Hamburgers over the Fire

Hamburgers over the Fire

At our last campsite we had a wonderful round firepit. There was also a stand alone heavy metal grill. It was in good shape. But, I wanted to cook over the fire pit. I also did not want to have to clean the grill, not that it would have taken much, but I just did not want to do it. I would also have had to move hot coals up to the grill or started a fire/charcoal there. Noway! I had a lovely fire and tons of heat and so I was bound and determined to cook in the fire pit.

I did come prepared for fire pit cooking. We brought a grill plate from our home's gas grill. And I had found a wonderful planter pot holder ($1.00) made of heavy steal. So pairing them up, we had a great place to grill our burgers and anything else we would want.

Of course in any make-do situation, not all the pieces fit perfectly together. The grill has a bar that rests on top of the planter and so it can twirl a bit, but once you know this, you can make sure to keep it straight. I could even wire them together and there would be no more twirling/moving when I go to turn the burgers. However, the one thing that drew me to the planter was the double holes in it. I bet you could put two cooking pots in there and cook up soup and boiling water for corn. Or anything else..........

Also, here is my trusty fire tongs. My kids and Hubby know when I ask for fire tongs, this is what I mean. I had to add a make-do wire to hold them together, I guess the one they came with broke. I can't remember for sure, but I know I made the current wire slidy thing. I also had to wrap wire around the bottom joint as half of the rivet has come out and was lost. We lost the wire when this photo was taken, but I found it later and rewired it. I am going to put a screw in the joint one-of-these-days, then it will even be better.

The other great tool is my stainless pancake turner. I have written about it before, but not in a camping setting. I found it for .50 or .75 cents at the Thrift store and I love it! Easy clean up, heavy duty, strong, longer handle, and on and on and on......

I did grease my grill with my trusty bacon grease, and my pork/turkey burgers did not stick at all. They turned out fabulous. Very little cleanup to be done on the my grill- I have to love that!

The sad thing about this day was the hamburger buns. I had a package in the trailer fridge from our last campout. They looked fine, but boy did they have a smell. They must have soaked up something else's smell because they made the burgers taste/smell weird. I did not realize the buns smelled until I was putting the food away.

My Hubby said to please not make burgers with pork and turkey again, because he didn't like the smell. I was agreeing with him and thought it was the burgers smelled. I know the meat smelled fine when I made them, so I was a bit confused. But as I was cleaning up, I realized it was the smelly bun that he/we did not want to have repeated.

So someday, I will try the same burgers and we will decide then whether I can make them a third time. None of us died from eating the smelly buns, but we tossed them and used the new ones later. I also taught my kids to ask me to check the buns if they noticed a smell.

But as you can guess, they said they didn't notice a smell------------ "really?" I said, "you won't be in trouble......... this is a learning experience.......... are you sure you didn't notice anything?"
"Sure, we are sure mom............ really!" They both chime in. I can't read them, are they fibbing or it is the truth?
"OK, but next time, try to notice if something smells," I admonish.
"Yeah, OK, we'll check," they say.
"Yeah,............. right, OK." I am sure they will next time. It was funny, because neither kid said a thing about the buns. However my little Angel didn't want to eat hers. That day she was feeling vegetarian. Yeah, right................ well she does this once in a while. I think she was loaded up on snacks. That is like her................. 'nuf said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Return to Ann's Blog for the Food on Fridays carnival and find more posts that might be

anything remotely related to food.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Check out my other posts for these meme's:

Keeping Pen and Notebook Together

 



Keeping Pen and Notebook Together

I hate it when my pen gets separated from my notebook!  So I had to take measures to prevent this from happening any more.

I grabbed the trusty Duct tape and fashioned a pocket to the front of my notebook.  It doesn't look so smart/snappy, but it works.  Everyone around me knows that if they borrow my pen from it's special pocket they must return it or it creates a Mommy Monster that they would rather not awaken~~!!!!


I also added ribbon book marks, they help me find my today's stuff really fast.  I usually mark my notes for camping and the page that I put my notes for the next trip on.  This past camping trip was really great, we only missed a couple of things that would have made the days away a bit better.  So I jotted them down and next time we will try not to forget them.  Things like Dad's pillow!  We shuffled things around and everyone ended up with something for their head.  (I am actually going to put a permanent pillow in the trailer for Dad.  This is the second time he has missed bringing his, this year.  It is on the list.  The kids each have one in there already.  I like to bring my favorite one from by bed at home.)

On my old notebook I put a pencil holder.  So far I have not had the need for a pencil in this book, but rest assured if I feel the need, I will add one.  Adding a pocket is Easy Peasy and so handy.


1. Get your Duct tape, scissors, etc. together.  I am working with Giant wide tape.  This is not as easy as working with the regular sized roll.  But it is what I had on hand and easily accessible.

2. Decide what size your pocket needs to be.   On a regular size roll, I am sure I would have had just the right width.
(For a larger item, you might have to overlap more than one piece of tape to get the size you need.)

