Adventures in Camp Cooking part 1 - Pizza

Last week we went camping.  Two of the dinners I was requested by my husband what they should be.  Fine by me.  For the third meal, which was actually on our fist night I thought Pizza sounded fun.   Generally I have done all the cooking over the fire.  This year we purchased a Camp Chef and It turned out to be a great blessing.  Besides dinners I had some great breakfasts planned too.

The first afternoon we arrived it was mild and cloudy.  We set up camp and my husband decided to set up the canopy/screen tent over the picnic table.  Another Blessing.  I didn't think it would stand because the first time we ever used it, the wind was strong enough to bend two of the poles.  The next time we tried, same story.  So this time he put it up with basically 4 bent poles.  I don't know how it stayed up, but it did. 

I had planned on cooking the pizza over the fire but hubby talked me out of it, probably to try out the new stove.  I fell in love with it.  I didn't want the dough to stick to our other pan since we had forgotten to bring oil (one of several forgotten things) so I worked off 1 pan, it took a long time to get them all done, but no one complained. 


I brought up pre-made dough, divided into 6 balls and frozen overnight then put in the cooler.  It was almost thawed by the time we were ready for dinner.  I took them out to finish and my daughter and I formed pizza rounds.  Then I cooked/fried one side and flipped over on to a plate, she and my son 'decorated' them with sauce, cheese, and pepperoni on top of the cooked side.  Then I returned them to the pan to cook the undone side.  Everyone liked it of course, my one resolution before camping was that I wasn't going to make anything the kids wouldn't eat. 

This turned out to be the best meal and I will keep it on our camping menu!  The way I prepare food for camping is that I put everything in portions already prepared as much as possible in baggies.  So all we had to do was toss the empty baggies at the end.  Nothing to chop or mix etc. 

The evening quickly became rather cool and after the requisite smores we turned in and survived the first cold night.  Although since one of the other things we forgot was the air matress, my back didn't survive so well.