Whether you’re hiking, paddling, hunting or fishing, a good breakfast sets you up for the day ahead.
That’s especially true this weekend when muzzle-loader deer season opens on Saturday. Breakfast will be the first order of the day at deer camps across the Ozarks.
One of our favorite breakfasts at Camp See No Deer is huevos rancheros. This healthy breakfast takes about 10 minutes to prepare. It’s delicious and there’s little cleanup mess.
Your trusty two-burner camp stove is ideal for this recipe. Fix it over campfire coals or on the stove at home. There are as many recipes for huevos rancheros (rancher’s eggs) as there are recipes for chili. Here’s how we whip up this breakfast at Camp See No Deer.
Melt a pat of butter in a frying pan or use a squirt of pan coating. Warm a flour or corn tortilla on medium heat about 15 seconds each side. Move the tortilla to a plate. Heat enough tortillas to feed your camp mates. At home, you can wrap each tortilla in a damp paper towel and microwave it for about 20 seconds.
Chop some onion and bell pepper or any veggies you like. Grate or crumble some cheddar cheese or whatever cheese you prefer. Have some cooked and crumbled bacon or sausage ready, or skip the meat. Saute the veggies and meat, if you have it, in the frying pan for five minutes or until soft.
Move the veggies to one side of the pan. Sprinkle cheese on top of the veggies and spoon some picante sauce on top of the veggies and cheese.
Crack one or two eggs on the empty side of the pan and cook until they’re done to your liking. You want the yolks runny so when you cut into the egg, the yolk mixes with the picante sauce for a wonderful taste. If you like hard yolks, cook the eggs accordingly.
Spread some of the veggie, picante and cheese mixture on the tortilla. Put the cooked egg or eggs on top of that and spoon more mixture on top of the egg and enjoy. Now you’re fortified for the day with a nourishing breakfast.
A key to easy camp cooking is to do as much preparation as you can at home. Chop the veggies and grate the cheese at home, or buy cheese already grated. At Camp See No Deer, we like to use cooked sausage crumbles available in the refrigerated section at the grocery store. We stir a handful in with the veggies while they cook.
The best camp chef I know is my pal Hog Ears. He doesn’t do any prep at home, preferring instead to do every step at the campsite. That’s just the Hog Ears way. If any of us want to learn a particular dish, we can watch him do every step.
Veggie huevos rancheros might be the way to go at deer camp this weekend. You’re going to have a successful hunt and be eating venison for supper, right?
Flip Putthoff can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAFlip