Happy trails, happy campers: trail pad thai

One of my proudest trail food accomplishments was producing a decent pad Thai about seven days out. We packed in a couple of carrots and a tiny lime that really made the dish. Some day I’d like to try making bean sprouts in my pack; that would be the ultimate garnish!

Ingredients (for four)
4 T. vegetable oil
2 eggs’ worth of dehydrated egg
1 lb. rice noodles
2-3 T. dehydrated green onions
2 bricks freeze-dried tofu (can also use packets of chicken or shrimp)
2 packets pad Thai sauce (we used Taste of Thai)
2 carrots
1 (small) lime
1/3 c. peanuts, chopped

There’s not much to do at home for this recipe–I recommend putting the carrots into a paper, rather than plastic bag though. You also might want to measure the dried egg into its own plastic bag so you can mix it without dirtying a dish. It’s really easy to add water, mix by squishing it around, and then cut or tear a hole in the bag so you can empty it right into the pan.

On the trail:
Boil enough water to cover the rice noodles. Add noodles and onions to the boiling water and set aside. If you are using dehydrated tofu rehydrate it at this point too.

While the noodles, etc. are soaking pour a couple of tablespoons of oil into another pan. Mix egg powder & water, then scramble the egg mixture. Set the cooked egg aside (maybe in someone’s cup or bowl). Squeeze the water out of the tofu, crumble it up, and fry it up a bit, then add to the cooked egg.

Drain the noodles & onions.

Add more oil to the pan and let it get hot, then add the noodles and onions to the pan. Stir-fry for a few minutes until noodles are dry and browning a bit in places. Add the packets of sauce, the egg, and the tofu and heat through, stirring to avoid scorching.

Divide the mixture into four bowls and top with chopped peanuts, carrots, and wedges of lime.

Menu & Grocery list for 7/28-8/3

Maybe it’s the hot weather, I don’t know, but we ended up with an accidental pan-Asian theme this week.

Garam Masala Lamb Chops with Apricot couscous and Green Beans Indian-Style: lamb chops are on sale at Albertsons and green beans are on sale at Safeway

Pasta with ricotta and fresh herbs: we have all the herbs this recipe calls for already, so this looked like a good way to use them up (and this will be another veggie meal for the week).

Grilled chicken with cucumber-mint raita: whole chickens are on sale at Thriftway and cucumbers are on sale just about everywhere.

Lentil & bulgar pilaf with green & yellow squash and home-made pita bread: thought the pilaf recipe (from Eating Well) looked like another good veggie meal since zucchini are in season and on sale right now (we’ll probably make it with zucchini in place of the yellow squash too.) I’m going to try homemade pitas since I couldn’t find any good ones in town the last time I looked and the reviews on the recipe above seem to make it sound both good and easy.

Potstickers…maybe with home-made wrappers?: this is inspired by a few chowhound threads. I haven’t made potstickers in awhile, and I’ve never made my own dough!

Chicken with coconut & lime: this is an easy favorite out of Mark Bittman’s Minimalist Cooks book. I’ve made it frequently enough that I have my own version: just heat a can of coconut milk with the juice and zest of two limes, some fish sauce, and some hot chili oil. Pour over grilled chicken and cooked rice (and some sauteed or steamed Asian greens if you have them.) Top with cilantro and green onions.

We’ll have green salad with several of these meals as well.

Grocery list:
milk
ricotta cheese
yogurt
parmesan cheese

pasta
bread
bagels
couscous
bulgar
flour

lentils
dried apricots
cumin

zucchini
green onions
onions
cucumbers
lettuce
mint
lemons
fruit (what ever looks good, nothing much seems to be on sale)

coconut milk

ground pork
shrimp
lamb chops
whole chicken

stuff from the fridge: cilantro, parsley, basil, carrots, celery, limes, yeast
stuff from the pantry: rice, raisins, fish sauce, spices

Menu & grocery list for 7/21-7/27

I’m determined to stick to budget this month. We were close, but a few little purchases over the month ate into the budget for this week (Jeff: “beer counts?”) until we were left with about $40 instead of our usual $75. Luckily we also have some stuff left over that we can work with for the rest of the week, but you’ll notice some meals on here that are…well, let’s just say they wouldn’t be out of place in an elementary school cafeteria. We made our meal plan as we shopped which I don’t normally like to do, but it worked fine. Here’s what we came up with:

Blintzes: inspired by the NYT article I mentioned last week, we’ll have our blintzes filled with cottage cheese (but no farmers cheese) and topped with sour cream plus some applesauce I froze last fall.
Thai beef salad: another recipe from the Times article, we should be able to eat the leftover bean sprouts from last week’s bibimbap on this salad. I may cook some rice too.
Chicken drumsticks & coleslaw: I saved half the package of chicken drumsticks I bought last week. We bought some basil at the farmers market so we’re going to try to make some kind of pesto rub for these.
Spaghetti carbonara: Jeff learned to make this from some people he met in Italy. It’s easy, quick, and he cooks it. We like to add tomatoes and have never done the step with the wine, though it sounds good.
Chili mac: I can’t remember the last time I ate this, but I love it topped with cottage cheese (weird family quirk.)

Finally, I hate to admit this in public, but hot dogs. Not even fancy hot dogs. We ended up with two packages of them (that we didn’t buy) in our freezer after Memorial Day and I figured I’d just save them for a “special occasion” (ahem.) We’ll have them with potato salad and probably a green salad too.

So this is more of a report than a list, but that means I get to share prices too:

Farmers’ Market ($9)
Baby lettuces $4
Broccoli $3
Basil $2

Grocery Outlet ($24.80)
Ground turkey (1 lb) $.99
Bacon (1 lb) $1.69

Cereal $1.99

Cucumber $.99
Green onions (2) $.50
Tomatoes $1.50
Limes (4) $.50
Cabbage $1.49
Plums (3 lbs) $1.69
Romaine (3 hearts) $1.99
Celery $.99

Eggs (18) $1.49
1/2 & 1/2 $1.49
Cheese $1.59

Canned tomatoes $.79

Candy $1.84
Crackers $1.29
Cookies $1.49

Safeway ($6.02)
Cottage cheese $1.79
Beef $2.72
Bananas $.58
Cantaloupe $.93

Since we have the chicken, hot dogs, pasta, and some veggies (like corn, carrots, and onions) already, plus some of our breakfast staples like bread, peanut butter, and yogurt, we’re still eating pretty well on $40 this week.  Jeff even got his weekly “crap allowance”, evidenced by the cookies, candy and crackers. Mostly we sacrificed on the quality of the items we bought (a pound of ground turkey for $.99? what part of the turkey are we talking about here…?)

Happy trails, happy campers: trail tuna casserole

It looks like there are a lot of folks out there looking for good backpacking meals. I’m happy to share some of my favorites!

A food dehydrator will give you all kinds of options (we have an American Harvest that we like). In addition to the stuff you’d expect like fruit leather and vegetables, I’ve also successfully dried cream of mushroom soup, salsa, spaghetti sauce and canned beans. While it sounds disgusting, “mushroom soup leather” makes a great base for:

Trail Tuna Casserole (serves 3-4)
1 can cream of mushroom soup, dehydrated
just veggies or home-dried veggies (about 1 cup)
2 cups (dry) egg noodles
2 small or 1 large pouch tuna ( I like the cheaper “chunk light” kind)

optional, if you’re feeling fancy:
1/4 c. seasoned breadcrumbs
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

At home:
Use a fruit leather tray or line a dehydrator tray with plastic wrap. Dehydrate the can of cream of mushroom soup–this may take several days. It will be pliable and a little sticky to the touch, but not wet when it is finished. As you peel it off the tray it will probably break into pieces that you can stack up and wrap with plastic wrap. Put noodles and veggies into a quart-sized recloseable bag and add the packet of dried soup. If you’re bringing the breadcrumbs and cheese, mix them together in a snack-sized recloseable bag and put that in the larger bag too.

On the trail:
Fill a two-quart pan about 3/4 full of water. Bring to a boil and add noodles and veggies. When the noodles are almost completely cooked, pour about half the hot water out of the pot (you might want to save it in another pot or mug). Start tearing off pieces of dried soup and tossing them in the pot to rehydrate. You may need to add more water (this is why it’s good to save it), but that’s easier than taking it out once you start to mix the soup in! Once the soup is totally rehydrated and the “casserole” seems like about the right texture you can stir in the tuna and sprinkle the breadcrumbs and cheese over the top. You’ll think you were at grandma’s house.

