annecros

There's some discussion of it here: Click for Jerky Talk But I don't think jerky is off topic for camping food! I just bought a Nesco American Harvest Snackmaster Entree food dehydrator for my son at Amazon for $40. It's big enough for about two pounds of meat. I think you can find them at Target and Walmart as well. If you guys are into jerky, it will pay for itself in no time. You can also use the low oven method for making jerky. Also great for dehydrating tomatoes, fruit, making granola or homemade fruit wraps, even crackers, etc. All lightweight, wholesome, calorie packed camping food. Camp stoves are great! You can do just about anything on them, as I found during the hurricane seasons of 2004/2005! Stuff you can eat right out of the can is nice for camping as well. When I was a kid, we ate canned sardines, tuna, vienna sausages etc. It was the only time mom let me eat that way!

So will you be cooking on open flame the entire time, or do you have some other equipment? Cast iron cooking is great when camping. Bacon and eggs in a skillet, everything from biscuits to beans can be made in a dutch oven. We like to take along homemade jerky or boiled eggs for snacks. Are you guys hiking as well? Is space, weight and portability an issue?

I just hold my nose and do the Centrum liquid. Hate it, but I have trouble with pills.

Funny you should bring this up. I was reading an article, recapping a study, that showed that calcium derived from food was much more valuable to the human body than calcium derived from supplements. Click for article From the article: I knew it all along. I do take a minimum of supplements, but tend to pay more attention to nutrional density in my diet. My "condition" requires that, but my palate demands it. Anne

I love it! Wine should be affordable, good and easily obtainable. I think that is the spirit of wine. My opinion only.

Yeah, I have missed her for a while myself. When I was a shy ( ) little lurker, fifi was the center of my attention. I even managed to register and post due to a specific post that she made. My deepest sympathies.

That would be Frances and/or Jeanne. Just a couple of weeks apart. Wilma was the next summer. Sounds like we knew the same lady.

Fill to overflowing and straight into the fridge, or does it need some room temp shelf time? Those pickled grapes sound really neat. I am food safety ultra-paranoid. I can see the dill mix working for garlic, in fact hubby fishes them out. I always sort of thought of it as an aside, and garbage. I was wrong.

I've never tried it, but am intrigued by the idea. My hubby does eat the whole garlic out of my other pickles, so I don't see why not. Would be interested in hearing of other's experience.

Nancy Baggett's cookie cookbook is very good. I've cooked from it with good success. ← I second Nancy Bagget. She did both The All-American Cookie Book and The International Cookie Cookbook - I have them both and always end up baking from them.

It's even more annoying if you're a single like I am, with an admittedly limited attention span (I hate left-overs), and all the bags are a pound or over. I have basically given up buying grapes, cherries and strawberries in the grocery store because I just can't get through the entire package before they rot. Luckily, even though TJ's produce is still pre-packaged, the packages are smaller, so I can usually eat the edible parts before they start to walk out of the fridge under their own power. ← I've had the same delimma for a while, until I asked a produce guy at Publix one day if he could split a bag of grapes for me. He informed me that though the grapes, cherries, etc were prebagged, they were still purchased by weight at the checkout, so feel free to slide open the the zippy closure and chose what I need from the larger bag into the regular produce bags. I have since received similar hospitality at Winn Dixie, Albertson's and Whole Foods. And see a lot more half empty bags in same. Same with a hand of banana's. Take the two you want, leave the rest. Word. I guess I am in the picky category. Tomatoes, I pick off the vine in the yard.

And, just for SheenaGreena, Sweet Pickled Eggs and Beets: I got lucky and found a bunch of baby beets, so did a little larger quantity as I had a dozen to use. Whew! I'm done with pickles for a while now. Am checking them every day, and looking foward to cooking out on the 4th.

I have 4 quarts of these curing in my pantry as I type. We go through them in massive quantites. ← Pickled turnips sound really good. I am putting in some turnips and mustard in the garden in the early Fall, so will put some up then.

