Healdsburg woman shows how to have happy hour around the campfire in new cookbook
Claudia Sutton of Healdsburg has always been puzzled by the fact that most RV enthusiasts she meets in campgrounds tend to eat simple things like hot dogs and hamburgers night after night.
“It’s amazing how people who travel in RVs never use their oven,” she said. “I have a freezer in my garage that’s chock full of prepared food, so it’s so easy to eat gourmet.”
Happy hour is another story. Most campers make it a big deal, she said, putting out signs and flags while gathering around a freshly stoked campfire, telling stories, sipping cocktails and enjoying a few nibbles together.
As a follow-up to her 2020 cookbook for Airstream and RV owners, “A Moveable Feast: Recipes for Rolling Kitchens,” Sutton has written a second cookbook, “Campfire Cocktail Hour.” The softbound book includes more than 120 recipes for drinks and appetizers, plus make-ahead simple syrups and condiments that quickly elevate drinks and bites into gourmet fare.
“You can get to camp and just do cocktails and a bunch of appetizers,” Sutton said. “I love that … it’s so easy, with advance prep.”
Sutton and her partner, John Stave, purchased a 2019 Airstream Tommy Bahama in 2019, then joined the Greater Bay Area Airstream Club and the Duncans Mills Camping Club, a private campground along the Russian River.
Although they haven’t taken many long-distance trips during the pandemic, the couple spends about one week a month at the Duncans Mills campground, where they have been able to meet new friends, watch wildlife and hike up and down the Sonoma Coast.
Sutton, who enjoys entertaining and sharing food with people, has developed a system of prepping ingredients ahead of time, so that once she arrives at the campground, she can deliver homestyle food and drinks in no time.
“You want to be enjoying and relaxing,” she said. “And it doesn’t take a lot to set up the food in advance.”
For the cocktails, she brings homemade, flavored simple syrups that she’s frozen in big, ice cube trays, then popped into freezer bags. She pre-measures the alcohol in Mason jars before she leaves, then defrosts the syrup cubes the day she wants to shake up some cocktails.
The cookbook includes 18 cocktail recipes that serve two, made in quart-size Mason jars; and 12 cocktails for a crowd, which serve six to eight and are made in 64-ounce Mason jars with pour lids. Many are named after National Parks in the West, such as The Sequoia and The Yellowstone, or are inspired by RV life in the North Bay.
For a weeklong camping trip, Sutton said she usually brings ingredients for two night’s worth of cocktails, so she’s not making them every night. Or she will bring one cocktail for a crowd, and the couple can enjoy it on more than one night.
“You can make each cocktail as light or as heavy as you want,” she said. “Just add more seltzer or pilsner to lighten it up.”
Sutton stocks her freezer with special sauces and condiments to punch up the flavors of her food — flavored salts, chipotle mayo, chimichurri sauce and the like — but her favorite is the Preserved Lemon Paste, made from preserved lemons.
“You make them with salt and lemon juice,” she said. “Then you take all the wedges that are preserved and throw them into a Cuisinart, and you have a paste of golden deliciousness.”
But this happy camper is not such a purist that she won’t take shortcuts. Her recipes often call for store-bought items like cornbread mixes and frozen meatballs, to speed up her time in the kitchen.
“I try to have the sense of homemade food, but you can supplement with something else that you’ve bought,” she said. “That way, you’re not making everything.”
For a small plates meal, Sutton likes to go with a theme, such as a Mexican, Asian or Mediterranean menu. For the latter, she suggested tapas from her cookbook such as the Wild Mushroom Crostini and Smoked Salmon Crostini and dips such as Grilled Baba Ghanoush, Butternut Squash Hummus and Pecan Muhammara.
“It’s fun to have some little pitas and dip them in a bunch of things,” she said. “I bring soft pita bread, and warm it up, along with pita chips from the farmers market. I like a combination of the soft and the crispy.”
With the Mediterranean dips, she also serves an array of crudites such as carrots, radishes, sugar snap peas and baby mixed peppers. Citrus Marinated Olives are an easy, make-ahead appetizer.
The 95-page cookbook, which came out in early May, features watercolors of the outdoors and other scenes painted by Sutton while she is camping. For the college art major, drawing is a form of relaxation.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: