cmp-ckng-bags-art - 3/11/10 Camp cooking using boil-in bags for quick meals and quick cleanup. NOTE: See also the files: bag-cooking-msg, caldron-cookg-msg, canning-msg, Camp-Cooking-art, M-Camp-Cookng-art, campfood-msg, cook-ovr-fire-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ From: Elizabeth Crouchet Date: February 3, 2010 1:37:09 AM CST To: "Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." Subject: [Ansteorra] Feeding yourselves with out living in a kitchen at war Some people like to cook, some people like to cook at camping events. These are not always the same people. Here is how to cook for yourself and not have lots of clean up/prep at war. Make your food ahead of time, freeze it solid, seal in a bag and take to war in ice chest. Thaw until hot in boiling water in a large pot. Serve on paper plates with real utensils and use real mugs for coffee etc. Use the hot water to clean up the few dishes, wash hands and such  after dinner.  Dispose of paper dishes and bags in trash. One dish meals work for this. Casseroles, stews and such. You can also do a hearty meal with steamed veggies on the sides. Just put the uncooked frozen veggies in their own bag and boil at the same time as the main dish.  The main dish could be previously grilled sausages or chicken breasts or such. Serve with breads. A cobbler for dessert (and another serving of fruit) can be placed into the boiling water after dinner is hot and can be heating while you eat dinner. We have done this many times. The dinner duties include acquiring and heating the water. Locating the appointed dinner. Tossing it in the pot. Finding the sides and serving ware. Waiting for the dinner to get hot all way through. Cut, serve and eat. Easy duties for even the least talented cook in the camp. For finicky diners, meals can be single servings of what each likes. For group meals, stews and such can be put in one or two bags to heat through,. Frozen they help keep the rest of the week's food frozen. Place the early week stuff on one end of the cooler and the later stuff on the other end with some dry ice. Ice can be added as needed, if needed and since all food is sealed it won't get waterlogged. Chili is great with the cheese and other condiments on the side. Spaghetti sauce works well, but the noodles do better cooked on site or they get mushy but are not hard to clean  up after and don't have to be refrigerated. Casseroles work great. Enchiladas work, corn chips and salsa on side store well. Stews work, if you want you can serve in bread bowls but bread only keeps a few days. Sausages and grilled chicken work well, with hot or cold side dishes. A different fruit cobbler each meal is great. Premade egg and stuff can be frozen then boiled in bags and served on tortillas for breakfast. Sausage in a blanket works well. Precooked Sausage patties served with biscuits warmed up on a griddle with some cheese are nice. Hot oatmeal, made a home just a little undercooked, and boiled in a bag. Add your favorite toppings. Always have a pot of hot drinking water for teas, coffee, chocolate, etc. And since this is all so easy to do, no one has an excuse not to 'make' a meal. I live in a camp full of fighters and when I started fighting myself, that left no one to take care of us so we found a way for all to take care of all. And we never spend a lot of time cooking AT the war. We just heat, eat and run. We get to the parties sooner! And we don't bite each others heads off waiting for dinner. First one back to camp puts the water on and we eat about as soon as we get cleaned up and changed for the evening. It makes the war pleasant for all. If you want advice on the particulars and maybe some recipes, please email me off list. Claire Edited by Mark S. Harris cmp-ckng-bags-art 3 of 3