Take the chill off the season with dishes that warm the body and satisfy the soul.
By Janet Groene, F47166
November 2021
Whether you’re wintering on the ski slopes, desert, or southern beaches, there are sure to be cold snaps. When tummies cry out for tried-and-true foods that are warming, nutritious, easy on the budget, and stripped of steps that waste resources, here are some ideas.
New Jersey Italian Meatballs
The Garden State is home to many citizens of Italian heritage. This meatball and sauce recipe is traditional in some households and always a success when served hot and savory with spaghetti or other pasta. This is a good recipe to freeze ahead for RV camping.
Meatballs
1½ pounds ground meat, preferably a mixture of beef, pork, and veal
⅓ cup pine nuts
⅓ cup raisins
⅓ cup grated dry cheese, such as Parmesan
3 thick slices day-old Italian bread, cut in small pieces
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon each salt, pepper
Mix all the ingredients together well, preferably with your hands. (Keep disposable plastic kitchen gloves on hand for messy jobs like this.) Form into small meatballs.
Sauce
⅓ cup lard
Medium onion, diced
¼ cup sugar
6-ounce can tomato paste
28- to 32-ounce can diced tomatoes
Salt, pepper to taste
Stir-fry the onion in the lard until it’s crisp-tender. Stir in the sugar, tomato paste, tomatoes, and salt and pepper if desired and cook over medium heat. Depending on the juice in the tomatoes, you may need to add a little extra water or broth. Bring the sauce to a boil, and drop in the meatballs, keeping the sauce at an active simmer until meatballs test done at 160 degrees. After the meatballs are done, spoon the sauce and meatballs over pasta. Serves 6 to 8.
Vermont Meatloaf
I’d never heard of a dollar-stretching meatloaf made like this until I found this recipe in a 1939 Vermont cookbook. It’s baked in a buttered baking dish, but the mixture also can be spread in a greased, heavy skillet for stove-top baking. This is my shortcut version of the old recipe. The country gravy mix supplies seasonings. Liquid pasteurized eggs in a carton, including Egg Beaters egg whites, save time and mess.
2-cup-size packet country gravy mix
1 cup water
1 cup cold milk
Medium onion, chopped fine
½ cup dry breadcrumbs
1 pound ground meat (beef, turkey, lamb, or venison)
2 beaten eggs or equivalent
In a large saucepan, make the country gravy using half milk and half water with the mix. Remove the gravy from the heat and stir in the onion, breadcrumbs, and ground meat. Add the eggs last. Mix well. The mixture will be thin, but it will firm up when cooked.
Put the mixture in a greased baking pan and bake at 325 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes or until it tests done (160 degrees for beef or venison, 165 degrees for poultry). Serves 8 to 10.
Stovetop or campfire version: Proceed as above, but put the mixture in a greased, heavy skillet or Dutch oven. Cover tightly and cook over a low-medium burner or nestled in well-started coals until it tests done.
Minnesota Hot Or Cold Sandwich
If you’re winter camping in Minnesota, you’re ice fishing for bluegill, crappie, sunfish, and perch. If you summer there and are a lucky angler, you have plenty of walleye in your freezer for the winter. Serve this tangy sandwich hot in cold weather or, if you’re camping in the Sunbelt, eat it cold for lunch or supper.
1 pound white fish poached in water, chicken broth, diluted white wine, or crab boil spice mix
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ cup mayonnaise (or more to taste)
8 slices sandwich bread
Sauce
6-ounce package of sharp Wisconsin cheddar cheese, shredded or cut in small dice
½ cup whole milk or light cream
Drain and flake the fish, and then stir in the horseradish, lemon juice, and mayonnaise. Spread the fish on four slices of bread and then top with a second slice of bread.
Serve now as a cold sandwich. Or, for a warmer meal, heat the cheese with the milk/cream, stirring constantly over low heat to form a smooth sauce. Spoon the sauce over the sandwiches to create a warm knife-and-fork meal.
Georgia Pecan Burgundy Burgers
Georgia gets its share of freezing temperatures, and the mountains become icy. Fortunately, folks there have summer’s pecan harvest to see them through.
14- to 16-ounce package lean ground beef
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ cup pecan meal or finely chopped pecans
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup dry red wine, such as Burgundy
1 teaspoon cornstarch
½ cup water
In a bowl, mix the ground beef with the seasonings and pecans. Form four patties, and then brown the patties in hot butter. Pour the wine over the burgers, cover, and cook them over medium heat until the beef tests done at 160 degrees. Whisk together the water and the cornstarch, and then stir it into the pan juices until they thicken. This is a knife-and-fork meal when served with sides such as Texas toast and steamed broccoli. Serves 4.
Colorado Bison Barley Soup
Picture a big, black kettle simmering over the campfire, or a large pot steaming on the RV stove, filling the cold, dry air with steamy aromas. Ground bison is widely distributed, or you can use lean ground beef as a substitute. The good news: The leftovers freeze well.
