Category: Backpacking

Hot & Sour Soup for Backpackers (aka Top Ramen Hack #1)

11/10/2014

Day 10 of 30 Soups in 30 Days...

We are not, by any stretch of the imagination, Top Ramen sort of folks here. Even my college boys don't like it and instead prefer miso and soba noodles, which requires basically the same amount of brain power and energy output as Top Ramen but with significantly better and undeniably healthier results.

Then the other night I heard my husband laughing in the office. Like, really laughing. Turns out he'd stumbled upon this YouTube sensation, Auntie Fee, cooking Top Ramen for ten people.

I hesitate to include this link, because it certainly divides people into two categories: those with a sense of humor who can see the absurdity in this, and those who will never read this blog again. If it makes you feel any better, this woman is nowhere near as poor as she seems in this older video (as you can see in the appliances and background home in later cooking tutorials she's posted), and has now appeared on practically every network station, late night talk show, and cable channel.

If you're too uptight for a few f-bombs, don't watch this. I suggest all my camp friends watch this with the express intent of imagining what the kitchen would be like at camp with Auntie Fee as head cook:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnIMCpevwTs

Back to my post, for anyone who's still willing to keep reading after watching that video.

So while we've never packed with Top Ramen, I do know many backpackers who swear by it and who don't mind the (bland, boring, nasty, etc.) taste because it's so light and so cheap. Fine, I understand.

But with just a few tiny additions, all ridiculously light and easy, you can have what just might be the very best hot and sour soup ever -- it certainly trumps our favorite standby Ken Hom hot and sour soup recipe that we've been using at home since the early 80's.

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If You Absolutely MUST Cook Foil Packets - 10 Things to Help Elevate Them

10/22/2014

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I guess I'm anti-foil-packet (you know, throw a bunch of crap on a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil, seal it up, throw it in some coals, take it out, and pretend it's awesome) because that's what we always...always, always, always...ate when I went on Girl Scout camping trips as a kid.

Even today, all over the internet you can find a gazillion different "recipes" for foil packet cooking, and 99% of them include ground beef or a sliced sausage thing, a cut up potato, an onion, and maybe a few green beans. Sorry, but you can do better. Much better.

I realize that foil packet cooking, or "Hobo dinners," are simple, require minimal clean up, and allow for kids to include whatever they're willing to eat (that assumes that you actually let your kids make these choices -- more on that in a future post). These three things are important to me, too -- but that doesn't mean I have to settle for some warmed up hotdogs and a semi-raw onion and call it dinner, especially if I'm in the woods.

So if foil cooking is your go-to method for a weekend camping trip, here are ten things to include that can help turn a boring Hobo meal into something more worth the effort.

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6 Gourmet Food Guidelines When Backpacking with Kids

10/9/2014

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I've been running a backpacking camp for girls for fourteen years now, and by far the one thing all the girls remember most from their trips is the food -- both the good, the bad, and the dirty (someday I'll share the story of how Macaroni and Cheese became Macaroni and Trees). They don't remember the blisters, how exhausted they were, or even the fact that it rained every single day of their trip; what they remember is that the red beans and rice was disgusting but the turkey pasta was the bomb. So a little extra planning in the food department can go a very, very long way to ensuring that your kids become life-long packers.