The Best Campfire Meals

When you’re enjoying the great outdoors, your favorite take-out isn’t exactly around the corner. It becomes more important than ever that you find a way to feed yourself and your loved ones. But you’re in the middle of nowhere without a stove or oven—and certainly no sign of a microwave—so the only real way to cook food is over a campfire.

There are several ways to prepare food using only a campfire as a heat source—skewer, aluminum foil, and paper sack. Below are some basic recipes for each.

Aluminum foil:

  • Wrap meal in heavy duty aluminum foil and cook over heat until done. Cooking time depends on the level of heat, as well as the type of meat used. Ingredients can include chicken, ribs, pork, potatoes, peppers, onions, and much more. Foil packet meals work better over hot coals or a small fire rather than a roaring blaze.

Paper sack:

  • Bacon and eggs are ideal for paper sack cooking. Place raw bacon in the bottom of the bag, crack an egg over the bacon, and fold the top of the bag down. Moisten the bag to keep it from burning and use a non-flammable stick like a wire hanger to hold the bag over the fire. Be sure you keep the bag far enough away to keep the flame from touching it but close enough that it gets the full force of the heat. Cooking takes about ten minutes.

Skewer:

  • This is one of the best-known campfire cooking methods and many say it’s the easiest. Marshmallows and hot dogs are the obvious choices, but sausages, potatoes, and zucchini are ideal for skewering, as well. You can even chop up pieces of poultry, pork, fish, lamb…and any other kind of meat to cook over the campfire.

Cooking around a campfire is not only a way to have great food while enjoying the great outdoors, it’s also a fun experience that can help bring everyone together. Once you’ve found your favorite way of campfire cooking, you can experiment with seasonings and new recipes to add variety to your experience.

Dr. William Knudson Answers Your Questions about High Heels

In conversations with patients, Dr. Knudson says that most women are aware high heels are not the best for foot health. Many continue to wear these shoes anyway, however, due to the perceived fashionable nature of them. And while he acknowledges that sometimes a woman may have no choice to wear heels, whether for a special event or as a requirement for a job, Dr. William Knudson still wants to remind his patients about the long-term damage sustained by wearing high-heeled shoes for excessive lengths of time.

Q: Why are heels so bad?

Dr. William Knudson: The foot has a natural shape that is distorted by the shape of a heel. Over time, this can lead to a change in the shape of the foot that causes pain even when the wearer is in flats or barefoot.

Q: Many pairs of high-heeled shoes have cramped toes. Is this bad, too?

Dr. William Knudson: Yes, absolutely. The shoe should mimic the shape of a person’s foot. Cramped toes can lead to foot problems including neuromas.

Q: What other foot problems can be caused by wearing high heels?

Dr. William Knudson: For one, bone spurs can occur as a result of wearing heels for extended periods of time. Hammertoe can also happen over time as well.

Q: Hammertoe is where the toes become permanently deformed, right?

Dr. William Knudson: With hammertoe, a person’s toe becomes bent in a particular direction but it’s not always permanent. In some cases switching to proper footwear can resolve the problem.

Q: I’ve noticed that calluses can also build up over time. Why is that?

Dr. William Knudson: Calluses and corns can form as a result of wearing heels. This can be caused by wearing improper-fitting shoes of any type, though.

Q: Heels aren’t the only cause of foot pain, right?

Dr. William Knudson: Correct. Supportive footwear in general is essential to long-term foot health. One survey found that women had a far higher instance of foot pain as they got older than men, due to wearing shoes like sandals, flip flops, and heels.

Q: Feet aren’t the only things that suffer from heels, though.

Dr. William Knudson: I see patients who also have back problems, leg problems, and ankle problems from wearing shoes with inadequate support. That doesn’t even take into account the number of injuries that occur each year as a result of someone falling in high heels.

Q: What about women who want to be stylish while still keeping their feet safe?

Dr. William Knudson: Plenty of shoes are available with proper support. The key is to research online before heading out to the store. Good quality, name brand shoes will often be of much higher quality than bargain basement discount shoes. Look for highly reviewed shoes on clearance for the best value.