Backpacking Recipes

I love backpacking and I love cooking which has let me to be a bit creative with my back country meal planning. Forget prepackaged meals, we're going gourmet tonight! The basic equipment you'll need is a Dehydrator to prep the food, a camp stove, a pot and frying pan, and a Tupperware to rehydrate food in. Below are some of our favorite recipes from on our week long trip this summer!

Breakfast:

Biscuits and Gravy

What you need:
1 packet instant gravy with sausage (makes 2 cups)
1 packet biscuit mix that only requires water (makes ~8 biscuits)


Instructions:

1. Pack ingredients as is, or split for a smaller portion (this makes enough for 4 people
2. On the trail- follow the instructions on how much water to add to the biscuits. Roll dough into ~1 inch balls.
3. Follow the instructions on the gravy and make in a larger pot. Add the biscuit dough to the simmering gravy and simmer until dough is cooked.

Post trip comments:  you can also cook the biscuits in a frying pan, depending on your stove, you may have to flip them a few times to keep from burning. Using a lid helps them "bake" as well, you can use tin foil.


Breakfast Burritos

What you need:
Pace Salsa
Powdered eggs
Pre-cooked (shelf stable) bacon
Shredded cheddar cheese
Tortillas

Instructions:

1. Dehydrate Pace Salsa in a food dehydrator (how ever much salsa you want on your burritos)
2. Break up dried salsa into smaller pieces and put in a zip-lock
3. You can buy egg powder, or make your own. Package approximately 2 eggs worth per person.
4. On the trail - Add cool water to the salsa and allow to rehydrate while you cook up the eggs.
5. Follow the instructions on how much water to add to the egg powder.
6. Pile up eggs, bacon, salsa and cheese on a tortilla, wrap, and enjoy!

Post Trip Comments: You can also get freeze dried egg scrambles and wrap in a tortilla.

Lunch:

Backpackers Pad Thai

What you need:
1 package Chicken ramen noodles
2 tablespoons powdered peanut butter
1 tsp Chili powder
1/4 cup peanuts

Instructions:

1. Measure out peanut butter powder, peanuts, and chili powder (Adjust amount to taste) into a small zip-lock.
2. On the trail - add boiling water to ramen noodles and let sit 3 mins or until noodles are cooked.
3. Mix in peanut mixture and ramen flavoring packet, and enjoy!

 Post trip comments: We love this recipe, we could make it for every meal on the trip if we could! For a more substantial meal, add a packet of cooked chicken. I saw another version of this with soy sauce ans sriracha chili sauce, could bring little packets to add to it as well!


Pine Nut Hummus and Pita

What you need:
1 package Fantastic Foods Original Hummus
Olive Oil
Pine Nuts
Pita Breads

Instructions:

1. Determine how much Hummus you want to make, one packet makes 2 cups.
2. Measure out how ever much olive oil you will need per the instructions, plus a little extra too drizzle on top.
3. Package some pine nuts to sprinkle on top -  about 1tbsp per 1/2 cup
4. On the Trail - mix water and oil with hummus powder as directed on instructions. 
5. Sprinkle the pine nuts and remaining oil on top of the hummus and enjoy spread on the pita bread. 

Post trip comments:  I'd recommend 1/3 cup hummus per person, we brought 1/2 cup pp and were struggling to finish the last bit! You can also use tortillas with the hummus, or bring carrots or other veggies if its a shorter trip.

 Dinner:

Jim's Spaghetti

What you need:
Spaghetti Sauce
Noodles (we used ramen noodles minus the flavor packet)
French Bread
Butter
Garlic Salt
Optional - Parmesan packets (grab some from your local pizza joint)

Instructions:

1. Dehydrate your favorite spaghetti sauce(how ever much you typically eat in a serving) and crumble into smaller pieces and package in a zip-lock. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to hit the trail.
2. Package the noodles in another zip-lock
3. Right before traveling to the trail head, butter your french bread and sprinkle with garlic salt. Wrap with tinfoil and put in zip-lock
4. To prepare on the trail- add boiling water to spaghetti sauce in a Tupperware and let sit for about 10 mins.
5. Add boiling water to noodles in a Tupperware and let sit until noodles soften.
6. Stick the foil wrapped garlic bread in the campfire (if you have one) or on your camp stove frying pan until the butter melts.
7. If the sauce is too runny, simmer over the stove until desired consistency, then top noodles with sauce, Parmesan(optional) and enjoy!

