New Year’s Resolutions

2021 has finally arrived but, at the moment, it doesn’t feel a whole lot better than 2020. Nevertheless, there are things we all can do to try and make 2021 a better year and it all starts with our new year resolutions.

One resolution we all should make is to get outside more often and by that I mean every day. No matter what the weather is like, get outside, take a short or a long walk, breathe in fresh air, soak up some sun (and vitamin D), listen to the birds, stop and smell a flower, wave to your neighbor. The important thing is to spend time outside in some kind of activity be it walking, running, gardening, etc. It doesn’t matter what you do, just do it, outside.

Speaking of activity, increase yours. Find ways to be more active. If you don’t workout, start. If you do workout, up your game. If you have health issues, talk to your doctor about what you could do. Make a commitment to work toward being your best. We all love to camp and cook, but it can be physically demanding so we need to make sure we stay physically fit so we can continue to do what we love to do.

Up your outdoor cooking game. Have you ever made biscuits from scratch? If not, you should, they are amazing and they are not as hard as you think they are. For a good biscuit recipe, please read my blog post: “Best Buttermilk Biscuits.” Have you have ever made bread in a Dutch oven? Have you ever made your own meatballs? Have you ever made an Asian stir fry? I have a few that we love to make: Beef and Broccoli and Kung Pao Chicken. Check ‘em out.

Have you ever baked something in a box oven? Do you have a Dutch oven that you’ve never really used? Make a resolution to master it or some other culinary technique.

Is there some outdoor camping skill you could improve upon? Do you suck at fire building? Can you tie a taut-line hitch? A clove hitch? Maybe it’s time you learned.

 So, sit down for a moment or go for a walk and figure out what kinds of resolutions (goals) you can set for 2021, and make sure they include the outdoors and upping your outdoor cooking skills. Before you know it, camping season will be here. Will you be ready?

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Don’t Overfill the Fridge or the Cooler

Thanksgiving is only a week away so now is a good time to remind folks not to overfill the refrigerator at home or the coolers in camp.

Whether we’re celebrating in camp or at home, we tend to cook more items and in larger quantities. Maybe there are a few more mouths to feed. Maybe it just wouldn’t be the holiday without certain special dishes. Whatever it is, it seems like our refrigerators are stuffed to the gills days before with all the ingredients and then days afterward with all the leftovers.

Our refrigerators and coolers need to maintain a temperature below 40°F. Do you have a thermometer for checking the temperature? If not, you should get one.

Every time we add something that is room temperature or warmer into our refrigerator, the temperature rises and then the refrigerator has to work to bring the temperature back down, but that can take a while depending on how much is added and how warm it is. In camp, unless we’re in an RV, we do not have that dynamic cooling system. We need to manage our leftovers very tightly because adding something warm to a cooler will quickly melt the ice and now there is no cooling at all for the rest of the trip. Plan your hot dishes so that there are no leftovers and then have extras of items that don’t require refrigeration in case campers are still hungry. This way, no warm foods will need to be cooled and stored.

We also want to maintain good air circulation in a refrigerator. If it is crammed too full then cold air can’t circulate around each item. Same is true for a cooler and ice. We should not cram a cooler so full that there is not enough ice to keep foods chilled below 40°F.

Other Important Safety Measures

Never defrost protein at room temperature. Always move from the freezer to the refrigerator to thaw, which takes more time but is safer because it keeps the protein out of the danger zone (40°F -140°F) where bacteria can grow. Freezing items and then loading them into coolers allows them to thaw like they would in a refrigerator and, while they are thawing, they help chill the cooler. Always remember to secure proteins in resealable bags or containers so that they don’t leak as they thaw and contaminate the contents of the cooler.

When cooking proteins, don’t just eyeball it for doneness, use a thermometer to check the internal temperature of the protein.

Beef, pork, lamb, veal, roasts, steaks, and chops should reach an internal temperature of 145°F. Egg dishes and ground meat should reach an internal temperature of 160°F. Poultry, stuffing, casseroles, and leftovers should reach an internal temperature of 165°F.

