Campfire Cooking Recipes - Soup

Ah, the great outdoors. There is nothing better than enjoying nature at a campsite. Besides the traditional s'mores and hot dogs, there are several delicious and healthy campfire cooking recipes that can be made with a few simple ingredients and equipment.

One of the easiest things to make on a campfire is corn on the cob. The only type of cookware needed for this is tin foil. Simply wrap the corn completely in tin foil and place on hot coals. Of course, there are common precautions one must take in fire cooking as to avoid injury, so having a pair of tongs or other grabbing device will be useful. The corn should cook in just a few minutes, depending on how hot the coals are. After removing from the fire and cooling, sprinkle on some salt and pepper if desired.

There are other campfire cooking recipes that can be made by using cast iron cooking equipment, such as a Dutch oven. A flexible and easy recipe that can be made over a campfire is soup. Especially during the colder months, soup is a perfect food for camping.

There are several different soup recipes that can be made in a Dutch oven. An easy vegetable soup uses potatoes, onions, celery, and carrots. There are endless ingredients that can be added to this simple recipe in order to make it perfect for your tastes.

First fill the Dutch oven about halfway with vegetable or chicken broth. A broth can be made using bullion cubes and water. Take the chopped vegetables and put them into the soup. You may add herbs, such as parsley, to the soup, or sprinkle on salt and pepper to taste. Put the Dutch oven over the fire, and let it sit for at least a half hour.

Once the soup is done, carefully remove the oven from the fire. Be sure to keep the oven, which will still be very hot, away from any flammable objects while it is cooling.

Italian Cooking Classes

If you want to learn to cook authentic Italian food and are willing to take a little vacation at the same time, there are a number of great cooking schools in Italy that are designed for the culinary traveler. Think about it, what an experience it would be working learning Italian cuisine in Italy. And don't forget the style of cooking you're interested, since the regions of Italy have different cuisines.

The Awaiting Table in Leece Italy has week long classes that go for 1895 EURO, which includes lodging at a bed and breakfast. Talk about getting immersed in a cuisine. Or, they have one day classes for 350 EURO. The day class covers lunch and dinner and trips to multiple markets, coffee, all wines and handmade liqueurs. Dinner is served in the old wine cellar!

Teens Drink of Choice

Apparently, it doesn't take a biochemist to formulate an energy drink. No, according to Starbucks, any guy off the street is qualified. At least that's whose opinion mattered most when the coffee giant recently created the ingredient list for its own concoction.

"There are many energy ingredients on the market, and B vitamins, guarana, and ginseng are the ones our customers are most familiar with," says Ruby Amegah, product development manager for the team behind the Starbucks Doubleshot Energy + Coffee. Which perhaps in large part explains why the company chose them; It's smart marketing.

Trouble is, by letting consumer research influence ingredient lists, energy-drink companies are helping popularize exotic-sounding compounds that even scientists don't yet fully understand. The approach has worked: Last year, Americans spent $4.2 billion on these supposedly high octane elixirs. And that's probably why manufacturers haven't strayed far from the best-selling recipe they used when the first energy drinks took off a dozen years ago.