My mom and sister and I just returned from a short, fun-filled trip to Portland, Oregon. We took the train down which was very relaxing and, surprisingly, doesn’t take much longer or cost much more than it would to drive. Our hotel, the funky Inn at Northrup Station, was located within walking distance of all of the best neighborhoods. We walked all over town and did plenty of shopping. We also visited the Classical Chinese Garden which was beautiful. Mostly, though, we spent our time dining out in some of Portland’s great restaurants. Portland is known for being a really good food city and it certainly lived up to its reputation during this trip. Here are the highlights:

Andina – Andina is a wildly popular Peruvian restaurant located in Portland’s very hip Pearl District. It consistently gets rave reviews from critics and diners alike. The menu features traditional and modern Peruvian dishes and has a long list of tapas-style plates which you can order in small, medium or large sizes. We chose a bunch of small plates to share including marinated mussels topped with tomato-corn salsa, grilled asparagus, an amazingly tender grilled octopus skewer and a Peruvian specialty: causa with smoked trout. A causa is a cake made of lime-flavored potatoes with some sort of filling. It was a pretty stunning dish, featuring alternating layers of lavender potatoes and pink smoked fish topped with pale green avocado slices and black sesame seeds. With our meal, we were also given homemade quinoa rolls with three dipping sauces. To drink, I stuck with a traditional Peruvian pisco sour which was as delightful as the rest of the meal.

Kornblatt’s – When we first arrived in town, we were hungry and just needed a quick lunch near our hotel so we went to Kornblatt’s. Kornblatt’s is a New York style deli known for its Reuben sandwiches. I ordered the bagel & smoked fish combo which is a large toasted bagel, one half piled high with smoked whitefish salad and the other with cream cheese and hand-sliced Nova lox (flown in from New York.) The whitefish salad was really yummy, especially topped with capers and red onion. The lox was good as well. I wasn’t expecting much from Kornblatt’s since it was just a quick stopover meal but our lunch ended up being really tasty. I ate way more than I thought I would and was barely hungry in time for dinner that night. Kornblatt’s is on 23rd Avenue NW, another trendy Portland neighborhood.

Mother’s Bistro – Mother’s Bistro is located in downtown Portland. The focus at Mother’s is comfort food. Not the greasy kind, but the “everything prepared from scratch using quality ingredients” kind instead. We went to Mother’s for breakfast on our last day in town. At Mother’s, you are given a choice not only of what coffee you want to drink but also the method with which you want your coffee brewed (“French press vs. drip?”) I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in a restaurant before. And I’m from Seattle, the coffee capitol! We ordered coffee from Guatemala in a French press. For my breakfast, I had migas which is basically a corn tortilla, pepper and egg scramble topped with salsa and sour cream. It was served with really great home fries. My sister had a tasty mushroom omelet and my mom had the wonderfully tart and sweet blueberry pancakes.

Park Kitchen – We went to Park Kitchen for dinner our last night in town. It is located just at the edge of the Pearl District. With its intimate yet casual setting and inventive menu, which changes monthly and features lots of local ingredients, Park Kitchen is my favorite type of restaurant. Again, we ordered a bunch of small plates to share. We had the chickpea fries with squash ketchup, rapini fondue with hazelnuts and bread crumbs, salt cod fritters, roasted beets with almond tahini and a salad of shrimp, roasted cauliflower and arugula. We finished the meal with a cheese plate which consisted of 3 raw milk cheeses, including one of my favorites, Mt. Townsend Creamery‘s Seastack. The cheeses were served with incredibly light and flaky house-made crackers. Park Kitchen’s cocktail menu equals their dinner menu in originality. I had the Widow’s Kiss: Calvados brandy, Benedictine, Chartreuse and Angostura Bitters. My sister had a pear brandy sidecar and my mom had the Bakers vs. Makers Manhattan sampler. It was an extremely wonderful meal. I highly recommend Park Kitchen.

Pok Pok Whiskey Soda Lounge – Before any vacation, I usually do a little bit of online research to find out what restaurants people are buzzing about in the city that I’m visiting. After reading reviews of Portland’s restaurants, there was one Thai restaurant that I knew I had to try: Pok Pok Whiskey Soda Lounge. Located just south of the funky Hawthorne District, Pok Pok consists of an outdoor takeout shack with a few seats and a tiny downstairs dining room. The food has been described as Thai food unlike any you’ve had before. The focus here is on authentic street foods, primarily of Northern Thailand. For our lunch, we ordered Yam Samun Phrai, which is an herbal salad featuring unusual ingredients such as betel leaf and sawtooth. We also had Yam Makheua Yao, a smoky grilled eggplant salad. It was incredible, the eggplant was lightly smoky in flavor and airy in texture, like little pillows. Finally, we had the Khao Soi Kai which is a mild yellow curry soup made with house-pressed coconut milk and topped with fried yellow noodles, pickled mustard greens and spicy chili paste. Delicious! Our drinks were just as exciting as the food. My sister ordered a bloody mary with Thai flavors, my mom had an apple gin rickey flavored with something called apple “drinking vinegar” and I had the salted plum vodka collins, also made with a drinking vinegar. I had never heard of drinking vinegars before, but apparently they are a big hit in Japan. They were delicious in our cocktails. Our waiter showed us the bottles and told us to look for them near the sake in Asian markets since, like sake, they are a fermented product. I looked for them in Uwajimaya on my way home from the train station, but they only had two kinds, apple and peach, and I have a feeling they are diluted with water since they were located near the bottled juices and teas rather than with the sake. Oh well. I guess this means that I’ll have to go back to Portland soon for my salty plum drink fix.

Everything that we ate in Portland was wonderful. It is rare to not strike out at least once when dining out in a new city so we were very, very happy. And, the best part? It was all totally inexpensive. If you add in one night of dessert and drinks at Papa Haydn, some souvenir chocolates from Moonstruck and a few pints at Bridgeport Brewery, our total food and drink tab for the trip was only about $130 each, including tip. And that means that I can afford to go back again and again and again!

Midway through our vacation in Zancudo, we decided to go out for dinner at La Puerta Negra. La Puerta Negra is an Italian restaurant owned by Alberto, who originally hails from Genoa. Alberto is a little crazy. You’ll usually find him with a cigarette dangling from the side of his mouth and his wild, black hair tied back in a ponytail. Alberto drives a very loud 4-wheeler up and down the beach a couple of times a day. He’s also extremely friendly and fun to talk to. We met Alberto our first day in town because, besides being a restaurant, La Puerta Negra is the closest place in town to buy a six pack of beer.

After a short stroll down the beach at sunset, we arrived at La Puerta Negra. Although it hadn’t looked like much during the day, the restaurant was utterly charming at night. As is the case with the other restaurants in Zancudo, the seating was all outdoors. The dining area consisted of a few cute wooden tables and benches, nicely decorated with white tablecloths and flowers. Funky plants and strings of Christmas lights added to the ambiance.

As I was walking in, I passed by a large basil garden so I couldn’t resist ordering pesto pasta for my dinner. Robert had the pasta arrabiata, which is pasta with spicy red sauce. Both entrees came with a pretty salad and Alberto’s homemade bread. Our waiter didn’t know much English, but spoke an interesting Italian-Spanish hybrid instead. Ordering food from him wasn’t difficult but, asking if we could buy a loaf of bread to take with us proved to be a bit more of a challenge. Somehow, between Robert’s limited Spanish and the small amount of Italian that I could recall from college, we were finally able to explain what we wanted. Our waiter, after brief consultation with somebody in the kitchen, was able to tell us that the bread was “integral” or “not white” (no problem!) and that he would have to get it from his girlfriend’s house next door (hmmm….okay.) After all of this, what we ended up getting was a perfect little loaf of really good grainy bread, just what we were looking for. I used it to make a delicious French Toast the next morning, which I served with peanut butter and honey.

On our last day in town, we had to swing by La Puerta Negra once again to return our empty beer bottles. There, we caught Alberto in the middle of making pasta dough. We hung out with him in the kitchen for a while, sharing ravioli recipes and talking about our trip. Yep, just hanging out in the kitchen at La Puerta Negra. How very Rachel Ray of us.

If you were leaving for a week long trip to a remote Costa Rican beach, what essentials would you bring? Sunscreen? Swimsuit? Thai curry paste? Okay, so maybe that last one isn’t exactly what most people would consider essential for a tropical vacation, but, knowing that I get a little nutty if I don’t get my Thai food fix in once a week, I decided to pack a small jar of curry paste with me. Just in case.

