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.

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.

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!

Food is usually tricky on our weekend trips. Different friends show up at different times throughout the weekend, so most expect to just cook for themselves. We have food all over the place, all the time. We still end up sharing a lot of it, so we finally thought to change the process last week. Everyone was responsible for one complete meal. Each meal was easy, and everyone only had to be responsible for one meal’s worth of prep and cleanup. And it was BYO plates and sporks. I was in charge of a camping dinner, which I was able to prepare almost completely at home, and just reheat in a dutch oven over the campfire. On a cold night under the stars, there’s nothing better than a hearty soup like this albondigas.

Soup is hard to impress. It usually tastes fine, but just that. At least my soup. So lucky for you, this is Wes’s. This soup is hearty, but ends with a burst of zippy freshness from lime and cilantro. Spicy chipotle keeps your belly warm long after your bowl has been inhaled. Crispy chips and melty meatballs help complete a truly perfect balance of flavor and texture. I really love this soup.

You can make this soup at camp, but I recommend preparing it at home sometime during the week, and finishing it off in a dutch oven the night you arrive. We like to make open-faced quesadillas to go with the soup. Go ahead and fry them cheese-side down. My method: lay the cheese in the pan first, then top it with a tortilla. Flip once the cheese is crispy. These aren’t as pretty as you’ll want them to be, but they are extremely tasty, and act as a sort of handheld crouton. This is a great recipe to share, so plan an adventure with your friends soon!

Here’s a nice organized list that includes our latest side dish recipes and additional recipes for a complete Thanksgiving menu. Let the cooking begin!

Cocktails

We think a warming beverage is absolutely necessary while you’re prepping Thanksgiving dinner outdoors. Hot chocolate for the kiddos, and for the rest of us:

• Vanilla Cider Cocktail
• Nutella Hot Chocolate (with a splash of whiskey)

Side Dishes

Here is a recap of our recent side dish recipes. Best of all, they can all be made on the campfire.

• Apple Fennel Stuffing
• Campfire Squash Galette with Creamy Cashew Sauce
• Coconut Butternut Squash
• Campfire Miso Scallion Sweet Potatoes

Mains

These recipes are the perfect centers of attention to accompany the side dishes. They bring needed protein and pizazz to the whole meal.

• Grilled Tempeh
• Campfire Roasted Pumpkin Rice

Dessert

We live for Thanksgiving desserts, but are never excited to have to cook more after eating the rest of the meal. These desserts are super simple to prepare, and can be made ahead of time. They are seasonal and a perfect end to a perfect evening under the stars.

• No Bake Apple Bourbon Cobbler
• Red Wine Poached Pears

Everyone loves pie and potatoes on Thanksgiving, so we put them together into one dish. It’s a rustic, free form pie that is hard to screw up. Cook it in your dutch oven over the campfire. We roasted the vegetables a bit before our trip, so assembling and cooking pies takes very little time. This is helpful if you have only one dutch oven and lots of hungry guests.

This Roasted Potato Squash Galette should be finished with a drizzle (or generous dollop) of Cashew Garlic Sauce. It’s a simple sauce that is creamy, yet vegan, making it less perishable than a dairy option. The sauce makes this dish. The recipe included makes a full mason jar, which should be enough for the galette, along with all the side munching of extra butternut squash pieces going on around you while you’re cooking it. If you’re lucky enough to have leftover sauce, it’s also great as a sandwich spread or vegetable dip the next day.

And where would Thanksgiving be without a good stuffing? Bird or no, the stuffing is an important staple on every Thanksgiving menu. Our friends at Fresh off the Grid created this gorgeous Apple Fennel Stuffing that adds needed heartiness and fall flavor to the table. I’m already imagining my day-after leftover squash, stuffing and creamy garlic spread sandwich on my hike. Click here to check out their recipe.

While trying to decide which overwhelmingly sweet flavored alcohol I was going to buy a whole bottle of, I realized they make airplane bottles of most of the flavors! I narrowed my experimentation down to five, and landed on vanilla vodka as the best choice for this cocktail. I expected to like the honey flavored whisky or orange vodka better, but vanilla warmed the whole thing up just one more level. It also made sense when I dolloped a scoop of freshly made mason-jar whipped cream on top.

For this particular trip, the criteria was – where is the closest, easiest place I can get to immediately? A quick search on the internet landed on Little Jimmy Trail Camp in the Angeles National Forest. 1.5 hour drive out of Los Angeles and 2 mile hike in – sold!

The beauty of an overnight backpacking trip is that you can be spontaneous. Don’t overthink it – just bring your basic sleeping gear, a warm layer, a headlamp, a simple meal (or even just leftovers from the fridge) and get outside.

This is a great spot for a quick getaway, to try backpacking for the first time and to test out new gear. Take in the piney breeze and twinkly stars. Your To Do list can wait until tomorrow.

We made this on our Idyllwild trip about a month ago. It was a lovely Sunday morning treat that kept everyone from running on back to the “real” world too soon. This recipe is a perfect one to help you get back to the basics. I’ve been practicing this myself, since I’ll be teaching a Dutch Oven Cooking class with REI Outdoor School at the end of November.

We layered all the parts in, one at a time, and it all came together in the end like a slice of pie, thanks to the eggs and cheese melting their way through. Mai-yan described the texture as “pillowy biscuits on top of melty, gooey, cheesy scrambled eggs with crispy hash browns on the bottom. Yum!”

We want you to be able to find all your favorite camping recipes here, so if you’ve got a family heirloom you’d like us to post, send us the recipe or idea. You can send them to
contact@dirtygourmet.com, or just put them right here in the comments below. Thanks!

One of my favorite versions of a grilled cheese sandwich is sharp cheddar and tart apples on cinnamon raisin bread. It’s a perfect sandwich to make in a pie iron, and would be a great recipe to try on your upcoming fall camping trip. It would be wonderful for lunch, and a great excuse to settle in with a blanket and start the campfire early.