One Pan Wonders

Yes, they can be heavy. But when you don't want to do any work and you are headed out on a short trip, ready to eat foods can be a life saver.

I had S&B's Golden Curry for lunch yesterday with some couscous (another hiker favorite) and it got me to thinking. What else is out there that is shelf stable and ready to eat. You can eat this Japanese curry at room temperature or warm it up and serve it with rice or couscous. I buy mine at the local Asian markets, but I've also seen it in higher end grocery stores in ethnic aisles (the Asian markets are always cheaper). It comes in hot, medium and mild. I'm a wuss. I always get the mild. No heat to it at all.

If you like Indian Food, try Tasty Bites. I've had these on the trail multiple times. Mixed with some instant rice and shoved into a tortilla, you have yourself a wonderful dinner. Easy too!

There are also some more "mainstream" ideas. Pre-cooked rice and beans mixes. Look for the Zatarains brand with the other dry rice mixes. Add some summer sausage to the rice and you're done!

Trader Joes also has a few ready-to-eat products. Beef hash, lentils, lemongrass rice...

What other no brainer foods have you found for the trail?

Recently, I invited Erin McKittrick of Ground Truth Trekking to write a little something for my blog. Here is what she had to say.

I met Dicentra last year at the ALDHA West retreat (where Hig and I demonstrated the "Buttery Goodness"). Now my book on our year-long adventure is out, and she's invited me to write a guest post for the blog.

I thought I’d start with an exerpt from my book:

"Lava flows ooze out across the Iskut and Unuk river valleys, choking the rivers into deep canyons of columnar rock. Above the gorges, collapsed lava tubes pockmark the mossy forest floor, sending chill air flowing out of deep cracks. The forests are young; a natural second growth of skinny trees, with only mushrooms and moss growing in the dark understory. In the first lava gorge, the Unuk’s gravel bars disappeared. We walked in the forest, on a miner’s roadbed long since overgrown with a lush carpet of devils club. Occasional pieces of rusted and moss-covered machinery, a broken down cable crossing on a river, and an unusually straight track were all that marked this dirt path as anything more than another animal trail.

Beneath this upheaval of rocks lies a glitter of gold, driving modern prospecting as it drove the old-time fortune seekers.

People have been looking for gold in these hills since the arrival of the white man over a hundred years ago. Only the scale has changed. Packrafts in hand, we stood at the edge of the opaque yellow water of Sulphurets Creek, eyeing the mining exploration camp on the other side. A helicopter sat near a small collection of buildings. We hadn’t spotted any people, but we could hear the steady hum of a generator. Obviously, someone was home.

“I think we should stop in and chat,” Hig suggested. “Sure….” I replied hesitantly. “Only maybe we should play down our greenness a little. That might increase the chance of them giving us food.” As Hig inflated his packraft to cross the creek, I stuck my hand into the greasy ziploc bag at the top of my pack, pulling out a handful of “Buttery Goodness”.




Utterly sick of store-bought cookies, we had become more inventive in our resupplies. Our new favorite creation was a raw mishmash of butter, oats, sugar, and cinnamon, which tasted exactly like oatmeal cookie dough and which we dubbed “Buttery Goodness.” We’d replaced our meals of soup packets with a heavenly macaroni and cheese—full of real cheese and butter, with wild mushrooms, garlic, and a touch of curry powder. But nothing could change the basic math. Food was heavy, and as the difficult terrain lengthened all our detours, we found we weren’t carrying nearly enough...."

For the whole story, you’ll have to get the book. But the miners were very generous with their food, asking only for a nondisclosure agreement in exchange.

From A Long Trek Home, 4000 miles by Boot, Raft, and Ski - by Erin McKittrick From the Puget Sound to the Bering Sea

Four thousand miles along the edge of the Pacific A world reduced to just two small packs and the next 100 yards... From June 2007 to June 2008, my husband Hig and I walked, packrafted, and skied from Seattle to the Aleutian Islands. We passed through crowded cities, massive clearcuts, lush rainforests, intricate inlets, steep mountains, storm-tossed beaches, snowy valleys, frozen lakes, and windswept tundra.... Sections of the trip were so remote we had to carry 16 days of food at a time.

And food is heavy. We tried to carry enough. But at times, when the route proved more complicated than we had anticipated, we inevitably ran short. We raided food from molding and abandoned logging trailers. We received the great gift of a pizza dropped from the sky. We dug razor clams with our bare hands. And when all of that failed, we rationed our Buttery Goodness, dreaming up imaginary feasts as we walked.



Hig and I (and our 8 month old baby Katmai), are on book tour now. We'll be giving slideshow presentations and book signings in Seattle, Portland, Eugene, and Minneapolis in the next month. If you're in the area, or know anyone who is - see details on our schedule here. If you have ideas of other places we should visit, tell me that too. If this trip does well, we might make another one.