Post trip comments: While the ramen noodles were very fast at rehydrating, they didn't have the same flavor or texture as regular noodles. Our stove burned the foil before the butter could melt, but the bread and butter was still tasty! Try cooking the garlic bread butter down if using a frying pan.


Beef Shepherd's Pie

What you need:
1/2 cup per person Frozen Peas
1/3lb per person ground beef
1 cup per person Instant Beef Gravy (the kind that only needs water)
1 cup per person(after cooking) Instant Mashed Potatoes (the kind that only need water)


Instructions:

1. Dehydrate the peas(can be frozen still) until almost completely dried
2. Cook the ground beef, rinse and dehydrate. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to hit the trail.
3. On the trail - Add boiling water to cover the peas and beef and let stand 10 mins.
4. Follow instructions on the gravy package and make gravy in a pot. Add drained peas and beef and allow to simmer for a few minutes
5. Follow the instructions on the mashed potatoes.
6. Pour the beef/pea/gravy mixture into a bowl for each person and top with the mashed potatoes

 Post trip comments: This recipe was delicious! Just make sure not to dehydrate the peas too long or it can be tough to get them completely soft again.

Rhubarb Pie

Jim is a huge Ska fan, and one of the random song he likes is Rhubarb Pie by Five Iron Frenzy. So now every time I hear "Rhubarb Pie" I get the song stuck in my head forever! So this prompted me to try my hand at making rhubarb pie. My first time was for Pi day (I know, I'm a nerd). 

I learned a lot and now have the recipe down pat :-) Received loads of compliments on this recipe, and it was the first pie to disappear both times I made it!

Start by preheating the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Chop the rhubarb up into small pieces. I sliced them lengthwise then chop. I read that you want skinnier rhubarb stalks because they aren't as tough!

  Combine the sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of this mixture over bottom crust in pie pan.

Heap rhubarb over this mixture. 

 Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Dot with small pieces of butter. 

Cover with top crust and crimp edges. Cut a few slits or a design in the top crust before placing over pie filling. 

Place pie on a foil lined baking sheet(it will most likely bubble over) and cover crust edges with foil or a crust cover if you have one (My edges got a bit crispy because I forgot until half way through!). Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes.

Serve warm or cold! 

  
Here is the condensed version of the recipe:

Ingredients

• 6 cups(1.25lbs) chopped rhubarb
• 1 1/3 cups white sugar
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie, or a package of store bought

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. Combine the sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of this mixture over bottom crust in pie pan. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Dot with small pieces of butter. 
3. Cover with top crust and crimp edges. Cut a few slits or a design in the top crust (before placing over pie filling).
4. Place pie on a foil lined baking sheet(it will most likely bubble over) and cover crust edges with foil or crust cover if you have one.
5. Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Building a Raised Vegitable Garden!

As the wind howls and the snow blows I sit here dreaming of a garden full of fresh veggies this summer, so I figured, why not begin the planning now! I did a pepper window garden last year which worked pretty well.

My family growing up had a huge garden and rarely bought veggies during the summertime, so I figured I'd like the same! After some research I've decided to make a raised garden going along the east fence in the backyard(they recommend a North to South orientation). This project will required sawing(or the store can do it), drilling, digging, and rearranging the sprinklers so I'll be involving the resident engineer for some assistance :-) We teamed up to tackle the front flowerbed's sprinklers last summer, so I figure this should be pretty straight forward.

