outdoors Archives – Mamma's School

A gratin dish is one that technically has a browned topping of either cheese or bread….ours might have ended with a more browned base than top, but it was still yummy!!

So what do you need to make your tasty campfire gratin? You can prepare it easily at the campfire, but due to us hiking and it absolutely bucketing down with rain that day, I did the preparation at home 🙂

Ingredients For Campfire Gratin:

Diced potatoes

Bacon, chopped

Sweetcorn (any veg will do if you want veg in it at all!!)

Creme fraiche

Grated cheese (2 large handfuls)

Blob of butter

Method To Make Campfire Gratin:

To assemble your Gratin do the following:

Pop the bacon, potatoes, and veg into the pan to fry in a blob of butter.
Once browned add in creme fraiche and a hand full of cheese to melt into the sauce.
Heat that all through.
Once cooked, sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Due to the lack of heat over the top of the pan, this ends up more melted than browned, but that’s why it’s a campfire gratin 😉 And when something tastes so yummy, warms you through in a rain storm, and fills your tummy, technical details don’t matter!!! Enjoy xx

Get Your Vitamin N – June Outdoor Activity List

By Mammas School

On 31/05/2018

In Outdoor Adventures, Parenting

Back in February, I started uploading a monthly outdoor activity list which you can access under the freebies tab. You will need to subscribe to the blog and you will be sent an email with the password to access the freebies tab. It is now time to think about the June outdoor activity list, which can be accessed under the freebies tab 🙂 If you don’t have the password, don’t worry, subscribe to the blog and you will be sent it in your confirmation email. Signs of summer should be emerging now, and here in Sweden we have just 2 weeks left of school until we can enjoy the long, lazy, Swedish summer life 🙂

Any form of getting children into the outdoors is a good one. Whether it is a gentle potter around the back garden or a good old hike for older ones across the countryside, if it is for 5 minutes or 5 hours, the benefits can still be reaped. You don’t need to climb a mountain, a little dig in the garden is perfect too. As the author Richard Louv famously suggests, we should be using vitamin N (N for nature) as treatment for nature deficit disorder.

That is why each month, at the start of the month, I am adding onto the freebies page, a list of 10 activities to help inspire you to head out there for your dose of vitamin N with your little, or not so little, people. These are some of the things I do with my three to give me some direction and an aim for getting them out there, which often helps everyone’s frame of mind. So head over now to the freebies tab and check out the June outdoor activity list.

The aim behind the ideas for the June outdoor activity list for getting vitamin N is that they are all very simple, so shouldn’t put you off. And if you need a little more convincing about the ideas where mud is involved, head over and have a read as to why mud and dirt are worth all the extra effort 🙂 Vitamin N can be achieved without sitting in the middle of a forest, wild camping, and hunting for your supper!! It can be achieved by just stepping outside your front door (or back door), into whatever awaits you out there. Welcome in the long summer days using our June outdoor activity list to guide you for ideas.

I am hoping that through these activities you make a lot of happy memories, have fun together, and enjoy being outside. If you need more information about an activity on the list, I have blogged about doing most of them, so if you type in a few keywords in the search box, you should then be able to get some more information, or see what we have done in the past.

Let me know how you get on with the June outdoor activity list in the comments below, I will love hearing about your experiences. You can also share your experiences on social media too, it will give others ideas and I can keep up with what you are all doing. Use the #fridayoutdoorfun on your Instagram photos, and don’t forget to join in with our Friday outdoor fun thread on Facebook (every Friday). And if the children have got mucky, then join in with our Mucky Mondays thread (every Monday) over on Facebook . Go and have fun in June 🙂

Our Summer Bucket List – Long, Lazy, Days

By Mammas School

On 29/05/2018

In Parenting

It is the start of a new season, and time for us to reveal our Summer Bucket List. We have enjoyed doing the activities on our spring, autumn and winter ones, but we are looking forward to wearing less clothing out in the sunshine, and enjoying the VERY long, slow Swedish summer days and holiday. School is out for the summer on the 15th June, so not long to go! So let’s see what’s on our list for the season of summer.

Our Summer Bucket List:

Celebrate midsummer
Make a strawberry cake
Lie on the grass and listen to the birds
Go strawberry picking
Go raspberry picking
Go blueberry picking
Make a daisy chain
Paddle barefoot
Go wild camping
Swim outdoors
Collect pebbles to paint at home
Read stories outdoors
Go crabbing
Make some beach art
Go on a hike
Make some air dry clay figures
Go and visit the älg/elks again
Explore lots of the islands in our archipelago
Play in a stream
Raise our own butterflies from caterpillars
Play on beaches
Paint with special paints that develop in the sunshine.

