Campfire Crescents with Fried Bananas and Nutella

The title says it all. I wanted something besides hot dogs to cook in our first bonfire of the season. I've made fried bananas, and I've made nutella stuffed crescent rolls over a camp fire (thanks, Pinterest!) so why not combine?

I'm afraid you'll have to settle for this picture of some of the ingredients. I didn't have my phone with me for the fire, and they got eaten up instantaneously. I'm still grossed out by the fact that we ate all of them.

Ingredients
2 medium-large ripe bananas
2 TBS butter
splash dark rum
1 package crescent rolls
~3 TBS chocolate nut spread of choice

Also needed
cast iron pan
metal spatula
aluminum foil

Directions
Place pan over fire, preferably on a grate/grill designed for such purposes. Plop butter in pan and wait until it starts sizzling and getting brown. Meanwhile, cut up the bananas: slice in half lengthwise, and then cut 2-3 sections, depending on the length of your bananas.

*cough*Phrasing*cough*

Dump your bananas in the pan with the butter and arrange in a single layer. Cook, flipping occasionally, until they have browned on both sides. Sprinkle some rum in the pan and cook a few more seconds while it evaporates.

In the mean time, prep your crescents by spreading about a teaspoon of chocolate nut spread on the widest part. When the bananas are done, place one banana slice in each crescent and roll up. Chow down any leftover bananas like you haven't eaten all week. Place the rolled up crescents into the pan and cover with aluminum foil.

Here's the tricky part - you will have to pay attention because the cooking directions will depend upon how hot your fire is, and how close the pan is to that heat. If you can keep the pan a bit out of the heat, you should be able to simply cook them for 5 minutes, flip, and another 5 minutes. If not, and if you have a super hot fire, you may instead want to put the pan right in the fire on its own, and when it's gotten super hot, pull it out of the fire and have someone help you get the crescents in super fast, cover with foil, and let it cook that way.

I may  have burned mine a bit waiting too long to flip, but we ate them all anyway. Because we're gross.

General Tso's Sesame Grilled Chicken Drumsticks

I caved and got chicken. It's been hotter than Satan's ass crack and we've already exhausted our supply of tofu dogs and veggie burgers. And there is really only so much salad a human can eat, despite our CSA's assumption that we need four pounds of leafy greens per week. (Seriously. Four pounds.) So with outdoor grilling as the only option of releasing more heat into our surroundings (and drumsticks being 70 cents a pound), it seemed a reasonable choice. Or maybe it was just delirium brought on by dehydration. The marinade/sauce I used is a variant of my standard "Americanized Asian Restaurant Sauce" - I use iterations of it as a stir fry sauce, a dipping sauce, marinade, and pretty much anywhere you might find an Asian inspired recipe with garlic, ginger, or sesame. And I never really measure anything, but it doesn't seem to matter. You can see another iteration of it here.

Ingredients:
2ish lbs chicken drummers. Or legs or wings. Or tofu. Whatever.
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 TBS hoisin sauce
2 TBS mirin (rice wine - usually in the international aisle)
1 TBS rice vinegar
1 TBS brown sugar
1 TBS sesame oil
1 TBS fresh ground ginger
1 tsp sriracha or sambal oelek (optional)
As much fresh garlic as you can stand to peel and dice
Couple scallions, sliced
Sesame seeds

Directions:
Mix everything together except the chicken and sesame seeds. Put the chicken in a big container, pour the mix over it, cover and shake it up. Stick it in the fridge and let it marinate at least an hour, preferably over night.

Light up grill on medium-high (450ish) and transfer the chicken to it when hot, reserving the marinade. Cook until nicely charred on one side, 3-5 minutes, flip and repeat. Turn down burners and hold the grill temp at about 350. Cook another 20 minutes depending on the size of your pieces, or until a meat thermometer reads 165. Turn burners to lowest setting. Brush reserved marinade on the up side of the chicken, sprinkle with sesame seeds, close the cover, and let it sit a couple of minutes. Flip once and repeat.

In the mean time, transfer any reserved marinade not being used for brushing to a small pot and boil it for 2 minutes. (Or put it in the microwave and do the same.)

Remove chicken from grill and allow to cool. Serve with leftover marinade as dipping sauce.