It will be a 12ft by 4 ft garden, mostly because I want to have room for all the zucchini and squash(because, yum!). To begin with, Here are the supplies needed:

2 16-foot-long 2-by-12s (Cedar or redwood)
90 degree metal corner piece (we used these)
12 3½-inch #14 wood screws 
Box of 1½-inch  #9 wood screws
48 cubic feet planting mix
4x12ft Landscaping fabric
Various sprinkler parts (we set up a drip line and added mini sprinklers called drippers)

To begin, cut 4 feet off both of the 16-foot-long 2-by-12s, so you have 2 12ft and 2 4 ft boards (or the hardware store can do this for you). On a flat surface, screw the 2-by-12s together to create a rectangular box, using the corner brackets with the 1 1/2inch screws and the 3 wood screws on the outside.

 
Position the bed in the area it is to be installed. This is the tough part where we decided how to re-route the sprinklers and remove the sod(that stuff is heavy!). We have an extra unused sprinkler zone set up in the yard right next to where the garden was going, so we just added a drip line onto that. They have nifty kits to do this at home depot!

If needed, this is the time to level the area, then dig a shallow area to slightly bury the sides. We moved the metal siding and created a border of rocks around the outside of the garden.

Once the bed is positioned and the sprinkler situation figured out, put down the hardware cloth and fill the bed with a planting mix and rake it smooth. We are weirdos and did this at like 10pm...

Once the soil is all situated, lay out your drip lines and stake them down. Plant seeds in rows, being mindful of what needs sun/shade. If you aren't planting yet, still go to the next step!

Give the garden a nice soaking to weigh down the soil and bam, you now have a kick ass veggie growing machine! or a garden, or whatever...

Next book review- The Fault in our Stars!

So I just finished The Fault in Our Stars(quite early this time, book club meeting isn't until June 8th!). It was a fast read and not exactly what I thought it was going to be! I'm going to try and not spoil anything...

 
The story is written from Hazel's perspective, and I love the gallows humor which keeps everything surprisingly upbeat, considering the topic. Hazel is a 16 year old who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at age 13. She was miraculously brought back from the verge of death by an experimental drug which has extended her life temporarily. With her uncertain future she decides to live her remaining time causing the least amount of pain and suffering to others as possible(including animals). Her defeatist personality causes her parents to put her in a (very depressing) childhood cancer support group. All of this changes when Hazel meets Augustus Waters one day at support group. Hazel is determined not to cause him pain, and tries her best to keep him at arms length.
 

Their friendship grows through the sharing of Hazel's favorite novel. The book is written from the perspective of Anne, another terminally sick girl, and ends mid sentence as though she passed away while writing. Hazel has read the book a million times and really wants to hear the end of the story before she dies. Augustus takes it upon himself to get the end of the story for Hazel, and the story follows this adventure.

The book really gets you thinking about what impact we leave on the world, how small a single life can be, and how the ones we love will remember us. Overall - a quick read for me, and yes, it was a tear-jerk-er. As a follow up on my strategy to not cry - the finger pressing up under the nose works a lot better when upright(not lying in bed) because then you can occasionally look upwards(which also helps). Well, on to the next one right? So much time until the next book club (The Book Thief is up next!) so I get to pick a book in the mean time. I've had The Casual Vacancy sitting on my shelf for a while.

Yes, I got it because it was written by J.K. Rowling... Haven't heard the best things about it, but I suppose I should give it a shot.

The Other Boleyn Girl and The Comfort of Lies - Review

So this is kind of late, but I did end up reading The Other Boleyn Girl and The Comfort of Lies for book club. SO here are my belated impressions of the books, lets start with The Other Boleyn Girl.