I hope we have given you some fun summer inspiration with our summer bucket list (just click on the links if you need further help or information about them) and let me know if you try any of them and how you get on. Enjoy and have fun!

6 Campfire Problems & What To Do

By Mammas School

On 24/05/2018

In Outdoor Adventures, Outdoor Cooking

You have packed up and headed off for an outdoor adventure that includes lots of fresh air and nature. You have also decided the best and most cosy way to cook your food would be on a campfire…..a person after my own heart!! Who doesn’t like a warming campfire and making memories around them? However, you hit a problem with it. Let’s face it, building, lighting, and keeping campfires going is an eternal learning curve, but a fun one. This post is designed to take you through some of the more commonly occurring campfire problems, and what to do about them, so you can (armed with a bit of helpful knowledge) get on and enjoy a successful campfire 🙂

Too smokey: A smokey campfire is one of the more common campfire problems, and as you can tell from the photo, it can take even the most prepared bush crafter by surprise – the cause, wet wood (I was convinced mine was dry here…obviously not!!) Wet wood will be hard to light, and will produce a lot of smoke. I’m not talking about wood that has previously dried out and has now been exposed to a little rain…yes, that will smoke a bit, but on the inside it will still be dry. Some types of wood also cause smoking. Generally if you stick with harder woods you should be fine. Light with smaller softer wood initially to get it going (they light easier), then swap to harder woods as they burn hotter and for longer.
Lighting the campfire in the rain: Look for naturally protected areas to light your fire. For example under tree canopies, or cliff overhangs. But don’t, whatever you do, light it in the protection of your tent! Start with very small and very dry kindling and tinder (refer to my building a campfire blog post). I usually carry some of this just to ensure we have a successful lighting, but if you need more, look for it under things where it has been protected from the elements. Also, if you have a knife or axe you can split the wood, as the inside may be dry and then it will light better with that exposed rather than the damp exterior. You could even shave some off with the knife as extra kindling, or feather a stick for even better chances of lighting the fire.
Reigniting embers when the flames die down: If your campfire dies down and you still need flames (if like me you got distracted with children and forgot to add new fuel to the fire), then you can direct a gentle blow into the base of the hot embers, and after a few attempts you should see the flames spring back into life (just make sure you aren’t blowing hot embers all over the countryside as you’ll start a fire! You need to make sure they stay in your fire pit).
Keep the fire burning: Before your flames die down, add another log to them, but make sure air can still get into the fire to fan the flames, don’t suffocate it.
Wood burning too fast: This usually means that it is too windy and your campfire needs some protection from the wind. For example, above we have built a wall from rocks, preventing the wind from burning through our wood fuel so fast. You could also dig a hole into the ground if the area/ground is suitable. If you do use rocks, don’t forget to cool them down afterwards, and also replace them to where you found them.
Food is not cooking or warming up: This usually means, for some reason, the heat is not reaching your food. For example, a very windy day will make your fuel burn rapidly and have huge flames, but the heat will be blown away before it has much impact on your cooking. On those kind of days, the food needs to sit right on top of the heat source. If you have foil wrapped food that isn’t so hard, but if in a billy can or balanced on a grill you need to get a little more inventive. Usually things can be solved with some well positioned wood to balance a pot, or some foil to wrap things up in so they can go straight onto the fire….just remember to check them more often as they will now cook fast!

I hope these hints about campfire problems will give you a helping hand in having a successful campfire or two. They are such fun to do and we love making one on our outdoor adventures. Be sure to read my post on campfire basics and tips as well, which covers how to build one and safety amongst other things, and go and enjoy your campfire!!

Campfires – The Basics & Tips

By Mammas School

On 22/05/2018

In Outdoor Adventures

We get a lot of enjoyment out of making and using campfires as part of our outdoor experiences. It adds an extra sense of adventure to our outdoor trips, whether hiking, camping, or just visiting a beach to play, and in the cooler months it makes our meal break a very cosy one. I haven’t always been happy with fires though and learnt a lot through forest school back in the UK before we moved here. Since then I have tried to carry on the experience of eating by a fire as the children loved it. I have learnt a lot over the last 12 months and I thought I might share some basics and tips to help you get started, or give you more confidence if you are new to it.

