Wednesday, July 31, 2013

How to do Glamping

It's all over Pinterest...Glamping.  Glamorous Camping.

This is often interpreted by the person doing the glamping, but basically it involves taking bathtubs with you to your campsite, candles, gauzy fabric, doilies and a tricked out 1950's camper that you have glamped out with vintage inspired curtains, lots of cushions and cutesie touches that add an air of comfort to your camp out.

I asked The Mister if I could bring a bathtub with us camping this last weekend, and if he would kindly heat water over the fire and fill it up so I could enjoy a bath in the wilderness complete with bathsalts, a frothy beverage and a nice book...let's just say the answer was no.

So, let me show you how I do glamping.

Glamping for me is all about ease of camping.  When I camp, I want to do minimal cook prep-work and minimal clean up afterwards.  So what's a girl to do?

Do whatever I can to prep food the day before we leave.

1.  Homemade veggie dip.  Just buy the sour cream, the packet of dressing and mix them up and put them back in the sour cream tub.

2.  Par-cook a pile of potatoes.  Potatoes take a long time to cook, so if you give them a quick 4 or 5 minutes in boiling water, you will be rewarded with time.  I just sliced and par-cooked.  Then I was ready to put them in the tin foil dinners and for home-fries for breakfast...or breakfast burrito...or...well, there are lots of options with potatoes.

3.  Dice an onion.  Again, to be used for many things.  For me, the onion was going in my tin-foil dinners and my potato salad.  It seems an easy thing to dice an onion, but not while camping.

4.  Mince some garlic.  Yup.  That too.

5.  Cook the veggies for the potato salad I made, thanks Sweet Little Bluebird Here's what I did: I had all the potatoes in the same pot.  When the ones I was par-cooking were done, I just scooped them out, put them in ice, and kept the rest of the potatoes at a boil, dumped in the green beans and let them finish cooking for another 10 minutes or so.  I waited until we were eating the potato salad to put the onions and garlic and dressing all together.

6.  Slice up a melon.

7.  Slice up cucumbers to eat with said dip.

Bag everything up, all ready to go.  You will be so much happier to just reach into the cooler and grab out whatever you need, no knife required! It might be a good idea to double bag the onions...they can be a bit pungent.

Pre-make your tin foil dinners, people!!  I loved this.  Here's what I did, now I have 4 people to feed as well as whoever was going to mosey over and want a bite of what I made, so I made plenty.

1.5 lbs ground chuck
carrots, chopoped
par-boiled potatoes, sliced
onions, diced
1 C. rice, boiled
Worcestershire Sauce
Lipton Onion Soup Mix
4 Tbl. Butter
Salt and Pepper

Lay out 4 very large rectangles of tin foil.  Ready and waiting.  Combine the chuck and rice in a bowl.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Form into meatballs and place evenly on the foil.  Throw on the carrots, potatoes and onions, as much as sounds tasty.  Sprinkle on some Worcestershire sauce over everything, 1/4 of the soup mix and 1 Tbl. butter cut into smaller pieces.

Fold up neatly.

Place packets into zipper bag, safe and sound until you have some blazing coals ready to cook your dinner, then cook for approximately 45 minutes until the meat is done.

Yup, I don't even want to mix the pancake batter because that means a big bowl to clean.

Also bring plenty of beverages for you, your kids and anybody who wanders over to your campsite eager for a drink.  Also, lots of snacks!!  Fresh air makes everybody hungrier.  Jerky, grapes, pita chips and hummus all makes for a tasty treat.  We designate one cooler for food and one cooler for drinks, that way we're not constantly opening the cooler with the food, so it stays at a safe temperature.

And finally...the most important thing to bring glamping...

Bug spray.  And lots of it.  Nobody is happy if they're being nibbled on by insects.

So, no bathtub for me, but R&R and minimal cleaning makes Heather a happy Glamper.

Thanks for reading.

Shared here:
Kitchen Table Art


Heather

9 comments:

  1. I've never embraced camping. But if I ever do, I'm just bringing you along. :)

    -andi

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  2. Fresh air does make everyone hungry. :) Great tips you've shared here!

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  3. Okay glamp sister, you've got it goin' on!! Great tips for getting those meals ready ahead of time because, as you said, who wants to be dicing and slicing? Love your ideas, I hope I can get a trip in so that I can put them to good use :)

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  4. Well you're a great camping buddy to have...pity about the bath but seriously I can't imagine being in the outback with all the red dirt and pretty linens!

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  5. What great tips. Just a matter of taking some time before you leave so you can enjoy more of your camping experience. Though, the bathtub scenario sounds really good :)

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  6. Time is a great reward when camping! You've shared some great ways to get it Heather. I dream of a 50's camper with cute curtains. Don't think a bathtub will fit in it! AND...I want purple potatoes!

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  7. I love your great tips Heather. That dinner in a bag sounds yum too. I havnt camped in 10 years - yikes!~

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  8. Heather these are awesome tips! My husband and I have been camping a few times and he is so good and makeing sure we have all the comforts of home :) The last time we went we did the same tinfoil dinners you mentioned above and then even had sausage eggs and grits in the morning. If you back it all right you can eat better than at the house!!

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  9. I will camp through your posts instead!!! You make it sound like so much fun. Plus I figure I put my time in when the kids were little! But I will forward this on to my sister who loves to camp. These are great ideas and I could even use them at home! Happy weekend Heather...and Happy Spring!

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Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Love ya! XOXOXO

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