More experiments in Tofu Scramble, Hash Browns & Cashew Nacho Sauce

Scramble and veggie mixture in bag

This is my second time experimenting with my tofu scramble recipe, found here. This time, I did not
use any sausage/tempeh and I decided to make hash browns instead of potato cubes. It's a matter of taste, but I preferred this version.

I also experimented with non-dairy cashew cream sauce. No recipe for that yet, but definitely soon, because it's a wonderfully creamy, high-fat condiment that vegans and carnivores can both enjoy. The rehydration process worked perfectly and although in photos the sauce appears to have some texture to it, you can't detect anything but smooth, creamy cashew goodness. Lots of stuff to look forward to in future posts :)

Food Reviews: Good To-Go Smoked Three Bean Chili

I've been really, really excited about trying Good To-Go Meals, following them on twitter, keeping an eye on their webpage and keeping my ear to the ground for any and all new product reviews. It's such a promising brand because their products are all: 1) vegetarian or vegan, 2) painstakingly and truly handmade from the ground up, 3) the brainchild of  Jennifer Scism, whose professional culinary history is very impressive, and 4) clearly a labor of love.

I don't consider myself picky, but I am a little choosy when it comes to vegetarian chili. Chili is, after all, a terribly competitive and contentious dish, rife with impassioned and unsubstantiated personal opinion. As such, there are several schools of thought when it comes to vegetarian chili (just as there are schools of thought for oatmeal cookies, brownies, etc.) and Good To Go's definitely falls in the Hippie Chili category, more of a vegetable and bean stew than a true chili. In the Hippie Chili category you'll find quinoa chili, bulgur chili, sweet potato and corn chili, and so on.

A Little Backpacking Grill & Trail Quesadillas

Nothing special here- just a little gear review! Introducing the Uniflame Mini Roaster.

We'd hoped to put this grill to the test with some fresh trout, but alas, the wind was high and the fish were not biting. So instead, we had a few quesadilla appetizers to accompany our margaritas. The grill performed admirably, a little unstable, does not diffuse heat too well but does enable a slow roast so long as you keep a watchful eye. These quesadillas took about 5 minutes per batch to melt and brown on a relatively low fuel flow.

For 110g and ~$20, it's a fun little ditty that merits continued testing. I think it has a lot of potential at high elevation or while fire restrictions are in effect for fish cookery and toasting in general.

Golden Trout Wilderness Flatiron Loop and thoughts on the GTW

Dennis and I just returned from what might be our last Sierra trip of the season, and easily one of the best. The Flatiron Loop of the Golden Trout Wilderness completely blew me away, humbled me, lent me the perspective to appreciate unassuming views.

I think every person is especially receptive to certain scenery. Flowing rivers evoke a sort of visceral, deep, emotional reaction in Dennis. Grandiose, prominent, craggy mountains literally sap me of my breath and cause my heartbeat to rise. The right view gives me a rising, fleeting, racing feeling in my stomach like the onset of a hallucinogen. The right view can easily bring me to tears.

It's easy sometimes to misinterpret these feelings and categorize some scenery as "better" or "worse" based on the reactions they evoke- to not see the value in certain locations over others. The last time I visited Golden Trout Wilderness, I tossed the baby with the bathwater and subconsciously labeled the whole of GTW as unimpressive because of its isolated moonscapes, dry meadows, dark lakes, sparse treecover, and unrepentantly dusty trails. This was stupid and ignorant to do. There is an incredible range of unconventional beauty in GTW.

GTW's beauty is not, necessarily, in its broad sweeping views, not in its mountains. Unlike Yosemite, Sequoia or Inyo, you won't see the magic of GTW through a bird's eye view. What GTW has to offer can only be found on foot, up close, when you are wandering and lost within it.

To give an example, check out the interesting rock formation on this crestline. From afar, it looks cool- it's like a rough-hewn devil's postpile geometric formation. But it's not astoundingly beautiful.

Up close is another story. A most impressive trail ascends gently up the side of the mountain for a grand finale beside the rock formations. Up close, they are like nothing you've seen before. A sky-high stack of irregular red pancakes splattered in abstract splashes of neon moss.

 This is the essential nature and beauty of the Golden Trout. Don't get me wrong, there are some sweeping, dramatic, classic views of weaving rivers, and you'll see some in my Good To Go Chili Review, but I think the most brilliant gems are found on foot and easily missed.

As you ascend gently on this manzanita flat, its trees long lost in a recent fire, the Eastern range on the other side of the Kern River comes into view: grey, massive, imposing, lifting up as you walk forward.

Soda Spring flows generously as of Oct 2015 in the flatiron segment of the loop, leaving a humorously conspicuous, bright green stripe in the surrounding meadow.

