An Introduction to Silver Turtles

A silver turtle has nothing really to do with the animal. It’s a very simple cooking package with a tasty meal inside. Place a piece of meat, poultry or even mushroom on a piece of tin foil. Lay a slice of onion on it, followed by a slice of potato. Season as you wish, wrap it up and then bury it in the coals of your campfire.

I was lucky as a child, in that I lived on a farm. If we wanted to cook outdoors, we didn’t need a fire permit and there were no laws saying “Thou shalt not burn.” So, I learned to cook a great many things over a fire. We often had guests for these cookouts and after eating someone would get out a guitar or fiddle and we’d all sing. It was loads of fun.

Both the kids and my husband looked askance at the procedure. It was our first campout, and they were more used to “city” types of cooking. However, microwaves can’t be plugged into the oak tree shading the tent. What couldn’t be made on the Roadmate grill had to be cooked over the fire…and this was always a fun way of doing it for me when I was growing up.

Watching them look over the seasonings I’d brought and seriously discussing the pros and cons of my homemade barbecue sauce was fun. The kids hadn’t yet learned to do much cooking, so this was a novel experience for them. Once they were made and wrapped, it was time to put them in to cook.

While they cooked, we set up camp. It was the first time we’d put the tent up, so that was entertaining…at least now it is. Then it was a major pain in the rear end. We hung lanterns from the trees and set another up on a tripod so that we could see the tent pegs and not trip over them. That was mostly for me. If you look up the word “klutz” in the dictionary, you will see my face looking back.

Finally, we were done. It was about 45 minutes later, and we were all very hungry. After we had eaten the contents of our turtles, one of the girls turned to me and asked, “Can I have another one? That was good.”

Yep, East Coast wins again ;).


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