Whats your meal style? Quick, no fuss meals such as sandwhiches, chips and store prepared potato salad? Short and sweet? Quick burgers and hotdogs and chips? No fuss meals such as crockpot meals? Or meals that take awhile to cook and keep you at the campsite?

We are newbies when it comes to camping. However, DH loves to cook in his dutch oven. So I am more than happy to let him cook. However, so far it has been just weekend trips to Roan Mountain State Park. We will be spending a week in Townsend soon and I will be planning easy breakfasts and lunches.

We kinda do both.. We have sandwiches for lunch and cook on the grill for dinner. Mackenzie doesn't like burgers so it is either hot dog or chicken nuggets I cook in the microwave for her..

We usually do the snack thing for lunch. Breakfast and dinner are the go all the way meals! We set up an outside kitchen and each camper fixes a couple of items. Then we have a big pitch-in meal!

remind me to camp with you when you come to tennessee

We sure will!! The bigger the group camping together, the better time we all have!!

While there is not much that hits the spot like a grilled hamburger, we do like to grill steak and cook baked potatoes in the hot simmering coals. Soup beans cooked slow over the fire are another favorite. Desserts in a dutch oven are pretty wonderful as well.

yum... do you have a recipe for the soup beans??

we normally go out, but were going to try to get more into cooking stuff..

For my soup beans, I use either Cranberry Beans or Shelly Octobers (basically the same bean, just different people call them different names).

I usually prepare the beans for cooking and put them in the freezer long before I ever cook them. I sort and rinse them really good. Then I soak them in water over night in the refrigerator. The next morning, I drain the water off of the beans and drain the beans on paper towels. Then I put them in ziploc freezer bags and place in freezer until I am ready to cook them. (I don't know why, but preparing them this way seems to take most of the gas out of the beans. )

When I am ready to cook them, I put the desired amount of beans in my pot (whether it is a dutch oven, crock pot or whatever) and cover with water. Make sure to add plenty of water as the beans will absorb some of it as they cook. I add about 1 - 2 tablespoons of butter and several slices of country ham "biscuit slices". You could omit the butter and country ham "biscuit slices" for a slab of fat back.

Then just add heat and let them cook slow over low heat. Be sure to stir occasionally so they don't burn.

Add seasoning salt, salt and pepper when you are ready to serve as salt tends to make the beans tough if added before cooking.

Oh, and don't forget the corn bread.

Hope you enjoy!

thanks for the recipe. sounds great! I am printing it out. : )