poor beagle, not to mention your
poor wife…yuck!
Line the trays with parchment paper to keep little bits from falling through. It makes for instant clean up - of the trays not the kennel:)
Thanks for the post about dehydrating pasta, that’s cool, definitely.
the peas : )
Not to make too much fun of the pea fiasco, but that sounds hilarious…up until the part about cleaning the kennel. Dehydrating hasn’t created that much excitement around here. Basically it’s just watching perfectly good food shrivel up into hard, discolored bits. But you have to have faith that it will once again become something to please the palate.
Sharon
BakePacker
Another friend of mine carries a BakePacker. This is a really niffty set of pots and inner pot racks that basicly steam your food. He was producing things like blueberry muffins for breakfast and calzones/pizzas for supper. Had all of our mouths watering with the smells. Plus all the water left in the pot was then used for things like coffee/tea and if no one needed the water it was used for washing up with. Boiled water is never wasted. The food being cooked is in plastic baggies so all his cleanup was to dry the pots and put the used baggies in the trash bag.
Thanks
Now that’s it winter, and I have some time, I think I’m going to play around with all those ideas!
Pre-cook…
Last trip I made Sausage gravy and froze it into daily size servings in ziplock bags. Kept in the bottom of the cooler, the last batch was still partially frozen on the last day.
I also pre-baked biscuits and froze them too.
I had biscuits and gravy every morning with almost no work at all.
No more peas please!
I had to promise I wouldn’t dehydrate peas anymore.
I guess the dehydrated noodles could be used in something like rice a roni. Just not sure why I wouldn’t just go and buy a box of “the San Francisco Treat” and save all the trouble. Anyone ever dried some cooked wild rice? Maybe I will try it today, using the herb screens of course.
Tom
“Dehydrated water”.
Went over a few heads, I think. Very funny. Does it take much water to rehydrate it? lol
YoS
I’m camping w/ you this Spring, darn it.
Yakjak and I have been talking about a Spring camp along Sugar Creek. We wanted to last year, but then it got hot, then the water level dropped, etc. May might be a good time . . . .
I picked up a Coleman grill/stove for around $30 at Target after Christmas.
http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colemancom/detail.asp?product_id=9922-A50&categoryid=2010
Plan to have some nice lunches at break while we’re paddling this year. ;~)
We should be able to do a lot w/ it camping too. I might just need someone with a nice pack canoe willing to carry it, as I don’t think it will fit in my hatch.
YoS
It takes longer
to cook the boxed rice mixes than pre-cooked dehydrated pasta or rice. In fact, they rehydrate without cooking as I mentioned for pasta salad. Otherwise, they are ready to eat pretty quickly with just a soak in boiling water or sauce, which translates into less fuel usage.
Wild rice…there is no reason it wouldn’t work, along with other whole grains…barley, qinoa, etc. Cracked wheat and cous cous are also great to have along as they only require a quick soak in boiling H2O before they’re ready to eat, no actual cooking time.
Now you’re all making me want to go outside and fire up the little stove… I’ll just have to clear away the snow first 
try dehydrating no fat yogurt
Its delicious.
Parchment paper is your ally. I use it to line trays. There is no need for little pea bbs all over the kitchen.
I love dehydrated peas …Still!
And portobello mushrooms.
rehydrating dehydrated water
YakOfSteel,
It’s easy to rehydrate Water. Be aware of the weight of the water before you dehydrated it and just add backenough water to the dehydrated water to be at the weight of the original water before dehydration.
While I’ve never used one, many folks say the Jet Boil is the best stove for dehydrating water. I still use my trusty 111B.
Dave
Camp Cooking Made Easier
"Are there other ways to make camp cooking more enjoyable, faster, use less fuel, be more tasty?"
I love to cook! And for that reason I consider a great tasting meal an essential part of canoe tripping. It’s best enjoyed with the camraderie of other like minded paddlers; an experience to be savored and treasured.
When possible I use a very small cooking fire to minimize fuel use. I prefer liquid fuel to gas canisters, because they are more efficient and versatile. However, I find gas canister stoves easier to cook with due to their superior simmering capabilities. In either case, a remote stove must be used for safety purposes when baking with ovens similar to Backpackers Pantry Outback Oven.
