Thai Lunch at Mount Tallac

We had record amounts of snow last year. This year, not so much. The lack of snow has kept B and I from getting out to the mountains as much as we would like. It has also slowed down my motivation to design new camp meals. But with the renewed goal with S to finish our cookbook in 2012, and a 7 day backpacking trip to King's Canyon this summer, I have finally found the incentive (and excitement) to get back in the camping kitchen.

Our trip out to Mount Tallac on this gorgeous sunny day was a lazy snowshoe trip. Both B and I were recovering from a week-long flu. Even though we didn't climb to the summit, we got some much needed fresh air, vitamin D, and a new recipe to add to the upcoming cookbook.

This recipe is traditionally served at breakfast in Thailand, and S says she had it every morning with a mango smoothie when she visited. I think this would work nicely as a backpacking breakfast as well, especially on chilly mornings. You can even serve it with a few pieces of dried mango for a Thai-like breakfast.

Khao Tom Moo (Rice Soup with Pork) - Serves 2

1 bunch celery - dehydrated
2 Tbsp Magi seasoning
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp galangal powder
8 oz ground pork, cooked
1/2 cup instant white rice
1 clove garlic - minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp cilantro - dehydrated
1 package instant chicken broth or concentrate
White pepper to taste




At home:
Mix the cooked ground pork with 1 Tbsp of Magi Seasoning and 1 Tbsp of fish sauce. Dehydrate according to your dehydrator's directions. Here are some tips for food dehydration.
Divide dehydrated pork, celery, and rice into two Ziploc bags.
Add 1/8 tsp white pepper and 1/4 tsp galangal powder to each bag
Seal bags and write 2 cups water on each bag

Heat olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add garlic and cook until brown. Let cool. When cool, put garlic and olive oil in a separate Ziploc bag.

Add dehydrated cilantro to a third Ziploc bag.



On the trail:
Put 2 cups of water in a JetBoil or pan.
Heat to almost boiling and add instant broth and 1 package of pork/rice soup mix.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
Turn off heat and let sit for ten minutes.
Empty garlic and oil in to cup or insulated camp bowl. Make your own camp bowl
Pour soup over garlic and stir.
Sprinkle dehydrated cilantro on top.
Sprinkle with white pepper to taste.
Enjoy!

*If you plan on eating this meal on your first or second day out, try bringing fresh cilantro and garlic and prepare on the trail.

She's Crafty

A rainy day does not make for good outdoor adventures, but it does provide a great reason to stay inside and prepare for the warmer weather ahead - and the backpacking and climbing that goes with it.

Last weekend S and I got together to make insulated bowls for the recipes we are preparing. I have made these before for several trips. S is planning all the food for an upcoming trip to Utah and asked me to show her how to put them together.

You can easily buy insulated mugs and bowls at stores like REI or online, but I have found that they are often too small for the recipes I create. I have been experimenting with the JetBoil lately and creating recipes that require no cooking. The insulated bowls work really well for these types of recipes. If you are simmering recipes over a stove and serving them in bowls, these may be more than you need.



Insulated Camp BowlsMakes 2
2 2-cup plastic containers with screw top lids (Ziploc brand work the best)
1 cheap foam camping sleeping pad
1 roll of duct tape
Sharpie or other marker
Scissors
At home
Start by cutting a piece of the foam pad to fit around container. To do this, wrap the pad around the container, mark where the sides meet, and cut the pad at this mark. You will have one piece of pad that you can then cut several strips from for several containers.



Next, you will want to cut a piece that will fit the height of the container, as well as wrap under the bottom. To do this, place your recently cut piece up against the container. Mark where the container begins to sharply curve on the foam. Measure one inch beyond this and mark the foam again - one inch below this portion of the container. Repeat this process to make two fitted strips of foam - one for each plastic container.

You will want the foam to curve around the bottom of the container so it is insulated as well. To do this, you will need to cut triangles out of the foam along the bottom edge. Cut triangles that are about 1/2 inch apart and 1 inch deep all the way across. Remove these pieces of foam and discard.



Now you are ready to assemble! Grab the duct tape, one container and your piece of foam. Wrap the foam around the container and secure the edges with duct tape. Put a few more pieces over the joining edges until they are covered, and the foam is securely wrapped around the container. It should stay on by itself. If it does not stay on, undo the tape and adjust until it is snug.



Once you have your foam secure on your container, turn the container upside down, with both hands bring the triangle edges together until they wrap over the bottom of the container and meet in the middle. Hold these pieces together with one hand while you place a piece of duct tape over them with the other. Wrap more pieces of duct tape across the bottom to secure the triangles in place.



You can also make a lid for your container. If you are going somewhere cold or winter camping, I recommend the lid. To make a lid, cut a circle out of the foam about 1/4 inch larger than the widest part of the new foam covered container. Then cut a 1 inch wide strip that is long enough to wrap around the circle. Wrap the 1 inch strip around the circle and secure with duct tape. Tear of multiple pieces of duct tape and wrap the over the lip of the 1 inch foam strip, across the top of the circle and secure on the other side. Crisscross the new "lid" until it is covered with duct tape.

