A meal cooked over a campfire just seems to suit crisp, autumn weather, and the menu options are endless.

It’s not yet officially fall — that’s not until next week — but autumn is beginning to make itself known across west-central Illinois.

And while apple cider and pumpkin spice everything might have the PR teams, the nip in the air that fall weather brings practically begs for a campfire — and campfire foods.

“For quite a few campers that come out, (campfire cooking) is definitely part of the experience,” said Heather Egolf, who co-owns Crazy Horse Campground in Ashland with her husband, Andy.

Campfire cooking is enough of an experience that the campground occasionally has demonstration days when they’ll light a campfire, keep it going throughout the day and periodically give demonstrations, complete with food to try, Heather Egolf said.

“A mistake a lot of people make is they start the fire and, as soon as the fire is going, they put the food on,” she said. “That’s just going to burn it.”

Be patient. A fire needs a flame, but a successful campfire cooking experience requires the even heat that follows once the flame has died down a bit.

Use tools suited to the heat - cast iron skillets or a Dutch oven, aluminum foil, heat-proof gloves, steel tongs.

Plan ahead. Figure out what meals you intend to cook and what you will need - both in terms of food and utensils - for each. Slice and dice vegetables at home and store in zip-top baggies.

A bit of patience is a game-changer, though.

“Wait until it’s down to coals, just like when you’re doing a barbecue grill,” she said.

Once the flames have died down to an even distribution of white-hot ash over red-hot embers below, the cooking options ramp up.

“Most of the fire pits we have out here have grates on them,” Egolf said. “Those do come in handy.”

A grate over the fire allows a skillet or pot — or even a kettle — to heat up without having to worry about it sitting directly in the ash.

Some recipes are best suited to that in-the-coals approach.

“Probably one of the best ones we’ve ever done was a Pita Pocket Pizza,” Egolf said. “If you’re going camping, just cook up all your meat and store it in separate baggies, then let the kids pick what they want.”

As the name indicates, a Pita Pocket Pizza involves stuffing a pita pocket with pizza sauce, cheese and other pizza toppings before wrapping it in aluminum foil and placing it amid the hot coals to heat.

“You want it to pretty much warm up your ingredients and melt your cheese,” Egolf said.

The same goes for Campfire Cones, a dessert that involves stuffing a waffle cone with marshmallows, chocolate chips and banana.

“It tastes like a banana split,” Egolf said. “It doesn’t take that long, but you want to put them down in the coals.”

The dish could be done on a grate but it takes longer and the end result just doesn’t taste the same, she said.

When a grate isn’t available, some people work around it by using a tripod that straddles the campfire and has a hook that allows a pot to hang down from its center toward the heat.

A hot dog roasted over a campfire is as standard as toasted marshmallows, but there really are no limits to what can be cooked over a campfire, Egolf said.

“We have so many people who make peach cobbler in a cast iron Dutch oven,” she said, noting that there’s a reason for its popularity — it’s just that good.

Some of those Dutch ovens this weekend likely will be used for something other than peach cobbler — like the chili that is part of the campground’s annual Wild West Weekend chili cook-off and poker run.

“We’ll have at least three or four that cook their chili over the campfire,” Egolf said, adding that they expect somewhere in the range of 12 to 14 competitors. “Everyone who wants to try the chili can for a fee.”

The winner will be determined by most donations raised, with the money going to charity, she said.

While campfire cooking seems to suit autumn’s mood, campfire cooking doesn’t always require a campfire so much as simply a campsite, Egolf said. Some campers are more likely to pack a gas-powered flat-top griddle for cooking than to deal with a campfire.

“Especially for people with kids, it’s more about the (camping) experience than ‘We’re going to cook our food over the fire’,” she said.

Combine scrambled eggs, cheese and other omelet ingredients – cooked bacon or sausage, peppers, mushrooms, onions – in a zip-top baggie. Bring a pot of water to a boil over the campfire and clip the baggies inside the rim of the pot so the food is submerged in the hot water. Cook until done. Carefully remove from the water, remove from the baggie and eat. Or eat it directly from the baggie.

“It’s impossible to overcook it,” Heather Egolf said. 

Stuff a waffle cone with chocolate chips, marshmallows and bananas. Wrap securely in aluminum foil and place directly in hot coals. Allow to heat until marshmallows and chocolate chips are melted; it doesn’t take long. Use fire-proof, heat-proof gloves or a pair of long tongs to remove the foil packets from the heat, peel back the aluminum foil and allow to cool to a safe.

“It tastes like a banana split,” Egolf said.

Stuff pita pockets with pizza sauce, shredded cheese and desired pizza toppings. Wrap in aluminum foil and place directly in hot coals. Allow to heat until cheese is melted and ingredients are warm. Meat for the pizza can be cooked at home and packed in separate baggies until ready to assemble the pizzas.

Angela Bauer has been a copy editor and lifestyles editor for the Jacksonville Journal-Courier since July 2012. The Evansville, Indiana, native grew up in Paducah, Kentucky, and interned with the Paducah Sun, as well as being a reporter, lifestyles editor and copy editor for papers in Kentucky and Florida. She spends her (limited) free time baking, quilting and reading; and enjoys the AP Stylebook more than (she's told) one should. She's always on the lookout for a quality mug of hot chocolate.