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.