I enjoyed cooking over an open fire when we camped out. I used to package up all the dry ingredients for Scones, then I just had to add the shortening and the milk. The scones could then be cooked in a cast iron skillet.
In amongst our camping gear was a set of cast iron fry pans and a Dutch Oven. In those three pans along with some aluminum foil most meals could be cooked successfully.
We also had a two sided long handled pan that would serve as a receptacle for two slices of buttered bread, when you added toppings to the bread the two sides were clamped together and held over the fire. You could make toast or for lunch you could add pepperoni and cheese to some pizza sauce spread on that bread, or in the evening sitting around the campfire you could spread pie filling or jam on those pieces of bread to make a toasty dessert.
I still have that long handled pan in the garage someplace. My cast iron fry pans have all been cleaned up ( they get really sooty being used over an open fire) I still use them every once in a while…they make a delicious peach upside down cake…and that Dutch Oven makes the best pot of vegetable soup several times a year.
I love cast iron, but I never thought about using it for camping out. Since all my earlier camping was backpacking, they are not very easily carried. But now that I'm graduated to car camping, you've given me a great idea for a super wonderful pan! :-)
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you have such wonderful camping memories. Our family was never one that camped. The few times we did as teenagers, I did not appreciate the mosquitoes - - or the humidity at night. You make it sound like lots of fun.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Now what did I do with our long handled pie maker....:)
ReplyDeleteMy family also has a dutch over and several of those long handled "pie makers" (which is what my kids called them) We used to make cakes, cobblers, lasagna, and chicken in our dutch oven. Sadly now that our kids are grown, we don't use these items camping anymore.
ReplyDeleteMy cast iron skillet hasn't seen much use in the last decade, but I refuse to get rid of it. I have my mother's skillet and griddle, too. Mom's skillet was used everyday to fry eggs, sausage, fish and chicken. Roasts were browned in the skillet before roasting. That skillet prepared a LOT of tasty meals.
ReplyDeleteI have my cast iron corn bread skillet and it is used just for that. I have larger one to use when I want steaks seared quickly and don't want to fire the grill.
ReplyDeleteMother's were seasoned well and would occasionally put them in the edge of a brush fire to start over again, I guess.
Have a great week.
I had one those "fry pie" gadgets. Now I'm wondering what happened to it as I haven't seen it in years. I love my cast iron stockpot for soup too and I can't make good fried potatoes without my cast iron fry pan. I had to be careful when I first got RA so I steered clear not wanting to drop them on my toes but I'm good to go now so I use them all the time. Somethings just get better with age.....like us! LOL!
ReplyDeleteI use only cast iron for cooking and have had my pans for so many years they are perfectly seasoned. I first started when I was pregnant and my country doctor way up north in Minnesota told me cooking in cast iron would cure my anemia. It did, and I've never been anemic since!
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of different pieces from different families. My wife isn't a fan so I haven't got them into any good condition for cooking. I would like to get some cleaned up and use them on the grill. My neighbor burns hers in a bonfire to get them ready for seasoning and use.
ReplyDeleteJust love hearing about your camping meals and cast iron pans. How fun! We camped alot over the years and now leave that to the kids and grandkids....but still love sitting around a campfire eating smores or whatever!
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great blog.
We camped with our kids years ago and had pie irons to make tasty treats. Now Jill has them and takes her kids tent camping. We also had an old aluminum washing machine lid, from a very old ringer style washing machine. It made a wonderful griddle on a campfire grate for cooking bacon, eggs, pancakes, french toast. And of course there were the foil packet stew meals. Fun times.
ReplyDeleteWe have a couple of cast iron frying pans here in the house. We use one of the other or both almost every day, well at least this year. Also always had one for camping. I remember as a kid my dad getting up first and getting the campfire going and cooking bacon and eggs in the cast iron pan.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a lot of us have ( and use) cast iron pans. I have three in two different sizes. One has been used over an open fire and needs a good cleaning. We used that long handled pan to make toast. We don't do much camping these days.
ReplyDeleteMy family never camped, so I especially enjoyed your memories here. Mama and grandma did have cast iron skillets. I especially loved cornbread in cast iron. After mama passed away, I gifted the skillets to a friend. They had become too heavy for my sore hands!
ReplyDeleteLove love cast iron and open fire cooking (although I'm not that great at it)!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up, I always loved it, during those long winter nights, when my mom would decide to cook dinner over an "open fire." Our fireplace had enough room to accommodate us grilling hamburgers...who knows what all that did to the chimney!...but we enjoyed that cooked-outdoors taste. It was a fun way to break up the winter, and something that kids won't easily forget. (And that wasn't in California, by the way--where we can run outdoors and fire up the grill any time we want, summer or winter!)
ReplyDeleteI use my cast iron pans all the time, in fact I have a stainless steel one that I never use. It's been ages since I've cooked over an open fire- we have fire bans all summer long here, our fire pit looks like an overgrown weed pile, because we had stacked branches in it for burning, just before the bans came on.
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