If you need to hot hold food, keep it above 140°F. Cold foods should be held below 40°F. So, if those deviled eggs or that potato salad is going to be sitting out for a while, place a container of ice underneath. Dishes like these should sit at room temperature no longer than 2 hours.

Whether we’re celebrating at home or in camp, let’s stay healthy and safe. Let all the groaning be from that extra piece of pie we shouldn’t have ate! Did I say pie?! I like pie!

Camp Kitchen Safety and First Aid

Tomorrow (June 13) is National Kitchen Klutzes Day. While I’m not a klutz in the kitchen, there have been a few times when I have brushed against something hot and burned myself or, while working with a knife, I have nicked myself. Nothing serious mind you (I still have all my fingers), but sometimes it does require a band-aid and wearing a glove while I continue to prepare food. I did have to go to the emergency room once in college when I sliced open the end of my index finger on the sharp edge of a can lid.  It required a couple of stitches and a tetanus shot. I still have a small (1/2-inch) scar.

Where I do tend to “get” myself a lot is when working with a grater. I have to be very careful when the piece of cheese or the vegetable starts to get small and my fingers get close to the grater. I always have to remind myself to move slowly and carefully and pay attention to my finger placement.

Following are some of the most common types of injuries that occur in the kitchen and how to prevent and treat them.

Burns
We all like to joke that it wouldn’t be camp food if something wasn’t at least a little burnt, but you can burn more than just your food in the kitchen. One of the most common kitchen injuries is damage to the skin from hot liquids such as hot water, grease, or other substances; or by touching or brushing up against something that is hot like a hot pot or hot coals. While causing the same type of injury to the skin, contact burns are more severe than liquid burns because the heat is more direct, causing a more painful and serious burn. However, if the liquid is thick or sticky like a cheese sauce, it will cling to your skin and continue to burn until you get it rinsed off.

Caution is the best practice for avoiding burns. Always be aware of hot substances and hot surfaces, and keep the flame at a reasonable level to avoid splatter burns when frying food. When moving things, instead of hot pads, use oven mitts because they cover more of your hands and wrists. Keep the handles of your pots on the stove-top facing in or toward the back to avoid knocking them over.

Whenever you burn yourself, run your injury under cold water for as long as possible. The cold water cools the skin and stops the burning from causing more damage to the skin tissues. Harder burns to treat are grease burns, because they can be hotter than water, and other liquids such as caramelized sugar, because they stick to your skin and are harder to remove. If there are no open blisters or wounds, you can probably avoid a doctor’s visit, but make sure to treat it with ice and Neosporin. Remember to keep the wound clean and to change your dressings regularly in order to avoid infection.

This simple treatment can be a challenge in camp because water is not always readily accessible. If the water spigot is not close to your camp or your cook shelter, fill a bucket and keep it close by just in case. If an injury occurs and the water isn’t cold enough, have someone grab some ice from a cooler and throw it into the bucket.

Eye Irritation
Believe it or not, but eyes are at risk when working in the kitchen, especially when working with ingredients such as chile peppers or spicy ingredients. When substances with heat get into the eye, it can cause irritation and sometimes even infection.

Always be conscious of the food you’re working with when you’re in the kitchen, and never rub your eyes if you’re handling hot spices or pepper seeds. After working with those ingredients, wash hands really well. When frying food, be sure to keep your face as far away from the hot grease as possible, to avoid getting grease splatter in your eyes.

If there is irritation caused to your eyes, flush them out immediately with water and have someone take you to the emergency room as soon as possible, where you can be treated for possible infection.

Knife Cut
Cuts are probably THE most common type of kitchen injury and can range from small nicks to deep lacerations. And, you can cut yourself with more than just a knife. I’ve caught myself with cheese graters, vegetable peelers, sharp edges on can lids, and Cuisinart blades, which are wicked sharp.

Always be your most serious and most focused when working with a knife or other sharp tool. Never be casual and don’t allow yourself to be distracted. Always hold your knife with a firm grip to prevent it from falling out of your hands and keep the tips of your fingers curled while holding something in place to be cut. And, always use a cutting board. We’ve all held the roll or bagel in our hand and sliced it. Don’t. Use a cutting board.

