Backpacking Menus

So I promised that I’d write a post about menus for our backpacking trip. We’ve had lots of stops and starts and experiments on food and I think that we finally have made our decisions.


As I’ve written before we have several considerations with choosing the foods we will eat. I cannot eat gluten at all and eat several small meals as well, Elias eats a major amount of calories a day, Dale can eat plenty too, and it will be cold so we all will eat more.

For breakfasts kids and Dale have chosen various cereals and granolas. We told kids that if they wanted a specific cereal they could have it but they decided to share everything. One morning we will have some pancakes out of the Fat Uncle Pancake Mix. I will eat eggs as cereals leave me too quickly.

Snacks are almonds, dried mangos, apricots, apples, pineapples, raisins, beef jerky and almond butter cookies that Charlotte made this afternoon.

On Tuesday we have fresh hummus, celery, rice crackers, sourdough bread, cheese and salami. The remaining days we will have salami, cheese, crackers and bread, hummus made from freeze dried, and a chicken salad one day.

For dinners:

Tuesday: we will carry in chicken thighs frozen until we leave. We will make Chicken Curry over rice with fresh carrots with a few pinion nuts added.

Wednesday: gluten free pasta with sauce made from sautéed onions and garlic, a little red wine to deglaze the pan, diced canned tomatoes, fresh oregano thyme basil, and pinion nuts.

Thurs: Warm Quinoa Salad; quinoa, artichoke hearts, canned garbanzo beans, pinion nuts and sun dried tomatoes

Friday: Salmon Shepherd’s Pie; a layer of carrots and canned corn, then a layer of canned salmon, then a heap of mashed potatoes, the instant kind.

Saturday: Canned pinto beans and corn over rice with fresh chilies.

We decided that instead of waiting for Monday afternoon to shop we’d start today and we are so glad that we did. We did find that we had a miscommunication so didn’t’ get the rice and did forget a couple of things that we can pick up tomorrow with no problem.

We were gone for hours and there is no way we could have gotten everything done tomorrow without going off the deep end.

Everything is being gathered in our living room now ready to assembly tomorrow.

I wrote this during our camping trip but forgot to post it. This bean salad I've made several times. It is great on a hot summer's day.

An easy lunch or dinner for camping or home is a bean salad. We made this twice and it was completely eaten up. This was what we made to serve about 11 people


Bean Salad

4 Cans of Black Beans or Pinto or some of each

3 largeTomatoes

Chopped onion

½ bag of frozen roasted corn from Trader Joe’s, thawed

1 lg can olives

3 Avocados cut into pieces

Juice from 1 lime for dressing

Mix everything together and chill.

Food for Backpacking

Here is a little background on our backpacking experience as I have some relatives who ask for me to write about earlier experiences.


Dale and I first backpacked before we were married. We hiked into the Sierra’s, a 10 hour hike, over a pass into what is called Evolution Valley. We stayed for several days but we were certainly not as sophisticated then as we are today. Those days we just ate the freeze dried meals and cold granola for breakfast.

When our kids were young we hiked down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back up over 3 days. I carried fresh food, one meal we will have on our upcoming backpack trip; Chicken Curry over rice.

We had other backpack trips into the back county; on one I carried angel food cake, frozen strawberries and frozen Cool Whip, for Justin’s birthday.

Several years ago we backpacked rim to rim across the Grand Canyon with some friends. I carried fresh food for the 1st night, Chicken Curry, a bottle of Dom Perignon and a nice bottle of red wine. We had the bottle of red wine the 1st night, ½ way down at Cottonwood into the canyon and the bottle of Dom Perignon ½ way up the South rim at Indian Gardens. At the bottom of the Canyon, Phantom Ranch, we ate dinner at the Ranch and drank beer that we didn’t have to carry.

So now when I talk about food and wine we will carry you can see how its importance has developed.

Easy Quinoa Salad

We have finally had some breathing room for time here. Actually we are camping with no internet and no cell phone service so I can’t even post this until we return to civilization.

Camping for us is all about food. We plan our meals, cook lots of food, and discuss future meals while eating.

One easy meal that Jen planned was a Quinoa Salad to serve 13

4 C uncooked Quinoa

8 C water or broth

1 C corn

Chopped celery

Chopped Onion

1 jar sundried tomatoes

1 can artichoke hearts

1 can garbanzo beans

1 jar pesto for dressing

Cook Quinoa in water or broth,. While it is warm add all other ingredients. It can be eaten warm or cold.

My Grandmother's Recipe

Two weeks ago I entered a photo contest on the Santa Fe School of Cooking. This was a contest where you enter a photo of a dish that was your mother’s signature dish. The prize? A cooking class for 2.


Now the winner of the contest would be the one who received the most votes via the face book page. So it really turns into a popularity contest. This was ok as long as I would win!

My mom didn’t cook, couldn’t even boil water when she got married. Her idea of cooking was Velveeta cheese and spam. My dad was always the cook and maybe his dish was his beans. I do have that recipe but decided not to use it.

