The Big Book of Camp Cooking

All too often, camp cooking turns out to be beanie weenies or grilled hot dogs and burgers.  When it is something more complicated, it’s often mom that is stuck preparing the meal and often stuck with clean up as well.  Who wants to spend every minute on a camping trip doing the same kind of work that has to be done at home, only in less convenient circumstances?

Sometimes, it’s no surprise that it’s often the moms who are resisting the camping trips.

It’s not impossible to simplify all of that, while still preparing delicious meals on that single burner stove, while leaving time for Mom to enjoy the beaches, fishing, hiking, swimming, and all of the other things that we all do when we camp out.  That’s what this cookbook is all about, and the recipes are written to ensure that meals are easy to prepare.

It’s available in both Kindle and paperback, and in plenty of time for summer camping fun too!

Get it right here.

Do It Yourself –dehydrated backpacker’s meals

Face it, whether you are a cyclist, backpacker, or just a compact camper, the commercially prepared freeze dried meals have been along on a trip or two.  Equally as often, you have not been too happy with the meal that resulted, as it failed in quantity, flavor, color, or texture.  I will never forget an experience with some chicken dish, I think it was sweet & sour with rice?  It looked like a puppy had barfed in the container, and the puppy barf might have tasted better.  (No, I have never tasted puppy barf, don’t intend to, and I also gagged at the taste of that stuff.)

Seriously though, on the trail, when you are depending on the meals you have brought along, having something be a total “FAIL” is more than disappointing, it can be a trip ruining disaster or worse.  We have to depend on what we have brought along, and it has been a huge investment in terms of labor and weight to get to the point of adding the boiling water.  Even with the amount of importance that trail food can have, that does not mean we need to have invested our life savings in the food for a two week hike.

Learning to make your own meals has a very steep learning curve.  I’ve tried doing a few things myself, with mixed results.  Then, today I read the most amazing book.  All of that trial and error experimenting has gone out the window, now I have a guide book to get me where I want to go without suspiciously sampling Meal X ever again.  It’s well written, has clear recipes, and solid information.  I’ll admit I have not tried any of the recipes yet (my dehydrator is still packed in a box…somewhere) but I have  no doubts that they are very accurate.

In addition, it allows us to take control of the contents.  My husband and I both need low-sodium meals, and that’s not something that has been addressed by companies such as Mountain House, even though I was told over a  year ago that low sodium meals were in the works.  Unlike many hikers, we no longer need high calorie meals either–due to health problems, we are not physically able to burn off 8,000 calories in a day.  Whether its on a bike or on foot, we now have a much more leisurely approach to the whole process, and our bodies demand we take the time to smell the flowers, experience the moment, and watch the birds flying by a lot more often than we did at twenty-something.  Even with that, we also can’t pack 60 pound packs over mountain tops, and weight is probably more important for us than ever before, as our strength is decreasing as well as our endurance.  Armed with these recipes, we can make the adjustments to the recipes to stick to our medical diets without worries.

So what is this mysteriously wonderful book?  It’s called Backpack Gourmet by Linda Frederick Yaffe.  It’s not new–it’s been out for over a decade, but I just read it via Kindle.  Thankfully, it’s not focused on faddish foods that will make us grimace at the ingredients, but remains just as relevant today as it was when it was initially published.  It’s also the very first book that I can honestly say, hey, here is a really good recipe book to use as a starting point to preparing good, inexpensive packable meals for backpacking, bicycle camping, or any other time we’d want to pack along fast and easy meals.

On that note though, I’m going to leave you taking a look at the book and trying to get your hands on a copy while I go hunt for the location of my dehydrator and vacuum sealer.  I have a feeling that vacuum sealing some of these meals before storing them will make them a lot easier to pack AND store.

Workshop to build a reflector oven

When I first started searching for a reflector oven, I wanted to purchase one.  Every company I found…it turned out they weren’t making them anymore, until I found a company that made non-folding beautiful ones that were way out of my price range.  Refusing to be defeated, I began searching for folding reflector oven plans.  That search didn’t go much better, and left me frustrated too.

