Hobo Dinners

You might have read about some of our recent Cousin Camp Adventures. It was certainly adventurous!

I want to start posting some of the recipes and other goodies we used during the week.

The Humble Hobo Dinner certainly won't be a revelation to most of you. I find it a real fun meal solution. And no Hobos are actually eaten in the process.


First things first. The beauty of Hobo Dinners is that you can use your choice of proteins and veggies. You can cook them in the oven or over a campfire.

Here is how we did it.

I made up a ground beef mixture from a recipe I got in an Amish Cookbook. It's called Poor Man's Steak.

I'll post the recipe at the end of the blog. It's purty tasty!

I then gathered potatoes, carrots, onions and some herbs. I gave everything a good chop and made a little Hobo Dinner Assembly line.

Here I am explaining the complexities of  the Hobo Dinner. Thankfully, no one has their finger up their nose. Maybe.

On a piece of foil, we laid our root vegetables on first. Actually, the only veggies we used were of the root variety.  The idea is that because they take longer cook and need to be closer to the heat.

Our Poor Man's Steak went on top of the veggies. All that nice grease seeps it's way onto the potatoes and carrots.

And if that weren't enough I added a pat of real butter! Now that's a good looking pat of butter.

We added a sprig of rosemary, a little seasoning and wrapped it up.

Payge made her Hobo Dinner. Just her size. See the piece of bacon? I forgot to add it to mine! How is that possible? Payge's bacon is bigger than the rest of her dinner.

This Cousin has it right. Bacon!

Anyhoo. We cooked down by the pond on our makeshift grill. I asked the makers of the grill if the grill top was in all actuality a shelf from out of an old refrigerator. There was silence. I probably don't want to know.

They take between 45 minutes to an hour. If you slice the potatoes and carrots thinner they might take less time. I wouldn't count on it. Just grab yourself a book, a fly swatter and settle in.

As promised here is the recipe for the whole Kit and Kaboodle. Including the Poor Man's Steak. I did not use the paper towel. We used the Foil Wrappers specifically for cooking...though even with regular tin foil I don't think burning would have been a problem.