camping gearCamping season is nearly here and today when I was online shopping for a new sleeping bag, I ran across some camping gear that I think will be really handy. In fact, I ordered several of these stainless steel bowls for the camping gear and the kitchen. They are the GSI Stainless Steel Bowl w/Handle and I know I'll get lots of use from them when we're camping. I like the fact that they have handles and they are made from nonreactive stainless steel so I can put anything in them that I want to mix up. We can even put these over a fire, too, if we want to stir fry or just heat some water to do dishes.

That handle is such a good idea. I'll be able to just toss out the dirty dishwater without having to hold both sides of the bowl and not have to worry about water sloshing all over my jeans or T shirt. Actually, I thought this was such a handy bowl that I ordered four of them, two for the camping gear and two for the kitchen. I keep our camping gear separate from our kitchen gear because it's much easier and faster to get ready to go camping that way. When we have all the cooking items together in the camping gear, it saves going through the kitchen figuring out what to take and what to leave and nine times out of ten, I forget something.

I wanted these for the kitchen, too, because they have such a nice wide bottom. I bake all our own bread and the wide bottom on this bowl will make it much easier to knead the dough instead of on the counter which can be messy at home and not advisable when we're camping. Bread dough picks up every scrap of material it touches, so being able to knead the dough in the bowl without it touching any other surface is good.

I found these bowls at Paradigm Camping Gear located at www.paradigmcampinggear.com, a great site for finding lots of useful camping gear. We camp a lot in the summer and having the camping gear all ready to go before it's even time to start camping feels so good. Our summers are hot and when we go up to the mountains, we lose at least 30 degrees in temperature. We could stay home and crank down the air conditioning, but it's more fun to have the experience of the pine trees and blue jays.