Finally, I had a set of plans that appeared to be for an actual working folding reflector oven.  The next step was materials.  That was a bit disappointing.  It seems that metal sheeting isn’t exactly a hot item in home improvement supplies.  The best I can do locally is with a roll of wide aluminium flashing…with a hefty price tag to go with it.  Granted, it will make many ovens, but I don’t want many ovens.  I want one functioning reflector oven that I can cook a small turkey in.  That’s all.

In addition to this blog, we also maintain a website for Get Ready GO, at www.get-ready-go.com and we also have a physical Meet Up group (www.meetup.com) called Get Ready Go that is our “non-profit social organization” branch.   We have an amazing amount of interest in terms of “folding reflector oven” which indicates that I’m not the only one who wants one.  So, the logical thing to do is to have a workshop!

Get Ready GO will be hosting a workshop on Saturday, August 27th, at 10 a.m.  It’s a super inexpensive way to learn how to make your own reflector oven with some help (and tools!) to do the job.  It’s only $20 material fee per person, open to members and their guests only, and everyone must be an adult.  There will even be lunch!  MeetUp.com is free for membership, and anyone can join Get Ready Go too.

The meet up is being held in the Pascagoula, Mississippi area, convenient for anyone living anywhere between New Orleans, LA and Pensacola, FL or as far north as Hattiesburg, MS.  Reservations must be made (and paid for) before August 13th, and there will be no refunds for cancellations after August 13th, although a “make up” date will be offered to anyone who is unable to attend the day of the workshop.  A minimum of four attendees (besides the 3 hosts) is required, and if the minimum is not met, we’ll refund any fees paid.

Just to make it even more fun, if the fire ban in the area is lifted, we’ll bake lunch in a reflector oven just to show how well they work!  Besides, it would give me a great excuse to see if a turkey really will fit in one, wouldn’t it?

Previous entry about folding reflector oven is found here.

Easy and cheap camp cooking

Camp cooking can be very easy, especially when using prepared meals such as the ones sold by Mountain House.  At the same time, at an average cost of over $5 per 2 person meal, it can add up quickly.  For a family, that cost can be prohibitive.  So what are some other solutions?

Many prepared meals feature instant rice as a primary ingredient.  Instant rice is sold in most grocery stores, both in generic and “Minute Rice” brands.  It is moderate in price, and can form the basic ingredient for preparing your own meals at a lower cost.  It is cooked by adding boiling water and waiting about 5 minutes for it to be re-hydrated.

Now it just takes some creativity to turn that boiling water and instant rice into a meal.

I prepared one such meal recently in camp.  Here’s my recipe:

Sausage and Rice

• 2 c. rice
• 2 c. boiling water
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1/2 tsp. Cavender’s Greek Seasoning

Boil seasoning, onion & sausage slices in water for 3-5 minutes.  Stir in rice and remove from heat.  Cover.  Let stand 5-10 minutes.  Makes about 4 servings.

It’s easy to get creative.  Prepared seasoning mixes such as Cavender’s Greek Seasoning and Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning or More Spice make it easy to season your rice dish too.

Another simple dish that I prepare on occasion is what we call “Mexican Stuff”.  It’s used to stuff tortillas for quick meals, can be used as a dip with chips, or just eaten as is.  (I do double the amount of rice when its going to be ‘as is’ though.)

Mexican Stuff

• 1 lb. ground beef, turkey, or pork
• 1 c. instant rice
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 pkg. taco seasoning
• 1 can corn
• 1 can tomatoes with Mexican seasoning (oregano & garlic, peppers & onions, etc.)
• 1/2 tsp. ground cumin

Dump corn, tomatoes, onion, and meat into pan and combine.  Do not drain tomatoes or corn!  Add taco seasoning and cumin.  Cook over medium high heat until meat is completely cooked and mixture has boiled for about 3 minutes.  Add instant rice and 1/2 c. hot water.  Remove from heat, cover, and let sit for about 5 minutes or until rice is tender.

To serve in tortillas: stuff tortillas.  Garnish with things such as shredded cheese, pickled peppers, sour cream, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, etc.

Simple folding reflector oven

I had not given up on my search for a simple folding reflector oven.  I’d found a few designs that were sold commercially, but unfortunately they were priced a bit too high for my budget at this time.  I HAD seen designs on the net before, but hadn’t saved the directions, so I knew they were out there…if I could find them again!

Tonight, I struck gold.  Granted, this design isn’t as fancy as most, but…it uses a commonly available material (aluminum flashing) and is simple to make.  You won’t even need a diagram!  The hinges are simple wire loops, sufficient to do the job, and removal of a few loops means the entire oven folds down into a lightweight package.  Using this design, an oven can be made as large or small as you like too!

here’s the link to their bulletin board with the YouTube video embedded.

The perfect way to really enjoy cold weather camping!

Rocket stoves

I’ll admit, I’m not the most educated in homemade stoves.  I remember the candle stoves made with a 3 lb. coffee can and a pair of tin snips from my childhood, but they were woefully limited in their use.  Today, however, we have a lot more resources at hand than a few scouting manuals.  Websites galore, plus all of Youtube, are all at our immediate disposal.

That’s where I saw the “rocket stove.”  The best video I have seen so far for teaching how to build one is found here.  (Part 2 for the building process is found here.)

The whole idea of a rocket stove is to be able to use small fuel, the kind of stuff we find under almost any tree, laying in alleyways, or our own yards.  This makes it the perfect emergency stove, but this stove is NOT suited for heating indoors, so don’t even think about doing that!  This stove is specifically geared for preparing food, not heating your indoor spaces.  My only curiosity is whether or not the cans that are sold filled with flavored popcorn, a commonly available large sized can, would work for this stove.  Logic says it would, although the fitting process for the stove pipe might be slightly different because of using a round can versus a rectangular can.

Why bother with alternative stoves?

During an emergency situation, the fuel we are accustomed to using in our camp stoves, which may include alcohol, white gas, unleaded gas, propane, or butane, may not be readily available or in short supply.  In an attempt to conserve such fuels, we may desire burning other items, such as debris, for cooking most of our food.

During emergency situations, it is also not uncommon for families to pool their resources, resulting in larger meals being prepared than the typical 1-4 person meals most of us would typically prepare.  That may necessitate the use of additional stoves, and once again, the rocket stove appears to be a very viable option for additional cook space.

With the current economic situation, many families are also trying to reduce their expenditures for items such as fuel, whether it is for cooking or other activities.  Often, families have had some or all of their utilities cut off due to non payment as the result of lost jobs and reaching the end of unemployment benefits.  In those situations, a stove such as this will allow a family to continue eating hot meals without necessitating the purchase of fuel to operate a traditional camp stove.

For others, it is a desire to remove themselves from the grid, and minimize their use of purchased fuel and power that motivates their desire to explore alternatives to the traditional stove.  Once again, a stove such as this is made from several recycled items (the stove pipe is likely to have to be purchased.)  It also uses “free” fuel in terms of small twigs and sticks, typically found under trees and in wooded areas, especially after a storm.  Its efficient design makes maximum usage of this small fuel source as well.

This is definitely something I’m going to have to try myself!

Holiday camp out?

Some claim I’m nuts.  Some claim I’m demented.  Basically, it’s not a real popular idea to consider a Christmas camp out, especially when it involves primitive camping.

It’s cold.  Everyone wants their cozy beds, hot cocoa, and big dinner.  They want to sit around their Christmas tree and open their gifts and see what Santa brought them.  They want to serve cookies and egg nog to their friends and family when they come caroling.

Here I am, proposing they give up all of that to go sit and freeze their butts off around a campfire.  To share gifts with someone under a live tree growing naturally in the woods.  To see real stars twinkling in the night over the top of towering long leaf pines.  To hear your own voice belting out bits of Christmas songs around the campfire with no one else to hear but those we intend to share it with.  To share a dinner prepared over a single burner multi-fuel stove or in the glowing coals of a campfire fueled by dead wood gathered from the woods around us.  To crawl into a bed heated only by the hot brick wrapped in an old towel and stuck in under a blanket at the foot, and breath in icy winter air from inside the tent, snuggled with your significant other and your faithful dog(s).  To enjoy the pre-dawn thrill of having to use a scooped out hole in the ground for a latrine with your butt exposed to the freezing air.