As soon as you cut yourself, wash the wound immediately — no matter how painful — in order to prevent infection to one of your body’s most important assets. Dry and apply a dressing and hold pressure directly to the wound. Do not elevate or use a tourniquet unless the bleeding is very bad, in which case you should go to the emergency room immediately. You should also visit an emergency room if the cut is large or deep, is on the palm or underside of the fingers, or if you think you will need stitches; and it’s very important to visit one within the first 12 hours of cutting yourself.

Because the hand is such a complex structure, it’s important to be aware of where you’ve cut yourself and how deep because you may have punctured a tendon or an important muscle. Cuts on the tips of fingers and tops of knuckles will not cause too much serious damage, whereas anything to the palm or finger could be detrimental to your hand movement and have long term effects.

After the bleeding has stopped and you’ve applied a bandage, if you need to continue working, use a food handling glove to ensure that food you are handling will not become contaminated. Also, throw away any food that came in contact with blood and thoroughly wash and sanitize your cutting board, the tool that caused the injury, work surfaces, and anything else that might have come in contact with blood.

Bumping Your Head
With cooks constantly on the move in the kitchen, it’s easy to catch a lantern hanging in the cook shelter or stand up and catch the edge of a table, which can lead to blunt force trauma to the head.

Slow down. Everything will get done and out on the picnic table on time, so take the time to look where you’re going and pay attention to your surroundings.

If you think you have a concussion, you should have someone take you to the emergency room right away, otherwise, a good old ice pack to the head will do the trick.

Tripping & Slipping
As silly as it sounds, tripping in the kitchen can lead to some pretty serious consequences, some of which we’ve already discussed.

Never allow small children in the kitchen while working, as they tend to linger around the cook who often forgets they’re there, and while the pooch may serve as a great sous chef in the form of clean up, best that they stay out of the kitchen as well.

Cooks can be a bit messy in the kitchen and we’re not blaming them but spilled liquids or food on the ground or the floor can lead to falls which can lead to bone fractures and concussions. If something spills, clean it up right away, no matter how big of a hurry you’re in. A burnt piece of chicken is way better than having a broken arm.

If it’s raining, the ground in your camp kitchen can become muddy and slippery, so watch your step.

Tripping usually leads to minor injuries that can be treated with an ice pack or a couple of aspirin, but it can also be compounded by a burn, cut, bump to the head, etc.

Contamination
While not an injury, food poisoning can still lead to a trip to the hospital. Dirty sponges, not washing cutting boards and knives, not keeping hot foods hot or cold foods cold, and more can contaminate your food. Always be sure to use proper food handling in the kitchen to avoid food contamination.

Prevention
The biggest way to prevent injuries in any kitchen is to simply slow down and eliminate distractions. Be aware of your surroundings and stay focused on the task at hand.

And, always carry food handlers gloves in your chuckbox. In the event of an injury on your hand, clean and bandage the wound and slip on a glove to prevent contamination. Food handlers gloves are also great for messy jobs like making meatballs, handling raw chicken, and handling spicy peppers.

When you’re in the kitchen, stay focused and stay safe.

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Avoid the Danger Zone

The best camping trip in the world can be ruined by a bad case of foodborne illness. Symptoms might include abdominal cramping, diarrhea, loss of appetite, fatigue, and other problems brought on by salmonella, E. coli, listeria or some other nasty bug.

To make sure you and your fellow campers avoid these potentially serious tummy troubles, which result in more than 100,000 hospitalizations each year, here are some tips on how to transport, cook, and store food on campouts.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, we need to watch out for the “Danger Zone” when it comes to serving perishables like meat, poultry, eggs, and seafood. When food is stored below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, the cold inhibits the growth of bacteria and other pathogens. When food is cooked above 140 degrees, heat does the same. Between 40 and 140 degrees; however, bacteria can grow quickly, so make sure your food doesn’t stay in the Danger Zone too long.

