Camper Specials

 One of the joys of summer is camp cooking. Our favorite thing is Camper Specials (CS). We usually make our own. We will gather and chop up the veggies and lay them all out and then we each spoon what we want on to our foil and wrap it ourselves. Then we will write our names on them with a permanent marker and re-wrap and then toss them into the fire and wait, and wait, and wait.

Sadly, since camp site moved from Strong to Carthage we haven't been able to get to camp as often as we used to. Last night I thought we'd bring camp home. I put spinach, potatoes, onions, chives, a small bit of tomato, a splash of olive oil, and hamburger patties in our specials.

Usually a CS is cooked in the coals of a fire for most of the afternoon. It takes an hour or so in the coals to fully cook (due to rotating there is usually a number of them in the fire), but on the grill it takes half the time.

Ingredients: (You will also need Heavy Duty Tin Foil)

1lb Ground Beef shaped into 4 patties
4 potatoes (white or red) diced with skins on
2 onions diced
4 garlic cloves diced
2Tbs Olive Oil

Pre-heat

Coals: Load up the fire early in the morning and then let it die down in the afternoon. When there are a good heap of coals (no logs left) you know you are ready. You'll also need a shovel so that you can put things in the coals or if you know a fireman, his gloves.

Grill: High for 5mins, then turn down to medium

1. Combine veggies, garlic, oil in a big bowl. Add salt and pepper or other spices if desired.
2. Rip off 4 generous portions of Heavy Duty Tin Foil
3. Spoon equal portions into the center of each piece of foil. Place one patty on top of the mound of veggies
4. Wrap in foil (see photos)
5. Rip off 4 more portions of foil and re-wrap so that the crease of the first wrap is wrapped in the opposite direction, and place the other crease upside down on top of the new piece of foil.
6. Cover in coals for 45mins - 1hr (flip them and rotate them in the coals) or on the grill (flip every 10-15mins) for 30 - 45 mins. You will have to open it up just a crack to check on the potatoes. If the 'taters are done, it's done.
7. Serve with relish, mustard, ketchup, and/BBQ sauce

~the reason for the double wrap is to prevent burning~

*other suggested veggies to try:
carrots
parsnips
peppers (green, red, yellow, ect)
tomatoes
spinach
cabbage
sweet potato


*other meats:
chicken (may need more cooking time)
fish (never tried it)

 Fold in half over the pile of food. Roll down the top.

Roll the ends up to make a neat little package.

Repeat with a second sheet roughly the same size

as the first.