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.

Even around the holidays, Brussels sprouts can be hard to sell, but this recipe will do it, and it will be wonderful to have something fresh and crunchy to add to your menu.

No cooking is required for this recipe, making it an easy side or appetizer. We like it best on crackers, hearty bread, or Melba toasts.

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!

Aimee is the baker. Mai-yan and I like to bake for Aimee as a joke. You should’ve seen the soggy granola-crusted cheesecake we attempted for her birthday last year. (“Water bath? Springform pan? Wait-what? We have to chill it for 4 hours? It’s 10pm now and we are ready to sing Happy Birthday!”). So it was an equally funny joke when my friend from work brought me some sourdough starter. I kept it alive because I couldn’t let him down.

Aimee lent me her book, Josey Baker Bread, and I spent a day off following the rules and baking some bread. It came out “great.” Brown, sour flavored, bread shaped. I didn’t love it, though. There wasn’t anything special about it. So I gave it away.

I tried again when I visited my parents in Las Vegas a few weeks later. We were at the stage when you let it sit on the counter for 3 hours before shaping the loaf, and after 1 hour, it had blown up like a balloon and oozed out of the bowl all over the counter. My mom made me bake it anyway, and it turned out like bread again, and everyone ate it (I told them I was testing their politeness threshold).

It took me months to want to try again, and by that time, it was last week, and it was 100 degrees outside. I did NOT want to turn on my oven. I decided it was time to test this thing out as a Dirty Gourmet recipe, so I set up my backyard fire pit and got out some charcoal and a dutch oven. I followed the recipe for a “hearth loaf,” which is free form and you get to slash the top of the bread with a scalpel, leaving that beautiful crack in the top. I followed the Dutch Oven Temperature Chart we often use, but it doesn’t go high enough in temperature so I added a few extra coals. The first loaf baked quickly and burned all across the bottom, but I’ve never seen such color and texture on a homemade crust before! The coals had died down significantly by the second loaf’s turn to bake (have an extra batch ready), so it took longer, but it still baked up crusty and sour like I wanted.

This is how I’ll be baking my bread from now on, and I’m going to be baking a lot more often now that I can avoid turning on my oven.

Camping and baking can be more tricky. I recommend doing the whole process at camp, rather than trying to travel with shaped loaves. Start with your backyard. That still counts as getting outside in my book!

I’ve always wanted to make potato skins on the campfire, but I didn’t want the extra task of dealing with the rest of the potato. I finally devised a way to do it with no waste or second recipe. I cut the potato into thick disks, or medallions. They baked up nicely in a dutch oven in a matter of about 15 minutes. A dutch oven would do larger quantities, but I also like the idea of using a pie iron and having my guests cook up their. This would make cooking them into more of an activity, and it would be more difficult to get filled up before dinner. (It’s hard to stop yourself from shoveling too many potatoes into your mouth when you’re hungry- or ever).

I recently tested this recipe out while I was stuck in the latest “storm of the century” on the east coast (we’ve been having a lot of those lately). I was in North Carolina, which got more ice than snow. Though dangerous, the woods looked incredibly beautiful. It was as if every tree branch and blade of grass was encased in glass.

Campfire food is my favorite kind to make in the winter. No one should have to be banished away from the warmth while cooking for the rest of the group.

More surprisingly for me, given that I love to cook, is the burden of figuring out what food to bring. This is especially true when we’re meeting up with other people. It can be difficult to coordinate the menu so that all the components work together. Usually the food turns out fine, but it’s not often impressive.

As difficult as picnicking can seem, I think it’s such a good family activity. Earlier this year I decided I really needed to treat my picnicking supplies as I do my camping supplies so that we’re motivated to get out of the house for more picnics.

The most helpful thing I did was to simply declare a home for our picnic supplies. We used to have all our stuff in different locations and things would inevitably get put away in the wrong place. Now I always know where our picnic blanket is, along with a cooler bag, some outdoor plates, and utensils. I also know exactly where it goes when we’re done with it. That simple and seemingly obvious change has helped tremendously.

The other helpful idea I had was to come up with an easy picnic food theme. I can see this changing over time, but for now I’m really crazy about bruschetta. The beauty of it is you can have one person bring some nice bread and everyone else bring some toppings. Toppings can be all sorts of things, but here are some ideas:

• lemony marinated beans
• cherry tomatoes and basil drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper
• smashed avocado with lemon, chile flakes and salt
• brie with thinly sliced figs or apples and a drizzle of honey
• ricotta with dates and pistachios
• Muhammara Dip
• Garlicky Lima Bean Spread
• Eggplant Caponata
• Smoky Cheese and Pepper Spread

Now that it’s Fall, the cooler weather is another factor that might make picnicking seem less enticing, but I say just bundle everyone up and pack a warming drink in a thermos to accompany your bruschetta spread.

You can make fries out of most veggies, and they are all delicious. I love zucchini fries and mushroom fries and regular ol’ potato fries, but I really love green bean fries a lot. The most difficult part of making a breaded recipe while camping is the egg dredge. We’ve avoided that here by using chia seeds instead. They can be mixed with water to create an egg-like texture that will hold the breading onto the veggies quite effectively, and there’s no perishability or transport factor to consider.

The breading on green beans generally doesn’t appear to do well holding onto the beans (due to their tough skin), but when baked, the whole thing has the crisp coated texture that you’re looking for.

In our house, we top it with whatever vegetables we have around. This version is my favorite, with thin shreds of zucchini and specks of red onion and garlic. It’s so simple, satisfying and healthy. It’s also great camping food. You can make the batter at home and store it in the cooler. At camp, it quickly becomes a meal alongside a salad or bowl of soup. It also makes a great snack on its own.

This recipe is super simple, but there is one trick to it. You have to add a little bit of the water slowly, and whisk until all the lumps go away. Then add the remaining water and let the batter rest for at least 15 minutes. Before you go to pour the batter in the pan, make sure you give it a quick stir.

You might lose a few toppings when you flip it. Just scrape them up and stick them right back on top. At home, I might stick this under the broiler instead of flipping it, but without a broiler at camp, flipping it works just fine.

You can find chickpea flour (aka garbanzo bean flour, besan, or gram flour) at most health food stores, on Amazon, or go crazy and make it yourself.

Fritters are always fun in the summer. This recipe, another great one thanks to Bryant Terry’s Vegan Soul Kitchen, uses black eyed peas and peanuts as the base. These are fun ingredients that are easy to work with and less perishable than a lot of other options, which is wonderful for camping recipes. I prepared the mixture and put it in a zip-top bag before my trip. Then I fried the fritters in a cast iron skillet at camp. The leftovers took the place of falafel when combined with pita bread and hummus the next day. Thank you again to our friend Ryan Miller, who took this beautiful photo.

Did you get out for National Trails Day last weekend? If not, you’ve got National Get Outdoors Day to look forward to this coming Saturday. Find an event near you and go play!

These things are a perfect appetizer to share camping. The secret to grilled artichokes is to steam them first. I like to steam them in a broth made with lemon, garlic, and lots of herbs. Then I chop them in half (cut them through the stem side, as in the picture above).

Scoop out the choke with a small spoon and grill them on all sides to add some smokiness and crunch.

And then of course, I dip them in a lemon garlic aioli (or just straight up mayonnaise). If you don’t have the time (or water) to steam them in camp, this step can be done before leaving home. Grilling them is a great way to reheat them, and a great excuse to get the campfire started.

Spring has sprung! Go see some wildflowers, and report back.