A word of caution: I “cook by feel” a lot so I’m trying to be as accurate as possible with the measurements and number of servings but it’s really just an estimation. If you don’t cook much at home you might want to test the recipe out before you hit the trail–it’s better to have to call for pizza at home than to go to bed hungry 12 miles from the trailhead!

I’ll post more trail recipes in the next few weeks–we’re getting ready for a backpacking trip too!

Mark Bittman will make your life a little easier

While I (obviously) like to cook, I’m always happy for a little inspiration. Mark Bittman’s article “Summer Express: 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less” in today’s New York Times is a wealth of quick & easy ideas to help head off the “oh, let’s just go out” moment that comes when it’s still 90 degrees outside at dinnertime.

There are plenty of meals on the list I’ve made before (like pasta with fresh tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil, or quesadillas) but I have to admit #19 “Chinese tomato and eggs” combines ingredients I have never thought to put together. After cooking some garlic in peanut oil, you stir in some chopped tomatoes and then beaten eggs, all scrambled with some soy sauce. Sounds like it might be good over rice.

I like eggs–they’re inexpensive protein and they cook quickly. I buy the “Omega-3″ eggs at Costco where they’re usually $2.45 or so for 18. That’s probably why #89 “Pasta frittata” also caught my attention. This recipe is a “cake” of pasta, browned in a pan with garlic and olive oil, then cooked with beaten eggs and Parmesan cheese. Yum.

I’ll probably actually make #69 a little more complicated than necessary. Bittman recommends you “[b]uy good blintzes,” but I think I’ll make them myself (both because it would be more budget-friendly and because I don’t think there’s anywhere to buy blintzes here.) Blintzes are a yummy “breakfast for dinner” item I haven’t made for ages and they’re perfect for berry season.

Finally, #90 “Thai-style beef” looks like a good way to make salad for dinner a little more interesting. Pork or chicken are also listed as options for this recipe, made by frying up your meat of choice in some peanut oil with garlic, red chili flakes, basil, fish sauce, and lime juice. Unless the salad this tops is already made I think this will take longer than 10 minutes, but it sounds like a tasty, quick recipe all the same.

There really are 101 simple recipes in this article and I’ve just highlighted a few that sounded good to me–be sure to check out the article itself and choose your own favorites to add to your repertoire. The heat may have subsided for a few days in our part of the country, but summer’s not over yet!

Menu and grocery list for 7/15-7/20

Not only is it too hot to cook, it’s too hot to eat hot food. I had a lot of trouble coming up with a menu this week. Nothing really seems to be on sale, no recipes seemed to be calling my name…. Here’s what I came up with:

Bibimbap (something like this or this.) Surprisingly, since I love all kinds of Asian food, I’ve never tried Korean food. I don’t know why, I just haven’t. That’s going to change (sort of at least!) this week. Someone gave me some Korean mint and my fellow chowhounds suggested bibimbap, a mixed rice dish, as a way to eat it. I’m sad I couldn’t find gochuchang, a fermented chile paste, as it sounds like an integral part of the dish, but I’m going to substitute siracha sauce for now. I’ll make sure to pick up some of the real thing the next time I’m anywhere near an Asian grocery store.

Grilled pork chops with peach and red onion relish: another Everyday Food recipe, although this one isn’t online. It’s pretty simple–just peaches, onions, honey, lemon juice, cayenne and black pepper.

Chicken drumsticks & Quinoa salad: drumsticks are definitely the budget barbecue meal of choice. The quinoa salad should be a good way to use up more of the Korean mint (substituted for the regular mint).

Pasta salad: no recipe here. We like it with lots of veggies, cheese, salami, and olives, artichoke hearts, and mushrooms. I use Italian salad dressing but no mayo.

Zucchini enchiladas : Not sure about this one only because it requires the oven. I’m going to be lazy and buy a jar of Safeway salsa verde instead of making the chile sauce though, so they should be really easy to put together.

Grocery List:
lemons (2)
peaches & nectarines
bananas
pear (1, for Korean beef marinade)
zucchini
carrots
lettuce
cucumber
bean sprouts
mushrooms
spinach
onions
corn

quinoa
rice
pasta (rotini)

milk
yogurt

black olives
canned mushrooms
artichoke hearts
salsa verde
honey

steak (1 lb)
pork chops
chicken drumsticks
salami

Pantry items: red onion, tortillas, jack cheese, Italian dressing, eggs, spices

Everyday Food is a tool I use

I’m doing my part to help keep Martha in new furniture; I subscribe to Living, Blueprint, and Everyday Food. This is not a new habit for me (though, in my defense, all my subscriptions are gifts.) While I enjoy all the magazines, Everyday Food is the only one I really use on a regular basis. The recipes are simple and issues focus on foods that are both in season and easily found in a regular grocery store. While I have made a few things that I wouldn’t make again, for the most part I’ve been happy with my results when using EF recipes. The photography is appealing and the directions are clear. I now have about three years’ worth of the magazines and frequently flip through my back issues for inspiration when I’m making our weekly menus and I’ve even used several recipes from the holiday issues when preparing Thanksgiving dinner.

You don’t have to subscribe to the magazine to test out some of the recipes. Many are available through the Everyday Food website (though I wish the links were more user-friendly. Those links are hideous!) There’s also an Everyday Food cookbook called Great Food Fast (find in a library). Though I haven’t looked at the book myself, according to the reviews on amazon.com the recipes are arranged seasonally. This preserves one of the great things about the magazine, the fact that each issue’s highlighted ingredients and methods of preparation are geared to the season in which it arrives.

I know Martha doesn’t need my help, but if you’re trying to plan weekly menus Everyday Food is worth your time. If you’re looking for other menu planning & budgeting tools you might be interested in my “Tools I use” post too.

Backpack gourmet

(update: if you’re looking for some good backpacking dinners check my posts tagged with trailfood.)

I pride myself on my backpacking dinners–no one-pot mystery slop for me. My most recent trip, however, I made the worst backpacking dinner I have ever had to choke down. It’s the first time we packed food out rather than finishing the meal. I’m glad we were just out for an overnight and not beginning a multi-day trek!

What went wrong?

Our first mistake was not planning our food very well. We couldn’t figure out what we should make, so just picked up some kind of unrelated items like cheese-flavored cornbread mix (if you think that sounds really yucky, you’re right), black bean soup, and some dried veggies. We forgot to bring any kind of oil or butter for the cornbread pan. We didn’t toss in any of the packets of hot sauce, etc. that we hoard from fast food restaurants. We broke boy scout rule #1 and were not prepared.

Next, we were using a new stove that I hadn’t tested beforehand. In fact, I forgot we even had a new stove until Jeff pulled it out of the bag! Our old stove, an MSR dragonfly, was designed for fancy camp cooking with a range of temperature that beat my stovetop at home. Unfortunately we’ve had the burner cup come unwelded in two dragonflies, so when Jeff returned the stove the last time he decided to try the SimmerLite instead. This stove weighs about half of what the dragonfly weighs, but it’s not nearly as adjustable; we managed to have a dinner that was both scorched and undercooked. Not a good combination. I need to play with the stove a bit more before making a final judgement, but for now, I miss the dragonfly!

Tried and true

Luckily we’ve made lots of good backpacking meals to redeem this particular failure. Food really matters when you’re on the trail all day–I’ve met people who ended trips early just because they were so sick of eating the same thing day after day. The trail meal I’m most proud of was a passable version of pad thai about 7 days in (Update: I posted this recipe). I’ve also made a mean apple crisp, kick-butt smoked salmon potato pancakes, and tuna casserole that I’d eat at home (Update: I posted this recipe). Jeff lists our trail dinner with the most fun name as his favorite: mac & cheese & tuna & peas (I’ve been known to repeat this over and over like a march when I’m getting hungry and tired….) The key to all these meals was some serious planning ahead (well, ok, the mac & cheese & tuna & peas is pretty easy to pick up at the grocery store.) The pad thai was a success partially because we found dehydrated tofu at Uwajimaya. The apple crisp only happened because we dehydrated cooked spiced apples and the secret to trail tuna casserole is a dehydrated can of cream of mushroom soup (sounds nasty, I know!) Before my first big (10 day, no cache) trek I spent hours wandering through the grocery store (and the co-op and the Asian market) looking at all the mixes and boxes. I also spent hours searching for ideas online. I wish there were sites like onepanwonders.com five years ago!

Eating my way through Washington

Thanks mainly to Chowhound, I always travel with a list of restaurants and local specialties to try. Washington DC has an active board, and I found lots to try.

