Outdoor Adventure USA

Time to start putting together ideas for meal and whom will be preparing/cleaning up

On past trips the food menu has bordered on or exceeded gourmet fair,taking into consideration
we were wilderness camping and packed in all of the items needed to have outstanding
Breakfasts and Dinners. Most days Lunches will be on the go as we will most likely
be traveling during the mid day.

Lets start putting together a list of meals that you would like to prepare and start building
a menu.

We will need ten breakfasts and ten dinners for the time we camp, the first day of travel
(April 22) plan on dining on the way to camp.The 23rd of April thru the 2nd of May we will
need meals for breakfast and dinner, lunch will most likely be sandwiches or snack bars on the trail.
Last trip we had enough lunch meat and chicken salad to make due for about five or six days.

After we get input on what meals are on the menu we will then assign them to a day to be prepared.
We will need enough food for approx. 11 or 12 people depending on filling the eighth opening
We will have lots of pots and pans, cook stoves, a oven,and pressure cookers.

If you require any special cooking item feel free to bring it

Some of the past meals included:
Flank steak W/ special mainade, baked potatoes with the works.
Spagetti W/meatballs and sausage, garlic toast
Chicken adobo W/ rice
Omlets in a bag
Lasagne
Breakfast burritos
Peach cobbler
Steak and eggs W/home fried potatoes

NOW LETS GET STARTED!!!!!

Hey Bob. Thanks for coordinating this!!!

I'll suggest, and volunteer for, the following dinners/breakfasts:

1. Flank steak, baked potatoes, salad
2. Chicken Adobo, warm tortillas, salad
3. Beef Stroganoff
4. French Toast, bacon,

Not a problem with this size group we should get plenty of great ideas for meals.

I will add to your list with:

Spaghetti w/meatballs and mild Italian sausage, and salad with assorted dressings
Pulled pork w/applesauce and baked yams or twice baked stuffed potatoes?
Breakfast burritos, OJ
Fried eggs to order w/ham steak and home fried potatoes
Chicken salad,lettuce wraps
Coldcuts and bread w/ condiments

Maybe we could set a schedule for clean up so that the team that cooks that day cleans
up the next day.

Whoever cooks on Monday will have clean up on Tuesday and so on each following day.
and the crew that cooked on the first day will clean up on the last day.

Unless someone just likes to clean up or if someone else has a suggestion
to rotate the task.
if that works out????

Hmm... I won't have my kitchen started yet, so I should stick with meals that don't require refridgeration (I won't even have a fridge yet).

Dinner:
I can bring a good chili for one night, maybe served in bread bowls to make for easy clean up.
On a second night I could do a beef stew.

Of course, if there is interest I could bring a variety of Mountain House meals and we could do a sampler night.



Breakfast, any suggestions? I've never thought about trail breakfast before, I usually just grab a scone and run...

Perhaps the fresh fried-bread-chocolate-doughnuts the wife has me hooked on, they'd probably go great with a fruit sauce (or even chunks of fruit mixed in with the chocolate filling).

I can do
Dinners:
Dutch Oven Chicken & Rice, with broccoli, salad
Dutch Oven Lasagna, salad, Bread

Breakfast
Omelets in a bag

Dina told me to sign up for this but we are flexible if we start getting too much of one type of meal.

Fried chicken, roasted asparagus, salad
Breakfast burritors w/chorizo
Lasagna, coleslaw, bread
Pancakes with fresh fruit

Charlie:

I am intrigued, not to mention drooling, at the prospect of fried chicken in the outback. Tell us more. Do you have a portable fryer?

By the way, all of those meals sound great!

DaveK wrote:Charlie:

I am intrigued, not to mention drooling, at the prospect of fried chicken in the outback. Tell us more. Do you have a portable fryer?

Well, we (Dina) has done it for the two of us by pan frying using our portable butane stove. For the group it may be a bit of a challenge, but we have a few months to perfect the process. A work in progress.

I've been holding back making any commitments on the trip since I may have a problem with my leave request. There is a policy conflict with part of the time which requires my leave request to go up through 4 levels of management to be signed. Unfortunately, my management is not very responsive when it comes to such things. I keep telling them I need a definitive answer ASAP. I've been told by management level No. 2 not to worry and assume that my leave request will be approved.

So, assuming there won't be any glitches with my leave I would like to do at least a couple of breakfasts when we're in camp. I'm planning on bringing my outfitter's stove. It's only a 2 burner but it has a full size griddle top which is great for making bulk pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, etc. The problem if I use it on travel days is that it takes a long time to cool off enough to pack up. I'll have a 5gal propane tank to to along with it in case we need bulk propane for other purposes.

It could also come in handy for any kind of grilled dinners i.e. hamburgers, fajitas, chicken breasts, etc.

I also have a solar oven. It's pretty bulky so I would not want to bring it unless there are definite plans to use it. I've made lasagna, cakes, nachos, beans, and other side dishes in it. Most things require at least 2 or 3 hours of good sun to cook so it would only be usable on days we would be stopping early or have a base camp. Of course, it also requires an early dinner. The timing is generally good for hot happy hour hors d'oeuvres.

I like to cook while camping so I'm looking forward to coming up with some more ideas. I was thinking about a cheese fondue for dinner or an appetizer unfortunately it requires wine and Kirsch which presents a problem when on the reservation. Will there be some nights when it will be practical to have alcohol?

Depending on the availability of grocery stores we may want to consider allocating the refrigerators between those to keep things cold and those to use a freezers. I have an Engle 45 and can go either way.

At last count, we have 4 12V Fridge units, Frank, Bruce, Tom and Dave. Rumor has it that Bob may be the 5th member with such capability. Charlie may have a similar set-up in the Sportsmobile. With 6 of us able to keep food refrigerated without the need for ice, we probably won't need to stop to shop.

We should plan to carry everything that we will need and go shopping only when absolutely necessary.