Wild watercress is abundant at Soda Springs and along the Kern/Little Kern, if you know where to look.

Bright red sequoias offer stark contrast to the pastel green-grey meadows below them. This 6 mile flat section of trail is incredibly peaceful.

Water can be found at Trout Meadow if you know where to look! At the southern tip of the meadow, there is a wooden pathway that crosses the meadow. Along this pathway, there is a flowing creek. This field is clearly visited by pack and cattle with regularity, so treat the water thoroughly.

There is another active spring running in the Eastern wing of the meadow. If you follow the wooden path, and continue along the trail which runs perpendicular to the main body of the meadow, you'll see signs of water to your left after a few minutes. Once you have left the meadow and entered the forest, you have gone too far. 

Good spring flow and water availability at upper Willow Meadow, 1.6 easy miles north of Trout Meadow.

Thai Green Curry with Rice and Sweet Potato in the Golden Trout Wilderness

"What am I looking at?" you might ask. You are looking at basmati rice, coconut cream, spinach, sweet potato, carrot, mushrooms, zucchini, and curry.

Flavor: 9/10

Ease at home: 5/10

Ease at camp: 10/10
Heat level: 9/10

Times made: 1

I debated writing a separate post for this dish since my Thai noodle soup is so similar- but I really feel like this is a different dish despite being only slightly different in concept. This is also a dish I really want to build on and improve because it has so much potential. I apologize now for the poor image quality- sun had set by the time we made dinner, and I was a few margaritas deep, with little patience for camera focus.

Fake Chicken Mole with Brown Rice

About twice a year I go to the trouble to make a huge batch of really good, homemade sauces. Those sauces always include jerk and mole. About a year ago I had some leftover mole in the freezer to use up and it seemed as good an idea as any to simmer it with some fake chicken and dehydrate for a future meal. Throughout the year, I looked at it a few times and considered bringing it along on trips, but always hesitated because I hadn't experimented much with dehydrated fake chicken yet. I was worried it would rehydrate weird, tough or rubbery, and I'd find myself hungry and disappointed at camp after a long day's hike.

So I couldn't keep staring at it in the food bin. I knew I had to open it up and at least find out how it fared over the passage of time.

First glance- nothing awry

Food Reviews: North African Stew from Hawk Vittles

Unfortunately, tastes about as monotone as it looks.

I really want to like Hawk Vittles, because it's a essentially homemade, a one-man operation, light on sodium (which lets you tweak as you please), and all-natural ingredients. And I haven't tried 2/3 of the soups I've bought, so while I won't condemn the brand yet, I was really disappointed with the North African Stew I tried recently (at home- so lacking the hiker hunger bias). In concept, it's a great idea and definitely one I want to build out myself. Couscous, white beans, eggplant, tomato, onion. But in execution, Hawk's stew is bland to an extent that lemon and salt cannot rescue. The soup has no spice, and tastes like it. Even the tomato and onion flavor are muted. What I did like, is the texture of the beans: nice and plump, and the dried eggplant: satisfyingly chewy. It reminded me slightly of a familiar convenience soup from my childhood, except more substantial, and less flavorful.

Tofu Scramble, Potato, Sausage and Veggie Skillet

Soooo gooooooood

Flavor: 9/10 (I think hash browns would be even better than potato cubes)

Ease at home: 4/10

Ease at camp: 4/10 (depends on your stove/cook system)
Heat level: 2/10

Times made: 1

In my opinion, the best thing I made all week on the Evolution Loops was easily the tofu scramble. Easily! It can even be improved further. I'm really excited to make this again.

Tart Berry Smoothies, or Liquid Joy

How good would a tart, juicy, berry-rich smoothie sound when you're 6 days in?

Flavor: 9/10 (seed bits)

Ease at home: 8/10 (powdering all the berries is a little tedious)

Ease at camp: 10/10
Heat level: 0/10

Times made: 1

I'll admit, this is not my idea. I was inspired by the Packit Gourmet's extraordinarily disappointing Jump-Start Smoothies and the sincere belief that I could do better.

Breakfast Burrito with Polenta Eggs, Hash Browns, and Spicy Sausage

the stringies are cheese. I promise!

Flavor: 8/10 (a little monotextural, and the beyond meat needed to be chopped finely)

Ease at home: 2/10 (lots of components, can be made much easier by purchasing dehydrated components)

Ease at camp: 5/10
Heat level: 6/10 (to taste)

Times made: 1

Breakfast burritos are shameless food hax, doubly so when you're 2 days from civilization, so I'm not going to gloat about the success of the burrito here- that's kind of a given. What i am going to do, is talk about how happy I am that 3 experimental methods used in the composition of this burrito worked out, and consider the possibilities for future dishes.

Carrot Cake Pancakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Delicious, high powered calorie goodness. 