I had some paperwork to finish on Thursday and needed to grab a quick lunch. Since we stayed near the National Museum of the American Indian we decided to try Mitsitam, their cafe (really an upscale cafeteria, if there is such a thing.) Food in Mitsitam is arranged by region of influence; I chose the Northern Woodlands where I had a lobster roll and roasted corn, and mom chose Meso America where she had a chicken and green chili tamale and some kind of pickled bean and corn salad. The food was good, if a bit overpriced, and it was fun to see the unusual choices. I’m a pretty adventurous eater, but the “heirloom beans in spiced strawberry butter”, one of the choices at the station where I chose my meal, sounded too weird for me. I would have liked to at least try them though!

For dinner we headed to Zaytinya, a trendy Middle Eastern restaurant. The food, all mezze-style, was fantastic and the waiter matched an excellent glass of wine for me, though I have no idea what it was. Something from Lebanon, I think. The place was kind of a scene though. We waited a long time (about an hour) for a table on a Thursday night. Also, the noise level was really high, I often couldn’t hear my colleague across the table.

Friday we were going to the ‘burbs to have dinner with some family members, but a last minute change of plans gave us a chance to try Etete, an Ethiopian restaurant near the U Street metro stop. Our tiny table for two was barely big enough for the enormous plate of food we ordered, let alone our Ethiopian beer. Our waitress kept encouraging us to clean our plate…I tried, I really did! I was worried it might be bad form to not finish all that was in front of you in Ethiopia, but with all that injera (there were two baskets of rolled up injera in addition to the piece under the food) there was no way.

When we got off the metro to go to Etete, I noticed Ben’s Chili Bowl was right across the street. I can’t even remember the first time I heard of Ben’s–some long-ago magazine article that included a photo of Bill Cosby. It hadn’t occurred to me to seek it out on this trip, but since it was so easy to find we went back for lunch the next day. I’m no chili dog gourmet–in fact I’m not sure if I’ve ever eaten one before–but these were good. The best part of the meal though, were the chips. No wonder folks get nostalgic for Utz’s potato chips! Next time I’d skip the fries and maybe try a piece of cake or a milkshake. Or more chips….

Our final chowhound-find was Teaism, a local “chain” (do three restaurants make a chain?) with foods from “tea cultures” both Asian and British and, of course, lots of tea. The food was good, though not amazing, but the calm, quiet restaurant, the light fare, and the reasonable prices were just what we were looking for. We had to try their salty oat cookie since it earns big raves. I’m a big fan of slightly salty baked goods and even have a friend who calls my oatmeal cookies “salty”. I liked these cookies a lot, but not better than my own–the texture was a little dry for my tastes.

I don’t think of DC as a food destination (contrasted with New Orleans, for example, where my conference was held last year) but I still ran out of time to try all the restaurants on my list.  I’m sure I’ll be back!

Menu and grocery list for 7/7-7/13

I’ve been traveling a lot, and that always throws a kink in menu planning and grocery shopping.  Back on track this week though!

Grilled chicken drumsticks and green olive coleslaw: A thread on chowhound reminded me that I haven’t made coleslaw for awhile.  We have a version created by my Grandma June that is made with green olives and parsley and isn’t sweet at all. I’ll probably try to make one of the barbecue sauces in this month’s Everyday Food magazine for the chicken, but I’m not sure which one yet.

Spicy sesame noodles: I’m planning to add a few more veggies (julienned carrots and maybe some red pepper and cucumber) and some leftover chicken to this yummy-sounding noodle dish.  I’m all for cold or room-temperature dinners this week!

Migas: I always thought eggs scrambled with corn chips or tortillas was chilaquiles, but turns out it’s called migas in most places (found this out the hard way when I ordered chilaquiles in a restaurant last week and got a plate full of cheesy refried corn chips with no egg.) Seems like we always have leftover corn tortillas to use up, and I’ll top this with tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, and sour cream.

Chef’s salad: no recipe here, just a nice cool dinner.

Turkey burgers and potato salad: We’ll put green chilis in the center of these burgers so they can be cooked through without getting too dry.

Grocery list:
cabbage
parsley
tomatoes
green onions
avocados
lettuce

nectarines/peaches
bananas

blue cheese
jack cheese

green olives
green chiles
peanut oil

ham
turkey
chicken legs
ground turkey

burger buns
corn chips
angel hair pasta

Costco:
coffee
bread
bagels
eggs
jerky

pantry items: corn tortillas, carrots, chili oil, ginger, garlic, potatoes, pickles, mayonnaise, milk, 1/2 & 1/2