canoe country cuisine

o by Dave Foley Eating Well In The Wild training like a pack animal S over portages, paddling into wind-whipped waves and searching for a campsite, you've quite forgotten it has been several hours since lunch, but your body hasn't. Sud­ denly, as you step onto a granite slab to check out your overnight home, hunger pangs well up. You are starving for dinner. Though kept at bay with handfuls of trail snacks at portage landings or paddling breaks, the wilderness appe­ tite-like some creature within you-must be satisfied. If you are hungry enough, almost any food will knock back the craving. I discovered this on a solo overnight as a Boy Scout, when ants became stuck in my gooey bread dough. Desper­ ately hungry, I rolled the dough around a stick, thrust it into the flames of my campfire and, soon after, ate the sticky mess despite the insect garnish. The palatability of most camp meals falls somewhere between the Donner Party menu and what you order in a restaurant where the waiter carries a chalkboard and later returns with a pepper grinder. The best camp cooks dig into dinner packs and whip together meals which, even if served at home, would draw raves. Essentially what you put on your plate depends on how much you are willing to lug down a portage trail. BWfs publisher Stu Osthoff's trip menus feature steaks, chicken breasts, bratwurst and ground beef plus lots of fruits and produce. These are all carried between layers of ice in a food pack system which keeps food Eggs, onions, potatoes, garlic and cheese are fresh food supplements that add variety and taste to the standard canoe country dried food menu. (Wink Lake) .

58 /the BOUNDARY WATERS JOURNAL Taco Tuesday in the BWCA w. You do not have to settle for bland, expensive, measly portion freeze-dried food on your canoe trips. You can pack-in ice to keep foods fresh or select non-perishable real food. (Fourtown Lake) fresh for almost a week. We when I hoist a pack onto my dinners of that era typically :wouldn't hesitate to accept an shoulders or lift it out of the had the texture of wet papier­ invitation to dine with that canoe, my back complains. As mache. Today these meals-in-a­ crew. However, even though alluring as campsite dinners of sack actually taste pretty much these packs are comfortable to steak or chicken might be, if we like they're supposed to; how­ wear, the weight of the con­ carried those into the bush, as ever, there are plenty of tastier tents scare us. well as the ice needed to keep and cheaper options available. My wife Cyndy and I are both them fresh, the extra weight Our food planning starts at small-framed lightweights and bulk in our packs would home, where we draw up a whose bodies, while ideal for mean we would have to rough menu, inventory our running, are pretty inadequate shorten our trip length. kitchen, develop a shopping for assuming the role of When making trip food list and then head for our local packhorse. We begin our ten to choices, if weight and conve­ grocery store. Into our cart go twelve day Quetico trips with nience take precedence or the same foods you would find three full portage packs, each you're not charmed by outdoor in most pantries: boxes of rice, weighing about fifty to sixty cooking, then the racks of pudding, pasta, tortillas, pounds. Since we tend to freeze dried and dehydrated Bisquick mixes and soup change campsites most nights entrees which line the walls of packages. The ingredients for and usually portage two or outfitter and camping stores trail mixes-nuts, chocolate, three dozen times on a trip, will serve you well. These just­ dried fruits and seeds get piled those packs spend a lot of time add-water meals have come a into the cart as well. on our backs and being jerked long way since the 1970s when Moving into the produce in/out of our canoe. comments about these meals section, we select hardy non­ Even though we prepare by sounded like "I think this crushables like smaller pota­ doing sessions in the weight might be lasagna but it could toes, onions, carrots, cabbage, room throughout the year, be hunter's stew." Freeze dried fresh garlic, avocados, apples,

SPRING 2009 59 lemons and limes. From the dairy rack we pick up eggs, which will later be safely packed in a sturdy plastic egg carrier, and also purchase bricks of cheese which, surpris­ ingly, hang tough even during hot summer trips. After travel­ ing for several hot days, the cheese may begin to ooze a bit but still tastes great. Pre-grated cheese, however, can be a problem as it may develop non­ eradicable mold. It is surpris­ ing how durable most foods are, even when pressed into a jam-packed portage pack. The real work starts in our kitchen. While I'm out testing our stove, sharpening knives and collecting our camping equipment, Cyndy, with boxes of ziplocks and a bulk roll of plastic food storage bags, puts together the meals. I'm the gear ­ guy and she's the food person, so the details concerning the packing and cooking of meals Those who can bake up fresh pizza, muffins and cakes in comes largely from her. canoe country are always very popular. For about two days our kitchen counter and table • ofTqp rIVe Shops in USA" become an assembly area acker rotagazine strewn with containers, bags,' Outdoor• Equipment Store" small plastic bottles and food / 5T. PAUL Magazine packets as the ingredients for each dinner are allocated and OUTDOOR bagged. Most foods and season­ A~TURE ings are packed in plastic bags. J;",PO Messy ingredients such as 100 Presentations, butter, cooking oils, vinegar, 70 Exhibitors, SALE! brown sugar, syrup, jams and Radical Reels FIlm Festival World's LargeRI Canoe and Kayak Auction! salsa which can be crushed or spilled are put in high-quality durable plastic jars with screw­ top lids which are made for backcountry travel. Into each dinner bag goes the basic cooking instructions, elipped from the package or recipe, along with smaller bags of ingredients. If the ingredient Bell and Wenonah Canoes isn't readily identifiable such plus the largest selection of kayaks in Minnesota - BY FAR! as Bisquick, flour or powdered And as the name implies: milk then a correctly labeled The premier source for climbing, XC skiing, and backpacking gear in the Midwest. swatch of paper is dropped Visit us in Minneapolis or at: into the bag. It takes several www.midwestmtn.com hours to pack it all. If you don't have the time to devote to this locally owned since 1971 . 309 Cedar Ave. So. MPlS MN 55454 task, or the eagerness to be a 612.339.3433 1.888.999.1077 [email protected]

60 /theBOUNDARY WATERS JOURNAL wilderness cook, you might do on Thai and Middle Eastern meal selection. To backs al­ better buying prepackaged entrees. Shopping in the "Inter­ ready tender from toting heavy meals at the store. national Foods" aisle of a large packs overland, it becomes Being sure you have every­ grocery store you will find obvious that food fed to the thing you need on a trip is one packaged dinners under labels stomach is that much less thing; being able to put your such as "Simply Asia" or "Near poundage to be carried on the hands on it when you want it is East." Working from cooking shoulders. Consequently, when another. I wasted too much directions she has clipped from the cook asks what the group time rooting through food bags the box and inserted into the wants for dinner, she is likely searching for a particular item meal package along with the to hear the response, "What until Cyndy finally solved the addition of appropriate season­ weighs the most?" You can bet problem. ings these meals charm even the first dinners chosen will be We now pack our food in picky eaters. the heaviest. colored stuff bags: drinks are in With just the two of us to For ten years I was trip leader the black bag, breads and feed on our trips nowadays, the at a YMCA camp. Kids are crackers are in the blue one, range of menu options is fairly notoriously finicky eaters. purple has the desserts and extensive. When our kids, as Many will blanch at the treats, while trail mixes, nuts young teens, and their friends thought of onions or garlic and fruit are in the brown one traveled with us, Cyndy made infiltrating the dinner stew. and a series of silver bags have sure the meal plan would be While it may be fair to justify Magic Marker labels of "din­ appealing to that group. Obvi­ discretely adding flavor en­ ners," "baking materials" and ously you can't cater to every hancers like garlic or onions "breakfast." Other distinctive whim, but if the troops reject without telling the crew, I may bags contain spices, produce the meal, they will be dragging have violated camp cookery and cheeses. A chart written on and whining on the portages ethics by not divulging the sturdy cardboard in waterproof the next day. presence of a horsefly in one of ink stuck in the top of the pack Besides this isn't the military, our meals. takes the guesswork out of food it's a vacation. By the end of On that occasion I was super­ selection by reminding us what the day, when the hiss of the vising the preparation of a large is found in each colored stuff camp stove starts, everyone's pot of beef stew. As I stood bag. brain drops to their stomach. next to a camper who was A first consideration for the The fish may be jumping, the stirring the stew, a large horse­ food preparer is the palates of loons calling and the sun fly suddenly dive- bombed into the camping group. Since most sinking in a reddish-orange the mixture and disappeared of our meals are one-pot affairs, picture postcard scene, but all from sight. Frantically we Cyndy strives to come up with eyes are focused on the dinner probed the thick brown liquid a series of dinners everyone pot. but could find no trace of the will eat. However, being a The transition to camp food fly. The kid's eyes widened. He person who loves to cook, she can be tough. One day you're drew in a breath, and I knew he isn't afraid to venture beyond looking into a refrigerator or at was about to announce our what is considered traditional a restaurant menu and the next predicament to everyone. camping food. (Editor's note: I you're watching someone Desperately I shushed him, have never met anyone who groping in a Duluth pack for quickly pointing out that if the actually loves to cook. Cyndy's dinner. To ease the transition, stew went uneaten, there was patience and talents far exceed when traveling with our kids no backup plan for supper. mine. Fresh food tastes great, and their friends, the first So we sounded the dinner provides the calories a wilder­ night's menus included foods call and piled the campers' ness appetite demands and is they enjoyed such as spaghetti dishes full. While they eagerly pretty quick to pack and cook. or macaroni. Once they became devoured the stew, the two of As for the weight of our food accustomed to the routines of us gingerly checked every packs shortening our routes­ the trip and expedition appe­ spoonful. Then we ladled out that will be a cold day in .... ) tites kicked in, they were ready seconds; the pot washer volun­ When cooking at home, to consume just about anything teer scraped the pot clean and Cyndy experiments with meals, set on a plate before them. No ate the last remnants of the noting which dishes could be doubt this is why freeze dried meal. No fly was ever found. adapted to our one-burner dinners are still consumed. The vast majority of trip meals camp stove or the cooking fire. Mindful of a week's worth of are much less dramatic. Consequently, on the shores of portages looming, weight Over the years, Cyndy and I Quetico lakes we have dined becomes a consideration in have developed a routine.

SPRING 2009 61 all the leftover cheese which is Wilderness Lake Motel & Cabins added to a pot of cooked maca­ OPEN ALL YEAR, MEALS AVAILABLE roni and then baked. Soup, chili and stew make regular appearances on our dinner menu. Starting with a base of rice, pasta or beans, bits of vacuum packed chicken or Srn!!ty's .. Fishing .. Hunting tuna are added along with Snowbank .. Hiking ..XC Skiing dehydrated items like celery, 14564 Snow Lodge Rd carrots, green peppers, raisins, Ely, MN 55731 ..Heated Ice Houses red chilies or tomatoes. Fresh 218·365·6032 or Toll Free 1·800·950·8310 produce such as cabbage, potatoes, carrots and onions often find their way into the soup or stew as well. Typically, we try to leave camp dos which taste great on crack­ Cyndy, following the direc­ early to improve our chances of ers or tortillas during travel tions clipped from the Bisquick seeing wildlife and to -log a few breaks the next day. (Leave the box, combines baking mix with hours of paddling time before pit in the guacamole to keep it powdered milk and water in a the midday winds come up. from discoloring.) Another plastic bag, creating chunks of Consequently, breakfasts are favorite lunch treat are hard­ dough that when plopped into simple: coffee for Cyndy, cocoa boiled eggs which she prepares the soup become dumplings. for me, a bowl of steaming hot at night for the next day. Focaccia, a thick round I cereal with a layer of brown By suppertime we are ready flatbread flavored with cheese sugar on top and we are good for heavier fare. Since the and pizza-type seasonings, to go. If the weather is warm, dinners were assembled at which can be bought at deli­ we may start the day with home, each evening Cyndy type bakeries goes well with granola bars. If it's a layover extracts one bag from the pack soup or stew. day or raining, scrambled eggs and follows instructions on the When the day turns cold or a or pancakes covered with enclosed recipe. Vital to the lake filled with whitecaps syrup are appealing options. operation are the seasonings. keeps you at the campsite, the As we break camp, Cyndy Packaged in plastic bags and focus is on food. This was sets aside items for lunch and small plastic bottles are an never truer than the second travel snacks to be carried in assortment of spices including week of September in 2007, day packs so our main packs oregano, cumin, basil, nutmeg, when the weather took an won't have to be opened until cinnamon, salt, pepper as well abrupt about-face from sum­ we make camp in the after­ as curry and chili powders. mer. Cold north winds sent noon. During travel days, we Rarely is an item like a temperatures diving into the try to stop at least every hour­ package of store-bought spa­ forties, and intermittent rains and-a-half and grab sOrriething ghetti sauce left as is. Into the drenched our Suzanette Lake to eat. Favorite snack options reconstituted sauce go a few campsite. Waves pounding the include dried fruits, summer dried tomatoes, pinches of shoreline guaranteed our travel sausage, crackers with cheese, oregano and basil, a chopped would be limited to walks jam or peanut butter and jerky. garlic clove and a bay leaf. around our island. (To keep crackers from getting Simmered and poured over a After emerging from our tent crushed, we keep them in the plate of angel hair pasta, this that morning, while I worked box; however to save space, all sauce will be comparable to to lash down our flapping tarp, other boxes are discarded when that served by any Italian Cyndy cooked a batch of Red we pack for the trip.) restaurant. (Editor: Meatless?) River cereal and served it with At home before the trip, Cheese is another ingredient a layer of brown sugar on top. working from stocks of seeds, which is essential to our menu. Soon after, the rain stopped but nuts, chocolate and dried fruit, Bricks of pepperjack, cheddar, the wind went up a notch. Cyndy makes snack mixes­ mozzarella and Swiss get I wandered toward the some salty and others sweet. At chipped away during lunch island's interior looking for the campsite, Cyndy may put and grated or sliced into dinner firewood as Cyndy pulled open together hummus from a entrees like enchiladas or the food pack and began to freeze-dried mix and macaroni and cheese. Often the assemble the makings of a fruit guacamole using fresh avoca­ last dinner of the trip features cobbler. She selected dried

