Potential Camping Recipe - Finally!

After several failed attempts to find a recipe that everyone in the family actually liked, that can easily be dried for back country trips.  Sort of.  Bubbie ate a little of it, and said she kind of liked it, but then went and had some Mr. Noodles.

The recipe came from the back of a box of Minute Rice.  I don't know why I bother buying cook books, so many good recipes can be found on packaging and product websites.  Minute Rice is such a good camp food, I don't know why I didn't think to check their website before.

So, the recipe itself is fast and easy to make at home.  

Southwestern Beef Skillet

1 lb ground beef

1 tbsp chilli powder

1 cup medium, chunky salsa

1 cup water

1 cup frozen corn 

1 cup frozen green beans

1 1/2 cups Minute Rice.

Shredded cheese

Brown beef and add chilli powder, salsa, water, corn and beans.  Bring to a boil.  Stir in the rice, remove from heat and cover. Let sit for 5 minutes.  The recipe says to add the cheese before it sits, but we added it to each serving.

So, next step is to try drying everything and see if I can figure out the easiest way to put it together at camp so as to use as few dishes as possible, in as few steps as possible. Something tells me I'll be eating this for lunches quite a bit until I get it right.  I'll post instructions when I figure it out.

Snow Day Fun

With two snow days so far this week, I'm pleased to say we managed to do some fun outdoors stuff on one of our extra days off.

Monday brought a few inches of snow, so we stuffed the kids and skis into the car and headed to Ken Reid Conservation Area for a test run.  I'll admit, I was nervous.  The first attempts at trying our kids with activities like this always end with the kids fighting and me reaching for the Tylenol.  My mum told me the first time she took me and my brother skiing, my dad swore it would be the last time.  Back then, the skis you could get for kids didn't require special boots, you had a spring that went around the back of your ankle to hold your foot in, and it didn't actually work too well.  Dad spent most of the day putting skis back on us because they kept falling off.  Luckily we didn't have that problem, but that didn't mean it was all clear sailing...or skiing I suppose I should say.

Squatch had his skis on and hadn't even tried to move before he fell over.  I didn't take this as a good sign.  He fell about every 4 feet for the first 3/4 of the 1.2 km trail.  Then it was like it just clicked and he was getting the motion down.  Bubbie's first fall resulted in tears...I'm not sure if she actually did hurt her ankle or if she was embarrassed.  She did great too, getting more detailed advice on technique from Chris, (apparently he's an expert even though this was only his second time out.)

The good news is that both of them liked it enough that after a quick snack of hot apple cider and snickerdoodles, they wanted to do a bit more so we strapped on the skis once more and did another kilometre or so.

Yesterday brought rain, freezing rain, and more rain, so we stayed inside and mourned the loss of Monday's snow.

Brrrr.....

Gotta love the Canadian Winter, eh?  One day it's +11 and all the snow has melted, then the next it's -38 before factoring in the wind chill.  It's not surprising a lot of people have been hiding indoors.  I know I have.  Just taking the kids to the bus stop is torture.  Whoever said Canadian's love the cold probably wasn't talking about this kind of cold.

When the temps rose last week, I got all excited.  I mean, it felt like we could have gone camping, (in the boler...and with a heater at night.)  I know there are people who camp in the winter regardless of the actual temperature, but I'm not one of them.  I spend half the summer in a sweat shirt, in the winter I usually have so many layers on I feel like a kid in a bulky snow suit.

Even though I don't like the cold, I dislike the fact there's only a few months of the year with good camping weather even more.  (The only thing I hate more than being cold is being eaten alive by mosquitoes and black flies...and deer flies)  You can cover yourself in a bug suit and take a screen tent for spring camping, but winter camping requires a whole separate pile of gear....and that equals a big pile of $$$.  In case you missed it, we're all about having fun but still being able to pay the bills for the month.

Last week, I was looking into those canvas, winter tents made by Snowtrekker and I confess...I want one.  The idea of snowshoeing into someplace like Algonquin or Killarney when there's pretty much no one else around sounds awesome.  So quiet and peaceful. And the thought of increasing the camping season makes me giddy.

Unfortunately, the price tag on those tents is way out of our budget.  Very depressing.  But then I started thinking about it, and really, if you go on youtube you can find tons of videos about how to make your own little box stove.  You can also make your own tent if you have a sewing machine and some patience.

