I saw an interesting couple of posts on the FB owners group recently about cooking options and some product recommendations that I thought I would share with you here. It’s funny because this was our first major disaster on our inaugural trip (click here for the story of when we my husband almost blew up the camper) so I’m guessing it might be a thing other people want some information on! And please note that, while I am an affiliate on Amazon and will get some infinitesimally small amount of money if you buy through the link I share, I am only sharing products that we use or that people in the group have posted that they like.
Campfire cooking
Man do we love a campfire - and there is something great about cooking over one! I’m not just talking s’mores either. There is something special about cooking a meal over an open flame at your campsite. Here is my list of things that we have in the camper to get going with the food as quickly as possible.
Cast iron - This is the only way to cook on a campfire! We travel with two - a flat bottom skillet and a dutch oven and these are all we need to make our meals. Here is a link to a Lodge package with both. Their family has been making cookware since the late 1800s and their foundries are in Tennessee so you can feel good about buying American-made.
Aluminum foil - I have a phobia of running out so we travel with a couple of rolls (and I’ve got a spare one squirreled away in case of an emergency). It is handy for making hobo pouches that you can put right on the fire, for covering the skillet after it’s come off the fire but you aren’t quite ready to eat (like, never happens to us, but it could), and to wrap up anything you don’t finish to be eaten another day. I like the extra-wide rolls so that I can double it up for those hobo pouches.
Cutting board - An easy one to overlook, right? But yes, you want to keep one in your HC1 (but the HCT comes with one).
A kettle - yup, you read that right. My husband is English and if he doesn’t have about 20 cups of tea a day, he is a wretch. We have this one - it is beautiful and it has lasted for years. Pro tip - I use the left over hot water in the kettle to clean the dishes.
And of course you need cooking utensils. We travel with a spatula (my husband tells me they call this a fish slice in England which makes absolutely no sense so let’s just call it a burger flipper), a rubber spatula, a couple of spoons for stirring stuff in the dutch oven & a few good knives.
And about building that campfire... remember that most state and national campgrounds do not want you to bring your own firewood into the site due to the risk of bringing in critters that can decimate the forest, so buy at the camp store before you head to your site.
Camp Stove
When my husband almost blew up the camper on our first trip (it never gets old), we needed a quick solution to cooking until we could figure things out with the stove that came with our HC1 so we headed to a Walmart and bought this Coleman, two-burner model which burns propane. Happier Camper offers this mini one, which is super cute and stylish - I wish they came in colors to match the campers! And they are offering this one as well, which is a standard size. We eventually got this Iwatani, which has also been recommended on the FB group and burns butane and not propane. I actually have no idea why we bought the Iwatani after already having the Coleman… I think it was one of those things where I thought we might want to have a single burner to use instead of a double?
We usually set this up on a picnic table if we are at a campsite and use it to heat water for my husband’s tea kettle, please see above.
On the HCT built-in stove
Back in 2016, Happier Camper offered a kitchenette that took 2 cubes space on the adaptiv floor. I don’t think they offer it anymore - it was really big, but it was also really cool. It had a built in 2-burner stove top and a sink, plus a drawer for the dometic fridge (one of our FB members travels with this one and loves it. It can run off of AC or DC power and if you aren’t really sure what that means, check out the Power Article). I would say that having the ability to cook in the camper is really convenient, particularly in bad weather, but we don’t do it all that often as we prefer to have a campfire going to cook on.
Something completely different
Ok - this just got posted to the group and it is SO cute!!!! It is a 3 in 1 Nostalgia so you can make coffee while you use the griddle and toaster oven. The retro styling is perfect for an HC1 or an HCT! It does require AC power so depending on the type of camping you do, it may not be all that useful. But it looks so cool I just had to share!
Have any other cooking gear that you can’t live without? Share in the Comments below!