Camping | In Our Kitchen

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

No Alarm Chili

Even though summer is quickly approaching, don’t discount all of your favorite warm-weather meals, especially if they are quick and easy like this one. Chili is one of my all-time favorite go-tos when thinking of a quick weeknight meal to satisfy my entire family. Although chili is usually served in the cold seasons to cure the winter blues, this recipe is too good to overlook. Because this recipe is fast there is no need to worry about your house heating up as it tends to when cooking traditional chili recipes for hours. So set aside 15 minutes this summer and try this delicious chili.

No Alarm Chili

Ingredients

1 pound extra lean ground beef (95% lean)
1 can (15.5 oz. each) Sloppy Joe Sauce
1 can (8 oz. each) Tomato Sauce-No Salt Added
1 can (15 oz. each) red kidney beans, drained, rinsed
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions

Cook beef in large skillet over medium-high heat 7 minutes or until crumbled and no longer pink, stirring occasionally; drain.
Add all remaining ingredients; simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally

http://www.in-our-kitchen.com/chili/no-alarm-chili/

Find more easy tomato sauce recipes to jump start your summer by clicking on that link!

Saturday, July 09, 2011

Baked Bean Casserole

Baked Beans

As the dish’s name implies the common way to make baked beans is in a casserole bowl or a cast iron skillet and baked. However, it is not unusual to stew them on top of the stove.

Just about every region has its own way of doing it. The famous Boston baked beans usually use a sauce made from molasses and pork. It doesn’t surprise us that since Maine and Quebec produce a lot of maple syrup they like to incorporate that into their sauce. Some countries use tomato sauce as the base.

If you like, you can use navy beans and soak them overnight. This recipe uses canned pork and beans and I think it comes out just as good.

I like to cut my onions and green peppers up in rather big pieces. That way if anyone is persnickety about onions and or green peppers they can pick them out easily and still enjoy your baked beans. Try to get them as close to the same size as you can. This is a trick my Mother, Dorothy, taught me.

Gramma Alice’s Baked Beans

Serves about 15 people

6 slices thick bacon, quartered

1 medium onion, cut up size of your choice

1/2 medium green pepper, cut up size of your choice

3 large cans (28 ounces each) pork and beans

3/4 cup barbecue sauce

1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup distilled or cider vinegar

2 tablespoons Dijon

3-4 scallion greens for garnish

OPTIONAL: cut up the other half of the onion and put them in your dish before you serve. You would be surprised how some people like that fresh onion crunch and taste in their beans.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Put the oven rack in the lower-middle position

Fry the bacon in a large deep sauté pan until it has partially cooked and about half of the drippings are released.

Remove the bacon and drain on paper towels.

Add the onions and peppers to the drippings in the pan to give them a rich smokey flavor.

Sauté until they are tender (about 5 minutes)

Add the beans and the rest of the ingredients (except the optional raw onions). Let this simmer for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

If you don’t have a large enough pan to hold the ingredients and the beans, you can do the beans first, then transfer them to the casserole dish and add the rest of the baked bean ingredients after they have simmered in the sauté pan.

Put the simmered bean mixture into a greased 13 x 9 oven proof casserole dish or bowl.

Put the slices of bacon on the top

Bake for about 2 hours. The beans and the sauce is bubbly and about as thick as syrup.

Let stand for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Cleaning up Your Campsite

Cleaning Up Your Campsite Cleaning up your camp site is one of the most important things an outdoor enthusiast can do. There is a popular idea with campers that goes, "Leave No Trace." This means that once you leave your campsite it should look like there was nobody there and be in the state that it was before you arrived. No matter where your camp zone is located, one of the primary areas of cleanup for any site will be your fire.

Making sure your fire is extinguished is highly important as fires left burning can cause serious wild fires. If your camping site is located in a national park or even a commercial site then there will most likely be cans available to dispose of your trash. However, if you are camping in the wilderness then this becomes a much bigger issue. No matter what you unpack, it should all be packed back up when it is time to go.

Junk removal is highly important when camping as any waste left over can disrupt nature.

To make cleanup even easier, it is wise not to take a lot of items of food into your camp site. There are a lot of great appliances out there that will make food preparation easy for you when out in the wild. Instead of bringing a bunch of snacks, an experienced hunter can gather his own food and then use a manual meat grinder to make a meal that can be cooked over your camp fire.

Either way, it is up to us as campers to cleanup after ourselves. Respecting nature is important to preserving it and ensuring that these campsites will be available in the future.