Camp cookery - pizza

in
  • crescent roll dough
  • fresh mozzarella
  • fresh basil
  • pepperoni
  • tomato
  • sauce
  • crisco (for pan)

another pretty easy one with a small ingredient list, but after an eight hour drive and then eleven miles of hiking i knew i'd want something filling, and who can say no to pizza.

start by cutting the pepperoni, basil, tomatoes and mozzarella. this one cooks fast so you'll want all of the ingredients ready to go.

spray the bottom of your pan with a non stick spray and spread the crescent roll dough. toppings next, but c'mon it's a pizza you knew that.

once you have everything laid out put a cover on your pan and fire up your stove. that great thing about using the crescent dough is that it will cook in the same time it will take for your cheese to melt, for me about seven minutes.

lessons learned: make sure the crescent roll dough is spread pretty thin. i left mine a little thicker and the bottom was beginning to burn before the dough was cooked all the way through.

Big Bend National Park

in

"i like being part of something that's bigger than me, than i. it's good for your soul to invest in something you can't control."

a line from a cheesy movie, but nonetheless a line that has stuck with me for the past ten years. 

i've never felt as minuscule in my life as i did on my recent trip to big bend and in a place as remote and vast as it is, it's almost impossible not to. small in the chisos. small on the desert floor. small under a night sky filled with more stars than i've ever laid eyes on. especially small atop one of the highest peaks in texas. 

you can't help but just sit and stare out at the land that lay before you when reaching the top of emory peak. there were a few other folks up there, we exchanged words and went back into our deep gazes. i looked around, and then back at the others, watching the power that these mountains had over everyone was an ethereal experience.

sixteen hours of driving, seventeen miles of hiking, all for less than twenty four hours in the park. a little crazy, but also very much needed, because sometimes it's good to feel small, feel like no matter how much you plan (or don't plan in my case) it's not really up to you how it turns out. allowing yourself to emotionally be at the mercy of your natural surroundings. 

Camp Cookery- Tacos

in
  • ground turkey
  • 1 goya seasoning packet
  • tortillas
  • cheese
  • 1/4 onion
  • 1 avocado
  • 1/4 green bell pepper
  • handful of cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, green onions

having to carry all of your gear; tent, sleeping bag, camera gear, etc. in a kayak leaves limited room for food. for this meal i wanted to cook something that used ingredients that could all fit into my small cooler. in addition to that it needed to be something that could be cooked on my small camp stove and not a campfire or a bigger two burner stove.

not really much to this one. chop your veggies, light the stove, cook the meat, put it all on a tortilla.

Colorado and New Mexico

it's two a.m. on christmas morning, i'm rippin' down the highways of west texas, scared shitless i'm going to hit a deer...again. but nonetheless after a week of friends, laughs, stories, solitude, hiking, snow and thousands and thousands of miles my heart is full and i'm ready to rest. from my truck stereo comes that howlin' harmonica, that weathered voice; dylan.

i was raised on dylan and i'll probably die with dylan, just as my father did. an album of his greatest hits playing as background music at the funeral. "everybody must get stoned", wildly inappropriate, but oh so good. hell, my youngest sister even has the lyrics to forever young tattooed on her shoulder as a reminder of him, and the words he taught us to live by.

i'll never forget hopping in my car after shoveling dirt on his casket. surrounded by tears i turn the key, my radio already tuned to the local classic rock station, "it ain't no use to sit and wonder why babe...don't think twice, it's all right." dylan. grief and sorrow all around me, but true to myself i couldn't help but smile.

there it was, words i needed to hear as a sixteen year old who just buried his father. "don't think twice, it's all right." if ever there was a moment in my life that i believed in god this was it. a sign from something, someone, somewhere. it put all my fears to rest, gave me hope and restored my faith that at the end of it all, it's all right. 

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two thousand and fourteen has been a year of change, growth and discovery; not just for myself, but my friends and family as well. hardships and triumphs, i'd like to think we are all going into this new year a little stronger and a little wiser.

if there is one thing that my father taught me that was reinforced this year it is to stay humble. success, failure, love and loss; events don't define you, how you react and respond to them is what makes you. i'd like to think i've been nothing but humble and gracious through everything that has been thrown my way this year, but that's probably not up to me to decide.

so here's to a new year full of nothing but love and truths and staying humble. and of course not thinking twice because it's all right. 

Destin, Florida

Comfort people; a lot like comfort food, I think. They are just what you need after a long, hard day. They know you, they understand you, they warm your soul, they make you feel as if where they are is where you belong.

These people are yours. They allow you to come as you are. They know the good, the bad, the ugly, and more often than not have known you for years. But what about those people who somehow make your soul feel at home upon an initial name exchange? Those people who hardly know anything but your name and your face, but somehow have the ability to make you feel welcomed, accepted, and loved. Kristen Blanton and Matt Jazowiak are two of those people.

Two months ago Jeremy and I pulled up to a dark campsite in his newly owned (but perfectly worn) pick-up truck after exploring a Pedernales Falls sunset. Grill in one hand, bottle of champagne in the other, we walked up and there we shook the hands of Kristen and Matt; him for the second time, me for the first.

What followed was a night of delightful conversation, huevos, moonlight chuckles, and a light-hearted “you guys should come visit Florida.” A look exchange and a shrug later, our tickets were booked.

Fast-forward three weeks and there we were, feet on the ground in the not-so-sunshiny state. The weekend was cold, rainy, and windy; but no matter how hard it tried, the crummy weather couldn’t keep the sunshine of Kristen & Matt & co. from reaching us.  Art pop-ups, local food, beaches, laughs, quality conversation, a hilarious younger brother, boat rides, dolphins, and hearts sprinkled with gold made the weekend one to remember.

