Eating Gourmet While Camping: Making Pizza on the Trail

If you have ever gone camping and thought that it could never be gourmet, I hope to demonstrate camping can be refined. The inspiration for this line of thinking came on one car camping trip when a member of the group pulled out a white and red checked tablecloth and a candle lantern. Our spaghetti and sauce meal was elevated to gourmet status just by the ambiance of the picnic table. I have learned from that camping trip that any eating experience can be gourmet. Also, not only can camping food be delicious and enticing, backpacking food can be as well. I actually have made pizza when miles away from civilization!

After a long day of hoofing it twelve miles up and down over the mountains of Virginia, I had no desire to cook. Hunger is a great motivator though, so food that isn't prepared needs to be! Thanks to a little bit of thinking ahead, I was able to have pizza -- that's right, PIZZA -- on the third day of an eight day hike. How the heck do I do this? Very simply actually. I started a week before I left for my trip by dehydrating the vegetables. This does take time, but it is very cheap. I cut up green peppers, onions, and mushrooms and dried them overnight in an oven at its lowest setting. The next day I spread a can of tomato paste on a cookie tray and dehydrated that overnight. You could buy dehydrated veggies and sauce if you desired, but cost is much higher. All of the dehydrated foods were packed away for the trip. The other pre-made ingredients included a bagful of Bisquick for the crust (or you can make your own crust recipe), a bag of cheese, and a well stocked spice kit. I have oregano, parsley, basil, and salt in my spice kit at all times. These all help make the final product the best that could be had while camping.