Food problems can start before you ever make it camp. Be sure to transport perishables in the air-conditioned part of the car, since car trunks can get pretty warm on sunny days. Don’t pack meat in the same coolers as vegetables, because if juices from meat or poultry leak into uncooked vegetables, the veggies will be contaminated. Likewise, don’t put cold drinks in with perishables, since the drink cooler will be opened frequently. The more it’s opened, the faster ice or ice packs will thaw.

Make sure a meat thermometer is a standard piece of equipment in your chuckbox. Cook ground meat (beef, pork, veal or lamb) or meat mixtures until the thermometer reaches 160 degrees. For poultry, it’s 165 degrees. For other fresh meats, you’re safe at 145 degrees.

Finally, remember that food, cold or hot, should not be kept outside a cooler for more than two hours if the outside temperature is below 90 degrees. Above 90, it’s one hour.

As we ramp up for camping season and start planning those marvelous meals, we want you and those you are cooking for to be safe.

Get outside and cook something amazing because food tastes better outside!

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Caring for Kitchen Sponges

The scrubby sponge is a work horse in the camp kitchen from scrubbing dishes and pots and pans to absorbing liquids and wiping up messes. Along the way it can also absorb harmful food borne pathogens.

Though you can’t eliminate 100% of germs lurking in a sponge, there are several ways to dramatically reduce the risk of cross-contamination—which can lead to food poisoning.

To lower the risk of cross-contamination, you should clean and sanitize your sponge daily. At home, you can pop a damp sponge into the microwave for one minute or run it through a dishwasher with a drying cycle.

In camp, we wash our dishes using a 3 tub system. Hot water wash, hot water rinse, cold water and bleach rinse (about a capful of bleach per gallon of water). When we’re all finished washing dishes, I clean the sponge and rinse it in the bleach water.

While cleaning your sponge daily helps reduce the risk of food poisoning, you should consider replacing your kitchen sponge regularly. If your sponge starts to smell at any point—toss it out immediately. I always keep a couple of spares in my chuck box.

Speaking of storage, it’s important to not only wring out your sponge completely after each use and wash off any loose food or debris, but you should also store it in a dry location. Letting your sponge lay wet in your wash tub takes longer for it to dry and allows harmful bacteria to multiply quickly as well as increases the opportunity for bacteria growth. Also, avoid leaving any damp sponges in an enclosed area such as your chuck box. In camp, I clip my sponge to my clothesline so it can drip/air dry when I’m not using it.

Using your sponge to clean up juices from ground beef or poultry can increase your chances of spreading harmful food borne pathogens. Instead, use a paper towel or disinfectant wipes to clean up spills and other bacteria-loaded messes.

And, don’t neglect your dishcloths. While less porous than sponges, dishcloths should still be laundered frequently as they can harbor enough harmful bacteria to make you sick. Remember to wash in hot water and dry them on high heat in the dryer and consider having separate dishcloths for different purposes (e.g. hand washing and dish drying). After every camping trip, we pull out all our sponges, washcloths, and dishcloths and launder them before returning them to our chuck box.

How to Care for Your Wood Cutting Boards

In the previous post, “Dangerous Equipment Lurking in Your Camp Kitchen—Cutting Boards,” I talked about how wood, specifically bamboo, cutting boards are best because of their strength and natural antibacterial properties. They are also easy on your knives and won’t dull them like glass, stone, marble or porcelain. See my blog post, “Now that’s a Knife,” for more information on the use and care of knives.

Caring for your wood cutting boards is pretty simple, and I like keeping it simple.

Wash boards after each use in warm, soapy water. If you have chunks of food stuck on the surface, use a knife or kitchen scraper to remove most of it before washing. Do not leave boards to soak! Do not wash wooden cutting boards in the dishwasher. They will absorb water, and this could trash your cutting board. Dry thoroughly before storing. I prefer air drying in the dish rack.

To remove odors, rub down with half a lemon or spritz with some vinegar. This will also help sanitize the board.

Wood cutting boards should be regularly seasoned with a good quality cutting board oil. You can find them in most hardware stores. Mineral oil is typically used, since it does not go rancid. Do not use vegetable oil or olive oil. To season, start with a clean, dry cutting board. Coat entire surface with a layer of oil and rub it in. Set the oiled board in a warm, dry area for 12 to 24 hours to fully absorb the oil. Buff to remove any oil that may not have been absorbed. Repeat as needed any time your board starts looking dull.

