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Campfire Dessert – Roasted Strawberries

Okay all you happy campers out there – I have to share this campfire treat that is so much better than marshmallows (and I love me a few marshmallows burned over a campfire!).

We were at Young Women Beehive camp last week and roasted wieners wrapped in Pillsbury dough strips for dinner. I thought they tasted so much better than regular hot dogs! Anyway, we had lots of strips of dough left over, so Sis. F. went and got the strawberries we were going to have for breakfast, and invented this:

Strawberries wrapped in dough and roasted over the fire. They were soooo delicious! They best way I can describe it would be: it tastes like a little bite of warm strawberry pie on a stick. You have got to try this!!!

When I went camping with my family a few days later, we made them too.

Here’s how to create these tasty morsels:

Cut your dough in strips (ignore the Pillsbury lines in the dough). I believe it was the Crescent Rolls we used. Wrap your strawberry well. We learned a few tips as we went along:

– strawberries like to turn on the stick as they get heated, so use some dough to anchor the top and bottom of each strawberry to the stick.

– pinch the ends of your dough to other dough on your strawberry, or it may unwrap as it cooks.

Roasting time depends on how hot your fire is, or how high you hold it. But it cooks pretty quickly. Once the dough isn’t doughy, it’s done!

Give it a moment to cool down and then enjoy!!!

And if you don’t have dough, even just plain roasted strawberries was delicious. And so are grapes, and pickles – just not together! We found these dollar store sticks worked best for the strawberries because you could easily bend the wire ends to fit your strawberry. Having it anchored on two sides was so much better for roasting, but a little trickier to wrap the dough around.I love a little charcoal on my campfire cooking!

If you weren’t a happy camper before, you will be now!!!

Or maybe you don’t have to camp at all – backyard fire pits are perfect for roasting these beauties too! Enjoy!!!

(Edited to add: This year we discovered that roasted cherries are delicious too – either with the pit, or not. My guy liked to cut a cherry in half and remove the pit then embed it inside a marshmallow, and roast it that way. The somewhat sour cooked cherry mixed with the sweet marshmallow was a fantastic flavour combination.

Another new treat was roasted mandarin orange segments. They don’t need long over the fire but the outside turned crisp, and the inside tasted like sweet warm thick juice. Let it cool down a minute before you bite into its deliciousness!)

Chocolate Pretzel Treats

End of school rolls around and suddenly I have three kids who need treats for the parties they’re having in their band classes. Why couldn’t they play the instruments that are assigned to bring a bag of chips?

Then, suddenly, I remembered something wonderful!!! I remembered that I had pinned something on Pinterest that would be perfect for class parties. You can check that post out here at How Does She. And you really should check it out because she uses Rolos instead of Macaroons and has other yummy ideas too.

The first step is to find a slave willing helper to place all the pretzels on the cookie sheet.

Next you’ll want to give your baby a pretzel so she doesn’t grab some from the perfectly placed pretzel platter. (Skip this step if you don’t have a baby.)

Then you place a chocolate of your choice on each pretzel. Notice I have two different kinds of Macaroons. The light coloured ones I bought but then ran out. So I had to raid my food storage stash where I happen to have a case or two of Macaroons (must have comfort food in storage, and nothing is more comforting than chocolate and coconut!!!).

Okay, this should be the first step – set your oven clock to 8:29 and your oven temperature to 350 degrees. You’re gonna pop these trays in the oven for about three minutes – just enough time to get the chocolate soft, but not completely melted. To save energy, I suggest you might want to do this when you’re baking something else, or you could put them out in the sun if it’s hot out – hey, a new camping recipe!!!

Gather your slaves troops to press the peanut M&M’s into the chocolate while it’s all soft and pliable.

Work fast as they cool down pretty quickly.

You could press anything on top – peanuts, almonds, skittles, smarties, gummy bears, radishes, jujubes, peas, marshmallows, etc. Do specific colours to match special occasions (like Valentine colours Smarties for Valentines Day). Oh the possibilities!!!

Aren’t they cute? And they’re delicious eaten warm or cold. I love the little bit of saltiness from the pretzels mixed with all the sweets.

Now I know what you’re wondering: how did the kids like them at the band parties? Well, Lee reported that they were the biggest hit at the grade 7 party. Min said the kids in the high school band would skeptically ask what they were. After she explained and they tried one, they kept wanting more!

Now here is the rule: You’re welcome to make these for your kids’ parties too unless I have a kid in your kids class. If that’s the case, sorry, but you’ll have to come up with your own treat!!!

Now, once again, I know what you’re wondering: that’s only two band parties, I thought you had three parties that needed treats? Well you’re right, but Jo needed a gluten free treat. But not to worry – I had another pin on Pinterest!!! This one was called Peanut Butter Corn Chip No Bake Cookies. I forgot to take pictures but you can check that out here at Skip To My Lou. Mmmm – so good!

Best Johnny Cake Ever (and Gluten Free)

I love Corn Bread and this is one of my very favourite recipes because it’s so moist. Corn bread can be rather dry at times!

Here it is before going in the oven.

Wow! Corn bread with corn in it!

(Just wondering, why is corn bread often called Johnny Cake?)

Johnny Cake

Mix together:

2 cups corn meal

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Salt

Stir in 4 eggs.

Then dump in:

2 cups Sour Cream

1 can Cream Style Corn

1/2 cup oil

Mix it all up well and pour it into a 9×13 pan. Bake at 400 for 25 minutes – or until it looks like this . . .

I usually make corn bread when we’re having soup for dinner, and hope there’s some leftover for lunch the next day. It’s especially great for my daughter who needs GF food.

If you’ve never had Johnny Cake before, I like to slice it horizontally through the middle so I have two thin slices. If I’m eating it with soup I just butter it, but if I want it as a treat I’ll put honey or jam or pancake syrup on it too (butter and honey being my first choice!). And of course you’ll want to eat it warm!

Update: I googled it and learned that they were also called journey cakes because they could be carried on long trips in saddlebags and baked along the way. Some historians think that they were originally called Shawnee cakes and that the colonists slurred the words, pronouncing it as johnny cakes.

Ambrosia Fruit Salad

In our house we call this fruit salad Ambrosia. According to Webster, ambrosia means: 1) the food of the Gods, and 2) anything that tastes or smells delicious. This fruit salad qualifies!

It’s an especially pretty salad for spring because of the pastel marshmallows. This one has some white marshmallows too – I was using up opened marshmallow packages! The truth is, I actually prefer using opened packages in this salad – the marshmallows are a little harder and last better, especially if you’re not eating it right away.

It’s super easy, delicious and has coconut in it! And I usually always have these ingredients in my food storage, so it’s easy to whip one up.

Here’s how you do it:

– 1 can pineapple tidbits (drained)

– 1 can mandarin orange pieces (drained)

– mini marshmallows (as many as you want)

– coconut (I like the long shredded stuff)

– sour cream (a couple of large spoonfuls)

And just mix it all together. If it’s too dry, add more sour cream. If it’s too wet, add some more marshmallows or coconut.

(Now, be sure to enjoy a pre-dinner drink of your pineapple/orange juice that you drained out of the cans! Or add it to your punch.)

If you want, you can easily add more fruit to this, like grapes or bananas, peaches or apple chunks. Strawberries might be okay, but I wouldn’t use kiwi or any other soft fruit that might break apart. Another option is all white marshmallows with coloured coconut. The sour cream seems to balance out the sweetness of the marshmallows and makes whatever you put in it taste great.

It tastes best if you eat it pretty soon after you’ve mixed it, although it can wait in the fridge for an hour or two if necessary. Just stir it first because the juices settle.