62 /theBOUNDARY WATERS JOURNAL apples, cherries, apricots and golden raisins, placed them in a bowl and added water allow­ ing the mixture to hydrate for twenty minutes. Then she shook in some brown sugar along with some of her cinna­ mon/sugar mixture. Setting that aside, she mixed water, Bisquick and few small pieces ofbutter to create a dough which became dumplings when added to the fruit mix­ ture just after it had come to a boil. The pot was then covered and cooked for fourteen min­ utes. The resulting hot cobbler was an unforgettable savory Our pizza dough was pressed personal favorite, gingerbread treat. into the greased Fry-Bake pan. covered with a lemon butter In the afternoon, to escape Before the pan was set on the glaze. the cold penetrating winds we stove, Cyndy placed a metal For cooking gear we use hiked inland and sat reading in disk on the burner and laid a pretty much what everyone protected hollows beneath pine half-dozen marble-sized stones takes into the back country. trees. With little else to occupy on the disk. She placed the Our stove, a MSR Windpro, has our minds, we began to think Fry-Bake pan on top of the worked well, but we have also of food again. When Cyndy stones. (By raising the pan successfully used the MSR mused about baking pizza I above the burner and creating a Whisperlite and single burner immediately endorsed the idea. layer of air and a second layer white gas stoves. Being able to Soon we were back under the of metal between the pan and adjust the flame is a plus for I tarp. Cyndy, using a commer­ the burner, the heat was less cooking. In addition to com­ I . cially made roll mix, added intense allowing the dough to mon kitchen utensils like a I yeast and made dough. Placing bake without scorching or spatula, ladle, wooden spoon I the mixture in a plastic bag, burning.) and pots, Cyndy also takes a she had me stick it under my After baking the dough for small grater and plastic cutting shirt up against my stomach about ten minutes, I removed board. A pair of heavy work where body heat would help the pan from the heat, popped gloves is indispensable for the dough to rise. Looking a bit off the lid and flipped the lifting hot pots off the stove or pregnant, I held the dough in dough. Meanwhile Cyndy moving items cooking in a place for about an hour until it added water to a small con­ campfire. swelled to double its original tainer of tomato paste, dried For baking projects in the size and was ready to bake. tomatoes and spices to create a campfire we use heavy duty Baking used to be problem­ sauce. After spreading the aluminum foil. A filet of fish, atic for us. Aluminum cook­ mixture over the baked dough, small chunks of potato, carrot ware didn't yield the results we grated cheeses were sprinkled pieces, onion, lemon slices, needed, and we didn't want to on and pepperoni slices were and a few ounces of water all carry a heavy Dutch oven. added. I resealed the pan and seasoned with salt and pepper About ten years ago, however, put it back on the circle of then wrapped in a foil packet we discovered the Banks Fry­ stones on the stove top. Ten and stuffed in the coals of a Bake pan, a lightweight pan minutes later I uncovered a campfire yield a tasty meal that features a tight-fitting top pizza that looked and tasted with no dishes to wash. which allows it to be placed in like the real thing. Over a quarter-century of a fire or covered with coals for On rainy, cold or blustery backcountry cooking has made baking. The pan can also be days when staying in camp us aware that just because you washed with abrasives like .seems more alluring than are in the wilderness doesn't sand or scrub pads as well as venturing out, invariably the mean you have to put up with used with metal utensils with­ food pack gets opened and second rate culinary experi­ out damaging its no-stick Cyndy begins a baking project. ences. You and your appetite surface. Learn more at Soon we are munching on hot deserve better, and you can www.frybake.com. bread, cinnamon rolls or, my make it happen. 0 ­

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