2 pounds ground bison
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 pints sliced mushrooms
Large onion, chopped
Small can chopped jalapeños, drained
1 tablespoon minced garlic
½ cup minced parsley
6 cups water
6 cups beef, chicken, or vegetable stock
Cholula Hot Sauce, original flavor
½ cup quick barley
2 cups chopped baby spinach
Salt, pepper to taste
1 cup heavy whipping cream
Sour cream (optional)
Brown the bison in hot oil, gradually stirring in the vegetables, garlic, and parsley to brown and coat them. Add water, stock, and a teaspoon of the hot sauce. Bring everything to a boil and then stir in the barley. Cover and simmer over reduced heat until the barley is tender, adding more water or broth if needed. When the soup is almost ready to serve, stir in the spinach until it’s limp. Adjust the seasonings to match your taste. Remove the soup from the heat and stir in the cream. Serve as is or with dollops of sour cream. Pass the hot sauce. Serves 10 to 12.
Maryland Stove-Top Crab Custard
In the western highlands of the Old Line State, temperatures plunge in winter and snowfalls blanket handsome historic districts. Crab harvests from Chesapeake Bay are a year-round staple.
14- to 16-ounce package flaked crabmeat
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
½ cup water or milk
4 eggs
¼ cup sherry
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
Medium onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
2 slices day-old bread, diced
1 cup buttery round cracker crumbs
¼ stick butter
Drain and pick over the crabmeat, and then set it aside. In a bowl, whisk together the soup, water/milk, eggs, sherry, salt, and pepper. In a large, deep skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of butter and sauté the onion and celery in it. Mix the crabmeat and diced bread in the skillet with the onion and celery. Pour the egg mixture over all of it; cover the skillet and let it cook until the eggs set. In a small skillet, stir the cracker crumbs in ¼-stick butter until the cracker crumbs are toasted.
Cut the custard in 6 to 8 wedges and sprinkle each serving with buttered crumbs. Serves 6 to 8.
New York Breakfast Skillet
The orchards of upstate New York supply the spicy apple butter to make a strata-like dish that mixes and cooks, hot and hearty, in less than 30 minutes. This “strata” needs no soaking or long bake time.
4 large croissants
About ½ cup apple butter
4 slices precooked bacon (or more to taste)
2½ cups milk
4-serving package cook-and-serve vanilla pudding mix
1 cup granola (more or less to taste)
Split the croissants lengthwise and spread apple butter on the cut sides. Add a strip or two of bacon to one side of each croissant to make sandwiches. Cut the sandwiches in half and set them aside. In a large skillet, stir together the cold milk and the pudding mix. Cook, stirring, over medium heat until it thickens. Reduce the heat and float the croissants atop the hot pudding sauce. Cover the skillet and heat gently for 3 to 4 minutes, just until the croissants are heated through.
Put two croissant halves in each bowl and spoon the hot vanilla sauce over them. Sprinkle each serving with granola. Serves 4.
Pennsylvania Potato Candy
From the archives of frugal Pennsylvania Dutch folks comes this age-old recipe to make on a cold, rainy, winter day in the campground. You’ll be surprised at how much powdered sugar is absorbed by the potato. Be prepared.
Medium potato
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon high-quality vanilla, mint, almond, or other extract
4 to 6 cups powdered sugar
Chocolate jimmies, finely chopped nuts, or shredded coconut
Peel and boil the potato until it’s very tender. Drain well. Mash the potato with the salt and extract. Gradually add powdered sugar, continuing until the mixture can be shaped into patties. Press both sides into your choice of coating and set aside on waxed paper to dry. Makes 1¼ pounds candy.
Quebec Maple Fudge
While Vermont is the USA’s leading producer of maple syrup, Canada is by far the world’s leading maple syrup provider. Warm up a cold winter evening with maple fudge and a deck of cards.
2 cups white sugar
1 cup pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 cup milk
Stir everything over medium heat until it registers 236 degrees. Remove from the heat and beat vigorously until it turns creamy. Put in a buttered 8-inch-by-8-inch pan. Cool and chill until firm. Makes 64 small squares.
Food Safety: A Year-Round Travel Concern
With the introduction of the one-second Thermapen One digital food temperature probe, food safety just leapt into a new age in accuracy and ease of use. When you’re traveling in an RV, food safety becomes doubly important.
Nobody wants to see an RV trip ruined by food poisoning. In camping, we’re using equipment, heat sources, and refrigeration that may be quite different from familiar home appliances. Extra precautions are called for.
Major restaurant chains, chefs, food inspectors, and other professionals are now using this tool. A Thermapen One (www.thermoworks.com) was provided to me by the company for field testing. After several months, it has become indispensable. Stick the probe into food and get a digital report in one second. Less expensive models are available from other companies, too. They are accurate but may take longer and have fewer features.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the top eight sources of food-borne illnesses are, in this order, poultry, vegetables and leafy greens, fish and shellfish, rice, deli meats, unpasteurized dairy products, eggs, and fruit. The major illnesses caused by incorrect production, storage, or preparation of these foods are caused by Norovirus, Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, and Campylobacter.
The dangers of E. coli in undercooked ground beef are also well known. Thermapen One is perfect for testing burgers instantly right on the grill. These thermometers come with invaluable charts and information about safe cooking temperatures and food handling.
Share Your Favorite Recipes.
If you have a recipe you enjoy making in your RV, share it with Janet at janetgroene@yahoo.com (put FMCA in the subject line). Visit Janet at CampAndRVCook.blogspot.com, where new recipes and tips are added weekly; a subscription for e-reader devices is available at http://amzn.to/1DsP67t. Janet’s books, including the second edition of Cooking Aboard Your RV, are available in bookstores and at Amazon.com.