Last night, I did something I’ve never done before. I drank my very first cup of instant coffee. I know, I know, I am from Seattle, the coffee capital of the country, where drinking instant coffee is considered worthy of jail time but, stop laughing for a moment and let me explain. I’ve been doing all of this food planning for our upcoming backpacking trip and one problem I was trying to solve was how to get my coffee fix in the woods. I had read about these handy coffee bags (like tea bags) that you can use to brew individual cups but I couldn’t find any at my stores. They sell them at REI which means they probably cost as much as a double mocha with whipped cream. So, other than instant coffee, the only options left involved too much preparation and messy cleanup. When I spotted a small jar of instant coffee at Trader Joe’s yesterday, I thought I’d give it a shot. And it actually wasn’t terrible. I would say that it was decent and drinkable; I’ve been served worse brewed coffee in restaurants before. It was certainly lacking body but did not have the bitter or sour flavor that I was expecting. Plus, it’s kind of fun to make. It is so completely instantaneous, it’s almost like magic! It also magically doesn’t leave sediment in the bottom of the cup like our french press coffee does which will make wilderness cleanup even easier. I found a thread on a coffee website where coffee lovers were discussing their favorite brands of instant coffee, each with their own disclaimer, of course, as to why they would even know about such things. Most people agreed that the Nescafe brand instant coffees that are sold in Europe are the best. There is also a Nescafe variety made for Mexico that is a much darker roast that sounds pretty good. I heard that you can find it in some Latin markets so that may be an option for future backpacking trips. So, now I am one of those people that has a big jar of instant coffee sitting in their refrigerator. I may have to put a label on it that says “backpacking coffee” in case somebody comes over and looks in my fridge and judges me. Anybody have suggestions for creative ways to use up instant coffee?

Robert and I are going backpacking in a few weeks so I have been busy planning what we are going to eat during our trip. My main goals are to keep the cost, preparation and weight to a minimum while still having meals that we enjoy. Robert suggested frito pie. For those that don’t know, frito pie is a New Mexican dish that, at its simplest, is a bowl of fritos topped with chili and usually some chopped onions and cheese. Last night, I performed a little frito pie experiment. I was able to stick fairly closely to my normal recipe with a few modifications for wilderness cooking. First, I made a quick roux of flour and oil. I found a tiny bottle of oil at Cost Plus so I figured it wouldn’t be too much trouble to bring that and a tablespoon of flour. Next, I added water and a blend of red chili, cumin, oregano, onion granules, garlic granules and salt. Normally I would use fresh onion and garlic but it’s added weight. I don’t want to have to do any chopping and I really don’t want to smell like onions in the woods. I don’t know if bears are attracted to people that smell like onions but I’m not going to risk it. I will not be bringing a whisk (only a spoon) so I was very happy that I didn’t get lumps when I added the water. In place of tomatoes, I added some tomato paste. Later, though, I read that tomato paste needs to be refrigerated. I’m not going to bring a whole, unopened tube so I think I will either leave it out or use ketchup instead since you can get those small packets of ketchup at fast food restaurants. Ketchup would make it a pretty ghetto frito pie (as if frito pie could get any more ghetto!) After simmering for a few minutes, I added some instant black beans and texturized vegetable protein. These are low in fat, high in protein and extremely lightweight to carry. They also helped to thicken the chili. Overall, it was a success and, if I liked it at home, I know it will taste great in the mountains. Next week I will be performing a tuna noodle experiment!

Hey everybody. I haven’t written in a while and you’re probably all thinking, “Sure, she sets up a new food blog and promises to write more often, and this is what we get?!” The truth is I haven’t really been interested in food since I came down with a horrible bout of food poisoning last weekend. I started feeling crappy on the 4th of July and it just got worse after that. You don’t want to know. How did I come to be poisoned? Well, faithful readers of my blog may note that I made some salmon and mayo sandwiches to take on a recent hike. Sounds like a perfect recipe for food poisoning, right? However, that was not the culprit. I read online that mayonnaise is wrongly accused in a lot of food poisoning cases. In fact, commercial mayonnaise is too acidic for bacteria to grow in it and can even be stored safely at room temperature after opening (I’m not going to try this, though.) The main problem is cross-contamination; mayonnaise is sometimes mixed with poorly cooked meats or, more often, mixed using unclean utensils. So, considering how safe and clean I was in mixing up my salmon salad and the fact that Robert didn’t get sick, I don’t think my sandwiches were to blame. I think that I actually got sick from a cantaloupe that I had been eating. I know it sounds strange but it turns out that salmonella are often present on the rinds of melons and, if you don’t wash the rind before cutting it up, you put yourself at risk. Since melons have a low acidity, bacteria can continue to thrive on them. Who knew? I didn’t and I certainly paid the price for my ignorance. I don’t even like melons that much! So, during this season of picnics and barbecues, please remember to practice melon safety! Believe me, you want to.

Yesterday, Robert and I did our first hike of the season.  We went up to Lake Serene at the base of Mt. Index.  It was a great hike, although the set of 25 (yes, I counted) steep switchbacks has left my muscles a bit sore today.  The lake was beautiful and we had a nice lunchtime spot to ourselves for about 15 minutes until other groups slowly began to trickle in.

For lunch, I made sandwiches - avocado, sprouts and a simple salmon salad of celery, onion, salmon, parsley and mayo all on nutty, whole wheat bread.  I used canned salmon and it kind of freaked me out because the salmon still had skin and bones in it.  I was able to remove some of the bones, especially the vertebrae, but most of the smaller ones just disintegrated when I touched them.  That’s fine, I can probably use the extra calcium.  I actually read online later that 95% of canned salmon has bones and that they are perfectly edible.  Interesting.  We also had goldfish crackers and apples.  I can’t remember the variety of apple that I bought but I think it was similar to Pink Lady/Cripp’s Pink.  They were very good - sweet and sour and crisp all at once. A little chipmunk came by and rummaged through our bag of food but, when I tried to pass a cracker it’s direction, it ran away.  That was the only wildlife we saw on this trip with the exception of a couple of trout that some campers had caught and were about to cook.  Mmmm…fresh trout.  That kind of puts my canned salmon lunch to shame.  On the way home, we stopped off at a little stand on the side of the road and bought some cherries.  Summer has arrived!