Deep fried food….yum! Whoever first thought of it was a genius because there are a lot of foods that are so tasty when they’ve been given a dunk in a vat of hot oil and cooked to crispy goodness. I could go for a crunchy piece of deep fried chicken (or fish or fries or onion rings) right now! But you can keep the deep fried Snickers bars, Oreo cookies, and Twinkies. Those are some of the things that, in my opinion, should be kept far away from a vat of hot oil.

But, no matter what you’re cooking in a deep fryer we all know how messy it can be when done inside so why not give the camper or RVer on your list a portable deep fryer they can use outside.

Coleman makes a portable table top fryer that uses a propane cylinder to heat it rather than a cord that needs an electrical outlet. It’s cord free and completely portable! It has a 6 quart capacity, can cook at temperatures up to 450 degrees F, has built in carrying handles so it can be moved easily, has a striking high-gloss red metallic steel exterior that resists weather and corrosion, and comes with a 2 year warranty.

There’s also a carrying case available to keep the fryer dust free and protected from scratches while not in use that also has 2 handy pouches for storing propane cylinders that is a great companion gift.

I remember the first time I went camping in a tent. It was starting to get dark outside and we still had to set up our tent. This tent was definitely old school. There were a lot of parts to put together – it took us nearly an hour to accomplish the task. To further aggravate us, several friends showed up after us, got their tent up, and were sitting around drinking beer long before we finished getting our tent ready to go.

These days, however, that’s all changed. New tents are designed to be light and go up fast – some in as little as 2 seconds – I kid you not, watch this video:

Anyway, in the wide world of tents, you’ve got choices – lots of choices. The first thing you need to decide is what you need it for. Do you need a big tent with space for a lot of people? Do you need a tent that is extremely lightweight and easy to carry for a backpacking expedition?

I’ve picked out some of my favorite tents for families (big enough for a bunch of folks and packed with features) and for individuals (lightweight and easy to setup and take down).

Today’s pick for a great gift for the camping enthusiast… a sleeping bag.

I never really thought of a sleeping bag as anything all that great in the past. The one I had was a cheap one, but it worked.

Then this year I went camping and it was cold and very windy. Even in our popup camper, you could feel the wind. The first night I had a big pile of blankets and I was freezing. Then the next night my dad suggested I try a sleeping bag. I’ll admit I was skeptical since a pile of blankets hadn’t done the trick in keeping me warm, but I decided to give it a try anyway.

I was really warm that night, almost to the point of being too warm in that thing. Now, I definitely appreciate the good ol’ sleeping bag.

So what should you look for when picking a sleeping bag?

When picking a quality sleeping bag, you basically have two options – synthetic or down (and a few offer the best of both worlds).

Down is generally going to be the warmer option, but synthetic insulation is cheaper and new synthetic sleeping bags are getting closer to the insulating power of goose down sleeping bags.