Roasted & Toasted: Good Campfire Grub

About author / Christine Gable

Culinary enthusiast; kids cuisine and slow cooking; magazine recipe developer; professional writer. Her simple recipes are great for family dinners.

It is thought that sticks were the first cooking tools—and that roasted woolly mammoth might have once been a delicacy of our ancestors who lived in caves. Whether your cooking stick is pre-made and cast steel or aluminum, or you go for making one yourself (think green wood or improvised coat hanger), here’s the book to get you started: Cooking on a Stick: Campfire Recipes for Kids by Linda White.

Even if you’ve never built (or cooked over) an open fire, this is certainly the season for it, now that summer’s almost here in full. And it seems that outdoor cooking and kids were made to go together. Just as kids always find a way to have fun outdoors, they also find great foods to roast and toast over a fire. And it’s even better when those foods can be cooked on a stick.

But cooking over a fire isn’t just about cooking on a stick. No, with some aluminum foil, you can wrap any number of creations to create a small yet very hot oven that will gently roast and heat any number of delights, from beans and chili to herb-roasted veggies. Then again, there’s nothing quite like that age-old scout recipe of bananas, marshmallow and chocolate—warm and melty—straight from the campfire to get kids excited about cooking in a whole new way.

And then there’s the special campfire cooking method that I remember so well, thanks to my Dad: Cooking over a wood fire on a grate or grill. Yes, there’s nothing quite like that wood-fire roasted flavor of a pork chop or burger—and if you or your kids are in the mood to try your hand at something new, be sure to check out the recipes in this book—there’s everything from “Foxy Pizza” to “Bandit’s Stuffed Fish.”

So after trying some of the recipes from Cooking on a Stick, (Yum = “Ranger’s Apple Pie”), we got into doing a bit of experimenting. All you need is a campfire with plenty of wood, some foil and sticks—and of course, a supply of foods that your kids can have fun experimenting with. Anything from pork ‘n beans and refried beans to bananas, apples, and a supply of veggies and condiments will do. Just go with what you’ve got on hand and you’re sure to discover a delightful new fire-roasted delicacy.

The real adventure is just beginning when you decide what you’ll be cooking over that fire—will it be some innovative biscuit dough easily mixed in a ziploc—and combined with the all-American hotdog, or a roasted apple rolled in brown sugar and cinnamon?

But if you really want a taste of the good life—and a good reason to slow down—with the added boost of getting your kids excited about a healthy (and fun!) way of cooking, try building a campfire on your next weekend camping—or at home. Every time we do it, I wonder why we don’t do it more often. Get out of the house, set the work aside, have some fun, eat some good grub and at the same time, connect with your kids.

Who ever thought that cooking on a stick could do all that?

Here are some foods that cook well on a stick:
• Hot dogs (of course)
• Bacon: thread each piece several times through the stick (like an accordion)
• Toast: a two-prong stick works best for angling each piece on flat
• Garlic: thread a whole head of cloves onto a stick and roast until golden and soft, about 15-20 minutes

And some foods that do great in a foil packet—add ½ cup of water for steaming, a dash of olive oil and some Adobo (salt) and oregano:

• Greenbeans
• Corn
• Broccoli and cauliflower
• Zucchini
• Red and green peppers