Flavor: 9/10

Ease at home: 6/10

Ease at camp: 3/10 (depends on your stove/cook system)
Heat level: 0/10

Times made: 1

On morning 4 of Evolution Loop, we were looking forward (and upward) to a 750 foot ascent, Evolution Meadow ahead. Our little campsite was deep in the valley and unlikely to receive sun for a few hours, so we had plenty of time to kill while the laundry and tent eventually dried. So I decided to spend that time preparing the most time consuming breakfast I had planned, and coincidentally the most caloric, to fuel the challenge.

Wild Onions: So Tasty

Incredible, vivid golden trout from Evolution Lake

I know this is a dumb blog title, but I really thought about it for a while and I couldn't think of a better one. Wild onions are SO tasty. And in certain areas, they're everywhere. Countless plants at every stream and in every meadow- easy to identify, easy to clean. And really, there's very little in this world more delicious than fresh trout cooked with wild onions. So how lucky are we that these two ingredients can be found at utmost freshness in one of the most popular outdoor destinations in the world?

Ratatouille & Wild Onion Pizza Buns

Spicy sauteed wild onions and herbed mozzarella, kept warm and happy in a soft whole wheat pizza bun

Flavor: 9/10

Ease at home: 7/10

Ease at camp: 3/10 (depends on your stove/cook system)
Heat level: 5/10

Times made: 1

This post concerns a new and improved pizza recipe, or at least a different way of preparing it, which is arguably both tastier and more convenient than my original recipe.

Misir Wot (berbere lentil stew) with Injera

See the little crumpet looking bread bits? Those are injera, an Ethiopian sourdough flatbread made from teff flour. The orangey-red stew intermingled is the misir wot. Although you can't discern the two components of the stew texturally, you get all the essential flavors (sourdough, berbere, lentils, spiced butter) in one bite.

Flavor: 9/10

Ease at home: 9/10

Ease at camp: 10/10
Heat level: 8/10 

Times made: 2

This one I'm really excited about, because I love Ethiopian food, I love lentils, and I love easy, comforting, one pot meals. This is also easily vegan-adaptable, you just have to find (or make) vegan nitter kibbeh, or spiced ghee. I guess the niter kibbeh is optional altogether, but you'd lose out on a lot of flavor and precious fat.

At the time of writing this post, I've made this recipe for two trips already. I can think of a few ways to adjust or improve it, but the damn stuff is so tasty it hardly needs fixing. In the coming months I'd love to think of more Ethiopian wots (stews) to prepare and bring. They're so full-flavored, satisfying, and enjoyable on the trail.

Food Reviews, Cottonwood Pass trip: Packit Gourmet Picnic Potato Salad

Chicken Spring Lake, just before twilight.

At the end of a sweltering 12 mile day with plenty of tedious route finding, I can't think of anything more appetizing than a rich, tangy bowl of good potato salad with lots of pickles or cornichons. As such, I was extremely excited a few weekends ago in the Golden Trout Wilderness area to finally try Packit Gourmet's Gourmet Picnic Potato Salad. I was pretty beaten and bruised by the time we arrived at Chicken Spring Lake around 3PM, and thoroughly grateful with my past self for having the foresight to plan an afternoon snack devoid of almonds, dried fruit, or oats. With feet pounding, I quickly assembled the always easy-to-prepare PIG pouch and let it marinate. The result was tasty and satisfying, albeit with a few minor issues.

Upcoming trips, plans, and prep

Its been a boring Summer so far. Dennis got a new job and has been too exhausted on weekends to leave town, and I was in the middle of the move when backpacking season began. There are plenty of awesome backpacking spots here in Southern California so I could go solo, but weekends are really the only time I have with Dennis, and he'd be trapped at home without the car. Huge bummer.

So without any backpacking to actually do, I've been spending some of my free time preparing meals for our upcoming trips in August and September. For our long trip, I'm doing all homemade food. My intention is to experiment with more vegan dishes, and because our mileage will be on the low side (in the company of a friend who is new to backpacking), we'll be having more full breakfasts. 

Kimchi Tofu Noodle Soup

Boulder Lake, Trinity Alps Wilderness

Flavor: 8/10

Ease at home: 7/10

Ease at camp: 10/10
Heat level: 8/10

Times made: 1

Two years ago, my husband and I ate our very first bowl of soondubu jjigae, a spicy Korean vegetable soup with soft tofu. It was 3AM, and we were decked in Halloween costumes after a long night of partying. My recollection of that evening is hazy for the most part, but the soup memory is crystal clear. I remember the nourishing richness, the custardy texture, the steaming, tangy, spicy flavors, served with a dizzying variety of accouterments. I've replicated it at home a number of times, and while nothing has matched that first bowl, it's always a richly savory experience.