I really liked this book. A brief summary - King Henry VIII married an older women(Katherine), she was unable to produce a(live) male heir to the throne. This resulted in the King sleeping around a lot, which I found funny because he ended up as the head of the Church of England. Basically this book follows the Boleyn family and how the men in the family scheme for the favor of the King and his gifts of titles, land and wealth through "Whoring out" of the 2 Boleyn girls, Mary and Anne. The book is written from Mary's point of view. Pretty interesting to put yourself into that time period and think about the role of women, religion, marriage, politics and all the power struggles. I also was strangely curious about the food of the time period. Lots of boiled eggs, cheese and bread for breakfast apparently...

I really liked the Other Boleyn Girl, and I am now wanting to read just about every other book the author has written on the time period. Unfortunately, due to book club's monthly reading assignments, I'm not sure when I will have the time, since I'm having a hard time finishing one book a month. Well actually I flew through this book, which is impressive since its 500+ pages! I suppose I found it exciting because I know some of the history on King Henry VIII, and the anticipation was killing me! I've added the Constant Princess to my to-read list. Its about King Henry VIII's first wife, Princess Katherine of Spain. Sounds like she had a pretty interesting life from what I gathered in The Other Boleyn Girl.

All-righty, now for The Comfort of Lies -

Not a huge fan, perhaps if was meant to be a very uncomfortable book, not really sure. This book took me longer to read than the previous, though it was significantly shorter. Basically its about Tia, a young women who has an affair with a married man, Nathan, and gets pregnant. She decides to give the child up for adoption to a very successful couple, Carolyn and Peter, who would be able to provide a great life for her child. The story then follows Nathan's wife, Juliette, as she finds out about the affair and then later about the child, and how terrible this whole experience is for everyone... The story is mostly written from the women's perspectives, with a couple of the chapters coming from Nathan. It was kind of interesting to get the view from each perspective on the topic. I do feel this book played up stereotypes a bit though - all of the characters are what you first thought they were going to be like, no surprises. Definitely wouldn't have picked this book for myself, but now I can say I've read it. The next book is way more enticing, The Fault in our Stars by John Green, which promises to be a tear-jerker since its a love story involving childhood terminal cancer...

Bring it on!! I've been meaning to try out my Anti-Crying Technique - apparently if you press up on the cartilage at the bottom of your nose(see below) it prevents tears from coming out of your eye ducts. Just in case, probably don't want to read/test at work, who knows what rumors would start...

P.S. - The library thing worked great for the first 2 books, but apparently a movie is coming out on The Fault in Our Stars, so now everyone and their mom is on the waiting list. Its a bit ridiculous - the library district has about 20 books and a wait list 200 people long! Ended up buying the book, along with the next one(The Book Thief) so I wouldn't have to worry about getting it in time. I am hoping to host the July meeting and I've picked The Mermaid Chair since its been sitting on my shelf for a while.

Marshmallow fun!

Growing up, we never had candy at the house. I used to sneak marshmallows out of the cupboard when I could instead! Recently a coworker of mine told me about making homemade marshmallows and I decided to give it a go!

They turned out really tasty and way better than store bought. Oh no, what have I done!! Now I must make homemade marshmallows for the rest of my life!!! For this project, I decided to make half a sheet of regular marshmallows and half into homemade marshmallow eggs for Easter.

I wanted to jazz them up a bit so I dipped them in chocolate and other goodies (pretzels, peanut butter, caramel, nuts, rice crispies, sea salt... )!

These also turned our super tasty!

 My favorite so far has been the peanut butter and pretzel marshmallow dipped in milk chocolate :-)

Unfortunately I found out the hard way that caramel apple recipes make for very hard caramel candies... Whoops! But know I know!