After dining out at Sol y Mar our first few nights in Zancudo, we decided to spend an evening in. A homemade Thai dinner was definitely in order! I initially had very lofty goals for my Thai curry. Wild coconuts were falling from the trees all around us in Zancudo (you seriously had to watch your head.) This got me thinking, why not make my Thai curry with fresh coconut milk? I had read previously how to prepare coconut milk from scratch in Cracking the Coconut. Now, I was finally in a position to do so. Well…it didn’t really work as I had hoped. After spending the better part of the afternoon removing a coconut from its outer pod, I sliced my thumb open while trying to poke holes in the eyes to get at the juice. Robert felt bad and offered to help, but I was feeling too defeated to continue with the project. Luckily, the small grocery store in Zancudo sells canned coconut milk.

To get the veggies I needed for my curry, I had to wait for Willy to come to town. Willy is the owner of a fruit and vegetable truck and he comes by every few days. If you need something from him, you put out the “Willy Si” sign that belongs to your cabin and then he’ll know to stop for you. All of the Willy signs are handmade and unique so it was really fun to walk down the road on a Willy day and look at them all. Willy has a huge variety of produce available: lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, mangoes, cantaloupe, delicious pineapple. Even apples, which, being from Washington State, I had to politely decline. Willy also sells cheeses and wine. For my curry, I bought some broccoli and the mystery root vegetable pictured above. I’m guessing it is some variety of taro or yuca.

Now that I had my coconut milk and my veggies, it was time to start cooking. Cooking in the cabina was much easier than I expected. A mere twenty minutes after I started, my dinner was complete! I served my curry over rice with chunks of fresh pineapple on the side. The mystery root was okay. I was told that it was similar to a sweet potato, but I thought it tasted more like a generic starch. Not bad, but not spectacular. The curry as a whole, however, was really good. As much as I love jasmine rice, I really liked the way that the curry went with the Latin American rice that we had. It turned really creamy, almost like a Thai risotto. Robert and I ate our delicious Thai dinner on the porch of our cabina while watching the sun set over the Osa Peninsula. It was a perfect evening!

As you’re supposed to when you’re on vacation, Robert and I did a fair amount of dining out while we were in Costa Rica. Although Zancudo, the town we stayed in, has a lot of restaurants for its size, the heat and humidity basically limited our dining options to whatever was within 5 minutes walking distance from our cabina. Fortunately for us, this included what is widely regarded as the best bar and restaurant in Zancudo: Sol y Mar. We pretty much ate there every day.

Sol y Mar is owned and operated by Rick and Lori from California, and they have done a wonderful job with the place. There is always something fun happening at Sol y Mar. On Saturdays, they host a volleyball tournament, and Sundays, it’s horseshoes. They have a lively BBQ night twice a week and, the week we were leaving, they were planning to throw a big Mardi Gras party. One night, Robert and I sat at the bar with a bunch of people and watched the Costa Rican soccer team beat El Salvador in a tournament to qualify for the Gold Cup (I have since learned that Costa Rica went on to win the Central American crown in this tournament. Hey, didn’t Greece win the 2005 Euro Basketball championship after we had visited there? I’m starting to notice a trend here. If any other countries out there would like to sponsor a trip for us in the hopes of capitalizing on our luck, please let me know.)

Sol y Mar has a great location about 50 meters from the beach. The restaurant is open to the outdoors, covered only by a palm frond roof. This offers a nice, nearly 360 degree view of the surrounding landscape from any table. More importantly, it allows the all to critical breeze to come through. As with everything else in Zancudo, the ambiance at Sol y Mar is incredibly laid-back. Most of the people that hang out there are what Robert and I coined as the “Steely Dan” types: extremely mellow, aging, longish-haired dudes, usually sandaled and shirtless (or in various tropical print shirts.) But, don’t let that scare you off. Plenty of native Costa Ricans and tourists frequent the place as well creating a very friendly, community atmosphere. Everyone gets to know each other so, after a while, it becomes hard to tell the tourists from the residents.

