Campfire Cuisine: Gourmet Recipes for the Great Outdoors (Paperback)

~ (Author) "You may feel overwhelmed at the thought of equipping a gourmet camping kitchen, but you'll be surprised at how easy it is..." (more)
Key Phrases: leaving room for heat, large ziplock bag, ethnic food aisle, Garlic-Herb Butter, Midday Meals, Table of Condiments (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Campers will wax rhapsodic about sleeping outdoors, breathing clean air, and communing with nature, all the while eating unhealthy, unsatisfying foods. Campfire Cuisine is here to ensure that you won't have to eat hot dogs and baked beans any longer.

This illustrated cookbook features more than 100 simple but inspired recipes for meals that can be cooked at a campsite all made from fresh foods, without any prepared or freeze-dried ingredients. Enjoy recipes such as Spicy Orange Chicken, Grilled Steak Tacos, Bourbon-Glazed Salmon, Lemony Couscous Salad, Cinnamon Baked Bananas, and more!

With Campfire Cuisine's practical guidance on meal planning, cooking, and equipment selection, it's easy to eat well while reveling in the great outdoors.

About the Author

Robin Donovan is a food and travel writer as well as an experienced camper. Her work has appeared in Cooking Light, Fitness, and the San Jose Mercury News.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Quirk Books (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594740852
• ISBN-13: 978-1594740855
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #247,405 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For both the hardened camper and the novice; for the camping trip and the backyard grill; for the basics and the super-spreads, August 6, 2006

By	Jessica Lux (Rosamond, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book received high marks from me before I even opened it--it has a compact format and a sturdy paperback cover, perfect for packing in your camping gear without excess weight or bulk. By compact, I am referring only to the cover dimensions; this is a thick recipe-packed book that is well worth the cover price.

Campfire Cuisine prefaces the recipes with essential opening chapters on the basic cooking equipment needed (plus some optional upgrades), how to choose a campstove, basic storage and packing rules, fire-starting tips and rules, and menu planning. A novice will glean all they need to know about outdoor cooking in these chapters, but even the most experienced camper/outdoor griller is bound to pick up a few extra tips and tricks.

The bulk of the book consists of recipes for condiments, marinades, snacks, breakfasts, light meals, dinner entrees, desserts, and side dishes. Most have streamlined ingredients and directions on how to do as much prep work as possible before embarking on the camping trip. I was struck by how this book can be interpreted at any level. I'm a fairly basic campfire chef who likes to keep her friends happy without too much legwork, and I have picked out dozens of simple but delicious recipes from this collection. If you are a super-chef who wants to entertain and dazzle at the campfire, you can ride this book full-hilt and create awe-inspiring spreads at the campstove.

Don't limit this book just to camping trips! You can dazzle your friends in your backyard with all of these ideas, and in fact, that's how I envision myself using it most.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best cookbook for camping available, June 12, 2007

By	H.M. Fonseca (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

Many years ago I went on my first camping trip with my husband. We entered beautiful Big Sur with everything we thought we needed; a tent, sleeping bag, camp stove and some propane. I forgot to bring food. I didn't even have a can opener. If only "Campfire Cuisine" had been available back then. The first two chapters cover all the gear and cooking supplies you need to bring and how to plan meals for the trip.

I love to cook. I love camping. This book really brings the two together. The usual camp cookbook recipe ingredients like bisquick, frozen tater-tots and canned mushrooms are completly absent. The author instead relies upon planning, at-home preparation, and careful packing to take the place of processed convenience products.

"Campfire Cuisine" is filled with delicious recipes most of which use a camp stove or grill. (Unfortunately there are no recipes for dutch oven cooking.) The recipes are fun without being really fussy. The "Fish cooked with curried couscous" (page128) is wonderful without being weird. Even my kids liked it! The whole thing cooks in tin foil on the grill. No clean up! The "grilled flatbread pizza" (page156) calls for lavash bread instead of pizza dough. Of course the next day that same lavash can be used for one of the many varieties of "Aram sandwiches" (page 88). There honestly isn't a recipe in here that I wouldn't try. But I do like trendy food and I like to try new things. If you like more basic food then this book might not be for you.

As for the book's design, I can see where someone who has poor eyesight would have a problem reading the book. It's printed in olive green and orange on white. I think the author wanted the book to be small enough to pack for a camping trip, so the type is really small. The content is so good though that the book is still worthwhile.

After fifteen years of looking for a great camping cookbook I finally found it. If you like to cook and want a book that will make the meals on your next camping trip really shine, then this book is for you.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what we expected., March 1, 2007

By	P. Sallmen (Murfreesboro, TN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My wife received this book as a gift from my mother after I recommended it to her. The recipes are much more elaborate that what we were looking for. They contain numerous ingredients, many of which are not our common staples. This alone make this book unsuitable for our style of camping. The directions do encourage at home preparation, but this, again, was not what we were looking for. We want to be able to use fewer ingredients, prepare on site, and still make delicious, appetizing meals in the great out doors! We'll keep looking.