How To Build A Campfire:

You will need some supplies first! This is what we use with a lot of success: Newspaper, cotton wool, Vaseline, tiny kindling (very small twigs, or we prefer silver birch bark we have shredded), bigger sticks (thumb width), and larger wrist sized logs. Don’t forget to sign up – you will then get the password to access our freebies page, and you can see what is in our fire starting kit!
Build a tepee like structure: Small amount of newspaper in the middle, with some cotton wool on top (that has a bit of Vaseline on – this helps light the fire). Then place the kindling around that in a tepee shape, then the larger sticks around that, and then the bigger logs around that.
Our stacking system: This is a system we use very effectively for our campfires so you could give it a go too. It doesn’t go so high as a tepee structure so is easier to pop a grill over to cook on. We place the smaller sticks in a crisscross square shape, placing a loosely crumpled piece of newspaper and cotton wool with Vaseline on in the middle. Then place a larger log across the top of the stack.
Once the fire is lit, make sure you top up the fuel before the flames die right down to get it really going at first. If it dies down too much, you need to try blowing under at the glowing embers to get the flames going again. Once it has calmed down a little you are ready to cook on it 🙂

How To Put Out Campfires:

Never leave a campfire before it is fully out as it may harm the environment and wildlife.
Let the firewood all burn down to ash, and spread the ash and embers out a little
Gently pour on some water slowly. We carry extra water for this, to make sure we can always put our fires out. Or if we are by water we take a bucket with us.
Mix the embers up with a stick, allowing the water to infiltrate more, and bring anything that is still glowing and alight underneath to the surface to be dowsed with water.
Pour on a little more water; you will hear hissing doing this and produce smokey steam (watch where you are standing!).
Again use a stick to spread the embers out and stir water in.
Keep repeating until you are confident nothing is still alight/glowing.

Some Rules For Campfires:

Use fire pits where you can, or carry a lightweight and portable stove with you. By using provided fire pits, or carrying your own stove, you are helping to protect the habitat of creatures in the area that you have decided to cook in, plus reduced the risk of fire spreading.
You need to consider any fire dangers for the time of year (e.g. is it very dry?) and bear in mind any local restrictions. You don’t want to spread your fire.
Take only wood from the ground, never from the trees, and gather it from a wide area. You don’t want to remove everything from one small area as it has a job to perform in the ecosystem providing nutrients and habitats.
Allow your wood to burn completely down to ash, and then spread them out when you are extinguishing your fire.
Put out a fire with water not dirt,
Avoid building your fire on rocks as it will scar them. Also, if near coastal water that covers them after you’ve been and gone, when the water rapidly cools the rocks it may cause them to crack.
Never leave your fire unattended, it is a fire risk and a hazard to any inquisitive animals.
If you have moved any rocks, for example to make a bit of a wind break, make sure you return them to where they were.
Make sure you take all your rubbish home again, to avoid harming animals and the countryside.

I hope these tips will help you to either give campfires a go if you haven’t before, or help you get more confidence if you are a newbie. They really add to the outdoor experience and are so cosy to be around. They also help teach children basic bush craft and outdoor skills (whether that be lighting a fire, looking after a fire, or thinking about nature and the environment when using a fire). However, they must be made and used responsibly and always thinking about safety and nature. Don’t forget to check out our outdoor cooking recipes for inspiration for what to cook on your campfire!! We have lots of ideas both savoury and sweet, so go take a browse and enjoy them 🙂

Perfect Pizza Wraps

By Mammas School

On 15/05/2018

In Outdoor Cooking

In previous recipes I have experimented using both Swedish flat breads and French baguettes to make pizza meals, and both have been a success. However, today’s idea of pizza wraps wins hands down over those two, according to the taste testing panel of my crazy trio. They were so easy to make, very quick to cook, and extremely tasty to eat.

Ingredients For Pizza Wraps

Tortillas
Tomato puree
Grated cheese
Salami

You can play around with the toppings and add in/take away what you fancy. This combination was both simple and worked well. Don’t forget your tin foil to cook in.

Method To Make Pizza Wraps

Take a piece of tin foil and lie the wrap on the top.
Spread tomato puree over half the wrap surface area.
Then add your toppings….for us cheese and salami
Roll it up, and then wrap it in the tin foil.
Place them on the fire, but only leave a minute or two before turning, and then the same again. These cook very fast. Watch for the tin foil scorching and as soon as it does it will be ready.

Hope you enjoy them as much as we did if you give them a go 🙂

Fruity S’mores

By Mammas School

On 03/05/2018

In Outdoor Cooking

On Easter Monday we headed out for an outdoor adventure, and I was trying to rack my brain with a way of using up a little Easter chocolate with a new campfire treat. I came up with fruity s’mores! They were given the thumbs up by my testing trio, plus Dadda on this occasion, and we will definitely be making them again.