Either way, you can buy the book! (I'm selling signed copies online through my website).

I stopped by the Justin's Nut Butter site this morning because I was looking up a link for someone. They have new products. CHOCOLATE products. Oh! I'm so excited!!

Chocolate Almond Butter

Chocolate Peanut Butter

Chocolate Hazelnut Butter

Can't wait to try these!

My friend, Monte, sent me these pics yesterday. He's got an awesome old stove collection and likes to see what he can get the ancient gear to do. He made cornbread! And sent me the pics!

This is what he said about it: "It worked well, only I baked it a few minutes too long for brown edges.. I just used tin foil for a lid ,but used my pot half filled with water to hold in heat .( In the real world, you could heat your water while baking. I baked my bread for 20 minutes and could have done a double batch with these large pan easy. I need to find a smaller bunt pan."

Awesome! Thanks Monte! 

Just a tad overdone. Bet it still tastes good!

Just a quick note.

Is anyone a member of the Trails Club of Oregon? I will be speaking at their upcoming backpacking seminar at Nesika Lodge. Yes, it says the freezerbag cooking lady is coming (waves! I know she's reading this.) but it's really me. I am speaking on Sunday, and my friend, Steel Eye, is speaking on Saturday.

It sounds like it is going to be an amazing weekend. You should come!

My mother in law brought me a ton of various squashes she had picked up at the farmer's market north of here. I started with the huge piece of gray hubbard squash. Skinning and dicing the hard squash was the hardest part. I recently bought the book 1001 Best Slow Cooker Recipes and I'm slowly working through many of the delicious ideas. Crock pots are wonderful for fall weather comfort food. Great book! I have 4 or this series now (with plans to eventually get the rest).

Here's the recipe as it reads originally. I, of course, cannot follow a written recipe to save my life, so I note the changes I made to the recipe below.

Bean and Squash Stew

2 (14 ounce) cans diced tomatoes

1 (15 ounce) can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 (13 ounce) can baby lima beans, rinsed and drained

2 cups peeled squash (butternut or acorn)

1 1/2 cups chopped onions

1 1/2 cups chopped bell peppers

2 teaspoons minced roasted garlic

3/4 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

salt and pepper

Combine all of the ingredients, except the salt and pepper in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

I used 2 cans of petite diced tomatoes, two cans of white kidney beans, omitted the lima beans and bell pepper, 3 1/2 cups of diced squash, 2 small onions (diced), chopped raw garlic instead of roasted and a blend of basil-oregano-thyme. I also added just a little water because the mixture looked a bit dry.



I set the crock pot to run on high for about 6 hours. The house smelled wonderful! Everything cooked down to a delightful stewy texture. I mashed the cubed squash with a wooden spoon after it had cooked through. Of course we had to eat some first! YUM!

I let the stew cool before loading it onto the lined dehydrator trays, spreading it as thin as possible. It is pretty thick with all the squash and beans. I got it down to about 1/8 thick. I set the dehydrator to 140* and let it go.

It took about 6 hours for the stew to dry all the way, but now I have several servings of dried stew for future trips. This will be great served with couscous or pre-dried quinoa. I would do about 1/2 cup dried stew to 1/4-1/3 cup grains when packaging this up. Adjust to taste.

I happened to drive over Steven's Pass yesterday and this is what it looked like. Fall colors are out in force.

There was a light dusting of snow on some of the upper peaks. More is sure to follow. Stay warm everyone! I'm starting to think of winter trips now...

This past weekend I had the privelege of attending the annual ALDHA-West Gathering at Camp Arrah Wanna in Welches OR. It was a bit of a drive from Seattle, but more than worth the travel time. I love these events because I always learn something new, reconnect with old friends, make new friends and generally get to enjoying being in a large group of people who just "get it" when it comes to the hiker mentality. I always come home with a buzz that lasts for days, if not weeks.

I arrived at the camp a bit early (before registration had begun) so I wandered off to the pavillion and helped Warner Springs Monty and Yogi set up. It was good to see both of them again! More people rolled in as it got closer to dinner time. Half Mile, who had given me a grand tour of section A in California earlier this year was there in addition to many other hikers I've met over this summer at various events (and on the trails).

I was scheduled to give a presentation after dinner. Having found out that there was going to be a bonfire after the member presentations, I had brought some interesting ingredients for "recipe testing" and gourmet s'mores. As a result, my talk got moved to the campfire. There was some confusion and I think some people who wanted to attend missed it as it was at the same time as the other presentations... I was bummed to have missed The Onion's talk on PCT alternate routes. I like his sense of humor.