3. Take a piece of duct tape and place it upside down- sticky side up. This piece will be the piece that sticks to your base.  It will need to be larger than the piece you had cut to fit your item, in my case my item is the small notecards.  (used to be business cards)

4. Then place the piece of tape that you cut for your item sticky side down- on the sticky side up piece. I left a tiny bit at the top that I folded down to make a nice clean, non-sticky edge.  I could have done a bit more trimming on both pieces before I put the pieces together, but for some reason I was not in perfection mode. 

5. Then I checked to make sure that everything looked right.

6. Tape pocket to your base, making sure to leave ample wiggle room for your pen, or object.  Not too much room that it will fall out, but enough that you can slide your object in and out.  Here I have just set the tape on the book for placement. 

7. I removed my notecards and then I smoothed down the tape and reinforced the top edges.

8. Enjoy the satisfaction that you will not/ should not loose your object, ever!  I wish I had some other colors of duct tape, but maybe some day.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Then make more as needed!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for visiting with me today and leave me a comment if you have the time.

Now jump back to Ann's site for more ideas.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Check out my other posts for these meme's:

Jiffy Pop Popcorn Pan

Jiffy Pop Popcorn Pan

So my wonderful Pilot wanted to try some Jiffy Pop.  We hadn't had any since the kids were really little and they did not know how the popcorn could work in the Jiffy pan.  So they made it at home.  Well me being on the look for make-do's and creativeness, confiscated the pan before it could hit the garbage.

I washed it and took it apart to find out how it was made.  It is made out of heavy aluminum foil, and wire.  It really is a pie tin whose top lip is wrapped over a wire circle that loops out into the handle.  I removed all the cardboard from the label and now I have a cute mini fry pan.

I used it mostly for sliding hotdogs or other things off the roasting sticks.  In the photo are some beef stick ends that we roasted for the fun of it.  They got quite crispy and tasted good.  I did not end up using it much, because it does not have a nice non-stick surface like my cast iron.

I will probably be incorporating it into a charcoal fire starter, that I will be making.  I am not sure at this moment what style I will be making.  I do know that I need a new one.  So maybe next time up at camp, I will make one. 

In any case, I find it a challenge to find a use for garbage.  Especially garbage that is expensive!! like this one use pan from Jiffy Pop!!

Food On Fridays - Crock Pot Bacon Grease with Photos

 Bacon Grease Photos


I know you have already read my bacon grease post.
But I have some more photos of the process.
So here we go:

Here is my crockpot with the bacon pretty well cooked.  

I let this go a bit longer.

.....................................

Here I am taking the bacon out 

to put into a colander so that more grease can drip off.

.............................................

Here is the grease left in the crockpot and in the bowl the colander dripped into.

.........................................

My two packages of raw bacon has been reduced to 5 bags 

and tossed into the freezer.  

Now if I can keep from snitching from them!  I love bacon!!  

However, the smell as I was rendering them got to be too much even for me.  

I had heard that before and I thought somebody was up in the night!  

But the smell, even good, was powerful and made me feel a bit nauseous.  I was thinking of doing this outside, in the garage, or when I'm gone.  Doing it at night has worked for me before.  But daytime, when I am in the house?  Not again!

................................

Here is my main first stash.  

It is a nice $1.00 crock from the Thrift Store.  I filled it full.  I will keep this one in the fridge.

......................................................

 This is my second container.  

This one is probably going to go in the trailer.  With a moose on it seems appropriate. 

..............................

So there you have some more photos of my process.  It really does take care of itself.  Any spattering is caught on the crockpot lid and then cleaned in the dishwasher.  Easy peasy.  The crockpot is easy to clean and any excess that I don't want to keep is thrown in the trash.  Then the crock is cleaned and put back in its base.  For me, it just couldn't be any easier.

Also, you might have noticed that the bacon seems to be quite limp.  Yes it is.  However a quick fry in the frying pan makes the pieces crispy.  I usually don't do that.  I will chop the meat up pretty fine so that the flavor is distributed in my food.  This works for me.

I like to add some to my baked beans, also done in the crockpot.  There is less grease in my beans, but the flavor is there.

I add finely chopped bits to salads, eggs, casseroles, soups- anything where bacon is called for.

I have bought pre-cooked bacon in 3 pound packages before.  Nice flat strips of bacon.  Man were they nice.  We used to get them for like $5.00 a package.  Then they caught on and now you pay through the nose for them and rarely find a 3 pound package.  They problem I have with this bacon is that I love to grab a piece or 10 and eat them right out of the package!!!

True confessions of a snack-o-holic!!  (Chocolate being the worst!)  So I have to be very careful with having bacon in the house.  So far, (knock-on-wood), I am doing well and not eating (snacking/grazing) on the bacon.  But then I have been out camping and the bacon has been here at the house!!!  Where is my support group when I need them?  WAIT!  I don't have a support group!   I hope I am not heading for disaster!  But it will taste wonderful won't it?  Now I am rambling on....................... So sorry.....................

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Return to Ann's Blog for the Food on Fridays carnival and find more posts 

that might be

anything remotely related to food.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Check out my other posts for these meme's:

Oldies, but Goodies

I won't have time to get to my Make-Do today.

So if you feel so inclined you can browse through my past ones here:

Jump back to Ann's Make-Do Mondays for more Ideas



Thanks for visiting.

.