Joseph,
I'm sorry to hear that, quite the contrary with me. I've been camping since I was a kid and learned way back in the Boy Scouts that a decent meal in the outdoors is incredible. So I say, why not put a little effort into it and prepare a great meal; That is what camping is all about for me.
I'm new on this board and I don't know anyone yet and it's going to be quite a while before I get around to building a trailer. Currently, I'm on a similar board like this one, but it's a boat building forum. I'm building a cedar strip canoe. You can see my construction photos and project specs by going to
http://www.bearmountainboats.com. Click on the project directory and follow the links and click on Redbird by Dean in Eureka, CA
Here's a very simple great meal to fix using a Brinkmann Smokin'Grill:
soak about six good sized chunks of hickory when the briquets are started. When the briquets are ready, place them in the bottom pan and place the middle grill inside the chamber. Place 5-6 ears of corn with husks still on the ear, around the edge of the grill. Then place 5-6 foil wrapped baguettes of bread split with garlic butter added, around the perimeter of the grill on top of the corn. Now insert the upper grill into the chamber and cut up two racks of baby back pork ribs and sprinkle them with montreal steak seasoning (Costco) and place them on the upper grill. Cover the cooking chamber with the lid, open the access door and add the water soaked hickory chunks on top of the briquets. Cooking time is about one hour. I flip my ribs at about 1/2 hour. I keep an eye on the thermometer that's in the lid and if the temperature get above ideal, I just open the access door and douse with a squirt of water from a spray bottle. Try it! I personally gaurantee that this will change your outlook on cooking while camping!
The smokin' grill runs about 35-40 bucks and is worth every penny. It also has an optional water pan for water smoking too.
One other thing you can do is soak the corn in sugar water for about 1/2 hour prior to placing the husk covered ears on the grill.
The only other thing I do to add to this meal sometimes is to take my turkey kettle cooker and do up a batck of deep fried garlic fries.
I'm currently building a pizza oven to take camping that I'll be using on the propane fired turkey cooker. (That was a request my kids made a few weeks ago while camping)
BTW I couldn't agree with you more about the coffee.