Despite the fact that Zancudo is in a pretty remote location, Sol y Mar boasts an incredible variety of menu options. Lori is a self-proclaimed foodie, and it certainly shows. The menu at Sol y Mar is huge, and there is an equally large number of specials available each night. The fish specials are particularly great. On BBQ night, I had a really delicious grilled fillet of mahi mahi. It was tender and juicy and smoky from the grill. Another night, I bravely ordered the whole fish special (for more on my whole fish saga, click here.) It was deep fried and wonderful (especially topped with Willie’s homemade picante sauce, which is brought to the table at each meal in a bucket along with several other hot sauces.) I devoured every last bit. Breakfasts at Sol y Mar are also great. The breakfast menu features standard American fare as well as huevos rancheros, gallo pinto, and an enormous breakfast burrito. Fresh tropical juices are available as is a fantastic orange, banana and yogurt smoothie. Even if you aren’t hungry, Sol y Mar is a great place to go if you are in need of a cold drink or just want to catch up on the latest local gossip.

Robert and I just got back from a fabulous trip to Costa Rica! 9 full days of relaxing in the sun. What could possibly be better than that, you ask? Okay, how about 9 full days of sun plus an abundance of exotic animals! I love animals of all kinds and I certainly got my fill in Costa Rica. During our trip, we saw four types of monkeys, a caiman, crocodiles, two- and three-toed sloths, red-tailed squirrels, iguanas, lizards, tons of birds, crabs everywhere, exotic fish, a bright yellow sea snake, a baby boa constrictor, and dolphins, which swam right up to our boat. Although most of our time was spent simply relaxing on the porch of our cabin, we did do many fun activities in Costa Rica, several of which I had never done before. We took a couple of scenic trips in a Cessna airplane which was really fun (after I got over my initial fears.) We took several boat trips, and did some snorkeling and a ton of swimming. One day, we visited a really neat animal sanctuary in the remote jungle, Santuario Silvestre de Osa, where we saw lots of monkeys and some other animals. The goal of the sanctuary is to rehabilitate rescued animals so that they can be safely released into the wild (and for those that can’t be released, well, they get to enjoy a happy and long life in the beautiful sanctuary.) One of the best moments of the trip for me was when Lulu, a friendly howler monkey at the sanctuary, crawled up my leg! Perhaps the most exciting thing that we did was the Sarapiqui Canopy Tour. This tour included a nice drive through the misty Braulio Carrillo National Park, a boat trip up the Sarapiqui River, where we saw lots of monkeys, a short horseback ride and then a completely exhilarating canopy tour. For the canopy tour, you are put into a harness that gets hooked up to cables high up in the forest. From there, you are sent hurtling through the jungle. It was a blast!

So, you are probably wondering how the food was in Costa Rica. In short, the food was great! This was a pleasant surprise because everything that I had read prior to the trip indicated that Costa Rican food was very limited and plain, consisting mainly of gallo pinto (beans and rice), some meat and fish, and fruit. While I did have gallo pinto on several occasions (and it was very good), we weren’t really in a position where we had to eat traditional Costa Rican food every day. The bulk of of our trip was spent in Zancudo, a very small, laid-back town that is home to about 300 native Costa Ricans and a significant population of American, Australian and European transplants. This mix of people results in a wider variety of restaurants and foods available. In fact, the restaurant that we went to most days is run by a couple from California and, although their menu features a few traditional Costa Rican items, they also offer a huge number of really interesting, non-Costa Rican seafood, meat and vegetarian options. Zancudo is known for its sportsfishing so I made a point of eating lots of seafood during the trip. We did have a really yummy Costa Rican style meal during the canopy tour: fresh corn tortillas, rice, black beans, stewed potatoes, chayote squash, salad, fried bobo fish (which our tour guide, Victor, had caught during our trip up the river – can’t get much fresher than that!) For dessert that day, we had plantains in sugar cane.

We ate out for most of our meals, but I also did a little bit of cooking. Our cabin was equipped with a small gas range and just enough utensils to allow me to produce a some really good food. It was pretty hot in Zancudo so I kept my meals simple. Eggs, potatoes, fruit and delicious Costa Rican coffee were my standard breakfast. We had some really good tropical fruit smoothies (whoever thought of installing blenders in the cabins was a genius!) I made fideos one night using actual Latin American fideos noodles instead of cheater capellini like I normally do. Served with chunks of pineapple and what I like to refer to as my “tropical salad” (lettuce, carrot and hearts of palm in a lime vinaigrette), it was just like a meal I would have made at home. Although, eating on the porch of our cabin at sunset overlooking the ocean made me feel worlds away from home. I’ll have more stories from the trip and a few restaurant reviews later on so stay tuned!

