One of My Favorite Webelos Den Meetings

Not surprisingly, my favorite Webelos activity pin to teach is Outdoorsman.  I try to work on this one in warm weather meetings, and have now done it once in May/June and now, this year, in September. 



Outdoorsman Activity Pin

Although Outdoorsman is all about camping and camping skills, it is possible to complete the pin without actually camping out.  Even though several of the boys in our den attend camping trips, I try to make a point of completing the pin in the context of weekly meetings for those who don't.  It takes three or four meetings to do the Outdoorsman right.

One of those meetings is a double-length meeting we hold in the back yard.  Each boy makes their own tin foil dinner, and we cook them on charcoal briquettes in our back yard fire pit.  In order to expose the boys to some other interesting outdoor cooking methods, I also prepare something in the Dutch oven (Rolls This Year) and in a Cardboard Box Reflector Oven (Brownies this year.)  We make the Cardboard box oven at an earlier meeting, which is a fun activity. Parents and other family members come and cook their own meals as well. When I did this for my oldest, we also used hobo stoves, but I skipped that this year because honestly they are a bit tippy and dangerous.

While dinner is cooking, the boys worked with their den chief to pitch a tent using the required taut line hitch and two half hitches knots, and planned a skit to perform at a campfire.   I quickly set a log cabin fire lay, and we sat down to eat.  I'm happy to say everything came out very well and most everyone enjoyed their meal.   You could certainly tell who preferred not to have their meat and veggies touch each other, though!

When dinner is done, we have a few minutes by the campfire to watch the boys skit which, being boy devised and led with only a few minutes planning, turned out to be one of the more chaotic moments of the evening.  I wound up the meeting by talking about what we had done and learned by the fire with the boys, while signing off on three requirements we've completed that night in their books.

All this takes about two hours.  More than our usual meetings, but the time goes by pretty quickly and everyone enjoys themselves.  Me included.

Dutch Oven Rolls Are Easy and Amaze Other Campers

Everyone loves fresh baked bread, and no one expects to have it hot out of the oven while camping. As a result, these are always a big hit.  As long as you have a little time, these large, light, fluffy rolls are easily produced on a warm summer day.  Like our Dutch oven pizza, we make this one with ready-made dough, so there's no mixing bowls, spoons or measured ingredients involved.

Line a #12 deep dish Dutch oven with liner paper (or greased aluminum foil if you don't have liner paper), and cut two (thawed) loaves of frozen bread dough into 16 equally sized rolls.  Arrange these at the bottom of the oven, cover lightly with a clean towel or paper towel, put the lid on your oven and place them in the sun for a couple of hours to rise.  They should rise to about 1/2 to 2/3 of the depth of the oven.  This step does require warm weather, so don't try these on a cloudy cold day, when the rolls won't rise well.

When you're ready to bake, remove the towel covering the rolls and replace the lid.  Spread 10 briquettes evenly below the oven and place 14 around the perimeter on top.  Bake for about 25 minutes, checking periodically to make sure you are not burning them.  You may need to add additional top heat near the end to brown the rolls.  Just make sure to arrange around the outside edge to avoid burning them.

The resulting rolls will fill the oven to the top and be very light and fluffy.  Serve with butter, olive oil, or just as they are.  Enjoy!

Dutch Oven Pizza

Usually when cooking in a Dutch oven, we're cooking in a campsite where too much mixing of ingredients is impractical.  As a result, for many meals we tend to use mixes and pre-made components.  Pizza is one of those meals. There isn't a long list of ingredients or directions.  I felt it was worth writing a post anyway, though, because this is a great way to get the kids involved in the Dutch oven cooking process.  It also happens to be one of their favorite camping meals, and there are a few tips and tricks I've learned.

In terms of ingredients, the most crucial item is your favorite ready-made pizza dough ball.  We like to use Portland Pie Company's beer dough, which we can buy in our local grocery store, but any dough will work.  You'll also want your favorite sauces, cheeses, and toppings.  We've pictured a pepperoni pizza (the boys favorite) with Ragu pizza sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni, but we've done gourmet combinations in the Dutch oven before, so get creative!

As you can see, we line the Dutch oven first with liner paper that you can buy in most places Dutch ovens are sold.  You can use aluminum foil as well if you don't have liner paper, but using the foil requires that you use a cooking spray or other grease on the foil that isn't needed with liner paper.  Paper also enables you to rotate the pizza in the oven to facilitate even cooking.  That doesn't work as well with foil.  The most important reason to use either is to facilitate getting the pizza out of the bottom of the oven easily and in tact so you can cut it.  It has the added benefit of virtually eliminating clean up!

We take the standard size dough ball and cut about 1/3 off when cooking in our #14 Dutch ovens.  The full ball gives you a really thick crust - thicker than we prefer.  Since we have two #14's and one pizza is not enough for a family of four, we usually cook two at once, and then cook off a third made from the excess dough while we are eating.  The third one usually gets shared with others or saved for snacks.

While your briquettes are heating:

1. Stretch your dough by hand, place on the liner paper.
2. Place the liner in the  oven.
3. Let the kids add sauce, cheese and toppings.
4. Cover and add heat.

In terms of heat, it's really important with pizza not to overheat the bottom of the oven.  I use 12 briquettes as evenly spread as possible under the #14 oven and about 18 on top.  If I need to add heat, I add briquettes to the top and keep the heat on bottom the same.  This minimizes burning of the crust.  Also, your top briquettes should be placed around the perimeter of the oven, leaving the center clear.  This type of top heat should be used for all breads and bread based recipes, because it minimizes scorching of the top of your meal.  Check your pizza after about 20 minutes.  Then check fairly regularly and often after that.  Turn the pizza a quarter turn each time you check it to help it cook evenly.

When the crust is done, remove from the oven by gripping the liner paper.  Then cut and enjoy!