camping cuisine

My husband and I just returned from a few days of canoe camping in the Adirondacks along with a college friend and his girlfriend. We enjoyed great food while out in the woods and already have ideas for our next camping menu. Breakfasts were a highlight for me: the best were bacon, eggs and fried potatoes (leftover from dinner the night before) and wild berry pancakes (raspberries and blueberries were growing right next to one of our campsites). One advantage of canoe camping is that you don't have to carry all the gear--the boat does all the work. So we brought a lot of food, including a cooler stuffed with fresh vegetables, fruit, eggs, bacon and plenty of cheese. All of this great cooking was also made possible by our friend's camping stove, a well designed and efficient little white gas burner. Anyway, here's some pictures:

Dinner preparations the first night in the wilderness: on the left, Kevin stirs the pasta (which will be mixed with sauce, fried onions, peppers and garlic, and meatballs) while on the right, Krestia shaves thin slices of Parmesan to go on top.


Breakfast a day later: on the left, McNeill cooks bacon over the cooking stove while, on the right, Kevin fries potatoes and attends to the water for hot drinks over the campfire.

the borscht experiment

After having beets in my fridge for at least 2 weeks, I teamed up with a fellow CSA member and cook to figure out how to use them up. We combined ingredients and recipes and shared a meal of cold beet borscht for dinner a few days ago. I have never really been a fan of beets but this was surprisingly good--beets and potatoes pureed with vinegar and salt, chilled, and topped with sour cream, chopped hard boiled eggs, green onions, dill, and cilantro.