Go Camping – Life’s An Adventure

When strawberries are in season, I am cooking all sorts of food. This recipe is one that I came up with one morning when I was debating on what to fix for breakfast. These scones come out nice and fluffy. While I like my strawberry scones naked, you may want to top your scones with butter or cream cheese.

If you are looking for a traditional scone, you can simply roll out the dough and cut it out into rectangles. Once that is done, just follow the recipe as noted.

Camp Fire Recipe:  Strawberry Scones

Ingredients

Liquid or spray oil

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon plus ¼ cup of heavy cream

¼ cup of buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups of all-purpose flour

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar

2 teaspoons of baking powder

¼ teaspoon of salt

6 tablespoons of unsalted butter

2/3 cup of strawberries

Steps

1. Start the process by building a fire to prepare coals.
2. Lightly grease a 10 inch Dutch oven with liquid or spray oil.
3. In a small bowl, beat one egg along with one tablespoon of heavy cream. Set aside.
4. In another bowl, add the remaining egg, heavy cream, buttermilk and vanilla. Beat to mix.
5. Using a medium size bowl, mix flour, granulated sugar, and baking powder together.
6. Cut the six tablespoons of butter into small pieces. Add to bowl in step 5.
7. Incorporate the butter into the flour mixture until it looks like crumbs.
8. Create a well in the flour mixture in step 7. Pour mixture from step 4 into the well and stir until mixed.
9. Remove the hulls and chop the strawberries.
10. Add the strawberries to batter in step 8 and gently stir.
11. Drop the dough by spoonfuls into the greased 10 inch Dutch oven.
12. Once all the dough has been used, brush the mixture from step 3 on top of the dough and sprinkle with one tablespoon of granulated sugar.
13. Place the lid on the Dutch oven and move to a heat resistant surface.
14. Take 10 prepared coals and move them the heat resistant surface.
15. Arrange the prepared coals in a circle and place the 10 inch Dutch oven on top.
16. Cover the lid with prepared coals.
17. Cook for 20 minutes.

Once done, knock off the coals from the lid and serve.

When my kids were little, we took a Mother’s Day camping trip. My husband told me not to do anything. He and the kids would pack, plan meals, and even set up camp when we got to our destination. While I was sure everything would go fine, I still had my doubts.

So, the day we arrived at camp, my husband unpacked the car, and set everything up like he said. When dinner time came around, he told me to sit by the fire, and enjoy a glass of sparkling cider. While I heard all sorts of noises coming from the camp kitchen, all of a sudden my son appears with a plate of mozzarella and pesto crescent tarts for me to enjoy. As I consumed my Mother’s Day dish, I could see little fingerprints in the dough that did not bake out. I treasured each and every one of them. They represented how hard they worked and as I consumed them I realized that these little indentions would forever be a part of me.

While I have had many Mother’s Day celebrations since then this camping trip was one of the best.

Camp Fire Recipe:  Mozzarella and Pesto Crescent Tarts

Ingredients

1 (8 ounce) can of Crescent rolls or seamless Crescent roll refrigerator dough

Jar or homemade basil pesto

2 medium tomatoes

1 small red onion

Fresh or dried rosemary

Fresh mozzarella ball or shredded mozzarella cheese

Fresh parmesan cheese

Steps

1. Prepare the coals by building a fire.
2. Pop open the crescent rolls and separate into two rectangles. Place on parchment paper so that each rectangle is one to three inches apart.
3. Seal the seams and roll out the dough until you get two rectangles that are 10-by-3-inches.
4. Form a lip of dough around each rectangle.
5. Add one tablespoon of pesto on each rectangle. Spread the pesto so that it reaches the lip.
6. Seed and slice the tomatoes. Divide and put on each rectangle of dough.
7. Thinly slice the red onion and distribute onto the rectangles of dough.
8. Chop one to two teaspoons of fresh rosemary or measure out ½ teaspoon of dried rosemary and sprinkle on top of the dough.
9. Cut up fresh mozzarella or simply sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese on dough. The amount is up to you.
10. Grate fresh parmesan cheese and sprinkle on top.
11. Put parchment paper with dough inside a 12 inch Dutch oven.
12. Top the 12 inch Dutch oven with lid and move to a heat resistant surface.
13. Arrange 12 prepared coals in a circle on the heat resistant surface.
14. Place the Dutch oven on top and cover lid with prepared coals.
15. Cook for 15 minutes.
16. Once the cooking time has passed, knock off the coals from the lid, remove the Dutch oven from the ring of coals, and lift the lid.

Remove the dough by lifting up the parchment paper, cut each rectangle into six pieces and serve.

Boy, you talk about turning lemons into lemonade; this is a story of how crushed strawberries became my family’s favorite. Well, you see, the story begins with picking fresh strawberries. Ok, I had the great idea of taking a bunch of fresh strawberries on a camping trip. I know, you are wondering why. Why would a sane person take fresh strawberries camping? The reason I planned on this fresh fruit was to give my kids something quick and easy as a snack. I mean all I had to do was wash the strawberries right? Well, in theory yes but……………when life gives you lemons. In this case, it was a bunch of crushed strawberries. Oh, did I mention with stems? 

After working through the fruit and pulling out the stems, I had wonder crushed fruit. What to do? Well, my brilliant son came up with an idea. Top cake with the crushed fruit and a little whipped cream he thought. Well, yeah that will work but…….I wanted something a little different. This is how this recipe was born.

So the next time you find crushed, fresh fruit in your camp kitchen create your own version of an upside down cake.

Campfire Recipe:  Fresh Strawberry Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

Liquid or spray oil

2 cups of fresh, crushed strawberries

3 ounce package of strawberry flavored gelatin mix

3 cups of miniature marshmallows

18 ounce package of yellow cake mix with ingredients to fix the cake

Whipped cream, optional

Steps

1. Start by first building a fire to prepare the coals.
2. Lightly grease a 12 inch Dutch oven and line with parchment paper.
3. Top the parchment paper with crushed strawberries and spread out.
4. Sprinkle the gelatin mix on top of the crushed strawberries.
5. Arrange the miniature marshmallows on top of this layer.
6. In a bowl, mix the yellow cake mix according to directions.
7. Pour the prepared cake mix on top of the marshmallow layer.
8. Add the lid to the 12 inch Dutch oven.
9. Move the filled 12 inch Dutch oven to a heat resistant surface.
10. Place 12 prepared coals in a circle on the heat resistant surface.
11. Top the prepared coals with the 12 inch Dutch oven.
12. Cover the lid with 24 prepared coals.
13. Cook for 35 minutes.
14. After the time has passed, knock off the coals and check for doneness with a toothpick. If not done, place more coals on top and cook for another 10 minutes.
15. Once done, remove the Dutch oven from the ring of coals and allow to cool for 30 minutes before serving.

To serve, invert the cake onto a plate and remove the parchment paper. Top with whipped cream if desired.