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.

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.

Some people get cynical about new year’s resolutions, but I still love them. I love thinking about January as a clean slate, and I love looking back on last year. I didn’t finish all my goals last year, but I got a lot more done than if I had made no goals at all.

My goals this year:

• Re-season all my cast iron.
• Learn to use my new camera.
• Learn to be a better trad climber.
• Adopt kids!

Another big thing for me is making it easier to get outside whenever I can. My life got a lot busier last year, and it doesn’t appear to have plans to let up. I need to streamline as much as I can, so that prepping (and thinking about prepping) for trips doesn’t take so long. This recipe fits right into that goal. Puff pastry can live in your freezer, and tastes delicious no matter what you put on it. These little pinwheels were quick to bake, and tasted great at room temperature or reheated. I took them on a climbing trip to Joshua Tree, and then made them again to throw in my pack for a cross country skiing trip yesterday. We like them with mustard, either baked in or squeezed on. Pesto or tapenade would be excellent too.

It’s cold and gray outside in a lot of places right now, but get out there anyway. You’ll never regret it.

Fall is (slowly) taking over now, which is a great time for us to think back before we think forward to the next season. What went right? What went wrong? Did we find new places to explore more? Did we come up with any new ideas to put into practice? The answers are all yes for us. What about you?

Some things we learned:

• Maple sugar can be melted into water to make pretty perfect maple syrup that doesn’t spill in your pack. Coconut oil can be found in individual packets fairly easy, and is solid at room temperature, coming close to solving the same spillage issue for backpacking with oil.
• If you’re cooking for a crowd, this Camp Chef Explorer stove is an awesome thing to own. A cast iron griddle is, too. We’re excited about having a large propane tank so we don’t have to waste so many small green canisters, since we do so much camp cooking.
• Leave Los Angeles for a road trip north at 4:15am, and you’ll sail. You’ll be in San Francisco by 10:30am, or Tahoe by noon. This is very doable for a quick 3-day weekend trip. We’re going to start planning more camping trips around there.
• If you’re not sure how much fuel is left in your compressed gas canister, you can float it in water and it will float at the line the fuel is down to. Thank you to the Outessa participant that taught us this one!

While teaching our Campfire Cooking classes for the REI Outessa events this summer, we came up with a few recipes. The Mountain Berry Cobbler we recently posted was one, and here is another. This is a simple sandwich that reminded us how good simple can be. We used a spicy dairy-free pesto, which is a good option to have around for sandwiches in warm weather, where perishability is a factor.

We started looking at our pie irons as leftover transformers. The pesto and cheddar were reused ingredients from other meals we’d made. When we eventually ran out of these ingredients, we switched to a chocolate and Probar Almond Butter sandwich, which was also incredible.

Fall doesn’t mean camping season is over. It means you get your favorite trails to yourself. Let this beautiful season begin!

We had planned to paddleboard camp on Lake Minnewanka while we were in Banff, but the cold rain just kept coming. It had been raining all week, but Thursday was supposed to be the worst of it. We’d already made reservations, but called the very nice lady in charge at Bow Valley SUP, who helped us switch to a half day on Friday.We drove out to Canmore that morning, and the clouds parted. It became a perfect day.

They suggested we just drive up the road to the reservoir instead of heading back into Banff, since we now only had 3 hours. I was pretty disappointed when I heard that, but couldn’t believe how gorgeous just the little town reservoir was! A backdrop of the incredible Canadian Rockies and the glacial blue color of the water were still with us.

Paddleboarding was much easier and more relaxing than I expected. We rented inflatables, which were very stable, and took them up to a nice pullover point to have delicious falafel sandwiches for lunch. I wouldn’t recommend the chopping methods you see here, unless you’re desperate. Knives and inflatables usually don’t mix well. I had a LOT of supervision. You’d really “falafel” if you popped a rental board.

These are delicious and spicy. Taco meat and puff pastry- what could be better? Just don’t forget the hot sauce! (I learned my lesson on this trip).

Non-profit and fundraising sounds fancy, but really it was a wonderful day hiking up to the peak of San Jacinto with a great group of people. Pamela Zoolalian is Aspire2Be‘s founder and the nicest most badass woman I have met. She is the kind of person that is a big deal but you would never guess from their demeanor and personality. I had a lovely time chatting her up and hearing about her recent experience soloing the John Muir Trail.

For the hike, we had our famous Granola Brittle and Goat Milk Gouda Veggie Sandwiches – my favorite sandwich of the moment. The critical ingredient here is really the cheese. It’s a creamy gouda cheese with a little tangy goat-milk goodness on the finish. Pair it with spinach, roasted red peppers, turkey or baked tofu for protein and you have yourself a winning combination.

If you haven’t gone up to San Jacinto yet – we highly recommend it. Start at the Palm Springs Aerial tram and go from sweltering desert heat to breezy mountain air in 10 minutes. The hike itself is a moderate 12 mile round trip with gentle elevation gain and sweeping vistas at the top. You can do this as a day trip or make it a leisurely backpacking trip by staying at the Round Valley Camp (note: campsites can be reserved but only via a mail-in application)

Let me know what kind of yummy sandwich concoctions you’ve been making so we can try them out on our next weekend trip.

Through this association, I recently discovered some new food and lifestyle magazines such as: Lucky Peach, Wilder, Kinfolk and Gather. My new favorite is Lucky Peach, which has themed issues and comes out on a quarterly basis. What makes it special are the substantive articles about food culture, history, trends and even fiction stories, all done in a fun casual style. On top of great content, one of the editors is Momofuku empire founder chef David Chang (my new celebrity crush). I highly suggest you check out the Anthony Bourdain narrated PBS Series: “Mind of a Chef” featuring David Chang.

Sooo… How does this all relate to Dirty Gourmet and getting outdoors? Well part of our fun is how to translate these sometimes out-of-reach food ideas into recipes that you and I can actually make AND take on our adventures.

This Walnut Pea Pesto Panini is a great example of that. I used part of a salad recipe in the last issue of Gather, added some sliced Swiss cheese and bookended it all with some ciabatta bread. A little twirl in the pie iron and you’ve got a Walnut Pea Pesto Panini.

This pesto is super simple to make, the main ingredient being frozen peas (straight out of the bag!). The peas bring a freshness and delicate sweetness to the pesto, which makes this ideal for a warm summer day lunch or dinner.

This Lentil Wrap recipe was one of the biggest hits so far. He had to share two of his three wraps with friends. It is easy to make these at home, and they are perfect for a day trip, even away from a cooler.

All of the ingredients I used here were store-bought and ready to go, so it was more assembly than anything. It’s nice to have a few easy options that are quick to create so you can pack up and get out there! Have fun!

This recipe appears to be quite frightening within the above stated tofu rules, but if you allow yourself to take a chance and taste it, you’ll be floored. Though both cold and scrambled, the tofu slabs have so much flavor! And it’s a safe, delicious, salty, umami type flavor that everyone loves. The olive salad adds even more to that.

Make these ahead of time, and just bring ingredients for assembly in camp. We ate these after a long hike that ended up being longer and colder than we anticipated (as usual). By the time we reached camp, it was late and we were famished. It was so nice to have something filling and ready waiting for us when we got there.

Happy Halloween!

Note: Recipe adapted from non-tofu version here and tofu frittata recipe adapted from here.