Finally, a beautiful, sunny day in Seattle! Robert and I decided to make the most of this great day by going on a little adventure. Our destination: Coupeville, WA. Coupeville is a tiny town on Whidbey Island. It is known for having one of the more famous glacial erratics around (for the less geologically-inclined, a glacial erratic is an enormous boulder plopped right in middle of nowhere by, you guessed it, a glacier, in this case, the Vashon glacier during the last ice age.) But, Coupeville is probably even more famous for it’s location. This tiny seaside town is situated right on the shores of Penn Cove, home of arguably the best mussels in the country, if not the world. And it is right there in Coupeville that you will find the reason for our day trip, a little restaurant called Toby’s Tavern.

Fancy chefs from all over the world may seek out Penn Cove mussels and turn them into fancy, expensive meals, but nobody does mussels better than Toby’s. Tobys’ mussels are the best. Period. Ironically, these were also the first mussels I ever ate. Eight years ago, Robert and I were passing through Coupeville on a weekend trip to the San Juan islands and decided to stop at Toby’s. I wasn’t too sure I would like mussels. After years of vegetarianism, I had only just begun to add seafood back into my diet and was still squeamish about the idea of shellfish. But, they were amazing and I was hooked from that point on. The only problem was, every time I went out for mussels after that, the mussels were never as good. Robert and I finally decided that we had to return to see if it was just our imagination or if Toby’s really did have the best mussels.

At first glance, Toby’s looks like your typical dive. Although the view of Penn Cove outside is great, inside you are faced with walls covered with giant stuffed animal heads, dozens of baseball hats and other random junk. But, don’t let that scare you off. The waitresses are friendly and the patrons are an easygoing mix of locals and tourists.

I am happy to report that the mussels were perfect, just as I remembered. Tobys’ mussels come in two sizes: one pound and two pounds. One pound is good for two people (although I’m pretty sure I could polish off an entire pound myself.) The cooking broth is extremely simple. It is garlicky but more so in aroma than flavor. A small amount of onion adds sweetness. Mostly, the broth has just a nice clean mussel flavor. The mussels themselves are meaty but very small, not like those gross gigantic ones they usually sell in stores. Most importantly, they are completely fresh tasting. There is something so great about eating seafood and being able to look out the window and see exactly where it came from.

We also had an order of fish and chips, but it was nothing special. Toby’s has other standards such as burgers and a variety of fried appetizers. Their special of the day was mussel chowder which sounded good. Also, in addition to a decent selection of microbrews, they have their own beer, Toby’s Red Parrot Ale.

If you ever find yourself on Whidbey Island, I highly recommend Toby’s. Make a day of it like we did. Head to Toby’s for lunch and then wander around Fort Casey State Park or take a hike through Ebey’s Landing.

Click here to see more photos from our trip»

Robert and I just got back from a quick trip to Vegas! I didn’t win but I didn’t lose too much either and I had a lot of fun playing. We mostly played blackjack at Four Queens because, apparently, grimy tables, mathematically-challenged dealers and obscure ’80′s tunes are our idea of a good time. We’re real high rollers! We didn’t see too many new things since our last visit. We usually stay downtown which doesn’t change nearly as often as the strip. The Golden Nugget, however, is almost done installing a shark tank in the middle of their pool which will give you the illusion that you are swimming around with sharks and other fish. The tank has a clear water slide running right through it which I’m sure the fish are really going to enjoy when it opens.

