Jeff Johnston: Over the years, of course, we’ve run into all kinds of different, interesting cooking utensils and accessories and gadgets. Some are gadgets, and they get tossed out or they get tried once and then throw away. What we thought we would do is show you five pieces of equipment that we’ve been using that we really believe in, things that can certainly augment your standard cooking fare.

Item number one. This is known as the Rome’s Tri-Pod Cooking Grill. Now, this box is a little bit on the beat-up side because, frankly, it’s in excess of close to 25 years old, and it has probably been across the country several times in all kinds of campgrounds. You can set this up directly over the fire, like, if you have a fire pit, for example, or an open fire with no grill on it, and you need someplace to set your food, you set this up. It’s got three legs sit right in the fire, and there’s about an 18-inch diameter circular grill on the bottom and then a chain hoist that you use, you lift up and lower to position your food where you want it. It’s a really handy accessory for when you don’t have a regular grill-type surface, on a campground fire pit, for example.

Item number two. And this is kind of a– kind of an interesting-looking little device and this is called an Eggs Plus Pan. While it looks like just about any other frying pan, this pan is made out of aluminum in America, which is kind of important to us. Has these four little enclosures and the middle is a little bit recessed. The idea is you can put, for example, eggs into these or vegetables or just about anything. You can use it like a regular frying pan. It works best on an open fire or some such because the– it won’t fit an even heat span across a Coleman stove, for example. You pour a little bit of water in this reservoir in the middle, and that fills up and that provides steam. So you put the eggs in there, throw your water in, cover it, and you wind up with perfectly poached eggs or steamed vegetables or whatever you happen to want to be cooking. Called the Eggs Plus Pan, comes with this handy-dandy pad for setting the lid down when it’s hot. And like I say, it’s made out of aluminum, made in America.

Next up is something that we use all the time, every time we cook, whether it’s with the Coleman stove or Dutch ovens. You’ve probably seen this before on the show when we’ve done Dutch oven cooking, and it’s called a Grill Guard. And the Grill Guard is made out of aluminum, made in America again. It was originally made to house something like a Coleman stove, and the sides and back help to prevent the wind from blowing the heat away from the stove, so, essentially, it makes your propane or charcoal briquettes work a lot more efficiently. It comes apart by removing the pins at the front corners, the sides fold in, and the top folds down and it turns into a very thin package that’s easy to store and easy to transport and, like I said, it’s made out of aluminum, so it’s very lightweight too.

There’s a lot of times you’re gonna be cooking things over the campfire that simply involves carving out a stick, putting a marshmallow on, sticking it under the fire. Well, there’s a company that has a much better idea than that these days, and it’s called the Grub Stick. Comes in this handy nylon kind of carrying case. This one is the deluxe kit for four people, and at the heart of the kit are these handles with extensions. The handles come out and you have all these accessories that attach to the handle. For example, you can screw in these handy-dandy forks for marshmallows, hot dogs, you know, whatever you normally use forks for in a cooking environment. Other Grub Stick accessories include the round and square grub cages, cooking hamburger patty, maybe a toasted cheese sandwich or some fish filets; and this is the Grub Tube that you can wrap with dough, cook yourself a very nice toasted dough product, bread product, over the fire. And this is the Grub pocket, which you can wrap with bacon, fasten it in place with the spring holder, cook yourself some nice bacon over the fire. And all these pieces, of course, store easily in the carrying container. So when it comes to putting yourself together a kit or buying a kit that contains everything you need for campfire fun cooking in one piece, this is it, the Grub Stick.

And one of the really fun things about camping with RV-ing in a group is having a whole bunch of people together to eat. Let’s face it, eating is important, and if you have friends, family, whatnot, you can wind up with a bunch of people in a relatively small space eating out all at one time. It’s a lot of fun.

This is the Lumberjack Skillet from Camp Chef. This guy is 20 inches in diameter, about 3 inches deep, has– it’s kind of a nonstick patina, basically. It’s made out of steel. You put this thing on your fire and you’ve got a bunch of eggs over here, bunch of bacon over here, maybe some sausages, or you can do a mass of hash browns all at once. You know, pour a whole bunch of pancakes at once and get a lot of food out there to all those hungry campers. Unless, of course, you happen to have some kids and “I don’t wanna have my food mixed.” Well, they can eat Cheerios. Anyway, so again, this is the Lumberjack Grill from Camp Chef. It’s a really handy device. We’ve used it, we enjoy it. And it’s certainly another one of those fun items you can add to your camping equipment roster that you take with you when you’re RV-ing.

Take a look around. You might be surprised what you find if you do a little bit of investigating in your local Cabela’s or camp store of one kind or another. And if you happen to come up with something that you think is a really cool camping accessory, let us know. Drop us an email, leave a note or a message for us on our Facebook page, however you’d like.