A Guiding Life

I always know we are in for a good night when the amount of equipment I need is in piles everywhere.

Although the popcorn maker and the Gillie were only out as a 'just in case'

I like it when my fire box comes out, it is a true treasure trove to me.

I have a brand new fire pit to play with too.

I don't have many photos of the 'process' as I was the only leader supervising 2 sets of fires, the oven making process, dough making etc. I needed eyes in the back of my head!

But I showed them (again!) how to start a decent fire:

Build a square of sticks, put your tinder (tumble dryer fluff for us) in the centre then a small wigwam of kindling (twigs) over it.

Light the centre tinder. Keep adding kindling slowly increasing it in size until it all takes then put bigger sticks on until you are adding logs.

This was the fire for the dampers

The oven to be used for the wild cooking was a small deposable BBQ, 4 empty beer cans (thank you HWMBO) and a grill.

You completely cover a cardboard box inside and out with silver foil. We used duct tape to stick it where necessary.

You cover it twice with the shiny side outwards.

They mixed up a ready made pizza dough with warm water. I hate using ready made anything because I think it teaches the girls nothing but it really is the cheapest way to do it when you only need small quantities. Kneaded the dough in their (washed) hands and made flat rounds about the size of their palms.

Added tomato puree and grated cheese.

The pizza went onto the grill and the box popped over the top with a stone propping up the corner.

They were left for about 15 mins until I could smell them. I lifted the box off and they were cooked. They looked 'interesting' they tasted great.

Lessons learnt: Use a stronger grill and weight the cans. make the box at least 2 inches bigger than the grill all round to give you wiggle room lifting it on and off.

The girls mixed up a damper dough:

500g self raising flour

75g caster sugar

200ml water

and kneaded it a little. take a ball and roll it out in your (washed) hands and wrap it around a foil covered stick without any gaps

and twirl it over a fire whilst chatting about exams, being dumped by boyfriends, pets, future plans, camps you remember

when cooked slide the damper off the stick and fill it with jam or chocolate spread whilst remembering if you didn't wrap it over the end of your stick then you have a hole both ends and the jam goes all the way through and will land in your lap!

Remember to leave a small hole in your tummy for a smore

The Rangers were clearly running high on school and college stress and the night really did them some good. Sometimes you've just got to sit and chew the fat around a fire with a cat on your lap to find your inner peace.