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Outdoor Cooking Presentation


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I am going to be doing a presentation on outdoor cooking for a local Junior Girl Scout (grades 4,5,& 6) Camporee in November. I also do a lot of cooking and teaching with my son's Boy Scout troop. The presentation will be geared towards the girls and their leaders. The primary goal it to show them that outdoor cooking can be fun and easy - not something to be afraid of. We want to get them away from the Pop Tart breakfasts and the hot dog suppers! Can anyone give me any ideas of what would be fun and informative to include? I have also posted this in the Girl Scout Forum, but this one seems to get more activity. Thanks.

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When I got married back in the stone age my dad informed my husband to be that I could cook anything he would ever want to eat over a camp fire but I didn't know how to turn on the stove in the kitchen. He was almost right.

 

There are some great sites for camp cooking. One of my favorates is The International Dutch Oven Societys.

Also ScoutXing.com has some great ideas.

 

I have some more sites but simply can't remember then right now.

One thing you can do is do a country theme. Where they pick a country and cook something from there and then they have to present the food with a skit about that country.

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Hey ADLee,

 

how long, how involved do you want to be? You can do a lot of "gimmick" cooking which kids love..."breakfast in a plastic bag" (boiled eggs), breakfast in a paper bag (Eggs and Bacon in a bag on a stick, over a fire), cinnamon bread on a stick,

or you can get absolutely nutz...several full meals going at one time all day long...(we did this at Scouting on the national Mall a few years ago...it was great (and filling).

 

If you are looking for quick and painless...pancakes on a D.O. top or griddle, soft taco s'mores in a D.O.- which kids love, dump cobblers, biscuit donuts in a D.O.,

 

breakfast burritos are great- sausage and eggs in fried in one pot at same time (after sausage is "done" of course) spooned on soft tacos with all the fixins (we can do this and dirty up only a few tools and one pot and some towels...great for getting on the road early without going the pop tart route.

 

or you could demonstrate a "Troop MAC muffin" assembly line- with 1). english muffins or bagels being handed out- toasted on the open flame of a stove (if wanted)... 2). one patrol kitchen frying eggs,...3). one patrol frying bacon and sausage patties,... 4). a place to pick up a slice of cheese, a drink and a napkin or three...no scout dishes dirty 'cept a cup and only a few pots/skillets dirty "over" the entire troop...another hearty but "quick out" breakfast.

 

D.O. "roast and roots" (meat taters, onions and carrots) is easy to do (but not so fast-2hours)and quick to clean up...

 

D.O. pizzas (english muffins can be used)

 

Cardboard box oven pizzas or biscuits

 

big pot of pinto beans and fatback..er ...forgot these are girl scouts :>)

 

fried squash, bell pepers and onions...add cheeze and bacon dripping to turn it from healthy to hazardous to your health and even more delicious!

 

do you want to get into bread? Most girls love baking bread...(oh my gosh, maybe thats my trouble am I a girl?:>)

D.O. baking, Fried bread or Bannocks? corn bread...in a frying pan or a D.O. is wonderful...

 

do demonstrate sanitation, explain wash stations and different methods of sterilizing...boys love to see you "wash" a pot with dirt and or sand...girls????

 

and do show them how to carry and use spices (in small containers-even film canisters)so they don't need to raid and ruin moms spice rack.

 

when we did the Scouting on the Mall "thing" we had a dad in the restaurant supply industry and his company donated a couple of thousand small "sample size" cups and spoons...we gave away samples as the meals came "on line" there was a long line of folks wanting a taste...we heard comments like; "Everyone said this was the troop to visit", "when is the next meal gonna be ready?",

"can we buy a meal?", "This was worth walking accross the Mall for!" "can I have more, please"...(or was that a play I saw???) Anyway the boys cooked and answered questions all day long...And they (our scouts)were extremely proud that a large number of women asked them questions and seemed to be impressed about what scouts could do- cooking outdoors. It was great!...course it did end up costing the troop nearly $500 in food and supplies...but thats what we do, right?!?

good luck and eat well

anarchist

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DO lasagna

 

Brown 1 pound of ground beef, drain, and set aside (optional)

In same DO AFTER you drain greese from hamburger, or place 1/2 Cup of oil in pan.