I don’t get it.  Why am I having such a hard time getting anyone else interested in going?

I find the cold air invigorating.  I love the challenge of being warm and cozy even when the weather isn’t.  I like sitting near the fire, protected from a chilling wind by a windbreak formed from a stretched tarp.  I like crawling into my sleeping bag and snuggling up to sleep cozy, with my outer clothes tucked under my pillow for finding them fast come morning.  I don’t mind groping for my knit cap that’s slid off of my head during the night and pulling it back on without ever waking up completely.  I’m thrilled when I coax the stove to life to heat up water for a cup of something hot first thing in the morning when I’m so cold and the fire is faded to nothing more than a memory and hot ashes.  Nothing feels as wonderful as cupping my hands around that cup and “stealing” the warmth it radiates, and that’s before I ever take that first sip of hot liquid.

There’s the sheer challenge of an aging body that has just spent the night sleeping on the ground, albeit on a thermal pad, and is now trying to get clothes ON under the covers where its warm…without letting in cold air…while being urged to greater speed by the bladder that is insisting that you should have woke up an hour earlier.  Add in the excitement of trying to find your shoes in the dark when your partner is NOT a morning person and sees no reason in your predawn urge to get up and get outside.  (His bladder isn’t bellowing!)

Dawn goes from the pitch black just before, to the steadily graying fade into morning, and if the clouds are thick and heavy…it seems like barely dawn for hours.  There’s the threat of a winter rain too, guaranteed to make things soggy and difficult and colder feeling.

Then comes dinner, just after dark.  It doesn’t matter really what it is.  It might be an MRE or a dehydrated prepared meal or real cooked-over-a-campfire meal…it’s going to be delicious, even if its a bit scorched or gritty with sand or flavored with ashes from the fire.  It always IS delicious.  I’ve had everything from cakes to breads to turkey to burgers and everything in between…and its all delicious.  Even the LRP ration of chili was delicious…despite being almost as old as me!    We’ll often have “dessert” too, which might be dried fruit…or s’mores…or marshmallows…or a candy…but that doesn’t matter either.  With a mug of something hot, even just hot water…it’s going to be delicious.

We’ll sit around the fire for a bit, toasting our toes and warming up the bricks for our beds…talking about all sorts of things, depending on who’s there and what is on our minds.  I’ve even dozed off in a chair by the fire, enjoying the warmth.  That’s okay too.  Sooner or later, the night chill starts to run its icy fingers down our backs, and we’ll head off to our pre-warmed beds and snuggle down.  Before we know it…it will be morning again, and we’ll stretch and groan and start it all over again.

So…are YOU ready for a holiday camp out?

Critical survival gear and child’s play

What is the most important part of your survival emergency preparedness kit?  The one thing that you MUST have?

What this item is not:

1. bulky
2. heavy
3. expensive
4. hard to find
5. illegal (yet anyhow!)
6. hard to store
7. need to be rotated
8. easy to lose
9. prone to spoilage
10. needs special tools to operate correctly
11. need accessories

What it is:

1. critical to survival
2. works for your entire group
3. can be boosted by others
4. adaptable
5. ingenious
6. useful
7. hard to lose
8. easy to carry along
9. doesn’t need special sizes
10. uses many accessories
11. adjustable
12. renewable
13. works better when shared with others, whether before or during an emergency
14. works better when used before the emergency occurs
15. works better with frequent usage

Know what it is yet?

It’s your brain and knowledge it carries.

It’s the single most important piece of survival and emergency preparedness equipment that you can make sure you possess.  It works when you have little else, and even when that emergency backpack is missing, damaged, or destroyed.  It can get you out of situations that no weapon or rope alone possibly can.  It can attract the attention of rescuers when there is no flare bright enough.  It can find food and water when there isn’t much to be found anywhere.

It also works better when shared with others, even before the emergency even actually occurs.  It’s effectiveness is compounded by being used frequently before the emergency too.  Sometimes, its potential effectiveness can be multiplied simply by sitting around with others and mentally going through potentially challenging situations and thinking about how they could be solved.

