The Traveling Gourmet

I love to cook.  I soon discovered, however, that backpacking offers a tremendous gourmet challenge.  There are plenty of books with rather extravagant meal options for backpackers.  I prefer to use simple ingredients with extreme flavor.  Easy clean up is also essential.

The secret to any good cooking is knowing how to season… for me, spices are the spice of life.  We carry a baggie full of old film canisters, each filled with different spices.  Hot sauces and crushed pepper flakes also add a zip that can turn a bland meal into something amazing.

Fast food condiment packets work wonderfully well to spice up dishes, especially when you don’t have a refrigerator.  While it is possible to scavenge taco sauce, mayo, and mustard from fast food restaurants, you can also order them online (see http://www.rvcampstuff.com/ or other such sites).  

We have found a variety of tasty options in single-serve snack packets.  Among our favorite squeeze snacks are Squeezers jalapeno cheese packets and Justin’s honey almond butter.  Both of these items are great on crackers. One of our favorite evening meals is a bag of fresh veggies dipped in single-serving Ranch dressing and crackers topped with squeeze cheese. 

While a skillet full of fresh brookies makes for a most excellent meal, we often must look in our “pantry” for easy and tasty dishes.  As an example, for breakfast we have found that reconstituted freeze-dried eggs are great on a tortilla, smothered in squeeze cheese and a condiment-size taco sauce packet.  With single-serving asceptic cartons of milk, you can easily have cereal or granola topped with fresh banana slices.  Granola bars and peanut butter-filled crackers are always a pantry staple.

There are several options for meats that require no refrigeration other than the usual canned or pouch chicken and tuna.  In Canada, we love to buy the Grimm’s turkey peperoni sticks (unfortunately not available in the US).  In Alaska, Alaska Sausage and Seafood Company Hunter Sticks are favorites.  Both of these products contain less fat than your usual meat sticks, need no refrigeration, and add delicious flavoring to reconstituted veggies.

Variety on the trail is always a plus.  After our five-week backpacking trip in 1987, it took years for us to eat Ramen noodles again.  Thankfully there are many new quick options in grocery stores.  As an example, flavored rice is now available in microwavable pouches.  Rather than using a microwave, just boil water, dunk in the pouch, and heat the rice to desired temperature.  After the rice is heated thoroughly, add a pouch of chicken, a few spices, and… voilà... an instant, tasty dinner.

Because freeze-dried foods are expensive, I use them sparingly.  When I do use them, I often opt for rehydrated vegetables and beans rather than meats (which never seem to fully rehydrate) or prepackaged freeze-dried meals (which are expensive and rarely seem to rehydrate or have enough flavor).  There is a trick to rehydrating veggies… the secret lies in letting the veggies soak in water for as much as an hour prior to cooking.  The more soak time, the less cook time. 

Our next post will offer a few recipes using simple grocery shelf items or dehydrated ingredients from the Harmony House dehydrated foods backpacking kit (see http://www.rei.com/product/756809/harmony-house-backpacking-kit). 

Life without a Refrigerator

Converting a SUV into a RV is basically backpacking on wheels.  We use much of the same gear.  Recognizing that weight is not so much of an issue with the SUV, conserving space certainly remains critical. 

To the surprise of many, we do not carry a cooler with us when we travel.  Space is at a premium.  Coolers are bulky and difficult to keep cold when out in the “hinterlands” for more than a day or two.  When ice melts in the cooler, the contents often get soggy.  Also, we have found no convenient way to refreeze gel packs.

We eat simply when we travel.  The majority of our foods are the kinds of things you would eat while backpacking, except that we carry a small supply of canned goods.  We always keep fresh fruit on hand.  When available, we purchase pre-cut fresh vegetables and dip them in condiment size packs of dressing.  In cool climates, veggies will last several days without refrigeration.    We’ll offer some recipes and other food options in another post.

When cooking, we use a backpacking stove.  Coffee is essential for us in the morning and most of our entrees require only hot water.  We have tried a variety of stoves and heating elements over the years and found none to boil water faster than the backpacking stoves. 

As an example, MREs are bulky, generate a lot of packaging waste, and their single use heating elements do not warm the water (or food) sufficiently.  Our 1967-era two-burner Coleman stove has served us well over all these years.  However, when backpacking on wheels, it is too heavy, takes up too much room, and can be cumbersome to set up quickly.   Alcohol stoves are too sooty and heat rather slowly.  Heating elements that plug into your vehicle’s cigarette lighter take well over a half-hour to bring the water to a satisfactory temperature even for instant coffee. 

For years we used a little MSR Whisper Light stove for backpacking.  We currently use a tiny Snow Peak Gigapower Stove (it measures 3.5” high x 1.5”x2” wide in its carrying case).  The Jet Boil systems also look very promising for quick water boil, although they do not appear to be as flexible when accommodating different size cooking pots.   

We use both ground and instant coffees in the morning, depending on how quickly we want to break camp.  More leisurely mornings offer time for a scoop of our favorite Café du Monde coffee and boiling water poured into individual coffee presses.  (A bit messy clean up but  great coffee!)  We use instant coffee in travel cups when we are on the go.