I spoke about no-cook, portable lunches. Since it was dark, it was hard to see what I was doing and the products I was showing. The recipes and information will be available in the next ALDHA-West Gazette. (Yet another reason to join!)



It was really fun to play with the different ingredients for the s'mores. Amazing what happens when you put a bunch of creative minds together. We came up with some pretty creative ingredient combinations. Some of the ingredients available were fresh pears and banana, Nutella, peanut butter, various types of chocolate, cream cheese and various types of cookies and graham crackers.

This one is a plain graham cracker with Nutella, fresh pear and marshmellows.


I turned in fairly early Friday night. I was pretty pooped from the sugar overload, drive down and the excitement of seeing everyone. Saturday promised to be another very full day.

After breakfast, the festivities got rolling with a talk about the PCTA and their acomplishments by Dana Berthold. This was followed by the first annual Backpacker Olympics. Remy and WS Monty had made me promise the night before that I'd participate. First event? Bear Canister stuffing. Despite being the "food lady" I didn't win this one.

Next up was a Ultra Light gear clinic with Andrew Skurka. He talked about how he customizes what he brings depending on his trip. I thought the parts about regulating your body's temperature with a clothing and sleeping system were particularly interesting. I think I sleep a lot colder than he does though. His system would never work for me!

Sorry for the blurry photo - it's the best of the worst.


After a quick group pic, it was time for yet another Backpacker Olympics event.



This time it was Fastest Tent set up. They even threw in a surprise "rain storm" ala water pistols. Fun!  I smoked the boys. They didn't have a chance! WS Monty was stylin with his Mickey Mouse poncho though.



After lunch it was off to more talks. The first was Doug Scott with "The Impact of the Public Lands Omnibus Act of 2009."  I felt a bit like I was back at college, listening to one of my upper level professors speak (in a good way).  It was an interesting talk. This is the Act that gave our area the Wild Sky Wilderness this year. Thank you Doug! For all that you do to protect our wild lands. I am glad there are people who are brave enough to battle the politics. I am not one of them.



Next was Jon Knechtal with the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail. This trail runs from the Continental Divide to the Pacific Ocean. I enjoyed seeing all the slides of the trail, especially those of the Olympics which I am so familiar with. Jon is another one who has battled politics to bring us the trails.



After sitting for so long, listening to speakers, it was nice to get up and stretch our legs a bit with another Backpacker Olympics event. The Water Carry obsicle couse, which almost turned into a wet t-shirt contest.



Then another event - fastest Bear Bagging. Do thru hikers bear bag? I thought they slept with their food! But we did great!

I skipped the next panel on hiking as a couple because I just couldn't sit any longer. I socialized with some hiker friends instead, catching up on gossip and generally goofing off. I also checked out the gear swap/sale and picked up a couple new books. You guessed it. Backcountry cookbooks! Some old ones that are out of print. Neat! I also spent some time admiring Deems Burton's ice axe collection.



Dinner was next, followed by a quiet Triple Crown Awards Ceremony. Only two hikers present this year. Chipmunk had came and found me and asked if I knew Tom and Tori. Firefly had a poster with un-named hikers... Who do I see? My friends! Glad you could be there with me! It was fun to see your faces at the Gathering. Next time come for reals, kay?



After dinner was the much anticipated feature presentation - Andrew Skurka on "The New Frontier of Long-Distance Hiking: Long Distance Adventuring." What do you do when you've hiked all the trails? You've got your triple crown and you've done all the "easy" stuff... (which isn't easy!)  You start looking for bigger adventures. Finding new Dragons as Andrew would say.

I kept thinking of two things as I listened to him talk. The first was that I have done a lot more "adventuring" in my life (on a much much smaller level than he) than I realized. Second, I was wishing my friend , Mike was there to see him talk.  Much of what Andrew had to say echoed what Mike has talked about many times. I'm glad there are people who take on these grand adventures. I love to hear and read about it, but for now I think I'll stick to the trails.



After all the excitement throughout the day, many of us weren't quite ready to turn in quite yet. We had a little gathering in one of the cabins, which eventually turned into ultimate pushups and cheerleading tricks... And pickled eggs. Don't ask.

After breakfast, which came way too soon, we had the awards ceremony for the Backpacker Olympics, then the Membership meeting and Gear raffle. WS Monty must have spent a fortune on raffle tickets because he came away with a huge haul of goodies. Next Adventure donated a TON of stuff, thanks to Lint. There were books, a Deems Burton stove, backpack, snowshoes, trekking poles, s'mores ingredients and a lot of other stuff. I won a copy of Disco's CDT Walkumentary. Awesome!



We had a short membership meeting. WS Monty had nominated me for the Board of Directors... And I won. I am proud to say that I am now an ALDHA-West Board Member! I am super excited about this. I could not be in better company. Next year will be California. I wasn't planning on attending, but now I am! Come join the fun.