A lot of the ideas that can become useful skills are born out of the play of children.  Playing house?  Building a house out of found materials in the wooded lot next door can give birth to the same skills that create a shelter out of found materials in the woods in an emergency too.  “Fun” childhood activities can lead to survival skills too…like boiling water in a paper bag or heating rocks to boil liquids in a flammable container.  Cooking on a stick.

The games we play as children, and the games we play with our children have much more meaning than we realize sometimes.  Those childhood games lead to problem solving skills, adaptability, and being able to think creatively.  Cooking that hamburger patty on a hot rock isn’t as silly when you compare it to preparing food without utensils in a survival situation.  What is the difference really between building a ‘cool snow fort” and building a snow shelter?

Realizing that those playful excursions build skills and provide a foundation of knowledge for survival in our children, as well as hones adult skills, really changes the whole concept.  Just as play provides learning experience for other mammals during their youth, it does the same for our own.  Just in our case, we can continue learning in playful manners as adults.  Lessons learned in such play are also the lessons that will provide both the adults and the children with the foundation of knowledge that can turn into real survival skills when under stress too.

Too often, as adults we take learning new things too seriously, and take the fun out of it.  Without the fun, our brains don’t make the same critical connections that we need to make to ensure that knowledge is retained and accessible during an emergency.  It is our brains that are a critical tool for our survival, and the knowledge that is retained from childhood builds the entire foundation for our ingenuity and inventiveness at solving survival situations.  Those lessons will be the basis for our children’s ability to adapt and find solutions for the infinite possibilities that can occur in an emergency, whether it is suddenly being stranded in a winter storm, a natural disaster, an invasion of a foreign army, or breakdown of the modern infrastructure or anything else.  No one can have an emergency backpack that is prepared for all eventualities all the time.  Everybody should have their brain prepared with that framework of knowledge and problem solving skills that give them the best possible chance of survival, however.

Taking knowledge and playing with it creates associations of pleasure with the skill set.  It may sound silly initially, but the most dangerous risks for anyone in a survival situation is hopelessness, mind numbing fear, depression, panic and similar negative responses to the stimuli being delivered during the event.  If you add in your companion(s) emotional response, it can become even more daunting.   By creating associations with fun and pleasure prior to the emergency in association with skills for survival, you are in essence putting in an emotional insurance policy.  This emotional insurance policy is multiplied by confidence and knowledge too, so the more practice and knowledge added, the greater that potential pay off.

And doing these activities with novices and children has an additional pay off.  Not only teaching these things to others increases your own knowledge and understanding and gives you practice that creates confidence, you are passing the knowledge on to others.  Tenfold to your own experience, you discover the things that can go wrong when trying to successfully achieve a goal, whether its cooking food over a primitive spit over a fire, build a fire using no matches, build a shelter…or whatever.

Camping provides another way of preparing for emergencies, as silly as that may sound.  In an emergency, we’re often forced out of our familiar situation and into an unfamiliar one.  We may have food and shelter, but we have to adapt to living in close quarters with our family or friends, of using common restrooms and showers, of dealing with strangers with whom we have nothing in common.  We may have to cook food over a camp stove or campfire and wash dishes out doors.  We may have to sleep on a cot or pallet on the ground in a tent.  We may have to eat food that is unfamiliar or ill prepared.

We’ve all seen photos of refugee camps on television, newspapers, and the internet.  What do they resemble?

Overcrowded campgrounds!

Loss of privacy, crowded and primitive quarters, uncomfortable beds, communal restrooms and showers, lack of control over our environmental comfort (heating and cooling of our quarters) and our own food seem like minor issues.  In a refugee situation, these become major issues.  If you lack the ability to adapt and stay positive, managing to live through a refugee situation can become an insurmountable problem.  You may be laughing, and saying that this is the United States and we don’t have refugee camps.

FEMA camps?  Katrina?  We saw that on the Gulf coast, and we saw how incredibly long some of these FEMA trailer villages existed as people tried to get back on their feet.  The entire Katrina experience is an excellent example of what can occur during and after an emergency, and what the most critical areas for survival for an American refugee.

