·        Put some bacon, sausage, diced ham, or sliced bratwurst in your cast iron skillet over a medium fire to brown.

·        Break a couple of eggs per person into a mixing bowl.

·        Pour in about a quarter cup of milk or cream.

·        Now check the coolers and camp box for anything you need to use up. This works really well on the last day in camp when you’re trying to use stuff up.

·        Chop, dice, slice or tear the peppers, mushrooms, onions, cheese, olives, cabbage, or whatever else you could find into really small pieces and stir them into the bowl with the eggs.

·        Drain the excess grease from your skillet and chop the bacon or sausage into small pieces.

·        Add the egg concoction to the meat in the skillet and continue to heat while stirring to scramble things up.

·        You can stir in some Tabasco or Catsup right at the end or just put them on the table to be added without the fussin and cussin by those who don’t appreciate fine Billville breakfast cusine.  Same with salt and pepper.

·        Now you could have made omelets with the same ingredients, but Radar finds it much easier to just scramble everything together since it’s all going to wind up in the same place anyway.

• While the chicken browns, sauté some mushroom stems and pieces in olive oil with some onion and crushed garlic in a cast iron skillet on the campfire. Bell peppers and some other seasonings are optional if you have some to use up.  

   

• When everything is really smelling good put the chicken in the skillet, pour in a quarter inch of beer, and put on the lid.   

• Move it to the cooler end of the cook rack and rotate the skillet now and then while simmering.   

• Add a splash of beer if needed, but don’tbe jerking the lid off too much or it’ll take all night to get the chicken under the influence of the beer.   

• Squeeze the juice of one lime on the chicken just before you take it off the fire and plate it up.   

• This goes real well with a vinegar type bean salad, slaw or well rinsed sauerkraut.   

Raccoon fat isn’t very tasty, so trim as much of the fat as possible before freezing. Fill the freezer bag with water or wrap well to prevent freezer burn. Thaw the coon out just before your trip.

If your wife will allow it, boil the coon at home in one part apple juice to two parts water. A clove of garlic and a little minced onion in with it is a good idea, too. If your wife doesn’t appreciate the aroma or the mess you make you can wait and do the boiling in camp.

After boiling about an hour add your peeled sweet potatoes and boil another fifteen minutes or so. The boiling eliminates any remaining fat, tenderizes and flavors everything and cuts the baking time later on the campfire.   Dump off the water and let everything cool for a bit. Then, put the coon and sweet taters in a plastic container with a couple of cups of cooking wine (or any cheap white wine) and keep refrigerated or iced down in the cooler till you’re ready to bake.

Dump everything in a large cast iron Dutch oven and sit it on a rack or hang it on a tripod several inches above a good bed of campfire coals.  Dump any excess liquid and leave just enough in the bottom of the pot to make some steam during cooking.    If your cast iron isn’t seasoned well you’ll need to put a roasting rack or a layer of aluminum foil in the bottom to prevent sticking.  

 Add a couple of dried red peppers, some seasoned salt or garlic salt, a little black pepper and some more minced onion. Put the lid on the oven and put a few coals on the lid. If you don’t have a flat lid you can skip the coals on top, but then you’ll be fixing coon pot roast instead of baked coon.

The slower you cook this, the better.  Having to constantly raise the lid to check for burning on a hot fire gets too many ashes in with the coon.   If the fire is low you can just let it bake slowly and eat whenever your stomach says it’s time.   Coon and Sweet Taters go great with Dishwater Corn and Munchkin’s Grilled Zucchini.   Of course, you’ve probably got a half bottle of wine left too.   Enjoy…..

Drain off the water and put the beans in your bean pot or dutch oven.

Cover with fresh water and hang on tripod over medium fire until boiling. If not soaked, boil them long enough to drink a beer and tell a couple of lies. If soaked, go right ahead to the next step.

Drop in three or four smoked ham hocks and add a table spoon of salt, a handful of chopped onion, and a few good dashes of black pepper.

If you can’t find smoked ham hocks you can cheat with a little liquid smoke or smoke ‘em yourself on the campfire.

Raise pot or let fire die down to slow cook beans on low heat with lid on for a couple of hours. Add water as needed. (If you got busy and let your beer get hot you can dump it in, but check for bees or horse flies in the can first.)

Serve up with some pickled beets and several hunks of River Bank Corn Bread.

Reduce heat or move from flame to coals and simmer with lid on for 45 minutes. (Long enough to chop up the stuff you need later and have a cold one or two)

Heat up enough olive oil to cover the bottom of your dutch oven or stew pot.

If you can find some polk stalks growing near camp, chop some tender leaves and stir fry it in the hot oil for a few minutes. (optional)

Dump in a little more than a half handful each of chopped mushrooms, black olives, green onions, and bell pepper. Stir in a little minced garlic if you have it.

If you have some pecans, hickory nuts, or walnuts in camp drop a handful of them in, too. They taste better and aren’t as hard on your teeth if you shell ‘em first.

Add a little black pepper, a dash or two of garlic salt and a pinch of ground sage.

Stir the mix around for a few minutes then add 1 can of beer (or broth) and the cooked rice.

Squeeze in a little lemon or lime juice (without the seeds if you can) and stir it all up. Move to a cooler spot on the campfire and simmer until you and a couple of buddies are ready to eat.

It’s not likely, but if you have any leftovers, don’t let it sit out more than an hour, or so, before putting it in the cooler. Brown rice spoils quicker than white rice if left out after it is cooked.