Christmas decorations add to the fun of a Christmas camping trip.
You might be lucky to live in a location where it is warm enough to camp out on Dec. 25. Or maybe your family likes to celebrate Christmas in July. No matter when you go on your Christmas camping trip, there are several very merry Christmas dinner ideas that can be made right at the campsite. Does this Spark an idea?
Christmas Appetizers
Start your Christmas dinner with a few tasty appetizers. Sitting around the campfire, roast mini sausages. These sausages will heat up in no time, so you don't have to spend too much time on them. Prepare a honey-mustard sauce for dipping. You also can heat precooked meatballs in pie irons (locking metal irons attached to a stick). Place two or three meatballs in the pie iron and hold it above the fire, turning often. Use a fork or toothpick to handle the meatballs once they are hot. Use the honey-mustard sauce for dipping or bring several favorite dipping sauces for a wider selection.
Main Course
Christmas would not be complete without the turkey dinner, so bring a small grill and cook a small turkey breast. While the turkey is grilling, use the campfire for the rest of the meal. Wrap several peeled potatoes in aluminum foil and place them on hot coals (stoke the fire until it is very hot and let the flames die out, leaving hot coals). Cut up vegetables (asparagus, green beans, mushrooms, onions) and place them in aluminum foil, too. Include garlic and butter. Seal the aluminum foil tightly at the edges and place in the fire on the hot coals. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, flipping occasionally. After 10 minutes, carefully open the package. Determine if more cook time is needed.
Once the potatoes are done (they will take about 20 minutes, but check after 10 minutes) place the hot potatoes in a large pot. Add butter and a little milk, salt and pepper and mash the potatoes. Open a can of cranberry sauce. Serve up the turkey, mashed potatoes, vegetables and cranberry sauce and enjoy your traditional Christmas dinner.
Leave Room for Dessert
Before leaving home, bake plain sugar cookies cut into Christmas shapes. Once at the campsite and as a family, decorate the cookies. Bring canned vanilla frosting and food coloring and mix several colors of frosting. Paint the frosting on the cookies and use various candy sprinkles and decorations to adorn the cookies. Decorate the cookies before dinner so the frosting has some time to set before you eat it. Once you finish cooking on the campfire, put more wood on and let the fire grow. Place a tripod stand over the fire to heat up water in a kettle. Use the hot water for hot chocolate or heat a kettle of apple cider with cinnamon.
Tags: aluminum foil, Christmas dinner, camping trip, Christmas camping, Christmas camping trip, cranberry sauce