The most important ingredient in camp cooking and meals is water. Unfortunately, water is heavy to carry. On the other hand, in West Virginia, natural water works are abundant. Just boil natural water for three full minutes before drinking or cooking with it.

Water sanitizing pellets are available for purchase and come with basic instructions. However, water purified in this manner is not appropriate for pregnant women, and in some opinions, has a "chemical" taste.

Pets and tender stomachs may not take to the different water, so try to take at least one gallon of water from home for each day away. If you won’t be near any water you can use at all, make sure to take at least a gallon of water for each person for every day of your trip.

Try to plan meals that use similar cookware - if any cookware is required at all. It is possible to eat and cook outdoors without any cookware. Freeze-dried and dehydrated foods can be warmed in a stainless steel cup; meat cubes and vegetables can be cooked on kebob sticks; apples, onions, even burgers can be roasted in aluminum foil.

The more you learn to campfire cook without depending on heavy pots and pans, the easier your camping trips will be.

Even so, many of us just can’t cook a decent meal without the basics. Even with our extensive practice with foil and kebobs, we still pack and carry a campfire coffee pot, skillet with lid, stew pot with lid, cutting board, and the grill rack from our old back porch barbecue.

The grill rack provides a flat cooking surface over the open fire, the skillet is mostly used for breakfast, the lids keep the fire ashes and pine needles out of the cooking food, the cutting board provides a sterile food-prep space, and the stew pot can double as a "wash sink" for our dirty utensils and cups.

There is no need to spend money on campfire cookware. Many of the items you need or will want to use are already in your home. If you are going to camp near your car, anything cast iron will do. If you spend money on anything, most likely it will be the camp coffee pot. If you’re not going to pack your camp gear on your back, buy the biggest coffee pot you can find. Hot coffee and hot water are always needed in the campground.

Campfire cooking, in many ways, is much like cooking over charcoal. The best time to cook is when the fire pit is full of hot coals, with low flames. If the fire is too big, you will likely burn your food and burn yourself. If the fire is too small, you may feel as though you may starve before the food is fully cooked.

One main reason camp meals become an event is because good cooking coals only come after about three hours after you start your fire. You have to think to start the fire at least three hours before you want to start cooking. Most prefer to cook over coals from fruit woods, but most often, it is the hard woods that are prominently available. Use elm, ash, oak and, of course, hickory for that "hickory-smoked" flavor. Even if the campfire burns constantly at your base camp, you want to begin feeding the right wood into the flames in that three hour span before you begin to cook.

When cooking over hot coals, consider using about the same time you would if you were using an oven. A general rule to remember is to slow roast, and stir or rotate often. You have three heat options with a campfire. In the middle, where the main heat rises above the coals, on the edge, where fewer coals produce less heat, and in the coals, where intense heat comes from all sides.

For most meals, think "meat in the middle, sides on the side." Whole potatoes, large roasts, and other items that take an extra long amount of time to cook through can be wrapped well in foil, and buried in the coals.

Most meals will do well if cooked with butter, lard or Crisco. Although these are considered "artery cloggers" they will keep your food from sticking to your cookpan or foil over the intense heat.

Always wash your dishes and cookware away from natural bodies of water, and bury any left over food scraps. Use hot water to wash your dishes, but no soap. When finished, sprinkle the dish water over a large area or dump it in a designated waste-water receptacle.

Campfire cooking is a chance to get creative with your meal preparation. Culinary treats created over a campfire often cannot be recreated at home. With a little planning to correlate your tools and ingredients to your packing space, camp meals are no longer a burden, but an enjoyable camping experience.