Here to help is our new cookbook, available now! It’s filled with more practical camping recipes for any type of trip. Here’s a favorite recipe that you can make right now while you’re waiting for your book to arrive!

When we first realized our joint connection to the dish, we determined that it would be fun to make it in the backcountry. You may remember stories from that trip, but we’d taken fresh corn with us for it, and the weather was much warmer and muggier than anticipated, spoiling the corn before the first night. The recipe turned into a pretty sad mashed potatoes and gravy instead.

Since then, we’ve made it more successfully in other contexts, and are happiest with it as a car camping recipe. It is so quick to put together that you won’t have a problem maximizing playtime during the day and still having a hearty, special dinner to share.

I was worried in particular about the kids being able to hike to our planned campsite without incessant whining, so Kismat, Mai-Yan and Daniel devised the idea of the “Backpacking Fairy”. The Backpacking Fairy would leave treats along the trail to guide the kids to the campsite. She (Mai-Yan and Daniel) left cute animal friends, stickers, small toys, and candies, along with encouraging notes. The kids LOVED it. There was still whining, but it was mostly by me, since I hurt my back the day before the trip (you know your friends love you when they carry your pack).

The highlight of the trip for the rest of us was seeing a bear about 10 minutes into our hike! Daniel was leading and suddenly we saw his trekking poles shoot into the air as he stopped in his tracks. The bear was close, and not at all scared. The kids were fine, and not at all scared either. They yelled “Go away bear!” and after a few minutes, the bear did go away.

For lunch the first day we made these Lentil Kale Wraps and they were devoured. You can use real bacon and cream cheese, but we always make them with tempeh bacon and vegan cream cheese and they’re a hit even with the carnivores. For ease and convenience, we like to use the steamed lentils from Trader Joe’s. We chose kale and bell peppers since they hold up well even after being soaked in dressing for a few hours. These are definitely perishable so keep them in a cooler as long as you can.

Last year we cooked at a campout for almost 200 people and had made a bunch of curry paste in advance. On the long drive to the campsite, I realized I forgot to pack the curry paste! Initially I panicked, but Mai-Yan calmed me down and reminded me we could just buy some. We used store-bought curry paste, and it turned out great.

I still prefer making curry paste myself (using this recipe), but for a really easy version, the store-bought stuff is fantastic. It can be difficult to find, but a good Asian market usually will stock it. If all else fails, you can find it online. The brand we like is Mae Ploy. It doesn’t have any funny ingredients, and is seafood-free.

My kids love this, especially with toppings. They like it topped with peanuts and fried shallots. I like to add cilantro and hot sauce as well. You can find fried shallots at your Asian market, online, or get real fancy and fry them yourself.

When you’re cooking this, start with just two tablespoons of curry paste, and add more later, to taste. You can always add more, but you can’t take it out!

We are always cooking Southern food around here, so we finally did a Southern menu for our last event, the Subaru Death Valley Cycling Adventure. We made jambalaya, greens with lemon-tahini dressing (adapted from one of our favorite books, Bryant Terry’s Vegan Soul Kitchen), and these hush puppies.

It was about 15 degrees outside in the backcountry of Death Valley and the mountain bikers had been out riding fully past dark by the time they returned to our camp. They were ready for a hearty meal. The crew was a mashup of different people with different needs, so we were happy to have stumbled upon a vegan and gluten-free method that tasted good to everyone.

We planned to use hot pepper jelly as the dipping sauce for these but forgot it (and we weren’t about to drive 4 hours back to town to pick some up). We did have some cactus jelly that we’d purchased (along with a rattlesnake mug) at the Stovepipe Wells gift shop on our way in. We mixed it with the Tabasco-laced pickling juice from the spicy okra on our appetizer tray, and it was pretty delicious. The “recipe” isn’t included, but play with combining some kind of pepper jelly with some cider vinegar, salt and pepper to create your own dipping sauce.

We discovered that the desert is the perfect place to fry. Your outdoor kitchen can handle the smoke and grease much better than your indoor one, cast iron is readily on hand along with a strong stove flame, and people will flip out with excitement when they get to eat your creations. Just remember to bring some kind of container to pour your oil into when you’re done frying.

It’s also perfect, of course, for a cold weeknight celebration. Use these puppies as an excuse to eat outside in February.

The location was findable by GPS coordinates only (and no phone service), about 40 miles down a washboardy single lane dirt road. We packed our rented rear-wheel drive Sprinter van full of gear, food and about 200 gallons of water and headed out. Luckily we made it to within 1/2 mile of camp before we got stuck. Even more luckily, a few magical helpers saved us from a $4000 towing fee- but not before dinner was supposed to be ready. We decided to unpack and start cooking while we worked on digging the van out, and got a lot of practice packing/unpacking it by the end of the weekend (which is good news because we’ll probably buy one soon).