So, making marshmallows, not too bad! Here is the recipe:

Vanilla Marshmallow Eggs

Ingredients:

Marshmallows:

Bloom:
4 1/2 tsp. unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water

The Syrup:
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/8 tsp. salt

The Mallowing:
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Coating:

2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup corn starch

Directions:

1. Whisk  gelatin into cold water and let sit for 5 mins
2. Stir sugar, 1/4 cup of the corn syrup, water, and salt in a medium sauce pan over high heat until it reaches 240F
3. While sugar is melting, in the bowl of a stand mixer, pour the other 1/4 cup corn syrup. Microwave the gelatin for 30 seconds to melt, then add to the mixer bowl and start whisking on low speed.
4. Mix together powdered sugar and corn starch for the coating in a small bowl as set aside.
5. When the sugar mixture has reached 240F add it to the mixer and increase speed to medium for 5 mins, then increase to medium-high for 5 mins.
6. Add the vanilla and increase speed to high for 2 mins. The finished mixture should be white fluffy and triple in size
7. Pour into a greased casserole dish or drop spoonfuls on greased wax paper to made egg shapes. Note- I chill my spoon and spatula in ice water before using with marshmallow so it doesn't stick. You can also try non-stick spray.
8. Dust top of marshmallows with the coating mixture and let set for at least 6 hours or over night.
9. If you made a sheet of marshmallow, turn out onto a coating dusted surface. Dip all sides in coating and slice into squares, coating cut sides.
10. At this point you can dip your goodies in chocolate! I used milk chocolate on half and dark chocolate on the other half. Sprinkle with nuts or sea salt and let dry on a sheet of wax paper. 
11. For pretzel and peanut butter egg, spread the peanut butter on the pretzel, then stick the marshmallow on top and dip in or cover with chocolate(warning- this could get messy!).  I sprinkled it with crushed pretzels so I know which ones were which!

Adapted from Marshmallow Madness! by Shauna Sever

Let me know what other cool combos you come up with, I was thinking of trying oreos or bacon bits and potato chips next!

Snowshoe Backpacking and Proposal

Well this was an exciting and adventure fulled weekend! Jim and I have been backpacking the last few years with the same group. We've only gone on the summer trips with them, but this year we agreed to the winter trip.

There's A Lot more stuff, heavier stuff, to bring on a winter trip. To start with there's the tent. Our normal tent is a 3 season tent (meaning spring, summer, fall probably somewhere warm), for a snowy destination we needed to rent a 4 season tent, which weighed at least twice as much as the summer one. Then there's the extra layers of clothing, the extra warm sleeping bag and a foam sleeping mat to go under our normal blow up mat. For this reason we decided to bring a sled, to make hiking up a mountain in the snow more pleasant :-)

Unfortunately the sled soon became the bane of Jim's existence, but he put up with it hitting him in the back of the legs and frequently knocking him over.

We were meeting up with two other guys that stayed the previous night, so we radioed them a few times. I'd have to say, wandering through the woods while its snowing is a lot less relaxing if you are lost... Luckily they found us and led us to their camp.

Aside from the sled issues and the temperature, it was a fun and beautiful trip! We just wore our normal skiing outfits (took off layers for the uphill stuff) and added a few layers once we got to camp. Our camp site was on the edge of a clearing with a fabulous view of the valley and Mt. Aetna. We were camped on top of about 7 feet of snow! The early birds even built a snow cave.

Once we had everything set up and a fire going we could all relax for a bit. It was snowing up until about an hour before dark. The sky clear just enough for us to check out the view. The stars that night were amazing!

In the morning everything was covered with a light layer of fresh snow. The sky was clear and the view was amazing!

I made biscuits and gravy(technically dumplings and gravy) for breakfast(nom!) and then Jim asked to go on a walk. We walked a little outside of camp and checked out the view of Mt. Aetna across the valley. Then Jim turned to me and said how much he love that I go on these adventures with him. He then pulled out the ring box and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him :-)

It was perfect, and beautiful, and everything I had dreamed of :-) There were loud cheers from the friends back at camp, and everyone congratulating us!

Once the ecstasy of the moment passed, we resumed normal packing up activities and hiked down the valley. Which resulted in Jim getting knocked down a bunch of times by the sled... poor guy. Eventually we figured out if I walked behind the sled and held a cord, he could avoid the sled attacks! Once back at the car, the family and friend notification began. I suppose my next adventure involves planning a wedding!