To purify our drinking water, we use a small Katydyn water filter (see http://www.katadyn.com/katadyn-products/).  After several bouts of amoebic dysentery over the years, purified water is a must for us.  We stow a three-gallon water jug behind the front seats and keep water bottles handy at all times.

To keep the kitchen items dry, we pack the stove, fuel, matches (including water proof matches), funnel, etc., in a small plastic tub that is lashed tight with a backpacking strap. 

Cooking utensils include a small backpacking non-stick cooking pot and skillet, small cutting board, two collapsible bowls and mugs, a can opener, a stirring spoon, spatula, and two fork/knife/spoon sets.  I also carry a zip storage bag filled with spices in old film canisters.  As an added safety measure, we try to store all food and cooking items in OP Sak odor protection bags when in bear country.

We'll dive deeper into the kitchen on our next post.

How to Turn your SUV into a RV (updated!)

As most of you know, we began our Alaskan adventure last year by investigating how to turn our SUV into a RV (see June 27, 2010, post).  While we ultimately purchased an ultralight 4x4 tent camper for the bulk of our 105-day adventure, we spent many comfortable nights sleeping in the Xterra, particularly while on the Haul Road.   Many folks have requested that we give more specifics on how to turn a SUV into a RV.  This post will offer the details.

To outfit the Xterra for sleeping, we purchased a 5” foam pad and cut it (with a serrated electric knife) to fit the cargo area.  If you are interested in doing the same and are unable to find thick foam in your area, you can purchase a queen size 4” memory foam mattress pad for about $120 from places like Overstock.com.  NOTE:  We remove the Xterra’s back seat bottoms when we travel to allow for a longer sleeping compartment.   

We stow heavy gear behind the front seats (which also bolsters the foam pad area not supported because of the missing seats).  The remaining gear is stowed in nets that came with the Xterra.  We hang the nets along the side panels rather than in the rear.  This allows for greater visibility through the rear window and offers easier access to the gear from either the side doors or hatch. 

We stow sleeping bags and pillows, emergency gear, a few day’s worth of clothing, foul weather gear, toiletries, and the day’s rations in the nets.  We use totes, stuff sacks, and the day packs to keep like-items together.  We are extremely frugal in packing the nets.  Remember that everything stowed in them must fit in the passenger seat while you’re sleeping.  We always leave the driver’s seat accessible (and keys in the ignition) in case an emergency exit is required during the middle of the night.

The foam pad is covered with a sheet to keep it clean.  We also top the sheet with an easily removed waterproof cover (we use an old ground cloth from a retired tent) to keep it dry and prevent Rox’s muddy paws from leaving dirt on our sleeping quarters.  When sleeping, we roll out the sleeping bags on top of the foam pad. 

We use Magna Screens for ventilation when we sleep.  These wonderful contraptions are magnetic and snap around the windows to keep out the mosquitos (see http://www.magnascreen.com/).  During inclement weather, rain guards allow us to crack the windows without getting the inside of the vehicle soaked. 

All additional gear is carried “upstairs” on the Xterra’s roof rack.  For nearly 25 years, we have used the same soft-sided Kanga pouch (see http://www.kangaco.com/kanga/Kanga%20Hurricane.htm ), without a failure or problem. You will be surprised at how much gear you can stow in the pouch, however, be prepared for your calf muscles to get a workout when you’re standing on the tires and bumper, to load or unload gear.

Our next post will focus on special amenities, including our kitchen, followed by our solutions for the bathroom potty and shower...

Gearing Up

As we begin gearing up for our next adventure, friends have asked that we share some of our secrets to living on the road so simply for so long a period of time.  Our plan is to post a new segment every week until we leave.  Posts will include topics with more specifics on how to turn your SUV into a RV, how to live without a refrigerator, traveling with your pet, preparing for the Haul Road and Dempster, etc.  If you have any specific requests, please post a comment to let us know!

This week we began outfitting Ozzie, our Kamparoo 4x4 ultralight camper, for our next trip.  As most of you know, we purchased Oz while on the road last year (see our post for July 9, 2010, or visit kamparoo.com).  Because of that, we had very little opportunity to make any modifications.   For starters, we're adding a tent pole carrier, improving the kitchen, and adding some organization modules.

As gasoline prices continue to rise, we are obviously concerned about the cost of our upcoming trip.  As of today, gas prices in Canada and Alaska are approximately $5.55 per gallon, while gas prices in Texas hover around $3.90 per gallon.  When we left last year, gas prices in Texas averaged $2.50 per gallon, while Canada and Alaska ranged from $3.60 per gallon to $4.66 per gallon.

Cutting costs will be crucial to our staying on the road as long as we want.  On our last adventure, we spent nearly 30 percent of our nights in motels and more than we cared to in RV parks rather than remote camping areas, simply because we were needing/wanting hot showers.  As a result, this year's preparations will include finding a shower solution.

We're planning a shake-down trip in a few weeks.  We'll let you know how it goes!