For a long time I’d get messages from readers asking if I had a recipe book, and I kept saying not yet. Now it exists.
The Southeast Texas Campfire Cookbook is 40 genuinely easy meals, snacks, and breakfasts written specifically for camping in Southeast Texas — in our heat, our humidity, on our Gulf Coast beaches and in our Piney Woods. Every recipe in it has been cooked at a real campsite, not tested in a kitchen and dressed up with fancy props.
👉 Get the Southeast Texas Campfire Cookbook on Amazon
Why This Book Exists
Most campfire cookbooks are written for the Rockies or the Pacific Northwest. Cold nights, dry air, campfires surrounded by dramatic mountain scenery. That’s great content — but it doesn’t help much when you’re trying to cook at a campsite on Bolivar Peninsula in September with 90% humidity, or setting up a cast iron skillet at Village Creek State Park in July with mosquitoes thick enough to matter.
Cooking at a Southeast Texas campsite has its own set of realities: food spoils faster in our heat, rain shows up without much notice, and the best local ingredients — Gulf Coast shrimp, sausage, fresh corn — are things no national camping cookbook thinks to include.
This cookbook is built around all of that.
What’s Inside — 40 Recipes Across 4 Chapters
Chapter 1: Breakfasts (10 Recipes)
The morning is the best part of a camping trip. These recipes are designed to be simple enough to make before your first full cup of coffee, and good enough that the whole camp smells like something worth waking up for.
Campfire Breakfast Tacos. Foil Packet Eggs & Potatoes. Skillet Biscuits. Dutch Oven Cinnamon Roll Casserole. Camp Coffee Oatmeal. Campfire Pancakes. Breakfast Quesadillas. Foil Packet French Toast. Camp Yogurt Parfaits. Skillet Hash.
Chapter 2: Lunches & Snacks (8 Recipes)
Midday at a SETX campsite usually means you’ve been on the water, on the trail, or just sitting in the shade waiting for the afternoon heat to break. These are fast, simple, and don’t require a running stove.
Trail Mix Upgraded. Camp Nachos. Peanut Butter Tortilla Wraps. Campfire Quesadillas. Tuna Salad Crackers. Skillet Grilled Cheese. Campfire Corn. Texas Chex Mix.
Chapter 3: Dinners (14 Recipes)
The main event. These are real meals — the kind where you eat off an actual plate and feel like you did something right at the end of a long day outdoors. Several of these are SETX staples that belong on any Gulf Coast camping trip.
Foil Packet Shrimp & Sausage. Dutch Oven Chili. Cast Iron Skillet Fajitas. Foil Packet Chicken & Rice. One-Pot Cajun Pasta. Camp Tacos. Campfire Hot Dogs — Done Right. Dutch Oven Beef Stew. Shrimp Boil in a Pot. Foil Packet Salmon with Lemon Butter. Camp Burgers. Skillet Mac & Cheese. Campfire Pizza (Skillet Method). Easy Campfire Ramen Upgrade.
Chapter 4: Desserts (8 Recipes)
Campfire desserts in Southeast Texas have one rule: keep them simple and keep them away from the heat until you’re ready to eat them. These are all tested at real Texas campsites in real Texas summer conditions.
Campfire Banana Boats. Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler. S’mores — Done Right. Foil Packet Cinnamon Apples. Campfire Brownies in a Mug. Grilled Pineapple with Brown Sugar. Campfire Popcorn. No-Bake Energy Bites.
What Makes This Different from Every Other Campfire Cookbook
Every recipe has a Prep at Home section — step-by-step instructions for what to do in your kitchen before you leave so that the actual camp cooking is as fast and simple as possible. This is the single biggest upgrade most campers can make to their cooking and it’s built into every recipe.
Every recipe also has a SETX Note — a short observation specific to cooking in Gulf Coast and Piney Woods conditions. Which ingredients hold up in a hot cooler and which ones don’t. When to use a Dutch oven vs. foil packets in summer vs. fall. How to adapt a recipe when a burn ban is in effect and you’re working from a camp stove only.
And the recipes are genuinely local. Foil Packet Shrimp & Sausage with Gulf shrimp. Shrimp Boil in a Pot with Louisiana seasoning and corn. One-Pot Cajun Pasta. Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler with East Texas peaches in season. This isn’t a generic camping cookbook with the word “Texas” in the title.
Who This Book Is For
If you camp at Village Creek State Park and want to eat better than hot dogs on the second night — this is for you.
If you’re taking your family to Sam Rayburn for a fishing weekend and want a real Dutch oven chili for the first cold night of the trip — this is for you.
If you spend long weekends on Bolivar Peninsula and want breakfast tacos on the beach on Saturday morning — this is for you.
If you’ve been camping in Southeast Texas your whole life and want a recipe book that actually understands our climate, our ingredients, and our campfire culture — this is for you.
Get Your Copy
👉 Southeast Texas Campfire Cookbook on Amazon
Available in paperback. 40 recipes, 4 chapters, designed to lay flat on a camp table or picnic bench. Every recipe fits on one page spread so you’re never flipping back and forth while something’s burning.
Before Your Next Trip
While you’re planning your next SETX camping trip, grab the free Ultimate Family Camping Checklist — 82 items across 7 categories, built for camping in Southeast Texas.
And if you’re still figuring out where to go, our best campgrounds in Southeast Texas guide covers every site worth knowing — from free beach camping at Bolivar to primitive river camping on the Neches to full-hookup RV sites at Sam Rayburn.
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