Get pie irons. They lead to some of the greatest treats there is while camping. I'll even pack them for backpacking; I usually don't mind the extra weight. But, if we were camping at a location where we just carried everything from the car/camper, then they are a must. If we forget them, I'll drive 30 miles to the nearest town to pick up some extras.
sample pic, so you know what I"m talking about (I'm not endorsing this brand; I think you can get them for about $10 to $15)
With the pie irons,
hot sandwiches (butter the bread on the outside to get it to brown nice.
put butter & cinnamon sugar on the outside of the bread (the part that's against the iron) and fill with:
apple pie filling
blueberry pie filling
cherry pie filling
Absolutely incredible treat around the campfire.
Or, for something different, butter the outside of the bread, then fill the inside with a light coating of pizza sauce, some mozzarella cheese, and a few slices of pepperoni.
For breakfast, get the "just add water" pancake mix. butter the inside of the pie iron to help keep it from sticking, then fill one side level with the pancake mix. (Close it though.) When it's about half cooked, simply turn it upside down over the fire to cook the other side. It makes a perfect square, thick pancake. For a special breakfast treat, mix in some of the leftover canned fruit from the night before (but try to eliminate most of sauce with the fruit)
Another great camp food: corn on the cob. Leave the husk on the corn. Soak it in water for a little while, then simply put it on the coals in the fire. The outer layers of the husk usually get pretty burnt, but the inside kernels of corn remain just fine. I'd much rather have corn cooked this way than tossed in a pot of boiling water.
Baked potatoes can be wrapped in aluminum foil & just set on a bed of hot coals too. (Although, I prefer to slice the potatoes, toss in some other stuff with them, plus some butter, then wrap & put it over the fire.)
If you have a big cast iron pot, you can deep fry in it. (Takes a little experience to be able to keep the temperature good.) Nothing beats a big fish fry with fresh caught fish. Since you mentioned canoe, I'll assume you can take a fishing pole. Even bluegills, just slightly bigger than the size of your palm (not counting your fingers) can be fileted and battered. The smallest that I would bother with still yields more meat than the actual amount of fish in a couple of fishsticks. Cleaning the fish takes time (and the more often you do it, the less time it takes). For my last fish fry at camp, I spent about 2 hours fileting smaller panfish. It fed my family (4), all my in-laws at camp (5), and a few friends we made on nearby campsites. If you can't catch enough sunfish in a short amount of time using worms/nightcrawlers... (or other more worthy fish - but I prefer to catch and release game fish such as bass.) There are a lot of ways you can batter or bread the fish. Hardest is the whole flour, then eggs, then some sort of breading; simplest is just using the pancake mix to make some batter. They also sell "just add water" batter for fish.
Once you master deep frying over a fire in a pot (don't kill yourself with a big grease fire - be careful!), other things that are incredible treats for people who have been eating "camp food" for a few days: buffalo style wings. Or, get some boneless, skinless chicken breast, slice it up into smaller pieces, dip it in, what else, more pancake batter. Tastes great with some honey, bbq sauce, or hot sauce.
Damn it, I'm making myself hungry.
Don't forget s'mores one night. (Obligatory for camping)
