canoearoo, yes, good points on this too. My Aunt-in-law still has a large scar on her face, just above her lip, where a rat bit her while trying to get to the peanut butter stuck to her face while she slept. My husband’s father and his family grew up very, very poor and peanut butter was not something they had a taste of often. Someone came to visit and brought them a jar. My Aunt-in-law said it was so good, she didn’t want to clean it off her face. She remembers awakening to it, and this was in their HOME. So, yes, definitely take care to clean them up and I agree wet wipes are a must for camping!
You mentioned burning wet wipes, and to add to that, burn any food scraps or papers related to. This will help with the critters too. We have wooden marshmallow roasters, and we always burn off the sticky marshmallow left behind before storing them again.
That reminds me about our the wooden marshmallow roasters. We also burn off the marshmallow. You reminded me of a story this spring. We were looking for our roasters for marshmallows around the camp fire and I couldn’t find them. I later cleaned out my van and found them under the drivers seat. So, I know that they will fit nicely under a seat if they are not extended. That is if you don’t go with the old fashioned stick. I like them because they hold the hot dogs on better too. However, there are pluses and minises. If you want to wait for a marshmallow then you are ok if not then you can be the cook. If you have lots of kids and only 3 marshmallow sticks you have everyone wanting too use them. We assign an cook.
I just make the kid holding them pass the marshmallow that is being cooked and they have to make it to order. If they don’t make it right and it is to over done they get to pass it to someone that is wanting one bad enough to eat it a little over done. If they don’t then the cook gets to eat their marshmallow when everyone else has their own or a new cook takes over. There is only 5 of us though unless we have company. It can be an ego booster for the cook. Then again sometimes more cooks want to try there hand at cooking. That is when everyone has had one. We pass it to the new cook to make his own. In the process though if someone else asks for another one then the new cook has to cook it first. So, sometimes the new cook finds he has to have patients. This is a good lesson in patience. It can be quite fun! My one son figured it out and decided to be patient instead of grabbing the chance to be cook. I just love when the lights go one before hand. First one to put the order in with the cook gets his first. This way everyone is happy and it doesn’t seem so rushed. We all sit back and watch the cook and see if he/she is going to make it right. I must say we have gotten pretty good at making toasted marshmallows that pull off and don’t stick to the roaster. 🙂
We went camping .. left 10 am Wed morning and got back today Fri about 10am. We had a blast. Of course things were not perfect but they are not perfect at home. But they were GREAT! Bedtime was good, really really good. Eating was fine along wtih dishes etc. I think the biggest issues were just the volume of the voice, and not at night more morning. We are use to getting up and going all day. Not getting up and doing it all as quietly as possible.
The kids had so much fun, loved it, want to go back soon.
The only they we left with was a cold. Each and everyone of us. LOL
But we are doing it again, sooner than later. Thanks for all the great adivce as we took it and i didn’t forget anything that I “needed” there were things I thought this would have been nice, but nothing I needed.
Congrats! It sounds like you had a great time! I am glad everything went well for you… Kids were gearing up to have a go at it here too. We went through all our camping gear to see what we needed to discard and what stays.
Lord willing, we will go camping next weekend with another family from church. I have just used this post to help me start my packing list. Any more great ideas? Also a cooking question – we like baked potatoes but I always get them under- or over-done. Anyone with secrets to success? 🙂 Thanks!
@bethanna – I don’t know if this would work over a fire, but I just learned about salt roasting potatoes. You fill a cast iron skillet (or perhaps dutch oven) with salt, put the potatoes in and let them cook. On the stove it’s for 45 mins. Again, not sure if this translates to a campfire but it might be worth looking into.
We just went camping last night but it was a super fast thing so I didn’t get to use any of the cool tips/ideas from here. The boys were so mad that they had to go because “the outside is boring”. But the minute they got there they were running and playing. Then around the campfire they stayed up talking to GIRLS until after midnight. They would never do that in the daylight but there’s something special about campfires!
Are you wrapping them in foil? If not wrap them in foil. Shiny side toward the potato. Make sure you poke holes in the potatoe girst with a fork. Roll them up sit them on the coals and leave them for about 1 hour. Maybe longer depending on how hot your coals are. Don’t forget to turn them if they are not that hot. Move them out of the coals and let cool for a few minutes. To check if they are done. Take your oven mitten and squeeze it. if it squeezes then they are done. If they are still hard then put them back in the fire.
I love cut up potatoes with butter and onion and garlic salt. Put them also in the foil fold up and put in the fire. It shouldn’t take as long. Mmmmm. Thoughts of it now make me want some.