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.

The celebration of the actual holiday in the outdoors adds to the revival of what truly matters about it- bonding with the people you love.We have heard many stories of Thanksgiving camping trips, and love spending it in our local wild areas ourselves. Even more exciting are the trips venturing deeper into the backcountry. In these cases, it is important to keep the logistics of food simple to allow you plenty of time to reach your destination and enjoy a relaxing time with your loved ones. Keep the meal confined to the essential dishes, and spread out the work among all the guests.

We thought through a few of our must-have dishes and adjusted to make them possible in the backcountry. Cranberry Bourbon Compote is simple and perfect to accompany any other Thanksgiving dishes. It is not as saucy as a standard cranberry sauce, but has the same flavor profile and is lightweight and non-perishable. It is delicious spooned over your other Thanksgiving dishes and would also be a great addition to a breakfast made out of leftovers.

Both grandparents lived a long and happy life, and left us with tons of happy memories to cherish for many more years. Memere was the grandmother that Aimee and I shared from our dad’s side, and she passed away this week last January. She and Pepere used to travel across the country from North Carolina to see us every year. They’d sleep in the camper shell on top of their pick up truck, even when that truck was parked in our driveway for the summer. The original #vanlife?

My grandfather on my mom’s side passed away last month. He was known for seeing the most pleasant side of all things, and his puns. Every time I visited my grandparents growing up, there would be a Costco-sized tub of sour cream waiting for me to turn it into as many pound cakes as it would make. I just used Nana’s recipe, but somehow Grandpa would convince me that I made it best.

My parents came to visit me for Christmas, and my mom brought with her a pound cake. We took it with us cross-country skiing last week. It’s really the perfect snack for a day in the snow. It is tough enough to pack well, and goes great with a warm drink. It is by no means a low-calorie food, so an active day outside is a good time to consider it truly justified.

We taught three classes: Campfire Cooking, Backpacking Cooking, and Fun Family Camp Cooking. Our first class of each day was “Campfire Cooking.” This was a fun class to teach, even though we couldn’t have an actual campfire on the premises. We did some magic cooking, and made this delicious and impressive Mountain Berry Cobbler in our virtual campfire. We got LOTS of positive feedback, and tested this recipe about 8 times, so we feel pretty confident that your co-campers will love it too.

This cobbler is a quick and easy dessert, but would also go great with a cup of coffee the next morning. It’s not too late to sign up for Outessa Weekend #2 in Powder Mountain, Utah. We’ll be there September 9, and hope to see you too!

If you’re intimidated by dutch oven cooking, this is a great recipe to start with. It’s not super easy to burn, which is always a concern with cooking on a campfire, and even if it does burn, it will probably be salvageable if you just scoop it out from the middle.

You can vary the fruit according to the season, but I love the combination of cranberries and apples. Both are tart and add a bright element to this crisp, in contrast to the sweet topping. I love the subtle coconut flavor from virgin coconut oil, but you can use refined coconut oil if you don’t like that flavor. A good pinch of salt really makes a difference in the topping, so make sure you taste it before you bake it and add more if needed.

To avoid having to bring your entire package of flour, sugar, etc, measure and mix the dry ingredients at home. You can mix them in a ziplock bag or in a tupperware. In this case, you would have one container for the fruit and another for the topping.

One of the few that we did make was simple: toasted store bought pound cake with fresh grilled fruit. It was so simple, but so delicious and memorable. I don’t think we really thought it through. It was just one of those times where all the right pieces came together and we ended up with this beautiful eating experience. On our last camping trip, I decided to try to recreate (a different rendition of) that dessert, this Toasted Pound Cake with Pineapple and Coconut Rum Caramel.

Store bought pound cake is just fine here. I used a mediocre pound cake that had been hanging out in my freezer for a little too long, and it was perfect. We toasted slices of the pound cake using a camp stove toaster. You can also toast the cake in a skillet or on a grate over the campfire, but those camp stove toasters are pretty great.

For the topping, fresh pineapple gets doused in a coconut rum caramel sauce. Super simple, and super delicious on top of buttery toasted pound cake! If you have a campfire going, I’m sure it would be spectacular to grill the pineapple and just pour the caramel sauce on top.

No grinding necessary, just throw a tablespoon of whole chia seeds into 3 tablespoons of water, and you have a perfect egg. Maybe even better than an egg. All of my baked goods (mostly quick breads) have been coming out more moist than anything I’ve ever made.

All three of us dirty girls grabbed our families and went on a beautiful weekend trip to Sheep Camp in the Chumash Wilderness last week for Mai-yan and my joint birthday party. We ate this mountain berry bread for breakfast before heading out.

Aimee’s parents live close to the trailhead in Pine Mountain Club, so I headed up there a day early to prep my food and take advantage of their new jacuzzi! I baked this bread up there, and so I had to adjust the recipe a bit for high altitude. I found this chart to be very helpful, and the bread came out perfect. The posted recipe is the standard, low altitude recipe. Follow the chart in the link above to adjust based on where you are baking.

Model girls of Dirty Gourmet

We kept the food really simple because when you have five picky kids, a vegan, and a meat and potatoes kind of guy, nobody can agree on anything. The one thing everyone can agree on is dessert! These Campfire Cones were a hit.

The idea is to take an ice cream cone and fill it with different things like marshmallows, fruit, and chocolate. Then wrap the filled cone in foil and toss it in the campfire until everything is hot and melted. You kind of can’t go wrong.

One thing I like to do though, is make one special thing for our picnics. To make every element of our meal fancy can be too much. After all, the goal for us is to just picnic frequently. But it’s pretty easy to make one thing special, and it keeps our picnics fun and interesting.

These On The Go Strawberry Cheesecakes are the perfect special thing to bring on a picnic, and they’re super easy to put together. They are simply layers of buttery graham cracker crumbs, sweetened cream cheese, and fresh strawberries. Layer them in small jars so everyone gets their own and they’re easily transportable. They are a delicious celebration of Spring and would be perfect for your Easter outings this weekend.

My bundt pan used to live in the garage because we didn’t have enough storage in our old kitchen. We moved in March and our new kitchen has lots of storage, so my bundt pan now has a home in the kitchen, where it belongs. Now that I see it all the time, I’ve made more bundt cakes than ever and have become a little obsessed with them. I love them because there’s crust in every slice of cake.

This Almond Poppy Seed Bundt Cake recipe is super easy to throw together. It has a strong almond flavor, so if you don’t like that flavor, you could omit the almond extract and add some lemon zest instead. If you’re worried about transporting the cake with the glaze on it, you can use less glaze or just leave it off entirely. Even Emily, the self-proclaimed cake-hater loves this cake.