Camping Activities

Last week I took the kids camping to Thunderbird Park at Mt Tamborine and due to our late booking everywhere was booked out due to the school holidays and the long weekend so we could only stay Thursday and Friday night and come home Saturday morning however it was great to get away for a couple of nights.

As we went on our own this time I had to invest in a smaller tent to fit in my car as the larger one has two big bags and I don't have the room for it unless we go with other people who have a trailer for the extra gear.  I ended up buying this little tent from Kmart which seriously takes 5 minutes to erect as you just pull it up in the middle and the side frame clicks into place and then it's just a matter of putting in your tent pegs.... I was really happy with it although I would consider it an "over nighter" since it's enough for 3 camp mattresses but I couldn't put much else in there.  The kids both had their backpacks at the end of their camp mattresses but since I was in the middle which effectively is the walk way I just left my bag of clothes in the car.  This is considered a 4 man tent however I will never know how they work these out really but it worked for us.

 On previous camping trips I have made "scones" in the camp oven and a few years ago another mother had made the "damper on a stick" for the kids so I googled a recipe before we went and I made up zip lock bags with the mixture in it.  I have to say the recipe was delicious and nice and light too.

CAMP FIRE BREAD/SCONE RECIPE

1 Cup of Plain Flour                       )
1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder       )     I mixed the dry ingredients together and put
1/4 Teaspoon Salt                           )     in a zip lock bag
2 Tablespoons Powered Milk         )

1 Tablespoon of Oil or butter (I used Olive Oil)
Water

At camp, mix the dry ingredients in a bowl with the 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil (or butter) and then add water slowly until you create dough the consistency of play-doh.  You want a firm dough that isn't sticky.  If you use baking power, set the dough aside to let it rise.  (we waited 10 mins).

Split the dough into 2 or 3 and make into a thin sausage and then flatten the dough.  Once you have this you can stretch it lengthwise and then wrap it around a stick at the top and then wrap it around the stick.  There is a video in the above link to the recipe you can watch if you are unsure.

Hold it over the hot coals (not flames) and turn until it browns slightly and then when it's done slide it off and fill it with butter and golden syrup.  As they are hot on the stick I used some paper towels to hold onto it to slide it off.

NOTES:  Try and get a thick round fairly straight stick...Sienna managed to get a really good one and James stick had a bit of a bend in it so getting it off once cooked was a bit harder.  Hunting for the perfect stick is considered another time consuming kids activity before you even begin.

Wipe your stick down and spray it with olive oil or flour or both.

I made up zip lock bags with the dry ingredients in it and at camp just added the tablespoon of oil and then mixed around then started added the water.

And in true form of the internet only displaying happy times....there was some fighting going on due to he/she has more dough than me which resulted in me telling them I was going for a walk to the toilets because I was over the fighting.......so basically this is real life but the recipe will be one I use over and over again.  I would say that the above quantity would really do 2 people so just make a double or triple batch depending upon how many you want to make.  I just did one batch per zip lock bag so had to add the 1 tablespoon of oil oil and water to each batch we made.  ENJOY....as they are delicious.