The rest of the weekend went smoothly for us, and we enjoyed wowing the event’s participants with the possibilities of incredible food in the backcountry.

Breakfast included our signature Cheddar Bacon Pancakes, but we made this caramelized banana topping for those that preferred a sweeter option. We recommend this for your trip, but we especially love how it tastes in oatmeal, which is how we’re presenting it here.

The recipe here uses rolled oats because they cook quickly on a camp stove. If you have the forethought, try making steel cut oats using our Overnight Steel Cut Oatmeal recipe. The slightly chewy texture is great with the soft bananas.

The book, Dirty Gourmet: Food for Your Outdoor Adventures, is chock full of recipes and tips for cooking for all of your outdoor adventures, whether that means a five-day backpacking trip through Sequoia National Park, a large family “glampout” at a fancy beach camping resort, or just a quick impulse picnic in your local public lands. We will teach you about important considerations for adapting your food to your trip so that you can execute delicious meals without getting stuck dragging a super heavy backpack or becoming a slave to your camp kitchen.

The year’s first winter storm in California is finally upon us, and it’s getting us excited about plans to host some wildflower-filled events to celebrate the book’s launch. We will keep you posted on dates and locations soon!

Until then, we’re back in our camp kitchens creating more recipes to share with you starting with a twist on a classic (one of our favorite things to do). Pineapple Coconut Upside Down Cake is conveniently vegan, making it a bit healthier and easier to execute at your next winter campfire.

Drape blankets across all your camp chairs and grab a Vanilla Cider Cocktail to accompany gazing at the Pleides and Orion.

At home, we place the whole eggplant in the oven, but at camp it can be wrapped tightly in foil and tossed directly in the embers of your campfire. Roast it until it’s very soft and finish the dish in a skillet on the grate of your campfire or on a camp stove.

I’ve had it both with and without peas mixed in, but I definitely prefer it with peas. I brought a bag of frozen peas and they were fine even after defrosting in my cooler for two days.

Serve this as a healthy appetizer with fresh veggies, or make it a meal with flatbread and a simple pot of beans. Enjoy!

So he is actually my neighbor now, and we are friends again- after 10 years and lots of life changes. He came to California ready to explore, and had never been to the Sierra, so we jumped at the opportunity to be there for his first experience. I was lucky enough to get us permits to Little Lakes Valley, which is beautiful and (usually) a very accessible hike that too many people are on for me to be interested. There was SOO much snow this time, though, that it kept a lot of the crowds away. Hiking across miles of sun cups (little cups in the snow everywhere that you either have to balance on the rim of or fall into, twisting an ankle) was tiring, but it was gorgeous. We explored the whole basin and camped next to one of the only unfrozen lakes.

We spent the night before the backcountry portion of the trip car camping as usual, and cooked up this quick and easy Italian Orzo Soup. It was a nice warming dish that was very easy to execute after a day of traveling and planning backpacking logistics. I highly recommend it by the campfire.

One little note: the logistics of both car camping and backpacking in the same trip are tricky, especially in bear country. We always think about being minimalist and lightweight with our backpacking food, but are luxurious with car camping food, thinking it doesn’t matter. Our cooler didn’t fit in the bear locker at the trail head this time, so we had to scramble to figure out how to store it all in a bin and bags to fit inside the lockers instead. It is very important not to leave food in the car, so plan accordingly.

This attitude is very common among outdoorspeople. Most of us have been going out there to find seclusion and ourselves for a long time. We all want others to experience this, in theory, but not in the same place we’re doing it. Wes and I had this discussion as we slowly trolled through the first-come, first-serve campgrounds looking for a place to sleep. It is often hard to find a site, but it was ridiculous this time. And the worst part of it was that some of the people we spoke to were actually quite rude. We witnessed arguments, park rangers regulating improper parking, wildflower crushing, and frowny faces. Camping is supposed to bring out good vibes and connection! What was this all about? Don’t these people know the rules??

We ended up backcountry camping, which is an option most people don’t know about (or maybe aren’t comfortable with), and it was one of the most relaxing nights we’ve had in the park. Sunset fading to a full moon, quiet, and our own personal field of untrampled wildflowers. We cooked these hearty mushroom french dip sandwiches, adapted from this recipe, on the grill at a day use area before heading out so we didn’t have to carry much with us (since we didn’t even bring real packs).

When more people want to spend time outdoors, the need to protect more places for all of us to fit in will increase. This is a good thing! But let’s all do our best to communicate the important outdoor ethics that we know, and learn the ones that we don’t so we can keep these places wild. They belong to us all.