This seems like the perfect time for Gayle and Robert Fletcher Allen's The Complete Recreational Vehicle Cookbook for Campers, Vans, RVs and Motor Homes (1977). Campers have their own housing that they don't have to share, they'll spend time in the great (and well-ventilated) outdoors, and they can cook their own food from minimally-risky grocery runs, supplemented by wild-caught fish and fruits and veggies from outdoor stands. Going back to the '70s looks surprisingly good right now.
Of course, enthusiasm for cooking might be tempered by the limited cooking and storage facilities as well as the desire to do something other than cook while on vacation. That's why a lot of recipes are pretty basic, like these snacks/ appetizers.
I'm not sure I really needed a recipe to melt butter with a bit of paprika on soda crackers, but when the Fletcher Allens came up with a name like "Pink Crackers," they had to put it in the book.
I can't believe it takes them half a page to explain rolling little balls of flavored cheese spread in crushed corn chips, but they had a book to fill!
There are more recipes than just snacks, though. As a transition to the sandwich section, here's a hybrid snack-sandwich that takes minimal effort.
It's mini BLTs! The sandwiches are probably mini because once people realize the "bacon" is just canned bacon bits, they might not want a full-size one.
If you need something heftier, this is an option.
Tuna salad cooked in savory french toast slices and smothered in cheese soup should be heavy enough to make mom tell the kids they shouldn't swim for at least two hours after lunch. (So maybe not the best idea if she doesn't want to be driven crazy for half the afternoon.)
There's a lighter sandwich option if needed.
This also shows that lettuce "buns" were a thing way before the current low-carb crazes. I can't imagine too many campers happy to kick back with a lettuce cup full of cottage cheese, bologna, and pickles, but this had to be way easier to fix in camping conditions than the fried tuna.
And finally, if the weather turns cold and rainy, you might want a nice, steaming bowl of soup. Maybe something with a vaguely holidayish vibe to prop up the vacation feeling would help.
French Fried Onion Soup is a close enough cousin of green bean casserole to make it feel like you're camping at Thanksgiving... which would be kind of weird for most of us... but hey! Thinking about that will keep your mind off the rain and the way you're going to feel after consuming all that salty onion gunk.
Okay, I'm not really tempted to try any of these, but I liked the mental vacation of imagining a week lounging in the woods by my '70s mobile home. I'd spend a lazy afternoon lobbing tiny missiles of cheese spread coated in crushed corn chips at the passing squirrels and chipmunks. Now sit back and imagine your perfect '70s RV vacation, with bonus points if you can work in a camping recipe.
Good old "cheese food". If they have to put food in the name, you may not want to believe them. Of course if you really wanted to dress it up, you could use some of those sandwich bacon bits to roll the cheese food balls in. As an added bonus, if you used up all the bacon bits that way, you could make yourself a good old corn chip sandwich. So many possibilities to make you happy that vacation is over.
ReplyDeleteOr I could roll it all together for the ever-enticing cheese food, bacon bit, corn chip sandwich!
DeleteWas there anything good about this book? Curious if all of the recipes are like this or if there are some decent ones :)
ReplyDeleteI always pick what I find interesting... and that's rarely anything that sounds good! The book does have plenty of decent-sounding recipes, like a baking section with banana bread and various styles of cornbread. There are instructions for preparing fresh vegetables, like grilling corn on the cob. I don't like barbecue so I could be wrong, but recipes for things like barbecued ribs look like they'd probably appeal to people who do.
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