My paternal grandmother was the cook that I tend to follow these days. Enchiladas, empanadas, and her dish of Calabasa. Calabasa apparently means a pumpkin but to my grandma it is a squash dish. This dish is a kind of 1 pot Spanish rice.

I make huge pots of Calabasa, serve it for dinner then freeze the rest for other meals. I made this large pot of Calabasa, took photos before dinner then submitted the photo for the photo contest. Then I had to lean on my friends for votes.

I won!!! Thanks to my friends and family who came together I won during the hours.

So here is the recipe and I’m not including amounts because you can make it for 2 or for 12, just make the amounts you need:

Calabasa

Chicken cut into pieces
Squash, I use a combo of zucchini, crook neck and whatever else is fresh. Cut into bite size pieces
Corn, I use fresh cut off the cob when fresh otherwise frozen
Carrots cut into bite size pieces
A chili pepper or 2
Fresh tomatoes and water to cook rice
Cloves of garlic chopped
An onion chopped
Brown Rice
Olive Oil

Put a little olive oil in pot and heat it. Add your rice, onions and garlic to sauté. Add enough water and/or tomatoes then add all of the veges, chilies and pieces of chicken.

Cook for about 45 min until rice is cooked.

For a vegetarian version use garbanzo beans and maybe a little tofu.

Curried Veges with Naked Blistered Almonds

It, as usual, was late when I started dinner last night. Since we are short on cash I’m using only what we have left over. We were gone for several days last week so still have some veges left over from the farmer’s market from 2 weeks ago.

I found a jar of Curry Simmer Sauce on the shelf so thought I’d make up some sauce filled with veges and the last of the tofu served over some leftover rice. I got my Simmer Sauce at Trader Joe’s. I would have used Thai but noticed that it contained wheat. But either one would work. Here is the dish

Curried Veges with Naked Blistered Almonds.

1 Cup chopped Cabbage, more or less
2 med size carrots sliced into bite size pieces
1 Cup broccoli in bite size pieces
1 C. Green beans into bite size pieces.
1/2 C Mixed Mushrooms chopped
1 Jar of Curry Simmer Sauce
½ C Naked Blistered Almonds from Fat Uncle Farms
Tofu cut into bite size pieces
A little Olive Oil
Rice

Put a little olive oil in your skillet, just enough to keep veges from sticking.
Chop the veges then add them to the oil. Sauté the veges just until they are slightly browned.
Add the Simmer Sauce and a little water as per instructions or just a little to finish cooking the veges.
Add the Tofu mixing it in and continue to cook until it has heated thru.
Throw the chopped almonds on top and mix a little

Serve over rice.

Just a last thought: I wish I'd put in more cabbage and maybe some chopped spinach. Mushrooms are ok but not great in here.

Rosemary Almond Crusted Chicken

Well Easter is over, markets were so busy. Hope you made it out.

I was tired last night, having gotten home late Sunday night. I pulled some chicken breasts out of the freezer that I’d bought at the farmer’s market, chopped up some Rosemary Almonds and with some asparagus made a quick dinner. This chicken recipe is a favorite and of course gluten free!

Rosemary Almond Crusted Chicken

2 chicken breasts skinned and boned

½ C Rosemary Blistered Almonds

Olive Oil

Cut the skin and any bones off of the breasts. Chop up the almonds; you will have some very fine and some chunky pieces.

Put about 2 T. of olive oil in the skillet, enough to barely cover the bottom just so the chicken doesn’t stick. Heat the skillet up a little. Take the almonds and push them into the chicken breasts all over.

Place the breasts in the skillet and just do a quick brown turning over carefully as to not knock your almond crust off. Turn the heat down to a medium low, add maybe a tablespoon of water and put a lid on so that the breasts will steam.

Check in about 5 minutes and turn the meat over. It should be done between 5 and 10 minutes.

Serve with veges.

We like the chopped almonds on veges too so you can top your veges with some of the almonds that fall off the chicken breasts.

Quinoa with Kale

Serve.

My daughter-in-law came to pick up grandkids and was telling me about a yummy quinoa salad she’d had for lunch. I thought it would be good as a hot dish and improvised a bit too. Here is my Quinoa Kale Dish:

1 C Quinoa

2 C vegetable or chicken broth, if it is salted then don’t add extra salt.

A Cup or two of Kale or combo of Kale/Spinach

½ Onion chopped

Olive Oil

¼ C chopped almonds

Shredded Gouda Cheese

Cook the Kale or Kale/Spinach and onion in a little olive oil. Sauté it for a minute or two then turn down the heat and cook for another 5 min.

Add your Quinoa to the broth then heat to boil. Add your greens/onion mixture on top. I don’t mix it in so that the quinoa cooks completely, the greens will steam. Boil the mixture for 15 minutes until all of the moisture is absorbed. Add your almonds the last couple of minutes. 

Mix up the ingredients, add to a nice dish and top with your shredded cheese. You can put this in the microwave for a minute just to melt the cheese.