Climber's Curry

On Sunday I went out to Indian Springs in North Tahoe for some climbing. It was a perfect day. Warm and sunny. The snow was melting and there were even a few waterfalls. Flowers were beginning to bloom and small black lizards came out to sun themselves on the rocks.



I managed to pull down two 5.9s and practice my first rappel. I ALSO got an opportunity to test another recipe for our Alpine trip in August.

In the past, we often just snacked all day on odds and ends while climbing. Sitting down to a hot lunch was actually really nice and gave us an opportunity to talk about the climbs we'd done. Share what we had learned, share beta, and gather our strength for a few more.

I call this recipe Climber's Curry in honor of our trip out to Indian Springs. If you are willing to bring a stove and a small pot, this recipe will reconstitute in a plastic mug or Tupperware type container.

Climber's Curry - serves 1
1/2 cup instant rice
1/2 cup freeze dried chicken
1/2 of one dehydrated jalepeno, diced
1 Tbsp dehydrated roma tomato, diced
1/4 cup dehydrated chickpeas
1 Tbsp dehydrated onion
1/4 cup coconut cream powder
1 Tbsp crushed roasted cashews, no salt
1/2 tsp salt
1 star anise
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ginger powder
1 1/2 tsp curry mix*
1 packet lemon juice
1 Tbsp cilantro, diced
1 1/4 cup of boiling water

*I make this from scratch but store-bought will work.

At home:
Add all ingredients to a zip lock bag, except lemon juice and cilantro. Write 1 1/4 cup H2O on the bag with a Sharpie.

On the trail:
Empty contents of into a mug or Tupperware type container. Bring water to a boil. Pour boiling water into dry mixture and stir well. Put lid on container and let sit for 10 minutes. Stir again, adding lemon juice to taste. Top with cilantor and enjoy!

From Scratch: Food Dehydration 101

This morning I got up early and put in some time on the Stairmaster. Not my favorite activity, but as the Alpine Class approaches, I am feeling a bit unprepared for the summit. Putting one foot in front of the other, over and over and over and over- a seemingly endless climb. It was only 20 minutes - then on to another 40 on the elliptical for cardio. In addition to getting my training out of the way for the day, I also had time to think about new recipes.

chicken curry - fried rice - breakfast couscous - bean salad - sausage gravy - chipotle lime corn - minestrone soup - - -

I promptly went home from the gym and had breakfast. Then got out my food dehydrator and dried some veggies for my next recipe.

If I had known ten years ago how easy and cheap dehydrating my own food was, I would be an old pro by now. Instead, I am still experimenting with different foods, dehydration times and what I like. Some foods dehydrate better than others, and some change enough that personal preferrence comes in to play. You may like tomatoes - you might not like dehydrated tomatoes.




There are tons of books on food dehydration and you can read about it endlessly on the internet - in fact there is so much out there that it can be overwhelming. Here are a few resources I think are pretty helpful. Choosing a Food Dehydrator Dehydrating Meat And a few tips to get you started.

1. Buy a food dehydrator that comes with screens, fruit roll sheets, and can handle additional trays. The screens make sticky foods easier to remove and also work well for smaller foods like herbs, beans, and ground meat. Don't be fooled by the name - fruit roll sheets can be used to dehydrate spaghetti sauce and salsa!

2. Don't try to dehydrate all the ingredients in your recipe the first time. Pick one or two ingredients to experiment with and buy the rest. This way, if they don't turn out (or you don't like them) you don't have to start from scratch.

3. Rehydrate your experiments before you head out on the trail! Some things rehydrate better in recipes or on their own. Test them out before you get in the woods.




4. Blanch most vegetables before dehydrating. Asparagus, broccoli, carrots, corn, eggplant, potatoes,etc. I cook onions before drying them since raw onions make me a little sick.

5. Start with beans and/or salsa. These two things are super easy, dry fairly fast and can be used together in a recipe. Canned beans and a jar of non-junky salsa can be dried at the same time on the same setting. The beans will finish drying before the salsa - just remove the tray and let the salsa finish.

Castle Peak Biscuits

In August, my husband and I are taking an Alpine climbing class through the American Alpine Institute - which finishes with a summit of Mt. Baker. While we have been backpacking for more than 10 years, we have never climbed a mountain before. Last week we received our itinerary, packing list and reccomended training schedule! I have many things to purchase and rent, and a whole lot of training to do. As part of our preperation, I have planned to work on some new recipes.

Since backpacking is one of the only places I think I can manage to eat biscuits & gravy one hundred percent guilt free - I have decided to add it to the menu for this adventure.

On Sunday, I took my new biscuit recipe out to the test kitchen - Castle Peak (up at Donner Pass).



My test kitchen is at 8,320 feet. On what I call "lunch rock" about two-thirds of the way up to Castle Peak. We have been out on this snowshoe trek three times this year, and this is the first time we made it all the way to the top. I am pretty sure it was the biscuits that sustained us.




I read up on backcountry baking, most of what I found online involved baking instruments and contraptions - which I wanted to avoid. I also wanted something that was easy to clean up and did not create too much waste that I would eventually have to pack out. This is a pretty standard biscuit recipe, with the baking powder adjusted for the elevation. Powdered milk is substituted for the real thing, and water is added on the trail. These biscuits are a bit on the savory side, since I intend them to go along with sausage gravy in the near future.

