Camping Hamburger

Even though I made this on a stove and not over a campfire, don't assume that I couldn't make it over a campfire. As the members of my long suffering family, who have been dragged through the state parks of the Eastern United States, will attest, I can make a lot of stuff over a campfire. This is the ultimate tightwad dish. You make camping hamburger when you were going to make regular spaghetti, but at 7:30 at night, you went to the cupboard and discovered that someone else had used up all the tomato sauce the week before. It substitutes tomato juice and ketchup for tomato sauce. Now, tomato juice is not a staple in our family, so I did have to buy that, but we have ketchup and we had ground beef and all the other stuff. Net cost of dinner, $2.37 for tomato juice.
The verdict is, it makes somewhat sweeter, more watery spaghetti sauce than our family is used to. The watery-ness was undoubtedly due to the fact that I did not shake the can before I opened it. It is hard to correct that particular mistake, also. Anyhow, it's fine if you are out of spaghetti sauce.

Camping Hamburger

1 pound ground beef chuck
1 onion chopped
1 cup broken up spaghetti
2 1/2 cups tomato juice
1/2 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano (use more)
1/2 teaspoon basil (ditto)

Brown the meat and onion in a heavy kettle. Add the remaining ingredients, stir and cook very slowly about forty-five minutes. Makes four servings.