The refugees then that survived best were the ones that were best able to adapt to changing circumstances.  Not because of money or social status, but rather because of that internal ability to adapt.  Those same adaptable victims were the quickest to return, whether they returned to their previous homes or found alternative housing.  They were the first to resettle in other areas when their job and home had vanished and there was no alternative available for them.  These were also the same people that needed the least amount of assistance from relief organizations and the government to get back on their feet.

This vividly illustrates the importance of teaching skills to prepare people mentally and emotionally to adapt to situations.  It’s important for society as a whole to teach the individual these skills, as it reduces the drain that individual presents on the greater group.  Taking these same lessons and applying them to your own “survival group” whether it is your nuclear family or a larger group of family and friends, and ensuring that everyone CAN adapt to an emergency situation is important.   It is much harder to remain positive and keep on thinking on your feet when a family member, significant other, or simply another member of your group is continually focused on the negative, and protests the situation with every breath.  The best way to prevent this is to maximize their adaptability quotient prior to an actual emergency, and camping can be an excellent outlet.

So, try out those survival skills you read about.  Get that unused tent out of the garage.  Go camping with the family and make it fun and enjoyable.  It’s a lesson worth learning.

 

 

 

 

 

Changing of the season and the itch to go

Yesterday, I had the air conditioning on to combat high humidity as the temperatures hovered around the low 80s.  It wasn’t that hot, so much as steamy.  Tonight, we have to have some heat, as the temperatures drop to just above freezing.  That’s life on the Gulf Coast this time of year.  Fast changes, and it usually involves some rain, which clung to the area all day today.

With the cold weather, the rain…guess what?

I have this itch on the bottom of my feet.  It’s saying its time to get ready and GO.  I want to go camping, I want to go fishing, I want to get out and do a road trip.

I’m probably crazy, but there is nothing I love more than cold weather camping.  I love sitting around the fire, a windbreak stretched between a couple of trees, sipping coffee and chatting with friends after a good evening meal.  I love sleeping in the cold tent, warm inside of my sleeping bag, with GM & the dog to help me stay warm.  Okay, so I do despise a call of nature driving me from my warm bed to hanging my butt out in the woods…but it makes me appreciate that warmth all the more!

Cooking for a crowd in camp is much more fun in cold weather too.  The hot fires aren’t chasing them away, whether its a campfire or a lit stove.  Granted, I have to cook in the dark for the evening meal because of the short days, but I manage.  People are much more appreciative of food in cold weather too, as well as have a bigger appetite.

I love watching the dog at that evening fire too.  She’s hilarious, and has no fear of fire, so we often have to fish her tail out of too-close proximity to the fire as she enjoys the heat herself to ease her aching joints.  (She’s getting old now.)  She sprawls by the fire, and practically sucks the heat in.  It also means she is right there, just in case someone has some food they need to get rid of.  She loves the camping too, although I’m not sure she loves the cold weather as much as she used to.  At least I don’t have to worry about her overheating in cold weather.

Granted, it takes more gear in cold weather than warm.  Our tents tend to be bulkier with rain flies that extend nearly to the ground or actually to the ground.  We need to ensure we are well insulated from the cold ground to prevent losing body heat to the ground.  Our clothes are bulkier and we wear more layers too.  We need hats and gloves.  There are extra tarps, to protect from wind or rain.  We use more firewood for our evening fires.  We carry fire bricks to warm our beds, and towels to wrap them in before tucking them under our beds.  We drink more hot drinks to stay hydrated and warm.

It’s a pain, but I love it.  For some reason, the challenge of staying warm, dry, and eating well in cold weather is just much more intriguing than doing the same thing in summer.  Granted, I’ve experienced snow and frosts in July and August at high altitudes, but it was still summertime all day.

Winter, even a Southern winter, presents new challenges, and the continual risk of seriously cold weather.  Straying northward means we’d also run the risk of potential stray snowstorms too.

Ever sleep in a tent during a snowstorm?

How about a thunderstorm?

In a thunderstorm, the wind pushes the rain into any potential gap in the tent’s moisture barrier.  It invariably sneaks into bedding as ambient moisture.  Everything starts to feel damp and cold.  As the storms continue day after day, the misery level just continues to increase.

