In a world of so many great photographers and writers, I am venturing into some unknown territories, leaving comfort zones, finally very willing to practice the art of seeing. By maintaining the practice of posting daily photos, I hope to continue learning about the possibilities that I trust are out there for the taking.
Tailwinds arriving yesterday. Our friend Liz arrives tomorrow morning...being delivered by wonderful Fred Air.
Tailwinds and I laid out our food, doubting whether we had too much or too little. My food is laid out from pillow to bottom of the bed on the left side. The 3 muskateer's are NOT mine. I think I like backpacking so much because I get to play with food so much.
After playing with our food, Ray, Tailwinds and I went to lunch at the Tamarack Lodge down the road. There wasn’t much time to hike before our 4:15 massages so we didn’t hike.
Liz arrives tomorrow morning. Fred Air (Tailwinds wonderful mate who lives in Stockton) is picking Liz up in Sacramento and flying her to Mammoth. Should be a fun day.
Looking at my upcoming months’ activities, I decided to begin in earnest, readying all I’ll need for the April backpack with JJ and Jeff.
While figuring out what I need, I work off an inventory of previous backpacking trips so I’m not reinventing the wheel each time. I emptied my backpack of much of what I usually use on trips and first took stock of the most important gear, making sure everything was in working order. I even opened and set up my Tarptent. The last thing I need is a tent that doesn’t go up and stay up. After an incident while cowboy camping (no tent) where a scorpion crawled across the groundcloth 3 inches from my hand (while journaling), I no longer cowboy camp.
I made good headway today. My backpack is mostly trip ready with everything I will need. Next is planning food for the 11 days. The lighter my food, the lighter my pack. Hence I started dehydrating. Today I made Kale I’ll sprinkle on meals I cook. Last month I made beef jerky and those breakfast banana thingies I posted a photo of on February 22nd. Next, I’ll start thinking of dinners. I’ll probably buy them from this company.
Ray didn’t know what Kale was. Here is the dictionary definition:
Main Entry: kale
Pronunciation: \?k?l\
Function: noun
Etymology: Scots, from Middle English (northern) cal, from Old English c?l — more at cole
Date: 14th century
1 a : cole b : a hardy cabbage (Brassica oleracea acephala) with curled often finely incised leaves that do not form a dense head; also : its leaves used as a vegetable.
Steamed Kale ready to be dehydrated.
3 hours later - dehydrated, crispy, Kale.
Tailwinds, how’s it looking? Not the kale:-)
All the week’s veggies are cooked: Steamed kale, brussel spouts and green beans, baked spaghetti squash and acorn squash. (And plenty of broccoli and baby carrots on hand as Ray doesn’t like cooked, soft, veggies. It’s a texture thing.)
Costco’s 2-to-a-package flank steak has been dehydrated for healthy snacks. (Who says you only make beef jerky for backpacking trips.) Ray is a happy camper as his favorite golfing snack is the beef jerky I make.
Chicken is cooked and vacum sealed for air tight freezing.
While looking at the finished chicken, I thought, “I could kill two birds with one stone………A blog photo and cooked, ready to eat chicken”.
Planning ahead.
So I remember:
Canon EF 50mm 1:1.4 lens
Exposure 4.0 sec at f/20
ISO 100
Manual focus
I took a number of shots. I got out the diffuser/deflector and tried holding in various positions to alter light from the kitchen door, hopefully preventing bright/hot spots on the pan. I noticed I got rid of the hot pan spots but then the chicken lacked highlights and looked dull. I ended up taking a flash light and quickly moving it over the chicken during the 4 second exposure.
(I see I need to learn indoor lighting. Don’t like those hot spots from the flash.)
Chili is cooking here at our house. Last night Jerry, Sandi’s husband, called looking for Ray. I mentioned as a teaser that I’d be cooking up some chili tomorrow. I know Jerry is probably waiting for his call today telling him to come pick up the portion of chili I always give him. Jerry loves my Chili. So does Ray. Ray just came in from golf and woofed down his bowl before driving into LA to visit with his son Josh. (Josh, on leave from the Navy, was supposed to come for a weekend visit until his cold got the best of him.)
I call this chili Gary’s Chili. Gary was my second husband. I think making Chili was the only thing Gary cooked. I loved his chili and took over making it regularly. Everybody loves Gary’s Chili.
On the Saturday hike with the MHCC hikers last week, I mentioned I was going to make chili later that afternoon. Two other hikers asked for the recipe and they made chili that night. The next day I received two emails saying, “This is the BEST chili.”
Have I got your attention yet? Do YOU want the recipe AND a picture of the chili? Well, it just so happens I am going to present you with both.
Gary’s Chili
• 2 plus pounds of ground sirloin (or any kind of ground beef)
• 1.5 green peppers diced
• 1 large brown onion – chopped small (buy another onion for later in the recipe)
• 2 large cans (not the small ones) pinto beans
• 2 large cans (not the small ones) crushed tomatoes
• Spice Island’s Chili powder (I use about an inch and a half worth from the bottle) let the chili cook and see if your preference is to add more of the powder.
• Spice Island’s cayenne pepper – just a few shakes.
• Giuliano or any Hot nacho sliced Jalapenos – I dice up about 4 slices
• Mezzetta or any kind of Hot Chili Peppers – I dice up two peppers.
• Salt to taste – I add a little salt at the beginning and add more as needed at the end.
Brown up ground sirloin in large frying pan, breaking up the clumps into real small pieces as it cooks. I drain the cooking meat into a colander placed in the sink when too much liquid/fat accumulates in the frying pan. Return meat to frying pan and add chopped onions and diced green peppers and continue cooking all until meat is all cooked.
In large Dutch oven pot empty the 2 cans of pinto beans, 2 cans of crushed tomatoes, chili powder, cayenne pepper, diced jalapeno and chili peppers, and salt.
Add cooked browned ground sirloin, onion, green pepper mixture to the large Dutch oven pot and mix everything together well.
Bring pot of chili to a boil, stirring often to prevent chili from sticking on bottom of the pot and burning (like I have done a couple of times.)
Reduce heat to a simmer for a couple of hours, remembering to stir during the cooking.
After chili is cooked, Ray and I like to add the following to our bowls of chili:
• Finely chopped raw onion
• Shredded cheddar cheese
Also good on top is:
• Sour cream
• Cubed avocado
Ok, now it’s your turn to share one of your favorite recipes!