Foiled Again!

Tinfoil is one of those versatile must-haves. Tinfoil does everything from covering my lasagna to transforming my children into robots. You can chew on it to make your teeth twang, or press a small strip across your teeth for pretend braces. It saves the bottom of your oven from evil pie spill overs and it can increase the rang of your T.V. antennae. Some people even use it to invite skin cancer by holding a sheet of it under their chins while sunbathing. Don't forget to line the inside of your house with foil to prevent the government and aliens from spying on you. Among this miracle item's many uses is the foil pouch. When filled, rolled, and folded, a foil pouch becomes your personal little oven and only a lack of imagination can limit its possibilities. The trick to foil pouch cooking is the shape of the food, the way the foil is wrapped, good coals, and lots of turning.

Food should be flat. The flatter the food the more evenly it will cook.

Using Heavy Duty Foil will increase your cooking time but it will also help prevent burning of food. Make sure that all your seams are doubled rolled and pinched tight. You don't want steam to get out or ash to come in, and you also want it to stay sealed through lots of turning and flipping.

Make sure your coals hot, ashy, and grey. If you want to enjoy a fire while you cook foil pouches just light your fire to the side of your fire ring. After the fire has burned good and hot and you have plenty of red coals going underneath it, just scoop, or push, some of those red coals to the other side of the fire ring and place pouches in them. You can also place some coals on top of your pouches to cook both sides at the same time.

Flip and turn your pouches often. Coals give uneven heat and turning will give every part of the food a chance to cook, and keep food from burning on hot spots. Watch the foil itself for signs of blackness which are signs of doneness or burning.

My kids favorite foil dinner is also one of the simplest. Just press ground beef into a patty, add sliced carrots and sliced potatoes (beef shouldn't be thicker than 1/2 inch and veggies shouldn't be thicker than 1/4 -1/2inch thick). Sprinkle it all with Lawry's Season Salt and toss in the coals.

My siblings' favorite foil pouch is Inside Out Pineapple Cake. Take a glazed old fashioned doughnut (did you know these are my very favorite doughnut after the luscious apple or blueberry fritter) and slice it in half like you would slice open a hamburger bun. By the way, a glazed old fashioned is very different from a regular glazed doughnut, if can't find the old fashioned style just use regular cake doughnuts. Lay first half of doughnut on square of foil, cut side up. Sprinkle with brown sugar (how much depends on your sweet tooth), then lay on a slice of pineapple (the circle sliced kind), sprinkle with more brown sugar, top with other half of doughnut cut side down. Fold and seal foil tightly and cook. You will know it is done when the brown sugar and juice from pineapple have turned to a carmel glaze. Sooooo rich. If possible, serve with vanilla ice cream.

The Reynolds Wrap web site also has tons of great recipes for foil pouch cooking.

Now, if you don't mind, I need to get back to my foil ball