food for car camping on cold nights with a wood stove and pipe oven

Introduction

this assumes you have a wood stove with a pipe oven (such as Winnerwell external air duct wood camping stoves) and you are cooking for a handful of campers and as it is cold in winter you do didn't bring your fridge
the oven allows roasting, baking, re-heating and even cooking small pizzas

this works well but best to use lower than usual heat initially if using frozen foods such as pies to ensure the inner parts are defrosted without burning the pastry
pies
frozen chips
aluminium trays of prepared meat dishes from the supermarket

small pizzas
see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu3rjHH62wY - great roll up ham, cheese and a special home made sauce scroll

DO NOT USE OLIVE OIL in the oven - if it spills onto the oven surface it will ignite - use safflower oil instead

a Winnerwell medium pipe oven will allow 600g butterflied lamb in an aluminium tray to be on one of the trays, while the other tray can be used to roast the vegetables in an aluminium tray - these will take around 45 min with the oven at ~200degC
it helps using a Bluetooth meat thermometer for the lamb as this avoids need for opening the oven to check it which loses heat and takes some time to get the heat back up.

this makes an awesome, stew-like soup fantastic for a cold winter's night and allows the camp group to share in the preparation by dicing the veges, etc
you will need a large pot (eg. 4L) and two wooden spoons to constantly mix the ingredients and a camp stove (preferably a wood stove as this will need about 45min cooking time)
ingredients:
- olive oil
- 4 washed or peeled potatoes
- 500g peeled butternut pumpkin
- 3 washed or peeled carrots
- 1-2 zucchini
- 3-4 celery sticks
- 1 peeled brown onion
- 2 tsp stock powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 x 400g can of chickpeas (drained)
- hot water to just cover the above
- optional extras:
  - 100-200g diced pancetta (can also fry some to place on top of soup when serving, note if using 200g it may be a touch too salty and you may need to add extra water at the end)
  - 1tbs grated parmesan
preparation and cooking:
- wash and chop up the vegetables into small cubes aiming for similar sizes (the pumpkin will become mush) and dice the pancetta
- optionally fry the diced pancetta that will go into the soup at this point in a separate fry pan (if you plan to fry some later as garnish)
- add all ingredients (except the water, chickpeas, parmesan) and add a generous amount of olive oil
- once cooked, add hot water to just cover the above (too much and it will be too thin)
- after 10 minutes of simmering, add the chickpeas and parmesan
- simmer for another 10 minutes
- garnish with further grated parmesan +/- fried diced pancetta

reheat various ready made desserts such as:
- apple pie (aluminium foil on top to prevent burning and keep a close eye on it)
easy camp foods:
- banana and chocolate:
  - slice the skin of a banana along the inside curve and open so you can insert chocolate +/- grated / powder coconut
  - wrap in alumiunium foil then place in oven, or sit on the stove, or amongst camp fire ashes
  - after 10-15minutes, check and then eat with a spoon (the banana should be nice and warm and mushy)
bake from scratch
- mix up some biscuits and bake them

hot chocolate drinks work well with a variety of alcoholic supplements such as:
- tip: add some cinnamon and vanilla extract +/- dark chocolate chips +/- nutmeg +/- miniature marshmallows/cinnamon stick as garnish
- aged or dark rum
- bourbon whisky
- Kahlua
  - kahlua is very sweet and may make packet drinking chocolate versions too sweet so try: https://www.acouplecooks.com/kahlua-hot-chocolate/
- Irish Baileys
  - see https://www.acouplecooks.com/baileys-hot-chocolate/
- spiced rum +/- Butterscotch Schnapps
- peppermint schnapps liqueur plus creme de cacao 1:1 - see https://www.acouplecooks.com/peppermint-patty-drink/
- Galliano
- Cointreau
- Tia Maria
- Ojo de Tigre Mezcal
- Drambuie
mulled wine
- https://www.acouplecooks.com/mulled-wine-recipe/
mulled apple cider
- https://www.acouplecooks.com/spiked-apple-cider/
hot toddy
- 3tbsp bourbon, rum or brandy with 1tbsp honey to 1/2 cup hot water or tea and add a squeeze of lemon
- https://www.acouplecooks.com/hot-toddy/
hot buttered rum
- each drink has 1.5 tbsp of “hot buttered rum batter” plus 2oz dark rum and 6oz hot water (or apple cider)
- batter is made by rolling out 6 tbsp salted butter then using a spatula to mix with 3tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp allspice then refrigerated until use
- https://www.acouplecooks.com/hot-buttered-rum/