Click to Enlarge Sandwich toasted marshmallows between milk chocolate squares and graham crackers. The 1940 Girl Scout Handbook contained this recipe for “s’mores.” Click to Enlarge Before you light your campfire, make sure you have a shovel and some water on hand. Collect dry twigs and grass to use as fire starter. To put a fire out, pour water on it, stir the ashes, then add more water. It’s fun to build a fire and keep it going by adding more fuel, but be careful!   Recipe for a Campfire by Jan Syrigos, photos by Cliff White Cook up a campfire for an outdoor adventure. Everything goes well with a campfire--songs, stories, the sounds of crickets and frogs, the laughter of friends, and, of course, the yummy taste of what my daughter calls “smarshmallows.” Fires can be dangerous, but if you are careful a good fire can be relaxing and fun. Before you consider lighting a fire, make sure you have a clear area at least 10 feet away from tents, trees, roots and other flammable items. Avoid areas with overhanging tree limbs that could catch fire. Wind is probably the biggest spreader of fires. If it’s real windy, you shouldn’t start a fire. If there’s a light wind, increase the size of your cleared area so that the wind can’t spread the fire. Use a fire pit whenever one is available. You can always make a fire pit by arranging rocks in a circle. This helps contain the fire. It also tells people where hot embers might be. Make sure you have a shovel and some water on hand. They will help you control the fire before it gets out of hand. When starting a fire, go from small to big--from tinder to kindling to fuel. Tinder is small twigs, wood shavings, dry grass, leaves, needles or bark that are smaller in diameter than your wooden match. These should light instantly when touched by a match. Kindling is small sticks that range in diameter from the size of your pinky finger to your thumb. Fuel is wood that is larger around than your wrist. If you have a large selection of wood available, choose species that give you lots of heat and make a nice bed of coals. Good woods for this are oak, sugar maple, ash, hickory, Osage-orange and black locust. One key to this recipe is that these three ingredients must be dry. Place handfuls of dry tinder in the center of your fire pit. Build a tepee of kindling sticks around the tinder. Next, build a square wall of larger sticks around and up to the height of the tepee. Place more sticks across the walls to cover the tepee. Add another wall of larger branches, but do not cover the top. Use your match to light the tinder. Never use charcoal lighter, gasoline or kerosene to help start your fire. As the fire grows, add some larger branches (wood fuel) across the top. Be careful not to collapse the walls of the fire. Add larger and larger branches to keep your campfire going. Once it is going, always stay with your fire. Campfires are natural gathering places. When camping, many people spend their evenings sitting around a campfire. You’ll soon learn how close to a fire you can comfortably sit and where to sit to avoid the smoke. No campfire is complete without songs, stories and friends and family. You can also roast hot dogs or marshmallows. Campfires seem to add flavor to almost any food. Before you leave a fire, be sure to put it out. Use water to extinguish the flames, and your shovel to stir the embers. Repeat adding water and stirring until everything is cold. Make a “Red Hot,” Edible Fire Here’s a recipe to try out on your tastebuds while you practice your campfire building skills. Ingredients: 1 paper plate 10 mini-marshmallows 2 teaspoons of shredded coconut 6 mini-pretzel sticks 2 pretzel rods 1 dozen red hot candies 1 wax paper cup with juice Use your paper plate as the clear space or safety circle around your campfire. Set it on a flat place. Next, arrange the marshmallows in a circle in the middle of the plate to show your fire ring or pit. Place the coconut in the center of the pit as your “tinder.” Gradually add the mini-pretzels as “kindling” and the pretzel rods as “wood fuel.” Your fire is built and ready to “light” with the red hots! Be sure to keep your wax paper cup with juice handy as your “fire bucket” to help cool your edible fire while eating.