On to the food. The first night, we ate at Rosemary’s restaurant. Rosemary’s always get rave reviews and high ratings so I was really looking forward to it. It is a 15 minute cab ride west from the strip and is actually located in a strip mall of all places! Once you are inside, however, you would have no idea. The food is eclectic with a strong Southern bent. One thing that I noticed right away was that each menu item comes with a wine suggestion and a beer suggestion. We were given a complimentary amuse bouche to start, a tiny square of mushroom bread pudding with goat cheese. This cracked us up a little because we had just watched the episode of Top Chef where the chefs struggle to create delicious little amuse bouche dishes using items bought from a vending machine. This one tasted better than theirs, I’m sure. We were given two types of rolls, a potato roll and a rosemary-honey roll. Next, the sommelier brought us our wine choice, 2004 Vacheron Sancerre. It was a delicious wine! I love sancerre wines for their clean, crisp flavor and complete lack of oak. For our meals, we both went with Rosemary’s prix fixe dinner which, unlike at most restaurants, allowed you to simply select any three items from the main menu. For our appetizers, Robert had the salmon tartar with saffron sauce and I had Hugo’s Texas BBQ shrimp with maytag blue cheese slaw, Rosemary’s signature appetizer. Then, we each had a green salad with onion vinaigrette and rosemary crackers. My entree choice was the Halibut Linquist: halibut with a buttermilk onion crust, chive muscadet butter sauce, garlic spinach and topped with a tower of crisp onion rings. Robert had the crispy skin striped bass over andouille, rock shrimp and fingerling potato hash with a creole sauce and cornmeal hush puppies. He also ordered the suggested beer, Maudite, a strong, red beer from Quebec. It went wonderfully with the creole sauce. We were too full for dessert but they gave us a couple of little sweets to end our meal anyway. There was a peanut butter and rice krispy ball, a lemon square and a chocolate ganache ball.

It was a really great dining experience overall. One thing that Robert and I rarely get in Seattle is great service in restaurants. As is the case with most restaurants in Las Vegas, the waiting “team” at Rosemary’s had their act together. Dishes were served with perfect synchronization, wine glasses were refilled promptly and we got our check right away. I really recommend Rosemary’s, although the cab ride there and back certainly adds to the bill. Fortunately for me, Wednesdays are ladies night so my meal was half off!

The next evening, we went out for tapas at Firefly restaurant on Paradise road. This place had also come highly recommended and was supposedly very popular with the locals. It was only after I had made reservations that I learned that it had been featured on Rachel Ray’s $40 a day (I just needed to make it clear that that is not why I chose to go there.) Upon arrival, it seemed just like the kind of place that Rachel Ray would like, very loud and crowded and kind of zany. We shared a pitcher of sangria which, as the menu claimed, was marinated for 3 days. It was pretty tasty. Then we ordered a plethora of tapas. Most were pretty standard. The shrimp ceviche was delicious, very limey and served with crisp corn chips. The marinated olives and the clams were also good. Other than that, I don’t think it was worth all the hype. On the way back, our hilarious cabbie recommended Battista’s Hole in the Wall so we might need to check that out next time we go. I hear they have free wine! Or, if I finally win that million dollars, we will go out for caviar and premium vodka at Red Square!

Robert and I have returned safe and sound from our backpacking trip to Rachel Lake. It was mostly a success except for almost freezing to death the first night thanks to a fierce, icy wind coming off the lake. I had on a T-shirt, long underwear, fleece, raincoat and gloves that night and was still shivering. It was sunny and warm the rest of the time, though, resulting in a pleasant and relaxing trip. No bears to be seen (dang!) but plenty of deer, chipmunks, camp robber jays and one shockingly loud marmot. You can find photos from our trip here.

Here is the food rundown: The first night, we had tuna fillets (Starkist pouches), gravy and instant mashed potatoes which I spiked with parmesan cheese and olive oil. It was okay but the freezing wind turned our dinner cold almost instantly so that was a bummer. But, the frito pie on the second night was perfect! Instead of bothering with a roux and then adding ingredients separately, I just threw it all in together and it was ready in minutes. The spiciness of the chili really warmed us up. Lunches consisted mainly of snacks: trail mix, peanut butter, summer sausage, crackers, etc. For breakfast, I made homemade instant oatmeal packets using quick-cooking rolled oats (I pureed some in a blender to act as a thickener), powdered milk, brown sugar and dehydrated strawberries from Trader Joe’s. Also for breakfast, I made logan bread which my mom always used to make when we would backpack as a family. The logan bread was fantastic with coffee. You can find the recipe that I used here. I replaced the raisins with dried cranberries and dried apricots and I added more than the recipe calls for. We also brought a lime and some tequila minis and had “margaritas” while sitting on a sunny rock down by the lake one afternoon. I’m not sure if life can get any better than that!

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! Robert and I just got back from a trip to lovely Santa Fe, NM. We had a great time visiting Robert’s relatives, eating good food and touring the city. Click here if you would like to read about what I ate during my trip.