Layer on level of uncooked lasagna noodles, sauce (you can use ANY sort of Italian sauce for this, cans, bottles, home made), the the meat (if used), then white cheese (motzarella is best, but provolone works, as does jack, or white, or cheddar) repeat until one package of noodles have been used.

Top off with sauce and then cheese.

 

Use about a 12" DO (regular, or deep, again both work)

Place about 6 pieces of charcoal on the bottom, and ring the top of the lid. (Charcoal is lit well before placing)

 

15 minutes after starting, rotate lid clockwise 1/4 turn

15 minutes after 1st rotation (30 minutes after you started) rotate lid clockwise 1/4 turn AND rotate entire DO 1/2 turn counter-clockwise.

15 minutes after 2nd rotation (45 minutes after you started) roate lid clockwise 1/4 turn

15 minutes after 3rd rotation (1 hour after you started), check for completion. If done serve, if not repeat rotations again, this time check at each step.

 

If you've done DO, I'm sorry for the detail, if you haven't trust me... we let our New Scout Patrols do this, and they are just amazed how easy it is. (It really does WORK)

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Thanks for all of your ideas. My presentations will be about 30-45 minutes long. Groups will rotate through my station. I have never used a box oven and may try that. I will definitly be doing DO and coleman stove stuff.

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I think this is a little off from what you're looking for, but I have done a complete outdoor Thankgiving dinner with ALL the trimmings(turkey, roast beef, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, corn, corn pudding, fresh cranberry sauce,etc) for our troop for the past 2 years...the first year I did it just as an incentive to get the adults to our local camp to clean up after the hurricane went through and everyone enjoyed it so much that they asked me to do it again the next year. Last year then, the boys did the actual cooking with just my supervision and we had it in conjuction with our fall CoH and invited all the families and we also did an Eagle presentation at it and did a "change of command" when I offically took over as Scoutmaster too. Anyway..I think we had between 60-70 people there and there was not a scrap of food left! It was a beautiful, but chilly day but everyone totally enjoyed themselves!

 

Anyway...I had made it a goal of mine several years back to teach the boys that there was camp food beyond hamburgers and hot dogs and that anything you made at home, you COULD make at camp. When I did the dinner the first year, I actually had adults come to me and tell me that they had -no idea- that you could make all that stuff over open fires!! It was like DUH..how did they COOK the first Thanksgiving dinner???

 

One year for a Spring Scout Show we did an oriental theme. I taught the boys how to make a chicken fried rice and also how to make paper wrapped chicken (which are basically small foil packages that are deep fried when they're cooked). They did a great job with this and everyone really enjoy the food samples that we gave out.

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Sorta off track but related:

 

We got tired of the Scouts taking the easy way out too, so two summers ago, us Scoutmasters put on cooking demos: two breakfasts, two lunches, two dinners. The recipes and directions went into a "cookbook".

 

When planning for campouts, the patrols could only choose those meals in the cookbook.

 

Then we held competitions. The patrol that won got to eat the meal they won w/ the Scoutmasters on the next campout.

 

The purpose was to let them get creative w/ the basic cookbook, get creative w/ the presentation, and to show that they can really cook a good balanced meal. Eating w/ us, they got to watch the "Rocking Chair" Patrol function as a patrol, using the patrol method and to see that clean-up could really be completed in about 10-15 minutes...

 

This summer, each patrol added to the cookbook by putting on their demo.

 

YIS

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anarchist,

 

Well...that was just meant as a collective "THEY" and as a general statement that historically, all cooked/roasted/baked food was pretty much cooked over open fires of some kind!!

 

sue M.

 

 

>Slightly off topic-a history lesson

 

>SueM

 

>not to nit pick but "THEY" didn't cook the first >Thanksgiving dinner...some of my ancestors >provided "carry out"...:>)

>anarchist

 

admin | IP: Logged

 

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How about suspended turkey...roasted over charcol (wrapped in heavy foil) with hardwood mixed in. hummmm. mashed potatos, lit'le squash. and some green beans with beacon. With a berry pie baked in fiol box from a few coals from the turkey...drool.

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