March Camping Tip of the Month Winner! Brien Delich from Michigan City, Indiana

We have all seen and done this around camp sites.  Having a nice fire and roasting marshmallows, hot dogs, pizza pies, pudgy pies.  When your done roasting, what do you do with the hot utensil.  Most people lay them on the ground and make them burning or tripping hazards or lean them up against a tree.  Well I got tired of screaming at my kids to be careful.  That's why I made this utensil stand.  I took (2) tractor plow discs (bought from TSC) used electrical conduit and connecters to connect the bottom disc to the top disc creating a stand.  I then took the top disc and cut notches into it to hang my utensil.  Then painted it.  Then I got creative and made a copper looking fire as a center piece and put battery operated orange Halloween lights in it for night time.  So now when you are done roasting you take the hot utensil and hang it up out of the way.  Total cost $35 not including copper piece.

Recipe of the Year

Dutch Oven French Toast with fruit.

• Start off by taking a large Dutch oven and put 1 stick of butter in the pot. 
• Put 5 coals underneath the pot.  Melt butter. 
• As that is melting, take a loaf of uncut Vienna "Italian" bread (type with the hard crust) and cut into 1" thick pieces. 
• Next, depending on the season, we use fresh apples or fresh peaches.  Cut about 8 whole fruits into wedges. (canned fruit works but don’t use the syrup in the can.  Best when using fresh fruit. Apples are always in season.)
• After butter is melted, add 3 cups of brown sugar and dissolve in butter.
• As that is happening, baste your cut bread with a egg, milk and cinnamon mixture (just like making french toast at home)
• Once the brown sugar is dissolved, add half of the fresh fruit.  Mix together
• Then stack egg soaked bread on top of the fruit and brown sugar.
• Add remaining fruit to top.
• Sprinkle cinnamon and brown sugar on top of the break and fruit.
• Put lid on Dutch oven.  Put a total of 9 coals underneath and 8 coals on top. 
• Cook for approximately 45 minutes when using 1 whole loaf of bread.

Check occasionally.  Once bread starts to turn brown, it is down.  NO turning is necessary.  Just let it cook.

Serve French toast while making sure to get all the good stuff (brown sugar and fruit) from the bottom and spoon onto French toast.  NO syrup necessary.

Thanks to Brien Delich from Michigan City, Indiana for that great tip!

Here are a few of the other great tips we received!

 

**One of our favorite breakfast meals is "Breakfast Burritos".  Since they require a lot of messy cooking and clean up, I cook everything up ahead of time and make up a huge batch of burritos and freeze them.  When we are ready to pack up, I throw them in the cooler which helps keep other food cold also.  Then each night I pull some out of the cooler and they are ready for the next mornings breakfast.  Fast and simple.

I use the Jimmy Deans breakfast mix and simply add the eggs and follow directions, and freeze.

Hope you enjoy :)

Tonya Burkey

 

**We make our own homemade fire starters.  I use an empty cardboard egg carton, and fill each section/cavity with lint from our clothes dryer. I place the egg carton on a newspaper lined cookie sheet.  I melt leftover wax from candles that we've burned and pour it over the lint in each section of the egg carton.  It's amazing how much liquid wax the lint will absorb, and the egg carton soaks it up too. Let the wax cool then close the lid of the egg carton and pack it with your camping gear.  When you want to start a fire tear off a section of the egg carton and place it in your fire pit, fireplace, or charcoal grill.  Place your pieces of tinder and kindling or charcoal around the fire starter.  Using a match or a lighter catch the cardboard of the egg carton on fire.  The wax will catch fire and even in a wet fire ring or windy conditions the fire will start.  No lighter fluid needed to start a fire this way.  And it's a great way to recycle items that would normally be thrown away. 

Brenda Sprow

 

**One of the best camping tips I can think of is that since we are weekend campers, we like to make the set up go as smooth and quick as possible.  That means that with hungry kids as we arrive, I need to be able to concentrate on the set up so that I can relax Friday night, too.  To do this, I make Friday night meals something that I've made that day and put in the crockpot, ready to replug in and eat as soon as we get there.  So, while we are hooking up, and getting the table set up, it is time to eat right away.  We've had sloppy joes, lasagna, pulled pork, taco meat for walking tacos, lots of things are are homemade and ready to eat.  It makes the set up so much easier and I can grab a bite when we are done and the kids are already playing a game of baseball!!  Makes it so much faster and simpler!
One other tip I'd like to mention, is we have our set of "camping clothes" that we keep in the camper at all times.  They only come out when we get home to wash and put back in.  This way, if we ever decide to pack up and take off for a weekend, our clothes are already cleaned and packed in the camper.  All I have to do is worry about food and we are on our way!  I usually do the laundry the day we get get back and finish putting it back the next day, ready for our next trip.  Also, the kid's clothes have probably already been "seasoned" with dirt from the games, paint from the ceramics and marshmallow from the S'mores, so I don't get upset when it happens again, I know that it's okay because we are just going to wear them again the next trip!  Makes it a whole lot better for Mom, that's for sure!!
Have a great day, can't wait to camp again this Spring!!!
Tammy Fendt
Fort Wayne, Indiana

 

**We have a large family (7 kids), so of course we have to find ways to make life a bit easier.  When we are packing for a weekend camping trip, we lay out complete outfits (socks, underwear, top, and bottom) for each kid.  We then take one complete outfit per kid and put it into one large baggie.  The baggie is then labeled with the day the outfits will be worn and packed in the camper.  Saturday morning comes around and we just pull out the "Saturday" baggie and everything we need for the kids is right there.  We don't spend time searching for anything, and the kids can get dressed quickly and head out to play.

Toby Hertenstein

 

**Our family’s best idea so far is to put a small refrigerator (college dorm room size) on the outside of the camper.  It is loaded with drinks, ketchup, mustard, mayo, cheese, hotdogs and bologna.  It keeps the kids from running in and out of the camper all the time.  If you get one with a freezer, you can put some flavored ice in there also for those quick cooling treats. 
Remember to restock at night so you are good to go for the next day.
It is especially handy if you have to put your things in coolers.  This way you are not digging through that cold ice water trying to find the drink you want and also saves money on buying ice.

Submitted by Barb Krout, Carey, Ohio

 

**When we tent camp we have a 10 x 10 canopy that we have screen from an old larger canopy that is our kitchen , to eliminate everything getting wet if it rains we use inexpensive shower curtain liners that I put strips of Velcro down the edges. We hang them with the screen and roll them up and tie them with some kind of heavy string. Then if it rains we drop those shower curtains down Velcro them together and our kitchen stays dry.

Thank you,

Chris Heiser

Thank you to ALL of our campers who submitted camping tips in March!

Remember – April starts a new month – so get those camping tips sent into

campingtips@jellystonesbest.com for your chance to win 20% off a 2 night stay!