good food

[Bob Gross]

Some friends and I were backpacking in the Hetch Hetchy Valley of Yosemite National Park. Besides other things, in the space of three days we ate:
Turkey sausage
Chicken Piccata with pasta
Pesto Tortellini
Cheese Muffins
Blueberry Muffins
Eggs with beef sausage
…
and I still managed to lose 3.5 pounds of body weight

–B.G.–

[Randy Martin]

Not surprising. Of course you don't specify the quantity of those items you ate. However, generally speaking I find that I tend to become a little dehydrated on any backpacking trip and probably lose a fair amount of water weight as a result.

[Tad Englund]

Thanks Bob, I haven't ate breakfast yet!
I do expect recipes listed for each dish-
Tad

[Bob Gross]

I don't have any exact recipes. However, let me offer some suggestions.

Turkey sausage. I bought a refrigerated bag of pre-cooked links at the store, so I figured that it would keep for a little while. It was wonderful.

Chicken Piccata. First the guy served us a plate of veggies with prosciuto ham slices and olives. Then we had pasta. Then he pulled out six fresh chicken breast pieces. Those went into a hot pan to brown, along with some olive oil, some vinegar, and some lemon juice. Then capers were added at the end, and we had tiny bottles of wine with it. I mean, Geez, a meal like that goes for real bucks at a restaurant.

Tortellini. First, the gal cold-hydrated the stuff in a plastic bag. That was like 2.5 hours. Then she dumped that into a pot and heated it just a bit. The green pesto went over the top, except that there were no pine nuts! Did she think that we were barbarians? How can you have green pesto sauce without pine nuts?

Cheese muffins were a big hit. I just mixed up some batter out of a package, added in some extras, and spoon-dropped it onto a hot skillet to fry. Blueberry muffins were about the same, but I used an Outback Oven to bake it, and I used muffin cup liners.

Beef summer sausage will keep forever, so you just peel off the casing, cut it into rounds, and drop it into a hot skillet to warm, and then of course the eggs follow that.

We didn't suffer. For some strange reason, there were no bears. We always like to do one backpack trip for foodies in the early season, and then we can get down to the more serious trips with food that is a bit more spartan. I mean, how many ultralightweight backpackers are going to carry in an Outback Oven?

–B.G.–

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

I personally feel pesto made with raw walnuts is miles above pine nuts ;-)

[Eric Blumensaadt]

Bob, NOW I'm really hungry!

Thanks for the ideas. Sometimes I carry my non-stick aluminum skillet (5.4 oz., no handles, just a pot gripper) and I shall try the fried summer sausage W/ eggs next time if I can talk some big ox into carrying it.

Also I have a Backpacker's Pantry Outback Oven which I use only on winter trips or sea kayaking. I've made some very tasty muffins and cakes with it, such as a "One Liter Big Biscuit" of Busquick W/ a grape jelly center. Nice at -5 F.!

[Laurie Ann March]

I use the Outback Oven Plus 10 on some paddle trips.

I've used the ultralight model (which is basically just a tent that goes over my pot and the little riser) on many of our hiking trips. It works for us because there are 2 to 3 of us splitting the weight and cooking gear. If I were soloing it would be a much different story.

The cheddar muffins sound really tasty. Now I'm hungry – lol.

[Bob Gross]

The problem with trail baking muffins like this gets into technique. Some muffins can be treated like biscuits or like fry-bread. Other muffins really need to be in some kind of a muffin liner, and then you cram six of them onto the hot skillet part of the Outback Oven. If you use ordinary paper liners, you can dispose of them by burning in the campfire. If you use silicone liners, you reuse them, but that is more weight to carry around. Aluminum foil liners seem to work pretty good. They are as light as paper, except that you can't burn them up.

You have to be a little careful with cheese muffins. In many commercial muffin mixes, the good stuff, like cheddar, is a minor ingredient way down on the list. There is some cheese powder in it, but turmeric is added to kick up the color and fool you into thinking that it has a lot of cheese. You really need to make your own muffin mix. Also, when you spoon your batter into the liners, add an extra dollop of cheese on top, and then a pinch of your favorite Italian herbs.

–B.G.–

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Or worse? Yellow artificial coloring! That is the dirty ingredient used in many foods.

[Bob Gross]

There is a lot to be said for Yellow #5 dye.

To save weight, I went with Yellow #4.8.

–B.G.–

[Thomas Rayl]

Gross, Bob…really Gross.

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