I have a sewing machine...my patience isn't so great, but I'm willing to tough it out if it means more camping, so one of my projects for this year is to make a winter tent to try out next year.  I wish I could aim to have it done sooner, but even though I'm convinced I can make one for less than the $2000 or so it would cost to buy one, I still don't know how much it will cost.  It's not like there McCalls sells patterns for them.

As this is going to be an ongoing project, I'll post updates as I go.  Hopefully I'll manage to produce something that is actually usable.  If anyone has ever tackled a project like this, I'd love to hear about it.

Winter Festival at Algonquin Park - February 16, 2013

Just saw the scheduled events for this years Winter Festival at Algonquin.  Looks like lots of good stuff happening between guided hikes, seminars, skating, demonstrations, a wolf howl and a BBQ dinner.  I'm hoping we get up there this year.

For the details, check out the Friends of Algonquin website.

So Much For Skiing!

As luck would have it, now that we've gone and bought the whole family the necessary gear for X-country skiing, as well as snowboarding...there's no snow.  According to the weather forecast for my area, we won't be getting any for a few days at least. 

I don't think I've ever seen a January like this.  We usually get a bit of warm weather around mid month, usually lots of rain, then it goes back to super cold and wintery.  I guess we didn't have a whole lot of snow to begin with this winter.

I wonder how a lot of tourist businesses are doing.  I know last weekend, Haliburton was hosting the Pond Hockey Tournament (or something like that) and I honestly don't know if the lakes would have been safe for it.  Snowmobiling is going to be limited with so little snow on the trails, and I think I heard Sir Sam's Ski Hill closed until we get more snow.  All in all, not a good year for towns in the area relying on winter sport fanatics to boost their economy. 

So, today, I'm thinking of dragging Chris out for a hike.  The sun is out, there's probably ice on any trail we might go to, and it would be a great time for me to fall on my butt so he can laugh at me.  Sounds like a great way to spend a semi-wintery morning.

Review: Lipsmackin' backpackin'

I bought Lipsmackin' Backpackin', as well as the vegetarian one, a month or so ago.  So far, I've only tried a few of the recipes but I thought I'd give my thoughts on them.

First, they are full of a ton of good ideas, with easy to follow instructions, and each recipe has the nutritional information as well as weight of the dried meal.  This is really cool.  I've book marked a lot of them to try out, and the ones I have tried were both yummy (Koolau Ridge Granola and Baja Burritos)

I love that the meals aren't fancy, or full of exotic ingredients, but my one issue with them books is that they call for several things I don't think they sell in Canada.  Mostly, this is a brand thing.  The problem is, without knowing what the product looks like I don't know how to find a suitable substitute.  I find this all the time when buying magazines like Taste of Home.  There are products we just don't get up here, or maybe we do but only in the city.  We don't even have tuna or chicken sold in foil pouches in our stores and I've gone to every grocery store in several surrounding towns with no success.  

Anyway, the complaint is fairly minor, and probably easy to get around with a little time and effort.  There's a good variety of recipes covering all three meals as well as breads, drinks and desserts.  There's even some interesting thoughts on "meal systems"where you don't pre-mix your meals into one bag.  Instead, you have bags with each type of vegetable, meat and carbs, as well as a variety of spices, then you can mix and match on the trail. 

If you aren't too sure of your ability to modify your own recipes for drying or are just looking for some good ideas, the books are definitely worth buying.  I can't wait to try out some more of the suggestions. 

A bit of catching up

Whew, finally got all the new camping gear put away, and realized I forgot to post my opinion on the Bob's Red Mill 5 Grain Rolled Cereal.  Like I mentioned before, it looks like large flake oats, but in reality has 5 grains, as the name implies.

Taste wise, it was a little different than oatmeal, but not jarringly so.  Depending on the flavour additions you choose, you might not notice a difference at all.  I only added some brown sugar and chopped pecans.

The texture was a little different.  Some of the flakes obviously soften more than oats do.  It wasn't a negative though.

I'll eat it again, no problems.  The only issue some might have with it is the instructions say to simmer 10-15 minutes.  I don't think I cooked it that long (it would have burned if I had) but for anyone on a longer trip, who's worried about fuel consumption, it might be a concern.  The increase in fiber (20% of your daily recommended amount) and the addition of flaxseed boosts it's nutritional value compared to many other hot cereals, so its worth trying.