Keep your knives sharp. Dull knives mean that you have to press harder to cut, which will mark up your board.

And that’s really all there is to keeping your wood or bamboo cutting boards in good condition.

Dangers Lurking in Your Camp Kitchen–Nonstick Pans

Our camp kitchens tend to be filled with hand-me-downs from our home kitchens. They also take a lot of abuse. We drag them out camping, use them in sometimes harsh conditions, drag them back to our garage and forget about them until the next camping trip. If not properly cleaned and dried after every camping trip, all kinds of nasty things can grow in there between outings. Because of that, there can be many hidden health dangers lurking in our camp kitchens—from the germy cutting boards to the molding forgotten foods to the toxic cookware in our chuck boxes.

Nonstick pans are popular cooking tools in our home kitchens as well as in our camp kitchens; they are easy to use and clean, and they don’t require a lot of oil to grease the surface.

As popular as these convenient pans are, many are unaware about the toxic coating that forms the nonstick surface.

Teflon, also known as PTFE, is a brand name for the special coating on nonstick pans. When these pans are overheated or left on the stove too long, the PTFE sometimes releases toxic fumes, which studies have shown can cause flu-like symptoms in humans and can be fatal to birds.

Nonstick cookware can also leach another toxic element directly into your food. The chemical perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which is used in the making of PTFE, has been denounced by many experts for its carcinogenic properties. Additionally, some research has shown that the chemical can increase the risk of high cholesterol levels, thyroid disease and infertility.

Some experts argue that the amount of harmful chemicals and fumes from nonstick pans are not enough to make you seriously ill.  According to their regulations, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states PTFE as a coating is safe when used properly. But scientists are still unsure on just how dangerous PFOA is to our health and more conclusive research is needed.

I prefer to err on the side of caution so I don’t include any nonstick pans in my chuck box and when I re-equipped our Boy Scout troop’s chuck boxes over the winter, I did not include any nonstick pans. When we’re camping, we’re cooking on propane stoves, charcoal, and campfires. Managing the flame/heat for any of these can be extremely challenging even for me and more so for young scouts. I have seen young scouts scorch many a pan. And some of them subscribe to the theory that if it takes 30 minutes to cook something on medium heat, it will only take 15 minutes to cook it on high! I should add that I know some adults who still subscribe to this theory! On top of all that, they are not very good about not using sharp metal in the nonstick pans like turning bacon with a metal fork and gouging the nonstick surface, which contributes greatly to its deterioration. For these reasons, nonstick pots and pans are not good options for our chuck boxes.

I reserve my nonstick pans for my home kitchen where I can better manage the heat. In my camp kitchen, I use cast-iron and stainless steel.

Cast-iron cookware is an old-fashioned favorite, and one of the safest cooking options available.

PTFE- and PFOA-free, cast-iron cookware has no added chemicals. In fact, the only thing that may leach into your food is the mineral iron which is actually a good thing!

Unlike nonstick pans, cast-iron pots, skillets and Dutch ovens have no heat limitations and can go from the propane stove right onto a grill, charcoal or open flame.

Stainless steel cookware is considered to be another safe choice.

This cookware gets its name because of its ability to resist corrosion. The surface of stainless steel does not flake, so pieces of the material do not break off and contaminate your food like with most nonstick cookware.

Stainless steel is a combination of metals, including carbon, chromium, nickel and/or manganese. Because stainless steel contains a mix of these metals, some lower quality stainless steel cookware may discharge a small amount of nickel into your food from the steel.

However, if you purchase high-quality cookware, these products contain a much smaller amount of cheap metal fillers like nickel.

High-quality stainless steel is designed to make products resistant to leaching or reactivity.

So, before your next camping trip, why not take a look at what’s in your chuck box and decide what you want to keep and what you should replace. While you are at it, drag it into your kitchen or out into the yard and give it a good cleaning and some TLC. A clean, organized, well-equipped camp kitchen will make for a more enjoyable camping experience and some good camp eats!