Did you bring the pine nuts, or harvest them? I love pine nuts, but had never really made the connection of where they come from... Until yesterday, near Thorndike campground in the Panamint Mountains, I stumbled across a natural pine nut bonanza. Really made me think how delicious they might be in dinner!

I'd say my favorite is light and spicy tortilla soup. Basically just a spicy tomato chili sauce and chicken stock, cooked with onions, garlic, and epazote. Then garnished with a buffet of queso fresco, fried tortilla strips, cilantro, blackened pasilla chiles, tomatoes, avocados, and limes. That's for car camping though, not backcountry.

Trevor

huckleberry pancakes - I actually brought along some pancake mix and real maple syrup just for the occasion. huckleberries fresh picked each morning. Ahh, summer in the Cascades...

i can never find pinenuts before the critters do.

best car camping food was while fishing with some friends in the Sierras. Sula made the best breakfast: sausage, eggs, potatoes with onions fried up in a cast iron skillet.

best back country was while i was in the military: after 3 days of no food, noodles in a thai sauce MRE was the best thing ever. and contrary to what you hear, MREs are not that bad even when you're not starving.

i did make the perfect steak in the Alabama Hills one night. mmmmmmmm is it lunch time yet?

This is just an easy camping breakfast tip for a campsite of 3 or more poeple

Ziplock Bag Omellets

Boil a pot of water
Take a ziplock bag
In ballpoint ink make your mark on the outside of bag
Add any type of fixin' you want in your bag
Crack as many eggs as you want to eat and drop in back
Seal bag
Squeeze bag to mix up contents
Drop bag in the boiling water
Leave for 4 minutes
Pick up bag squish eggs inside (if runny put back for 2 -3 more minutes)
Open bag and eat a yummy omellete

Everyone gets a kick ass meal with very little clean up!

Eggs, rice, veggies w/ hot tea.

Oh my Goddess super delicious after a long drumming session combined w/ a 1 1/2 mile hike up hill.

haha mine is brocolli pesto pasta with pine nuts and parmesan!!
Precook the pasta
saute the brocolli with garlic, basil and oregeno
toast the pine nuts
combine the brocolli sautee and the pine nuts in a container
all you have to do once you're out or back
mix the pasta with the brocolli mixture and sprinkle some cheese on top
YUM!

The best back packing meal is the one I don't have to cook!

But seriously folks, I go on a week long trip each year with a group of friends and we each take a day to make dinner. One couple always goes over the top. One year they made sushi. Uh-huh. Sushi. Canned crab and veggie rolls. The next year the same couple made a three course meal: escargot as an appie, cassoulet as the main course and creme brulee for dessert. He brought a mini-propane torch to brulee the creme.

Last year the same group went on an overnighter, and we had a pot luck. Soup, salad, two main dishes and dessert. Everyone brought their choice of beverage. We eat well on the trail!

Challah bread french toast, real maple syrup and locally grown raspberried, probably. But there have been so many delicious meals.

The one I am most proud of though, was the reheated burrito. I'd eaten at a Mexican restaurant and as usual, the burrito was gigantic. I got an idea....and asked them to simply wrap th eleftover portion(generously) in foil for me to take away.

The next afternoon, I took out my JetBoil stove, the burrito and some water. Put anout 1/4 cup water in the stove. Unwrapped the burrito, and rewrapped only the bottom half of it, leaving a "tail" of tinfoil below. Crumpled that tinfoil tail into a ball, flat at the base, and set it in the water. The base held the burrito up and out of the water.

Flick the pietzo lighter and (if you know the JetBoil)....whoooosh!

You've got to watch the temp, so the boiling water doesn't spary the burrito too much, or it will get soggy. But a few minutes later, I had a delicious, hot burrito for lunch, on a cold December day, in Jumbo Rocks at Joshua Tree.

JetBoil rocks - for one(I don't have the larger new unit), and not just to heat up water. I have poached eggs, heated cocoa, made steel cut oatmeal with dired berries, cooked soups and reheated stews. Recently, I've been having pasta a lot.

Fill the pot to the "fill mark" or a bit below. Add pasta(smaller sizes that cook more quickly, to save fuel). Fire the rocket.... Don't boil the water and then add pasta, start it out cold. Why waste the fuel; it won't improve the pasta in any noticable way.

Watch the water so it doesn't boil over - very important, it SUCKS to have to turn down that heat while boiling, starchy water cascades down your arm!(Let my mistake be your guide, believe me when i say it sucks).

When the pasta's al dente, turn it off, and drain the water. Add your pasta suace and turn the stove back on, if neccessary. Stir constantly to avoid scorching.

I use a tube of pesto sauce that can be had at most decent grocery stores, mostly. You can sprinkle in some pine nuts if you like. Or, cut up some veggies before you make the pasta, stirfry them in the oil and set aside. Cook the pasta, drain, add olive oil and the veggies and reheat a bit.

The best I ever had was in 1991, when I was backpacking on the PCT.

I'd arrived at Silver Leaf Lake State Recreation Area, and called my mother (who was living in Balboa Island at the time) to let her know I had arrived at our rendezvous. She arrived several hours later with my resupply kit - and a FEAST.

Mind you I was camping in the Backpacker's campsite - the only backpacker there - but there was a place that she could park nearby.

She brought charcol for the BBQ grill and lighter fluid, and grilled me a really nice London Broil.
She fixed me a tossed green salad with bleu cheese dressing.
She brought me a baked potato that was about half the size of Idaho - and butter, sour cream, shredded cheddar, chopped green onions and bacon bits.
She brought me real ice cream for desert, and fresh strawberries as well.
She brought me a chilled bottle of champagne.

And she decked out the picnic table with place mats, silverware, crystal water goblets and champagne flutes and then lit some candles.

For breakfast the following day, she left me with Rice Krispies, heavy whipping cream and fresh raspberries. I was so full I could barely waddle out of camp.

I learned a big lesson that year: if you do distance, you will cope with your sexual fantasies, but the food fantasies will prey on your mind and they will invade your dreams. You will daydream about milkshakes, or shrimp salads, or steak and lobster, etc, etc, etc. It was the biggest problem I had to deal with on the trip.

Potted meat and crackers!!!