As the weather turns colder and prime hiking season is slowly drawing to a close, my thoughts start to turn to hearty fall and winter dishes. I eat a lot of soups and stews in the winter. Mmmm... comfort food.  The crock pot is an awesome way to make these without a lot of effort. It is especially nice on days when you don't have time to cook dinner. You can come home to a house full of lovely smells and a meal waiting for you.

An added bonus is that many soups and stews lend themselves very well to being dehydrated after cooking, especially bean and other thick stews. By making a few different soups and stews over the winter months and drying them, you will quicky amass a variety of backpacking meals for the future. A nice easy way to start stocking your hiking pantry for future trips.

This time around I made a lentil stew. The recipe can be converted to be vegetarian and can be served in many different ways; over rice, over couscous, over polenta, as a stew with some good toothy bread...

The recipe (which I've made I don't know how many times now...) comes from RecipeZaar, my favorite non-hiking cooking website. It also freezes well for instant heat-and-eat dinners. Use vegetable broth or water (or white wine?) in place of the chicken broth to make it vegetarian/vegan.

Lentil Stew over Couscous
Serves 12

3 cups lentils, rinsed

3 cups water

1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 (14 1/2 ounce) can reduced-sodium chicken broth

4 stalks celery, thinly sliced

1 large onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 medium carrot, cut lengthwise into halves,then cut into 1 inch pieces

2-3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 1/2-5 cups hot cooked couscous

Combine lentils, water, tomatoes, broth, celery, onion, bell pepper, carrot, garlic, marjoram and black pepper in the crockpot. Stir; cover and cook on low for 8 to 9 hours. Add vinegar and olive oil, stir, serve over couscous. Garnish with carrot curls and celery leaves.



Once you've got your stew made, and had a lovely dinner, it is time to put it in the dehydrator. I intended to dry the entire recipe, so I filled 6 trays on my dehydrator. This is a LOT of stew. You might want to eat and/or freeze more of it than I did.

I spread the lentil stew as thinly as I could on fruit roll trays. Parchment paper would work fine as well. This is a thick stew.



I set the dehydrator at about 140* and let it run for about 5 hours. Times will vary, depending on your dehydrator. Just make sure there are NO wet spots. When everything was dry, it was easy to slide the stew off the trays and into a zip lock bag. I intend to package this up into individual servings before they go into more permenant storage.



6 trays is a LOT of lentil stew! LOL.



Enough lentil stew to fill a gallon freezer bag. The number of servings you get out of this will depend on how you serve it. If you serve it as written, you can 12 servings out if the recipe. If you just eat it as stew, I would divide the number of servings in half. I'll package this up in 1/2 cup portions and add rice/couscous/quinoa when I am packing for my trip. I love flexibility!



To rehydrate, start with a 1:1 ratio of hot water to lentils. Use more water to make a thinner stew/soup. Enjoy!

I got an email a couple of days ago from Piper. She has completed her two season journey on the PCT. Piper, you rock!

I had met her on the trail earlier this year (when doing my own little section hike) and she not only knew who I was, but she had been getting some ideas from the website. Awesome!

Her email to me was a couple of ideas of what she actually eats while on the trail. I promised her I'd share them with the hiking community, so here they are! These are great because they not only utilize ingredients you can find in small stores along the trail, they are easily switched around for variety. Thanks Piper!

Homemade mac and cheese

-Some kind of bulk noodles, either Orzo which is great because it lacks air space so packs small or small elbows or whatever

-One packet of alfredo cheese sauce which is in the aisle where the taco and brown gravy and other seasonings are

-Two cheddar cheese sticks

-Optional: A pinch of garlic powder, a pinch of sun dried tomato flakes, a pinch of basil or some other seasoning

Boil about 2 cups or a little less of water

Dump in the noodles and cheese powder and optional spices

Cut up the cheese into chunks and dump them in

Stir and then wrap pot in a cozy of some sort and wait until the water has soaked into the noodles

Much better than ordinary mac and cheese

Curried cous-cous and tuna

-1 packet of tuna

-2-4 packets of mayo

-To cous-cous add a generous spoonful of curry powder

-Add a small handful of raisins and chopped pecans

-Add a pinch of garlic powder

You can use hot or air-temperature water. If you use air-temperature water it takes longer. Heat the water, dump in the cous-cous and spices. There amount of water should be just a little more than the cous-cous so that there's about 1/4 inch of water above the cous-cous in the pot. Wait 5 minutes if the water was hot. Wait longer if the water was not hot. Once the cous-cous has soaked up all the water, add tuna and mayo. A bonus is to add fresh broccoli to the water before you boil it. If you added too much water, it's good to dump in a spoonful of dried hummus to soak it up.