Thanksgiving (Cooking Expo) Pouch Camping Trip

When and Where

When: November 10-12, 2023, 7:00 pm — 10:00 am
Nights: 2

Location: William H. Pouch Scout Camp / Stewart Area, Sites: A-5, A-6

Celebrate Thanksgiving with Troop 23. 
Camping in Lean-tos.
Review cooking requirements. Learn new meal ideas.
The fee is $25 per Scout
All permission slips and fees are due Monday, November 6th.

The theme is to not only cook up a delicious feast, but to help all the scouts learn to cook delicious meals outdoors. 

In order to do this, we are asking for any parents or scouter adults who can volunteer their culinary skills to come for a few hours on Saturday, November 11th to help support one of the cooking stations where we will teach the scouts how to prepare and cook a meal in the field. 

We plan to have two stations to cook two different types of meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, i.e. breakfast can have one station for eggs and one for pancakes - the menu choices are open to your suggestions.

If you can, please come for the day to spend a few hours with the scouts outdoors, preparing and eating some delicious foods. If you have any questions, or can confirm, please contact the adult leaders. 

WHAT TO GET EXCITED ABOUT

Our next camping trip is less than one week away. Start prepping your gear but you don't have to worry about meals. This one is on us! This is one of the few camping trips (other than Winter Fun Trip) where scouts do not have to plan for meals and shop for ingredients. However, the primary objective is to get you more comfortable cooking at camp for future trips, thereby ensuring that everyone will be fed well and meals are enjoyable. Adults will do all the planning, shopping, and instruction (using EDGE). The venue is Camp Pouch, which is extremely accessible, being less than 30 mins away. 

INSTRUCTION AND TESTING

The following is the high level agenda on Saturday. It's difficult for scouts to cover all the material on Monday's. This will accelerate the progress. During the entire time, you will receive instructions. How to set up the stove, how to use cooking utensils, safely handle and store food, safely and effectively using pocket knife, saw and axe, knots & lashing, 3-bucket method, etc. Senior scouts will be needed to provide vital support (i.e. timing, judging, etc.). Scouts who want to get tested on these are related requirements, please alert an adult leader ASAP. Opportunities to get tested will become limited if you procrastinate. 

Cooking

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Instruction: Scouts will be divided into two groups (i.e. A and B) and each meal (of the day) will consist of two concurrent sessions/dishes. Each group (therefore each scout) will receive hands-on instruction for preparing and cooking each dish. Yes, you get to eat and be fed at the same time. Yes! SIGN ME UP NOW!

Breakfast stations:
Eggs - Omelette, scrambled
- Fry pans/griddle
- Goal: cooking eggs
Pancakes - 
- Fry pans/griddle
- Goal: cooking pancakes, not raw, not burnt

Lunch Stations:
Chicken Tacos (Eric)
- Fry pan to cook one/two chicken breasts for demo
- Fry pans/Griddle to toast tortillas, saute prepped cooked chicken slices, vegs
- Goal: teach cooking raw chicken, taco contents, not to burn tortillas
Chicken-zucchnni pancakes-patties (Dmitry)
- Prepped Chicken-zucchnni pancakes mix, to pour/ladle out
- Griddle/Fry pans
- Goal: cooking patties

Dinner Stations:
Foil wrap cooking - set menu, ask scouts to prep their own foli packs at home if they want to pass a requirement
- Prep foil pack contents at home, bring foil, have kids crete foil packs
- Need 2 or more campfires to distribute foil packs for cooking
- Goal: Foil cooking
Other Dinner?
Desert - Dutch Oven Peach cobbler??
- Ask Tom for advice

PIONEERING AND GADGET BUILDING

Pioneering and Gadget Building Competition - Between Breakfast and Lunch
Scouts will source and prepare wood from camp. Judges will rate each gadget and the criteria is focused on construction and quality of the lashings. The troop will provide rope, saw and hatchet/saw. Scouts must bring their own pocket knives. This is the perfect time to efficiently get tested on use of tools, knots, lashing and gadget building rank requirements. Youth leader to come up with a prize for the winner. 

FIRE BUILDING 

Fire Building Competition- Between Lunch and Breakfast
Using the same tools for the above, scouts will process the wood and use it to start your fire. While this is a timed event, you will all the time to process the wood. Again, scouts must bring their own pocket knives. This is the perfect time to efficiently get tested on use of tools, knots, lashing and gadget building rank requirements. Youth leader to come up with a prize for the winner. 

Historian's notes