and it can be a little tricky making seconds.
We decided to go the s'mores route for our dessert but you can repeat the process above with canned pie filling for an amazing dessert. It is a perfect meal for camping! Easy supplies, cheap, everyone makes it to their own liking, yummy and best of all, NO CLEAN UP. Just let those cookers mellow. I have never cleaned mine (all 5 of them) and even with all of our allergies we have never had an issue. The "butter" helps everything to slide right off. Note: the outside of the cookers get soot on them. So if you might want to wipe down the outside once they cool down to avoid ash/soot on things they might come in contact with.
What is your favorite go-to camping meal?
When we camped with younger children, they fished and I fried! But our favorite was grilled steak and baked potatoes in the embers as the fire died down. Now that we’re older we still do the campfire potatoes with friends, occasionally!
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