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Am I the only person on earth who didn't know you could make Dulce de Leche by simply simmering a can of sweetened condensed milk? It's the perfect camping recipe and so delicious, you won't believe it! Put a can of sweetened, condensed milk in a pot of room temperature water (not boiling, or the can might explode) and bring to a vigorous simmer. Simmer for three hours. After three hours, pop open the top and you have a perfect, creamy container of Dulce de Leche. Good on ice cream, pound cake, a plain cookie or *shh* right off the spoon. Be still my heart. And shout-out to my mother-in-law, Judy Valentine, who showed me the way AND cooked up the Dulce de Leche in the photo above.

Illustration by Garth Williams for the cover of A Cricket in Times Square , written by George Selden 20 pieces of evidence: 1.  A cricket has moved into the kitchen. It chirps all the time, except when we go into the kitchen. Then it is silent until we leave again. 2. The kids sleep until 8:30, then they play until breakfast. 3. There's still time to camp, still weather to camp and we just fixed that tail light. 4. Sneakers, no socks. 5. I think one of the kids wore pajamas all day yesterday. 6. The cicadas are yelling at each other all night: "How about that heat?" "Did you see the sun today?" "I'm loving this tall grass." 7. Still time to read The Great Gatsby. It's only about 200 pages long, depending on what version you have. 8. Blueberries on cereal. 9. T-shirts after dark. 10. The smell of cut grass. 11. Ice cream every day, and sometimes twice a day. 12. Fewer rules. See above. 13. More time at th...

Miners camp in Colorado The campfire is the heart of the camping experience. There you are, in the woods, under a starry sky, surrounded by your favorite people. It just makes sense to burst into song! With kids, singing in a group doesn't always happen naturally. The trick to piquing their interest is to choose songs they sort of know—ones with repetitive choruses, so they can sing along. And a lot of the songs should be fun, too.  Our list is pretty dorky, but these happen to be the songs our kids are willing to to sing, and that's good enough for us! 1. This Land Is Your Land Words and Music by Woody Guthrie What's more fitting than this old folk song when you're camping in one of our beautiful national parks? We had an illustrated book of this song, and our oldest kid memorized the whole thing, even the last couple of verses that don’t exactly scan, so we sing the whole darn thing. Chorus: This land is your land  This land is my land From California to the...

I really don't know what's more delicious than this. Am I the only one who looks at this photo of an egg cooked in a bed of bacon in a paper bag and thinks it is possibly the most delicious-looking thing in the world?  In fact, I think the photo above is a tad blurry because my hands were shaking in anticipation of eating my creation, and having to fight the children off at the same time. Back! Back! Mmm. Paper Bag Eggs. My non-camping friends may think it odd that I obsess over ways to cook an egg without a pan, but don't they know that one could be stuck in the wilderness at any moment with nothing but a dozen perfectly unscathed eggs and a paper bag? It could happen! Another benefit of the Paper Bag Egg is that, whilst cooking, it can burst into flames at any moment and children really enjoy this. An expertly positioned PBE. Here's how it's done: Paper Bag Eggs  From The Real Family Camping Cookbook.  Serves:  1 Ingredients: 2 strips of fatty bacon 1 e...

Maine Dinner’s over and the kids are zipped into the tent with their flashlights and books. The sun is setting and the grownups are enjoying a cup of wine by the fire. That's when it hits you: Oh, yeah. This is why  I love camping .  Because camping isn't just the packing and unpacking, the cooking and tidying, the planning and the doing. Camping is a state of mind. I guess for some people it looks like a lot of trouble to go to for the honor of getting dirty, sleeping on the ground and using public toilets. But it's totally worth it, and here are ten reasons why: 1. Being outdoors 24/7 is good for your head. Most of us spend a lot of time indoors, so being outside for a few days feels really different. It’s as though the roof and walls are taken away from our poor, boxed-in brains as well as our bodies. It’s good. 2. Nothing tastes better than food you cook and eat outdoors. There’s probably a scientific reason why food tastes better outdoors – your senses are more re...

I was standing by the camp stove one day with a nearly-full bottle of curry powder in one hand and a crusty, old spatula in the other. "Want a curried grilled cheese sandwich?" I asked my seven year old. "OK," he said. "But just a little curry, OK?" "Sure," I said."Just a little." and then I dumped about a truckload of curry onto his sandwich. You can guess the rest! He loved it! He loved his yummy, weird, super-curried grilled cheese sandwich! And I got to eat the crusts. The secret to this festive and slightly fancy sandwich is that curry, while flavorful, isn't very hot-spicy. And melted cheese - delicious, bland melted cheese - is the perfect vehicle for the curry.  It's personality without the aggression. And really, what's better than that? Curried grilled cheese every day! And twice on Sunday! From The Real Family Camping Cookbook : Grilled Cheese and Curry Serves: 1 Ingredients: 2 slices of bread - any kind wil...