With snow, barring the blizzard scenario, the snow comes down, piling up alongside the tent walls.  It may pile on the roof before gently sliding to the ground with a slithery sound that reminds you of a fat, drunken snake losing its balance.  If the wind blows, it can push the snow against the tent, or occasionally even whip around the tent door when its opened, invading the relative warmth of the tent’s interior.

The big difference is that by and large, in a snowstorm, your tent and its contents, including you, stay dry.  The snow also acts as insulation, trapping air and blocking wind.  It’s just much easier to deal with good old H2O when its in a solid form.

Assuming the temperature is 10 degrees or warmer, and the wind isn’t a serious issue, it isn’t that hard to stay warm.  Cooking in the snow isn’t as hard as cooking in the rain, whether using a fire or a stove.  The air is more invigorating than it is life threatening, and the challenge of staying comfortable is merely a challenge…not a life threatening issue.

At the same time, there is just enough risk that the weather could turn seriously snowy and windy, with a blizzard like force, that could create a real survival challenge.  Having enough food, fuel, clothing, and sleeping gear would go from an entertaining weekend to survival in the few degrees of temperature and a handful of miles-per-hour on the wind.  It’s there, in the back of your mind, as you are forced to remember that you must always be prepared for that emergency, of the potential of being caught out in a serious winter storm or of encountering someone else who is less prepared that is caught out in your vicinity.  What then?  Did you bring enough to remain comfortable until help could reach you after the storm has passed?  Would anyone know where to find you?  What would you do if you suddenly were forced to rely on your own wits to stay alive and healthy for ten days if it did happen?  Could you do it?  How?

Maybe that’s what drives us all to head out into nature, to test our skills and our wits.  That potential risk factor.  Of wondering if we are as tough as our ancestors were.  If we really have learned as much about survival as we should have.

How about you?

 

Doing Thanksgiving outdoors

Doing a minimalist holiday routine in a tent doesn’t mean you have to do without the turkey and the trimmings.  We took a group out and tried it, just to see if it could be done.  Granted we scaled it back considerably, and cooked just a turkey breast rather than an entire turkey.  We had stuffing, green bean casserole, gravy, mashed potatoes, baked beans, sweet potatoes, rolls, and a cheesecake for dessert…and we cooked everything except the rolls and cheesecake ourselves on a single burner butane stove or a charcoal grill.

The turkey breast was rubbed down with seasonings, then wrapped in double heavy duty foil.    Using more heavy duty foil, a dome was created over the turkey, with charcoal in a standard campground grill.  Over a medium hot set of coals, the turkey breast was cooked for a couple of hours and turned about every 30 minutes.

For the green bean casserole, the cream of mushroom soup was heated in a saucepan.  When it was hot, the drained green beans were added to the soup mixture, stirring gently until the beans were hot.  About 1/3 of the can of french fried onions were added to the green bean mixture, and the remainder was used to sprinkle each serving liberally with.

Mashed potatoes and gravy were mixes.  Idahoan instant mashed potatoes come in several flavors in an envelope type package, and are easy to prepare–just add hot water, no milk or butter required.  The gravy mix was just a standard turkey gravy mix out of an envelope–each one makes about 1 cup, so calculate the necessary amount of gravy accordingly.

Sweet potatoes were canned, just put into a foil pan, sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon, covered with foil, and set onto the grill alongside the turkey to heat.  We left them heating for about an hour, mostly to just keep them warm.  Baked beans got the same treatment.  Sauteed onions and brown sugar, along with crumbled bacon, were added to canned baked beans and set alongside the turkey to heat up.

The cranberry sauce was also served hot, and we just added 1 c. water, 2 c. sugar and a pound of cranberries into a saucepan, brought to a boil and boiled for a few minutes or until the berries started to pop.  At that point, it was set aside, and we unwrapped our mummy-looking turkey breast.  It was pallid, and the skin was discarded but it was amazingly moist and flavorful.  Everyone dug in, piling plates high with the ample food, and just like at home…ate until we were stuffed full.  It was hours later before anyone felt like digging into the cheesecake.

Who says you can’t enjoy a typical feast holiday while living in a tent…in pouring rain?