Move Over Camping Food! Hello PUDGY PIES

One of the best things I've done with my kids is taking them camping.  I was a little afraid the first time we went.  It was just me and my two, very young, children.  We had so much fun.  Now, 5 years later, it's the highlight of our summer when we go camping.  We load up the car with great food, bikes and scooters and a deck of cards, and we're off.

When we discovered Dough Boys I thought I had hit the jack-pot.  Then when we discovered Campfire Eclairs?  Holy heck.  I didn't think it could get any better than that.

Then my nephew told me about Pudgy Pies.  I thought he was making it up until my Dad reminded us that my Grandfather (who was a patent attorney) helped put the patent on the first pie iron.  How cool is that?  So I was determined to figure out what these were.

Are you ready for this?  This is a pie iron.

You fill it with awesome and delicious food and then cook it over the camp fire.  Easy and so simple.  And FUN!

 But look what you can make.  The possibilities are endless!

Butter the outsides of two pieces of bread (like you're making a grilled cheese sandwich.  Add whatever "inside" you want in your "pie".  My son?  Guess......  yep, spaghetti =o)

Place the other piece of bread on top (buttered side out) and place in your pudgy pie iron.

Close the pie iron.  This will squeeze off the crust (yeah!)

Remove the crust and now cook over your campfire.  You'll have to turn it often to get it golden brown on both sides.  Don't put it right in the fire but you want it pretty close.  The pie iron needs to get nice and hot.

Are you ready for this???  Voila!

You have a Spaghetti Pudgy Pie!

Now be creative!  How about a Grilled Ham and Swiss Cheese Pudgy Pie?

I think my favorite was a Bacon, Egg and Cheese Pudgy Pie.

Ready for this???

Then we tried making Pudgy Pies with Cresent Dough instead of bread.  Yowza!!!  I'm hooked!

This is what my daughter wanted for breakfast... a Bacon Filled Pudgy Pie =o)  (That's my girl!)

And for dessert?  How about a S'more Pudgy Pie?

It was delicious!  The marshmallows get all gooey and the chocolate melts and the Cresent dough cooks and it's like heaven in your mouth!

And even though this isn't technically a Pudgy Pie, guess what we discovered you could cook in a pie iron.

You guessed it!  Cinnamon Rolls cooked over a campfire.  We just took camping food to a new level!

What do you think?  We can't wait to go camping again, just to cook =o)

 

I'm linking to the parties on my sidebar.

Campfire Eclairs

One of the things I love about summer is going camping with my kids.  We've been going for the past 5 summers and we just love it.  It's one of those "I am woman, hear me roar" types of moments for me.  I'm a single Mom and have been since my kids were 1 and 3.  I told myself back then that I was going to show my kids that I was capable of doing anything and therefore, they could be too.  So we started camping.

We've gone to a couple of different camp grounds but we seem to gravitate to L.L. "Stub" Stewart State Park in Vernonia, Oregon.  We camp in cabins or yurts.  My kids want nothing to do with tents, so this limits our choices a little bit.  L.L. Stub Stewart State Park is wonderful.  It's the one time of the year (or two or three depending on how many times we go up there) that we don't have TV or electronics, my kids don't fight and we hike and talk and play games with out the distraction of "life".  I love it!  If you missed my post about camping you can find it here. 

We go hiking.

And ride our scooters.

We make campfires and poke them until we can't poke them any more =o)

We roast hot dogs and eat outdoors.

We roast marshmallows (because who can resist that?!)

And my kids play together and love on each other which makes this Mom happy!

Then on a camping trip on year we discovered Dough Boys.  Oh lord, I can't even begin to tell you how heavenly these bad boys are!  They have become my kids favorite thing to make while camping.  Yep, they even beat out s'mores!  Can you believe it?!?!  But look how delicious looking they are?  All filled with chocolate and marshmallow goodness.  Kind of like a s'more but totally pimped up!

This year I decided to do something different with our Dough Boys.  I still brought chocolate bars and mini marshmallows and toffee bits.  I couldn't leave those out.  But I also brought these:

Simple ingredients but look at the end result!

I don't even know what to say about them.  I'm speechless.  That's how awesome they were!

And they are so easy to make!  Check out how to make the sticks in this post.

Roast the dough (cresent dough, of course) over the fire. Be patient! They take a little bit of time if you want them perfect.

Slide the dough off the stick and fill the hole and let it cool for just a little while.  If you are filling with chocolate and marshmallows, you'll want it warm so everything melts all together.  But with pudding, let it cool just a bit.  Now fill the hole with pudding and put a ton little frosting on top.

Voila!  You have a campfire eclair.

I dare you to eat just one!

 

I'm linking to the parties on my sidebar.

Dough Boys - OH MY!!!

Yep, you heard me right - Dough Boys. Have you heard of them? Up until a couple of weeks ago I hadn't. And boy was I missing out (and I didn't even know it!) I always thought camping = s'mores (which, by the way, I have made all summer long!) But nope, not anymore. Now camping = dough boys! Although I want to call them Little Balls of Pure Awesomeness Filled With Even More Awesomeness. But that title is a little long. But I'll get on with it =o)


A couple of weeks ago I was camping at our favorite spot to camp, LL Stub Stewart State Park in Vernonia. (Check out the post here.) The nice folks camping next to us were making these. I had no idea what they were and to be quite honest, they looked kind of strange from afar. But I had to go check it out. I mean seriously... campire, cooking, chocolate (I could smell it miles away.) So they filled me in. Immediately I called my brother and asked if he could make me some sticks (since we had another camping trip planned only two weeks after this one.)


When I got home I got a little antsy so I asked my wonderful neighbor friends to make me some too. (Well, I actually asked if they had a drill and Kevin offered to make them for me. How sweet was that?!?!)


So he got to work...

I don't think they were too difficult to make. You get the idea right?

Here's another picture of the stick. It's just a skinnier dowel inserted into a larger dowel.

And then we wrapped that bad boy up with Pillsbury buscuit dough.

And then we roasted...

and roasted...

and roasted...

You have to be patient with this. They need to cook for about 10-15 minutes and not get all burnt on the outside and still be doughy on the inside. Patience, patience, patience!

But this is what they look like when they are finished cooking.

This is what I brought to fill them with: white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, Hersheys milk chocolate bars, M&Ms, mini marshmallows and crushed up Heath bars. YUM!!!
Put whatever you like inside and let it sit a minute. The filling melts all together and you end up with a yummy, gooey pocket of deliciousness!

My kids LOVED them!!!

The buscuit dough was pretty darn delicious but I wanted to try it with cresent dough. It was definitely different. Cresent dough is more buttery so you have to really pinch the seams together so it doesn't separate and plop into the fire. (Does it sound like I learned the hard way with this one???)

What do you think?

I filled mine with milk chocolate and crushed up Heath bar. And it was DELICIOUS!!!

Next time we go camping I'm going to bring the buscuit dough and marinara sauce and mozarella cheese. Doesn't that sound good?

And a HUGE thank you to my awesome brother, John, for making us 4 of these sticks and to Kevin for making us 2 of them. We are so set for our next camping trip! This might be all we eat the entire time! =o)

I link up to the parties on my sidebar. Go check them out and see all the great creations!