Today’s the Day! The New Camp Cookbook Is Officially Out!

Although many of you have had The New Camp Cookbook in your hands for a few weeks now, today makes it official in the publishing world: My new book is released, and I’m excited to share some sneak peeks with you!

This was an absolute dream project for me (and Will, who photographed it) because as you know from the blog, we’re avid outdoorspeople. Hiking, climbing, kayaking, surfing, snowboarding, you name it — but especially camping, which we’ve combined with surf trips, road trips, backcountry adventures (like this and this), and kayak outings (like this and this).

We’ve camped all over the American West, a few spots in the Rockies and Great Plains, and even in Hawaii, but no matter where we’ve set up our tent, one thing has remained constant: our love of food and cooking it outdoors.

We are the type of people who fill up our coolers with cans of craft beer, bring mulling spices for our wine, marinate meats for the next night’s dinner, and end the evening with a Dutch oven-baked dessert. We love the sounds and smells of steaks and vegetables sizzling on the grill, and we treasure the memories we’ve made in countless campsites, clinking cans and cups with our friends and sharing a fresh, hot meal around a fire.

As I say in the book…

Camping brings us outside, but food brings us together.

And that’s exactly what I hope The New Camp Cookbook will do for you this summer!

Inside, you’ll find pages packed with information on setting up your camp kitchen and planning your menu, from my tried-and-true tools and essential pantry supplies to the best way to pack a cooler and organize your food.

You’ll learn the two most common ways to build and maintain a fire, tips and tricks for mastering the grill, and how to cook with foil pouches for a no-mess meal. I break down the basics of Dutch oven cooking and controlling heat without counting coals.

I also cover some safety issues, such as precautions to take when camping and cooking in bear country, proper food waste disposal, dishwashing techniques, and maintaining cleanliness in a campsite.

The 100-plus recipes are divided by type of meal: breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, drinks, and dessert (along with more recipes for staples and accompaniments like compound butters, sauces, and spice mixes). Each recipe is further marked with an icon that indicates the specific technique required, such as cooking on a camp stove or cooking on a grill. (I’ve even included several no-cook recipes!)

There is something for everyone in this book, whether your tastes run simple or swank. Traditionalists will appreciate my Dutch Oven Old-School Lasagna and Five-Alarm Three-Bean Chili, while more adventurous eaters may want to try my Grilled Watermelon with Gorgonzola and Pistachio Crumbles and Vietnamese Pork Tacos with Pickled Carrots and Daikon.

Crowd-pleasers include Breakfast Burritos and Lox, Chipotle Cheddar Grilled Cheese with Mashed Avocado, One-Pan Chicken Fajita Pasta, Cuban Rice with Chicken (another one-pot meal), Mimosa Sangria, and Applelicious Dutch Baby.

All the recipes have been streamlined to use the same standard set of cookware (which I cover in the book) and I even give tips throughout for making the most of what you’ve brought, whether it’s adding that last bit of tomato paste to another recipe, or using up the rest of the cilantro in three other recipes you can make the same weekend. (Those Use It Up sidebars are key to reducing spoilage and curbing waste when you’re cooking in the wild!)

But one of my favorite features of the book, which makes me dream of desolate getaways and crackling campfires when I’m supposed to be, ahem, working, is the vivid array of images that Will shot as we drove through California, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Oregon last summer. The landscapes he captured, and the memories they trigger, whisk me away to those moments of freedom and spontaneity, when our biggest worries were whether we needed more ice for the cooler and where we should pitch our tent for the night. Take me back, please.

I could go on and on in my burst of passion for this book, but I’ll let my media friends tell you more about it. Here’s what Outside Magazine (who calls me the Chaco Camptessa… ha!), Time Magazine, Food52, Gear Junkie, and PureWow have to say about The New Camp Cookbook.

I’m honored and humbled to have been given another opportunity to write a book, and I’m deeply grateful to you, the readers and followers of Garden Betty, for your overwhelming support of my work in this little corner of the web. THANK YOU for inspiring me to do and be my best, and for continuing to send me your comments and good vibes!

The New Camp Cookbook is available wherever books are sold:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Books-A-Million
• Google Play Books
• IndieBound (Support your local independent bookseller!)
• Indigo (Canada)
• Powell’s
• Waterstones (UK)

For all orders outside of North America, Book Depository offers free worldwide shipping!