Ingredients For Fruity S’mores

Apples.
Mini marshmallows.
Mini eggs – but chunks of chocolate will work too if it isn’t around Easter time! We also had vegan chocolate to use for Dadda.
Foil to wrap them up in.

Method To Make Fruity S’mores

Take an apple and a corer and remove the middle of the apple.
Alternately stuff into the gap chocolate eggs (or chunks) and mini marshmallows, until the middle is bursting.
Wrap in tin foil, and pack. All ready to pop onto your campfire.

This is such a tasty and easy treat. Give it a go and let me know how you get on 🙂

Inspiration Wednesday – Play In The Dirt

By Mammas School

On 02/05/2018

In Quotes

Get Your Vitamin N – May Outdoor Activity List

By Mammas School

On 01/05/2018

In Outdoor Adventures, Parenting

Back in February, I started uploading a monthly outdoor activity list which you can access under the freebies tab. You will need to subscribe to the blog and you will be sent an email with the password to access the freebies tab. It is now time to think about the May outdoor activity list, which can be accessed under the freebies tab 🙂 If you don’t have the password, don’t worry, subscribe to the blog and you will be sent it in your confirmation email. Spring should be well under way now, and I hope that even we in Sweden may have chased the snow away and stopped lighting log fires in the evenings to keep us warm!!

Any form of getting children into the outdoors is a good one. Whether it is a gentle potter around the back garden or a good old hike for older ones across the countryside, if it is for 5 minutes or 5 hours, the benefits can still be reaped. You don’t need to climb a mountain, a little dig in the garden is perfect too. As the author Richard Louv famously suggests, we should be using vitamin N (N for nature) as treatment for nature deficit disorder.

That is why each month, at the start of the month, I will add onto the freebies page a list of 10 activities to help inspire you to head out there for your dose of vitamin N with your little, or not so little, people. These are some of the things I do with my three to give me some direction and an aim for getting them out there, which often helps everyone’s frame of mind. So head over now to the freebies tab and check out the May outdoor activity list.

The aim behind the ideas for the May outdoor activity list for getting vitamin N is that they are all very simple, so shouldn’t put you off. And if you need a little more convincing about the ideas where mud is involved, head over and have a read as to why mud and dirt are worth all the extra effort 🙂 Vitamin N can be achieved without sitting in the middle of a forest, wild camping, and hunting for your supper!! It can be achieved by just stepping outside your front door (or back door), into whatever awaits you out there. With spring well under way there should be lots to see, hear, smell, and touch easily now. A sensory pleasure for the mind, so it is a perfect time to head into the outdoors to see what you can discover, using our May outdoor activity list to guide you.

I am hoping through these activities that you make a lot of happy memories, have fun together, and enjoy being outside. If you need more information about an activity on the list, I have blogged about doing most of them, so if you type in a few keywords in the search box, you should then be able to get some more information, or see what we have done in the past.

Let me know how you get on with the May outdoor activity list in the comments below, I will love hearing about your experiences. You can also share your experiences on social media too, it will give others ideas and I can keep up with what you are all doing. Use the #fridayoutdoorfun on your Instagram photos, and don’t forget to join in with our Friday outdoor fun thread on Facebook (every Friday). And if the children have got mucky, then join in with our Mucky Mondays thread (every Monday) over on Facebook . Go and have fun in May 🙂

Apple and Cinnamon Porridge – A Warming Breakfast

By Mammas School

On 19/04/2018

In Outdoor Cooking

This apple and cinnamon porridge breakfast is quick and easy (a big plus point when you are outdoors), tasty, and very filling. It’s perfect for starting the day in the great outdoors, or as a snack to make when out hiking for the day as it will give you lots of energy.

Ingredients For Apple And Cinnamon Porridge

(This is for one portion)

1 cup of oats.

1 cup of milk of your choice (we’ve made it with both cows’ and plant based milks).

Half an apple.

Teaspoon of raisins.

Teaspoon of cinnamon powder.

Teaspoon of vanilla essence.

How To Make Apple And Cinnamon Porridge

Dice the apple, leaving the skin on is down to what you prefer.
Then put all the ingredients into you pan and warm through
Beware with cooking porridge on a campfire that it can quickly stick to the bottom and burn, so stir regularly.
If getting a little dry just as some more milk. For example, when I am using oat milk I seem to need more than when I use cows’ milk.
Then serve and enjoy!!

I hope you enjoy eating this simple but yummy apple and cinnamon porridge recipe as much as we do, and let me know in the comments below how you found it.