My liquid fuel stove is the MSR Simmerlite. Gas canister is MSR Windpro.
My weekend solo trip cookset is a 16.5oz Bugaboo Messkit. My ultralight solo cookset is a 7.5oz Snow Peak 3 piece cookset. For group cooking (max 4) I use MSR’s 18oz Blacklite Classic Cookset.
Some easy and good tasting meals that I like to prepare are:
*Angel Hair Pasta with sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, basil, and olive oil topped with a sprinkle of red pepper flakes and parmesan-romano cheese. 5 minute boil time.
*Instant Broccoli-Cheddar Cheese Soup Mix. Add fresh or dehydrated broccoli, carrots, peas, onions, and ham. 10 minute simmer.
*Stovetop Stuffing with dehydrated or foil chicken. 5 minutes
*Couscous with smoked or foil salmon. 5 minutes
*Chicken and dumplings. Start with a good quality instant chicken base and add peas, carrots, and chicken. Thicken with Bisquick. Add drop biskets or dumplings. 15 minute simmer
*Asian Rice Noodles or Thread noodles. Add dried shrimp, shiitake mushrooms, snowpod peas, bean sprouts. Bam! Kick it up a knotch with some hot pepper sauce or tabasco. 8 minutes slow boil
*Precooked vacuumed sealed ham grilled with instant mashed sweet potatoes. Serve with rehydrated pineapple, mango, and brown sugar.
I also have a simple bread/bisket recipe, if you’re interested.
Rehydrated No Fat Yogurt
That’s a great idea! And I could see using it at breakfast, lunch, or dinner, not to mention desserts.
oatmeal
I have steel cut oatmeal everyday which requires 30 minutes of cooking time.
Have tried soaking the oats overnight with absolutely no advantage. Also put into a coffee grinder and it comes out like soupy gruel.
I bring the water and oats to a near boil and then turn it to the lowest heat for 30 minutes.
Toss some dried cranberries in the oats while cooking. In the tin cup goes the maple syrup, cinnamon, blueberries and crushed walnuts and a trace of flax seed.
I’m sure you can cook oats for less than 30 minutes. The oats are nice and chewy and give a full feeling which is, to me, the main difference between instant and steel cut. Hard to go back to instant oatmeal which is more soupy than chewy.
cozy time??!!
Have either of you that cook/simmer for times of 10 & up to 30 minutes tried cutting the time on the stove and using a cozy for some of that time instead??? The cozy I use is made of the stuff you buy at Lowes Hardware that’s for wrapping pipes under your house. You make it to fit your pot, making sure all sides are covered (top, bottom, sides) This allows you to use less fuel and the food continues to cook.
My jet boil pot has a neo cozy
I haven’t tryed cooking rolled oats for 10 minutes then letting them cozy for another 10. That seems like it would make a big difference, I’ll let you know.
Is a BakePacker anything like an Outback Oven?
jetboil cozy
Since I use both a jetboil and a pepsi can stove w/pot and cozy, I can tell you that the cozy on the jetboil will not keep your food as warm for the times that I’m able to keep my pot warm with the homemade cozy from Lowes Hardware. The homemade cozy looks like my pot with a cut out for the handle to fit inside. Then there’s another round piece to put on top of the lid so the whole pot is completely covered with the cozy material. Check out www.antigravitygear.com He sells the cozys to fit most pots that you use backpacking, plus you can see what I’m talking about. With the jetboil I have sometimes taken things like my fleece jacket and wrapped around the pot to try to keep the heat in. That does help.
Is there a diff btw steelcut and rolled?
Or powdered cider
I’ve tried it, not too bad.
Auntie Chang’s Noodle bowls
– Last Updated: Jan-14-09 11:15 AM EST –
So much better than Ramen. Take them out of the bowls provided (you can leave these bowls at home for later use or recycle them) and just take one bowl for each camper (or a similar-sized closeable bowl).
Lipton sides noodle dishes are good, and can be made with powdered milk. Adding tuna, chicken, or salmon form the pouch, or TVP, makes them a good complete meal.
The new Uncle Ben's rice packs that you just pop in the microwave are great, too. Instead of microwave, pop them in a bowl of water.
A box of spanish-style rice, dry spanish chorizo, and pouch of shrimp makes nice paella.