Did some more pickles for Fourth of July over the weekend. A lot of quick, small things: Garlic Dill Spears, Bread and Butter Chips, Hot Pickled Okra, and the red stuff is Salsa that I went ahead and put up while I had my canning stuff going. Salsa recipe here. The wide mouth pints are great for pickles. Easier to pack the spears tight, and you can just flip the jar over every day while they are pickling in order to make sure the cukes infuse properly.

Well, you have come to the right place! eGullet members are nortorious planners, and you will have lots of advice. What kind of facilities will you have? Are there grills outside? It's hot, so BBQ may be in order. Along with cold salads on the side. Day ahead sort of stuff on the sides. Or did you have in mind something more formal?

I really enjoyed those pictorials, and they have gotten me to the point where I am no longer cowering in fear of the wok! I wish him the best of everything!

That looks like a great mix of veg, weinoo. What makes them Middle Eastern? Did you use any particular seasonings? Beets will do it to you every time, but they really are good. Did the pickled green tomatoes and the chow chow (aka piccalilli, sometimes called India Relish) today. Rinsed the excess salt off of the tomato/veg mixture, 2 cups of white vinegar, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 tbsp of mustard seed. Brought it all up to a boil, immediately packed in hot sterilized jars, and processed in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Yielded three pints. For the chow chow, I also rinsed the excess salt, added two minced garlic cloves, 2 1/2 cups of malt vinegar, 1 tbs ground ginger, 1 tbs turmeric, 1 tbs dry mustard, 1/2 cup of sugar. Brought it up to a boil, simmered 5 minutes, immediately packed in hot sterilized jars, and processed in a boiling water bath for 8 minutes. Yielded seven half pints. I am looking forward to peeking in my pantry the next few months! And burgers and dogs for sure on the 4th of July.

Try it with Pickled Eggs and mayo, stuffed inside a tomato (the best) or a bell pepper (almost as good) and chilled for 30 minutes in the fridge with a crusty slice of buttered bread on the side. Everyone should do it at least once in a lifetime.

I used to have a neighbor in Palm Beach county that put up a sign when hers were ripe. She had about a dozen trees or so. I guess I should hit the nurseries and find one to install in my yard.

I started green tomato pickles and chow chow last night. Two very different pickles, but the same method. We are culling a couple of tomato plants this weekend, and I had a lot of greenies. Here are the green tomatoes (4 cups quartered), vidalia onion (1 cup chopped), green bell pepper (1/2 cup chopped), and celery (1/2 cup chopped) salted down to drain overnight. Here are the vegetables for the chow chow - cabbage (4 cups), red onion (1 cup), red bell pepper (1 cup), and green tomatoes (4 cups) also salted down to drain overnight. Now that they have drained, today I will blanch, can and process both batches. I hope I can keep that color in the jar. Will report back.

Celery. I use ALMOST the whole bunch, but never seem to finish it off before it goes bad. Every once in a while I'll have a potato or onion go bad on the counter. Have had to double garlic in a recipe because I allowed mine to dry out a bit.

Nah, it's PFM (Pure F***ing Magic).

The photo you posted earlier looks great, and both varieties sound tasty. Would you be willing to share more precise quantities/recipes for both varieties? ← Of course. Will post recipes in RecipeGullet as a "Grand Pickle Finale" with links. I plan on a relish tray that any Southern Lady would be proud to walk into a family reunion/funeral with! Seriously, though, teaspoon, teaspoon, teaspoon when working in these small quantities. Usually loaded in the jar before the brine hits it. The sweet ones, well, I will just have to see if I can find, and purchase, one or two beets fresh. If not, I will cheat and use a half pint of off the shelf pickled beets, otherwise I would cook the beets in the brine while I was bringing it to a boil.

We have the same issues with Corn Nuts. We reserve them for "riding in the car on long trips" food now. And hubby gets very grumpy when the gas station doesn't have any...

I use beets when I want to do them sweet, and lots of onion, cider vinegar and brown sugar, a couple of cloves, and sometimes even some fennel seed if I am feeling frisky. That is the winter pickled egg version around here. Summer, I go hot (as in spicy) and tart them up! Great with sliced tomato. Maybe I'll go ahead and do a jar of sweet to demonstrate the comparison. The two types sliced on a plate should be pretty.