Serve

Downton Abbey Food

My husband, Dale, and I have been completely immersed in all things “Downton Abbey”. He was still working last year when Season 1 aired so I watched it alone, hooked. Just before Season 2 started in January our Public Television station aired season 1 and I insisted that he watch. After a few minutes he was hooked as well.

So on nearly all of our Sunday evenings for some time now, we could be found in front of out telly! We’d cry at the sad parts and tell the characters what they needed to do.

Then we started watching the episodes of Season 1 on Netflix during the week. We are amazed at what we missed the first round.

When we sat down for Season 2 Episode 6 we decided to have champagne while we watched. We felt a little more like the gentrified people!

On Friday I thought that we should maybe make some Downton type food for Sunday night’s last episode and then we thought that we should invite some friends who we were sure were watching this program too. I called our friends but alas they were going out of town for this long weekend.

I investigated food of Downton and saw that they had many courses that could include a 2^nd course of roasted chicken. I remembered seeing the footmen carry platters of small hens up to the dining room in one episode.

Well I didn’t have much for small hens but I did have a couple of chicken thighs in the freezer. I took the thighs out and when they were thawed put them into a pan with cut up carrots, onions, a little garlic, some left over potatoes, salt and pepper. I roasted them for an hour at 325 F. I set up a table on our coffee table so we could be closer to the TV.

We didn’t have any claret but had some red wine which is what claret is. We got out some glasses which are a little closer to the Downton style rather than the larger ones we normally use and used those for our “claret”. We did drink champagne before dinner and then after dinner just to celebrate for the Downton people.

Way too late we thought that we should have had a true viewing party. New plan is that we won’t be found lagging. We will watch the Season 3 episodes as they are shown in the UK; I am the one who reads the last chapter of the book first remember. Then when Season 3 airs here we, of course, will watch the U.S. version. We will then have a small viewing dinner party. Since we have a year to plan I’ll make a dress for myself and will actually make tails for Dale and serve a true Downton type dinner. I wonder who we can get for footmen!

Cooking in A Bean Pot

Unfortunately with the death of our baby granddaughter cooking and blogging took a back seat.

A couple of weeks ago we needed to save Dale’s frequent flier miles so made a quick trip to Taos, New Mexico. We wanted to visit the Picuris Pueblo, see their pottery and eat New Mexican foods.

We ended up buying 2 bean pots, one from the woman who made that one and one that her daughter had made. She assured us that the one her daughter had made was ready to make beans and hers needed to be cured.

We have done lots of reading on these pots; they have mica in them so have a glittery look. The pots are not decorated because they are utilitarian.

So we started with the pot made by the woman we bought it from, Irene Samboro. We 1^st filled it with water then put it on the new heat diffuser we’d bought and turned on the heat to between medium and med-low. Our stove being a Viking isn’t like the run of the mill stoves so heat is a little different. After about 5 minutes water started pouring out of the sides and we had to take the pot off. There was a crack around ½ of the bottom and several up the sides. Well there went $230.

The daughter’s, Threse Tohtsoni-Prudencio’s,  pot did hold water fine so it was time to add some beans. I put in 2#’s of beans, they came to below the rim then added some filtered water to cover, ½ onion chopped and some garlic. I put the heat on low for an hour then med-low, this was at 4pm. By 11pm the beans were crunchy and had expanded so much that I’d taken off about 3C of beans by then. This morning I started the pot again and upped the heat to above med-low after an hour. By 4 the beans were barely crunchy so I put them in a regular pot and pumped up the heat.

The beans tasted really good but this bean pot cooking is going to be a challenge.

Corn Chowder

I haven’t blogged about food for several months now; I had to work on the east coast so Dale picked up the cooking duties. Then things have been so chaotic with our granddaughter not thriving.

Things are still chaotic but we have returned to shopping at the farmers market and the usual experimenting over meals.

I found a site on facebook, The gourmet page and they post recipes. I subscribed to the magazine “Gourmet” for years but finally let it go when I just changed my cooking too much. Now I think they do not publish any longer. Too bad, for years I would make the featured Thanksgiving dinner to much acclaim!

So the Gourmet site published a recipe for Cheesy Corn Chowder. I revised it to reflect a little lower fat for our diets and used the food we had in the fridge. Here is my version:

½ onion chopped

4 small carrots chopped

3 stalks of celery chopped

1 red bell pepper chopped

Sautee the chopped items in some olive oil. I used my la Crusset soup pot for everything.

Add to the pot 2 chopped up yams or sweet potatoes and 4 or so potatoes (I used red ones)

Add chicken broth to cover.

Cook on simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes until potatoes are nearly done. Add 3 C. roasted frozen or fresh corn, 2 pieces of bacon in small pieces and ½ -3/4 C Cream. Simmer until corn is done.

Add shredded sharp chedder cheese to taste. I added about 4 ounces.

This was still a very rich soup but filling. We had the leftovers this morning with toast.

I’m going to try it vegetarian style tomorrow.