Camping With Mandy: Fajitas and Camping Doughnuts

Here we are again at Inks Lake. This will be the last camping post and then tomorrow we go back to HOME With Mandy.

I have two camping recipes to share here. The first is a little sparce - partly because I didn't take many pictures because it was getting really dark when I started to cook, and also because the neighbor I got this recipe from made me SWARE not to share it with anyone. Sorry to be a tease. Really I am.

I can't give you exact ingredients in this AMAZING marinade, but I will tell you that it is important in most marinades to have an oil, a citrus and with this beef skirt steak we added some spice since we were making fajitas. There you go, thats all I can say. Again, sorry to be a tease. There are some really great marinade ideas out there, go to www.foodblogsearch.com

Jim and I played a lot of dominoes, something we really have fun doing. Maybe it is because we are equally matched. I win some, he wins some - it goes back and forth and I love teasing him when I win.
I chopped up the remaining half of the onion - although if I was thinking clearly (hello wine) I would have sliced instead of chopped. Put over a low heat and let it cook slowly so they caramelize well.
Remember the other half of my green and red bell pepper? I sliced those and threw them into the pan with the onion. This cooked for probably 15-20 minutes until they were really soft.

And that is where the photos end. But I will walk you through fajitas the way we like them.

The skirt steak sat in our marinade for a full 24 hours. I brought the meat to room temperature and Jim got the fire going under the grill. The meat went on for only three minutes each side, then let it rest for 5 or 10 minutes. Cut against the grain into 1 inch strips.

Like I did for the breakfast tacos, set up an assembly line. We used soft flour tortillas and added a strip or two of beef, then sprinkle some shredded cheese, add our caramelized onions and bell pepper, sour cream and salsa. Fold and eat!

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Ready for a SWEET breakfast?!?!



I just love how these photos turned out. It was about 7 AM and the warm sunshine was flooding into our campsite as I prepared breakfast. I found this recipe a year ago when I was conducting my initial research on cooking at a campsite. It is the only recipe that I continue to make every time we go camping and it's become our special treat when we camp. Here is how you make this:

You need vegetable oil, a can of plain old biscuits and some sugar/cinnamon.

To start, we need to make our doughnuts by punching holes in each biscuit. You must be creative when camping. Here, I'm using the cap to my worcestershire sauce. It was the perfect size.


Save the holes too! Those are my favorite covered in cinnamon and sugar.
Continue until all the biscuits have holes punched in them.

I put my cinnamon and sugar mixture into this plastic container - ready for my hot doughnuts to be tossed in and rolled around. I bring the cinnamon and sugar to camp in a zip top bag. One of the first times I made these I tossed the hot doughnuts into the zip top bag thinking I would just close and shake it up. The hot oil melted through the platic bag and made a mess. So now I use a sturdy container to toss the doughnuts and cinnamon/sugar in.

Heat your oil until it sizzles when dough is dipped in. When ready, put a couple doughnuts in at one time and don't go anywhere. These puff up and brown really fast. You will maybe cook them in the oil for one minute, then you need to flip them over for another minute.

Next, immediately put these in the cinnamon and sugar and roll around or use a spoon to scoop the spice over top and bottom of the doughnut.
The doughnut holes are easier. I put them all in the spice and shake the tub around to coat all over.
I should have removed that one in the middle before I took this photo. It didn't get covered as well as the others. They get coated well when they are hot straight from the oil.

These are SO GOOD. Warm and soft on the inside, and crunchy and sweet on the outside.
Perfectly cooked throughout. Yum!

Jim's going to kill me, but I snuck in this shot of my very sweet boyfriend doing dishes even when we camp. He's the greatest and the reason I work so hard in the kitchen. He's worth it!