MOORE MOMENTUM 2024

Cooking Smart By Joey Slayton

"Meals prepared and enjoyed outdoors are good for the soul."

"Cooking and eating food outdoors makes it taste infinitely better than the same meal prepared and consumed indoors.” Fennel Hudson, Fine Things: Fennel’s Journal No. 8

Appetizer

Many days we are faced with the “what’s for dinner?” question. It is a main course of indecision surrounded by a side of angst and a dessert of silence It is funny how often we find ourselves in this situation.

Preparation is key to being a highly regarded camp chef. We figure out how long we will be gone, hammer out a menu, pick up items, fill the fridge, and we are ready to go.

When preparing meals, I start with questions. How many breakfasts, lunches and dinners will there be? Will I want to slave over a hot stove? Will I want to cook every meal? What about a picnic? I then move to proteins and think how to surround the main dish with amazing sides.

Once you have all these set in place, make your shopping list. When you return home, prep what you can. Marinate and/or season accordingly Put meals together in Gallon Freezer bags placing in fridge to stay organized. For me, the actual cooking of the meal is the fun, while the prep work is just like it says work Get ahead of the game and narrow it down to what is enjoyable.

Cajun Sausage Pineapple Bites

Ingredients

Cajun Sausage/Kielbasa, pineapple, toothpicks, seasoning.

Directions - Slice sausage into 1/2" rounds and brown with a tsp of oil on medium hot grill or skillet. Cut pineapple into chunks. When sausage is brown, place pineapple on toothpick (top) and then sausage (bottom) and stand up. Dust with sweet/spicy seasoning.

Main Course

Let’s be honest, we love cooking and eating outside. If you did not, you most likely would not be this far into this article and would have moved on to look at cool rig pics I get that I do that too. But I also love to eat and that’s why I cook. It is a vicious cycle. What keeps most from enjoying their time is they try and do too much Even though I religiously watch cooking competitions, I am not out to impress any judges. I just want to eat good food, so let’s keep it simple - elevating simple dishes to make them taste good.

Buy it small. Find individual packets to save on leftovers and having to store unused items.

Buying pre-cooked items will save time, space, and conserve cooking fuel.

Prep as much before heading to camp This will give you less time doing tedious work and more time enjoying the campfire and visiting with friends

Make things you have already made before. Do your practice at home and then you will be able to modify whatever you need to in order to create the perfect meal

Easy Pasta Grill

Ingredients

Pre-cooked pasta (in Asian section of supermarket, the key is the pasta being already cooked.)

Your favorite Asian sauce

Your choice of veggies (I love carrots, onion or shallots, poblano peppers, cherry tomatoes, arugula)

Your choice of meat (pork chops, pork loin, chicken, steak or shrimp all work well) The key is the pasta being already cooked

Directions - Brown meat in skillet or Skottle (small amount of oil), mix in veggies until done, add amount of sauce you like Add in pasta for about 2 minutes and then done! Serve with fire toasted baguette or your favorite bread.

Desserts

Desserts are some of the most fun and draw the most attention at camp. Whether you pull out the Dutch oven, the pop-up Coleman Oven or try out the new Omnia Oven, you are likely to draw a crowd from those waiting around the campfire. They smell good, warm the soul, and tease the palette into satisfaction just before it is time to retire for a long night’s rest Desserts are fun for me since I have learned how to make easy ones. It has taken a few years of practice and about a million TikTok videos to figure out which ones are easiest and bring the most smiles from those at camp. Whether you are cooking for 2 or 20, you can find one, practice and perfect it so that you are the Dessert Hero and deemed Camp Chef.

Better than Peach Pie

Ingredients:

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal

two cans Peaches

White Cake Mix

Pecan pieces

1 stick butter

Directions: Place about 1-/2 inch of Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal in a Dutch oven. Cover with 2 cans of peaches with syrup Cover with 1 box of White Cake Mix and pecans (do not mix). Slice one stick of butter thin and cover completely. Disperse coals evenly top and bottom of oven Cook until the top becomes golden brown. Enjoy.

Follow Joey on instagram at @BrofessorAdventures