Last weekend, for the long weekend, our family joined a bunch of friends for a group camping trip to Sandbanks. My husband is not a camper, so I had to reach way back to my girl guide days, and pull out a few tricks!
Before we went I made these fun fire starters. You begin with an empty cardboard egg carton (not styrofoam, they’d be toxic to burn), add old dryer lint, and cover in wax. They worked great.
You just let the wax dry, break them into 12 individual cups, and light the cardboard corner to start your fire.
We went to Sandbanks Provincial park. I had never been there before, and it was beautiful. Despite the cold water, the kids had a great time the first day playing at the very sandy beach.
And the second day we all went to the sand dunes together, they were awesome. There was a hard core bocce ball tournament, and some pretty serious swimming, and playing in the sand too.
All that play made everyone hungry! A highlight of the trip for me was some of the fun outdoor cooking we did. Our friends made tin foil dinners.
They were filled with various versions of potatoes, veg, and meat to make a complete meal. The very first version of t.v. dinners? sans the t.v.
Chicken with tomato, and potatoes, mushrooms and carrots -yum!
One family used a tin pie plate as the base of their dinner, clever!
Over at my site, we were making baked potatoes, and corn-on-the-cob over the fire. Well, actually the potatoes are all wrapped up in foil and in the fire, amongst the coals. They didn’t burn at all and were delicious!
Dinner was delicious, supplemented with a few roasted hotdogs for some of the 11 kids that we had between the 6 families.
The coolest meal -by far was the bacon and eggs in a paper bag. The last time I did this I was about 12 camping with the girl guides, but it was just as much fun at 30 something!
You start out with a regular old brown paper lunch bag. Using thick slice bacon, you rub down your bag a little, and line the bottom of the bag -takes about 3-4 slices. Then you crack your egg on top, add a little s & p, and fold down the top of the bag.
Then you put a stick through the top and hold it over some hot coals for about 10 min. until it’s cooked!
Mine turned out great!
There were a few, shall we say, “mishaps”. Don’t get it near a flame or the top will catch on fire!
But he still ate it! Such a good sport!
Try it on your next camping trip. Hope you had a good long weekend too. Long weekend + great friends + lots of fun + great food = life is a party!
Find even more great camping ideas in our new Camping Gallery!
Nice pictures. I especially like the trillium.
Reply
Looks like a lot of fun Dannyelle! What awesome food ideas! The pics turnedout great.
Kim:)
Reply
Love LOVE the picture of “the mishap” – made me laugh out loud.
He is a good sport!
Reply
Did you use candle wax for the egg carton fire starters? I’ve seen paraffin wax used, but I only have candle wax. Thanks.
Reply
Hi Jill, I think either kind of wax should work fine. Good luck with them.
Dannyelle.
Reply
When I first looked at the picture it looked like a styrofoam egg carton and I thought ‘OH NO’. Then when I opened up the site I saw it was a cardboard egg carton. Have not seen those for years here at the Convent. I think it would be better to mention ‘carddboard egg carton’ NOT STYROFOAM’, because the fumes are VERY toxic. A lot of people don’t realize this. I see styrofoam pieces, especially drinking cups, left in fire pits a lot.
Reply
Hi Sister Miriam,
Definately only cardboard, in fact I haven’t seen a styrofoam egg carton since I was a kid…guess it just depends on where you live. I’ll edit the post with your suggestion. Thanks so much, and happy camping.
Dannyelle
Reply
This is nice except using egg cartons uses up precious space. Try putting them in a zip lock bag and squeezing the air out…you’ll get more in the bag than the egg carton.
Candle wax is nice especially if you use the scented candles.
Reply
DNR there are still Styrofoam cartons around every where.
Reply
Hi Kat,
I guess it really just depends on where you live, we don’t have them where I live anymore.
Best of luck with the fire starter.
Dannyelle
Reply
What we have done on some camping trips with a bunch of people, is make (sounds bad ) Barf in a Bag. these are omelets where each individual puts the egg and what ever other else you like such as Cheese, Onions, green onions, chunks of dry bread,Bacon bits, salt and pepper into a Ziplock Bag and then put the bag into boiling water and when cooked you just roll it out of the bag onto your plate, Great Fun
Reply