Our Camp Kitchen

 One of the collections I am proud of is our camp kitchen. It can be very frustrating to have a meal all set out and ready to go and discover that you can't open a can of fruit because you don't have a can opener. Or when you cook up a pot of spaghetti noodles and then look at it wondering how you can drain the noodles. I have spent lots of time reading reviews on camp kitchen items and lusting after different items. Items which are expensive. This can be very disheartening when you are thinking about starting to do camping in order to travel without spending a lot and you see the prices on all the supposedly "must have" items. What I am going to list here is what we have found to be comprehensive and actually inexpensive. And most importantly, it all fits into one tote bin. Our bin has a lid which latches on which is helpful when it is windy. The lid is super important because it will rain at some point on our trip. Sometimes it rains a lot and we want to avoid having to dry everything out. 

Just a reminder - we are not doing the weekend camping where it's a couple of meals so hot dogs over the fire are fine. We are doing camping in which we go out for a couple of weeks and live at the campsite. We eat healthy meals and we assume that we cannot have campfires. We have often been in parks which have burn bans which means campfires are not possible. We often are in bear country so we can't have food smells in a fire pit and we have to be able to pack up everything to go into the bear vault or back into the car. We want our camp kitchen to have the items we need to come as close to a home experience as possible. Meals are some of the best times we have while camping so having a camp kitchen with everything we need makes our two or more weeks out in the parks go smoothly.

I think our most expensive kitchen item is our stove. We have tried a couple of single burner backpacking stoves, but for our car camping we keep going back to our green, propane powered dual burner Coleman stove. We have had it for over twenty years now and it still works great for us. I think it was a wedding present which has been put to very good use. It's the one you can get at any outfitter. You can probably find one at second hand stores or at garage sales because it is one of those common items which everyone buys when they begin their camping attempts. Those stoves with the coffee makers on the side or special burners look like fun, but we have not needed them. (how we take care of our coffee addiction deserves its own post) We use the common LP gas type because it is easy to purchase and transport the cannisters. The first picture here is of the stove after our last Glacier NP park trip. The second is after it was cleaned. We clean EVERYTHING after our trips. This way our gear is all set to go for the next trip. Pulling stuff out of the closet and finding it sticky or greasy is gross and does not make camping appealing. 

Our next essential item is our skillet. We actually take one of our cast iron skillets from our home kitchen for this. If you can read the note written on the lid of our kitchen bin, you can see that we have written on the top that we need to remember to bring our skillet. (Side note, we have used cast iron exclusively in our home kitchen ever since I had problems with anemia during pregnancies. One of the midwives doing my pre-natal check ups suggested cooking with cast iron because is would help with my iron levels. I have never turned back.) Usually before our trip we season the skillet and then we re-season it after the trip as well. I guess we could get a skillet specific for our camp kitchen. Maybe I should look at garage sales or at second hand stores for that. Even if you find a really yucky looking skillet, they can be cleaned up and seasoned back to usable. 

For our other cooking ware, we have two pots. The green one with the lid we don't use very much anymore since we got our collapsible pot. We love the collapsible pot which is on the left. The lid also latches on to make it easier for draining pasta. The only issue with silicone sides is that the flames shouldn't be too high as to hit the silicone walls directly, but that hasn't really been a problem with a camp stove with good flame control.

Next, we have two teapots. The one on the left is collapsible, we love it. The one on the right we got because it reminds Jim of the one in our campervan on our Iceland trip. It's cute, but not really enough when boiling water for five people who want hot chocolate and cider.

Then, we have our set of dishes. It is a motley collection. Many years ago, Jim and I bought a dishes set specific for camping. That is the green metal set you see. It had dishes for four. Then we added another blue plate when we needed more. But, the metal mugs which came with that set did not fit into the bin well. Now they hang here:

We upgraded to some silicone collapsible cups. We love them. It was a set of four that came with the collapsible water pot. Which means we had to get a couple more so we had enough for five campers. The results are that absolutely nothing matches. And that is AOK for us. For dishes, I see no reason to have metal "camping" dishes. They actually get cold when you have cold weather and make your hot food get tepid quicker. I would suggest going and getting dishes from a dollar store or a second hand store. Plastic or metal. I personally would be fine eating off of a Disney princess plate if it was acquired at a great price. Since these will not be going into a microwave at any time you just want to make sure that there is no chipping paint. What you want to have is plates, bowls, mug/cups and silverware for everyone in your party. Our silverware is remnants from the cutlery we had from outfitting college apartments. We have tried the camping "sporks" which are the one utensil which has the fork and spoon and knife all in one piece. Meh. We have found that we all tend to prefer eating from the regular utensils. Summary - you don't need anything fancy, just visit a secondhand store or a garage sale for your dishes. Then, if something gets lost it is not a big deal. I do not suggest doing paper and plasticware. 1. It's not great for the environment. 2. If you are going on a longer trip, that is a lot of paper and plastic to take along. You will save space by simply washing your dishes.

This is what we use to store our cutlery:

Odds and ends that we have found valuable are:

Can opener

Bottle opener

Large spoon

Tongs

Bread knife

Steak knives

Paring knife

Spatula

Measuring cup

Other items which are not necessary but which make camp life much better are some very thin, plastic cutting mats, disposable table cloths and table cloth clamps. We have some telescoping marshmallow sticks just in case we are able to do any campfire cooking. Here is a pic of our cutting mats:

For our camp sink, we have two collapsible items. One is the sink and the other is just a collapsible bucket. We use one for washing the dishes and the other for rinsing. In one of the camp stores on our latest trip I saw some kind of wipes which supposedly are for dish clean up. The resident microbiologist gave me a big fat no when I dubiously asked him about the cleanliness of those. We wash dishes in the sink and use the bucket for rinsing. It's great when the campgrounds have wash sinks available, but those are not always part of the camp amenities. The sink and the bucket do not fit into the kitchen bin, unfortunately. I would recommend ones with folding handles so you can easily carry them, especially when you need to dump grey water into a camp disposal sink.

Lastly, I tuck in a ziplock bag which holds my two sponges and the bottle of dish soap (unscented if possible), a ziplock bag of matches and towels for drying. That's our portable kitchen!