What's Cooking: Campfire Pizza

Like our last camping trip, I wanted to try food beyond your typical hot dogs and such. I was going to prepare the barbecue chicken and potatoes we did two years ago, but just didn't have time. What I did have was everything we would need to make campfire pizza!

This is a pretty simple recipe with simple ingredients.

Cooking spray

Frozen pizza dough*

Tomato sauce

Mozzarella cheese

Toppings

*You can use store-bought dough, or you can freeze your own already made dough. All you need to do is follow your favorite pizza dough recipe. After you allow your dough to rise wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in a freezer bag. Simply take the dough out of the freezer the morning of the day you plan to use it and put it in the refrigerator. Our dough did really well in our cooler and was fine on our second day at camp.

Divide the dough into four balls. Prep four pieces of aluminum foil with cooking spray. You may also want to spray your hands a bit to keep the dough from sticking to them. Form four personal pizzas onto each piece of foil.

Top each pizza with sauce, cheese, and toppings.

Place pizzas over your campfire (the fire should be pretty strong).

 

Rotate pizzas every 3-5 minutes. Cook for 20-25 minutes. Remove from fire. Allow to cool a bit before eating.

Camping Fun! - Day 2

The girls were up with the sun. We did what we could to keep them quiet until quiet hours ended at 7:00. We had breakfast, walked for a bit and then headed out for today's activity (after picking up coffee, first).

We went to Plymouth Long Beach. We got there before it got crowded and enjoyed collecting pebbles, playing in the sand, and walking in the frigid water. This was Lily's first beach experience. She spent most of it in our arms or on Jonathan's back. But she still had a chance to sample some of the sand and salt water.

We headed back to camp where we made preparations for our fire and dinner. Fridays are pizza and movie night for us, so we thought we'd stick with tradition (minus the  movie). I'll let you know how it went in a separate post.

Bedtime went easier than last night. Abigail was the first down, followed by Lily and then Sarah. All was quiet by 9:00. Jonathan and I enjoyed a quiet hour by the fire before we called it a night.

Lily woke up twice, but went back down pretty easy. All three girls slept well and even slept through the beginning of a thunderstorm with pretty heavy downpours. Soon after the rain stopped we packed up and took the tent down. We headed home around 8:00.

We had a great time camping! We'll hopefully do it again, and likely at this same campground. We may even stick around to do a bit more exploring. It is a large state forest with bike and hiking trails and ponds for swimming.

Camping Fun! - Day 1

We finished off Jonathan's vacation week by camping for two nights at Myles Standish State Forest. This was pretty much two years after our first camping trip.

Check in wasn't until 1:00 on Thursday, so we took things easy getting ready. We only encountered a little traffic on the way. I was relieved when we made it to the park entrance, but didn't realize it'd be another 6 miles to check in. A long while and lots of Lily crying later, we made it to our site and set up camp.

Jonathan set up a fire and we had your typical camp dinner of hot dogs and s'mores.

The sun began to set and we could tell the girls were tired. Lily easily went down at 8:00. The older two took a little longer. Sarah eventually woke Lily up, just as I was close to falling asleep, and that began our long night.

Jonathan was able to get Lily back to sleep while I took care of Sarah. I could hear Sarah's breathing and knew she had conked out. Ahhh, what a beautiful crisp evening filled with a hum of crickets and other creatures. But then I heard Lily again around 11:30 or so. Jonathan attempted to lull her back to sleep. I attempted to feed her. She proceeded to break quiet hour rules. Finally I told Jonathan I'd try and feed her in the van and put her back to sleep. She ate fine and fell asleep. So there we were, reclined in the passenger seat "sleeping". We lasted from about midnight to 3:00. I was getting cold and so decided to try the tent again. She went down fine in the pack n play. Then I hear the shuffling of little feet and hear Abigail telling me she didn't like her sleeping bag anymore. She crawled in with me and then complained about the lack of room. Eventually she decided her sleeping bag wasn't so bad after all. Lily woke up again. Jonathan gave it a shot to no avail. I fed her again. She fought sleep and broke quiet hour rules again. And so on.

I really wanted that sun to come up. This was turning into a long night. So, you may wonder, how does a sleepless Mommy pass the time? What a silly question. She writes a limerick, of course!