Looking back on the trip, I can’t help but think of the quote “Genuinely good people are like that. The sun shines out of them. They warm you right through.” (Michael Morpurgo Alone on a Wide Wide Sea).  The weather was cold, the sky was dark, but these people my goodness THESE PEOPLE. They were kind and warm and the sun was shining out of them right through us.

I keep that weekend in my back pocket and occasionally pull it out to remind myself of the power I have to affect others. A reminder that the good I do today will not be forgotten tomorrow. A reminder that, although life can be hard and broken and crummy and dark, maybe I have the ability to create a little sunshine here. Maybe my soul really DOES have the capacity to create lasting affect on the person next to me.

Maybe yours does, too.

Big thanks to Lauren Simpson for taking the time to write this post.

Camp Cookery - Thanksgiving Feast

in

thanksgiving dinner

4 lbs. boneless turkey breast
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 stick of butter
onion
rosemary
garlic
garlic powder
bay leaves
dead rooster co. black gold rub
1 acorn squash
4 sweet potatoes 
honey, cinnamon, olive oil, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper (for sweet potatoes & acorn squash)
stuffing
boxed mushroom bisque
white mushrooms

other items 

cast iron dutch oven
meat thermometer
aluminum foil
aluminum pie tin

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as always, you'll want to start you fire are early as possible. the coals are key to this meal and are needed for the dutch oven along with the foil packets for the sweet potatoes and acorn squash. 

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i have traditionally cooked a turkey breast in a slow cooker for past thanksgivings, i wanted to try my hand at recreating the same thing while out in the woods and followed what i normally would have done at home; the only difference being the cooking time.

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using a thawed turkey breast start by poking holes throughout, i try to jam as much garlic and onion into the actual turkey as i can, the long cooking time allows the flavors to permeate the meat. the netting that these come in are actually perfect for the next step so i always leave that on during the cooking process. take the rosemary sprigs and onion slivers and weave them through the netting, this will allow them to stay right on the meat during the cook.

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the folks over at dead rooster co. (click to check them out) were nice enough to send me some of their black gold coffee based rub, i generously coated the turkey with it and then topped it off with a couple of spoonfuls of minced garlic.

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now that the turkey prep is done take an aluminum pie tin, flip it upside down, cut a bunch of slits in it and place it in the bottom of the dutch oven. pour in the chicken broth add some more onions and the half a stick of butter and place the turkey on top of the pie tin. a four pound breast raised above the coals on a cooking rack took approximately three hours, so we had plenty of time to explore caddo lake before starting the sides. every half hour or so we would spin the dutch oven just to even out the heat. 

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of course you'll need some snacks while ya cook! cheese plate with candied pecans.

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turns out four sweet potatoes is a ton when all cubed up. along with the sliced acorn squash we decided to try out a couple different flavors for these.

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a few with just olive oil and pepper, one with butter and onions, one with olive oil and cayenne and a sweet one with butter, honey and cinnamon. we used three layers of aluminum foil and just made sure packets were folded tight before throwing them directly in the coal. there was no real science behind these, just make sure you have some sort of oil or butter in each one so they don't get dried out during the cooking process. we left these on the fire for about an hour until they felt tender.

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for other sides we just had a box of stove stop stuffing with added onions and some mushroom bisque to which we added more of our own mushrooms. straight forward, simple, just cooked these on the coleman stove.

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i started checking the temperature of the meat every half hour or so after the first hour. you'll want to pull this off the fire when it reaches an internal temp. of 160 degrees. it will continue to cook as you let it rest (fifteen minutes).

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thats it! a lot of ingredients but with a few people helping we pulled everything off without a hitch.

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a huge thank you to my friends folklorica and fortuna monsoon for all their help and for making this thanksgiving an amazing experience. 

Camp Cookery - Jambalaya

in

jambalaya

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 pounds sliced sausage

1 pound shrimp

1/2 onion diced

1 cup diced bell pepper

1 cup diced celery

1/2 teaspoon cajun seasoning

1 cup rice

14.5 once can diced tomato

1/4 teaspoon diced thyme

2 cups chicken broth

bay leaves

first things first, i totally disregarded the portioning i had planned on using. this is one pot meal cooked in a cast iron dutch oven, it is very forgiving, and when cooking for a big group; the more food the better.

start your fire well before you plan on cooking, you'll need a solid bed of hot coals to get this dish cooked. it'll take a while for the fire to get to this point so i used that time to start chopping the veggies and slicing the sausage. when the coals are ready place the dutch oven on a stable portion and pour in enough olive oil to coat the bottom. 

once the oil is good and hot throw in your sliced sausage and let that cook for two minutes or so. next up, toss in celery, onion, bell pepper and cajun seasoning.

cook until the vegetables become tender. then goes the rice, tomatoes, garlic, bay leaves, thyme and chicken broth.

the only issue i ran into was at this point was needing to constantly add more chicken broth while the dish cooked. whether it was because i payed no attention to the amount of ingredients i threw in or because the fire was hotter than it should have been, i'm not sure. either way, constant stirring and tasting will let you know if more liquid is needed or not. at this point everything is cooked so i was just waiting on the rice. 

when the rice seems just about done (ten minutes for me) throw in the shrimp, cover and let cook for an additional two minutes. that's it, pull that sucker off the fire, remove the bay leaves and serve!

lessons learned: wash the oven immediately, with the libations flowing i neglected to clean it right after cooking. i spent a fun hour the next evening scraping caked on jambalaya off the bottom of the cast iron.

*sure is nice being on the other side of the camera sometimes. big thanks to lauren simpson for the bulk of these shots(click for portfolio)*