Backcountry Biscuits - Makes 12 biscuits
2 cups unbleached flour
1/2 cup powdered milk
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup all vegetable shortening
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 cup water
1 Tbsp olive oil - or olive oil packet
1 ziploc bag - gallon size
Medium-size cook pot with lid

At home:
Add flour, milk, baking powder, salt, and pepper to ziploc bag.
Add shortening to bag and work in to flour mixture with hands
Place olive oil packet or sealed container of olive oil in ziploc
Seal ziploc bag, removing as much air as possible
Write "1 cup" on bag with a sharpie

On the trail:
Remove olive oil from ziploc bag and pour 1 cup of water into bag and seal.
Massage the outside of the bag, working the water into the flour mixture until a thick dough forms. Set aside.
Rub a small amount of olive oil on the bottom and half way up sides of pot. Place pot on lit stove.
Rub a small amount of olive oil on your hands and reach into the bag and grab a golf ball size amount of dough.
Roll dough quickly in your hands to form a ball. Press ball between your hands to make a patty.
Place biscuit patty in pan. Continue until bottom of pan is full.
Place lid on pan and cook on medium heat until the bottom of the biscuits are brown and dough has begun to rise.
Flip biscuits with a fork or spoon and place lid back on.
Cook biscuits until second side is brown and crisp.
Remove from pan and repeat process with remaining dough.
Serve with jam, butter or gravy.

Off to a Good Start: Bacon & Cheese Grits

I came up with this recipe for our honeymoon trip through the wilderness in Olympic National Park. It was the beginning of August, but spring was just beginning to bloom. We hiked the High Divide trail for five days. Cold nights, lots of bugs, and a little bit of rain. All the flowers bloomed in the five days we were there. We were blessed with a wide variety of wildlife - all coming down from the hills to munch on the spring greens. Elk, goats, bears, and marmots were just a few.

It was definately a memorable trip - and not just because it was our honeymoon. Cold mornings beg for hot breakfast - something warm in your hands and in your belly to make that pack seem less heavy and help you put one foot in front of the other till the sun warms your skin and the blood starts flowing.

If you are on a multi-day trip, I reccomend having these more than one morning - you will be wishing you did.

Bacon & Chedder Grits - Serves 2
2 packages instant grits
4 pieces bacon*, cooked
2 Tbsp chedder cheese powder
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 sandwhich size ziplock bags

At home:
Empty packages of instant grits into each ziplock
Dice the cooked bacon and divide among the ziplock bags
Add 1 Tbsp of cheese powder to each bag
Add 1 tsp of onion powder to each bag
Add 1/2 tsp garlic powder to each bag
Add 1/4 tsp black pepper to each bag
Write 1/2 cup H2O on each bag with a Sharpie
Seel bags, compressing as much air out of them as possible.

On the trail:
Boil 1 cup of water
Pour grit mix into insulated mugs with lids
Divide water among mugs, and stir.
Place lids on mugs and let sit for 7 minutes.
Stir again, and enjoy!

*You can use bacon bits instead of fresh bacon in a pinch, but it is not as good.

A Girl and Her Burrito

Last summer my husband and I spent five days in the back-country of Yosemite. We started out in the meadows and hiked down to the fork of the Merced and back. Despite the Big Meadows fire burning the whole time - we ended up with mostly smoke-free days. The fires seemed to keep people away - it felt like we had the national park to ourselves for most of the time.



For this trip I made all of the food from scratch. Many of the recipes were a success, one was a total failure. It is really tough having to eat something that taste gross because you know you need the calories and there is nothing else around. I learned from those mistakes! Test everything before you leave for the woods!

On our first morning at Lake Evelyn I impressed my husband with breakfast burritos. I was going to make up the grits - but it was so cold that morning, I thought something spicy and hearty would do the trick. For these burritos you will need to purchase some freeze-dried scrambled eggs. I found them online at http://www.wildernessdining.com/

Be sure to buy the cooked scrambled eggs and not the egg powder! You can also find the cheese packets there.




Back-Country Breakfast Burritos - Serves 2
1 package freeze-dried cooked scrambled eggs
1 can black beans - dehydrated
1 cup of your favorite salsa - dehydrated
2 whole wheat tortillas
2 chedder cheese packets

2 16oz plastic containers with screw lids
2 sandwhich size zip lock bags

At home:
Divide the dehydrated black beans and salsa between the two zip lock bags. Gently fold each tortilla and place in zip lock bags. Place one cheese packet in each bag. Seal.



On the trail:
Prepare eggs using package directions. While eggs sit, boil 1 1/2 cups of water in a pot. Remove tortillas and cheese packets from zip lock bags, and set aside. Place bean and salsa mixture in plastic containers. Divide boiling water between the two. Screw lids on and let sit for 7-10 minutes. Lay tortillas on a flat surface and spoon dehydrated beans and salsa on to each. Divide the scrambled eggs between each tortilla. Squeeze packet of cheese on each tortilla. Roll up and eat!