There once was a girl named Lily

Who must have thought camping was silly

Cause when she got there

Her "sleep log" was bare

And it wasn't because she was chilly

Here's a post bad night of sleep picture of Lily for your enjoyment:

Camping on the Cape - Day 3

Our second night didn't go as smoothly as the first with the girls, but it wasn't horrible. Abigail woke up around 2:00 in the morning wanting milk. The thing was, Mommy had to leave the tent to get it, which caused Abigail to freak out a bit. She called out for Mommy quite a bit, which woke Sarah up. Once Abigail got her milk she calmed down and then we took care of Sarah. Other than that things went well.

Friday morning started off early again, around 6:00. We cleaned up a bit and then headed out for a small breakfast. We visited the Brewster General Store. We ate donuts in front of the store and I enjoyed a much needed cup of coffee.

After breakfast we popped Sarah in the pack-in-play, and put Abigail in her booster seat with crayons and post cards. Thankfully breaking down camp went a lot faster than setting it up. After breaking down the tent and packing up we headed for home around 10:00 AM.

The girls slept for a bit (Abigail for about 30 minutes and Sarah for a bulk of the trip). The first thing we did when we got home was give the girls a nice warm bath. Later in the afternoon all four of us took a refreshing nap.

We had such a fun time during our first family camping trip. We are glad for the many memories we made and look forward to doing this again in the future!

Camping on the Cape - Day 2

Our first night in the tent went pretty smoothly. Do you know which of the girls ended up waking up the most? It was me! I was up quite a few times. Abigail woke up in the middle of the night and tossed around a bit, and Sarah only woke up once after settling in for the night, but that was it.

Abigail woke up just shy of 6:00. We went for a walk and then killed more quiet time in the tent before having breakfast (quiet hours were from 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM).

We spent the morning driving around for a little bit to see what was around Brewster and surrounding towns. We then went to the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History. The highlight for Abigail was the small aquarium they have downstairs. Abigail could have spent hours walking around and around. She had to point everything out. The funny thing about Abigail is that when we tell her we're going somewhere, she doesn't want to go. Once we get there, she doesn't want to leave. This time was no exception. She did not want to leave the museum. Money well spent (especially since the kids were free)!

We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed back to camp to settle down and clean up a bit. We wanted to kill time because parking at the local beaches is free after 3:00 PM. This time we checked out another local beach, Paine's Creek Beach. I liked this beach because there was a nice shallow pool of water, followed by lots of sand and then the main body of water. The shallow pool was perfect for Abigail to roam around freely. Though, we did have a time keeping her from wandering off and wanting to "try" other kid's beach toys.

The girls fell asleep almost instantly when we headed back for camp. Now, the last time Abigail fell asleep around 5:00 was disastrous. I let her sleep and she was in quite a mood. Well, I figured, "Hey this is our vacation, I'll let her sleep". We just had a later bedtime instead-and it worked out.

The camping meal for tonight was beef stew. I prepped it right at camp. We probably cooked it too long and on too much direct heat, because the beef was really well done.
Getting the girls to bed took a lot more effort the second night. Jonathan helped Sarah fall asleep while I kept Abigail company until she was snoozing. Jonathan and I then had some relaxing time by the fire and then called it a night. It was so nice to be able to sit in the cool, crisp outdoors by the crackling fire. Oh, and did I mention we could look up and see the stars? It was great!

Camping on the Cape - Day 1

We got on the road for the Cape on Wednesday a little later than we had hoped. There was so much to pack in the van and we had a few stops to make before really heading off.

We hit a few bad traffic spots and had a few crying bouts, but we made it to Brewster safe and sound.

Before even setting foot on the campground we had to be sure Abigail set her feet in some sand. She did not stop talking about the beach on our trip down, she was really looking forward to this part of the trip. We spent a good hour or so at Breakwater Beach.

The tide was low and we made our way out pretty far before Jonathan suggested we head back. The tide seemed to come back in at a good rate.

After collecting some shells, playing in the water, and building a sand castle, we headed to Shady Knoll campground.

Jonathan and I set up camp while Sarah watched in the pack 'n play and Abigail took attempts at running off whenever we weren't able to involve her in tent building steps. After setting everything up, Jonathan started a fire while the girls watched VeggieTales in the tent.
So, we thought we'd try our hand at camp food that went beyond hamburgers and hot dogs. We thought we'd try cooking in foil pouches. Tonight's dinner: BBQ chicken and potatoes, prepped and packed at home. It was really good!

We ended our day giving Abigail a s'more, putting the girls to bed, and having a few s'mores ourselves. All-in-all we had a great first day of camping.