When we go skiing, we usually bring a couple cans of beer with us. Last time, Wes got the bright idea to bury them in the snow so they’d get super cold for when we were ready to take a break. He found the perfect spot in the woods near the top of the mountain, and started digging a hole. Well, guess what he found- somebody else’s beer! I guess it was the perfect spot after all.

Later, when Wes decided it was time, he went to dig our beers back up. He chose his ski pole as the perfect digging tool, and ended up stabbing one of the cans. So of course, he had to shotgun it immediately (he’s a zero waste kinda guy).

In conclusion, beer is good, but having a hot cocktail like this Mexican Hot Cocoa is even better. If you are among the millions who received a Hydro Flask for Christmas, this is the perfect thing to use it on. These bottles do the best job I’ve seen of holding the heat in.

Mexican Hot Cocoa is warm and spicy, which is perfect for a cold day in the snow. You’ll get some necessary calories to keep you playing longer, and a jolt from the cocoa cafe flavored tequila. Take advantage of the winter if you’ve got it!

To help feed you on your upcoming trips, we adapted our car camping tortilla soup so you can make a tasty and lightweight backpacking version. It’s only 9 ingredients, fits into a small ziplock bag and uses 2 cups of water. The revelation here is tomato powder. It’s basically dehydrated tomatoes in powder form and it tastes really good. We are planning to try it out in more backpacking recipes.

We were so excited about this recipe that we even demoed it at A16 in West Los Angeles last week where we gave a fun talk about Gourmet Cooking for Hikers and Campers. Yep, you read it right, we fed people backpacking food. And they liked it! That’s a good measure of a backpacking recipe if it tastes good even when you aren’t borderline hangry and tired from hiking all day long with a heavy pack on.

Emily is on a trail right now somewhere in the Sierra Nevada mountains. We hope you are on your way to a fabulous adventure this weekend as well. Cheers!

My mom got me a quesadilla maker for my birthday in high school, and proceeded to host weekly fiestas for all my friends, at least until I moved away for college. Whenever Aimee’s not available to cook her typical gourmet meals, her mom resorts to quesadilla dinners – every time. I still eat at least one quesadilla a week, when I cook for just myself. Often, I make this little “salad” on top of my quesadilla so that I can convince Wes that I ate a real meal. The idea has spread to Mai-yan, who worked it into a real recipe, and its even more delicious this way.

This post is a tribute to our quesadilla – loving moms. Quesadillas represent our family the same way that camping does – the most comforting parts of our lives, made more comfy by the moms. And they all happen to go perfectly together. This salad is similar to the trend of adding fresh greens on top of your pizza (which is a delicious trend, by the way). It adds freshness, crunch, and makes a basic quesadilla more meal-like and more “dirty gourmet.”

Happy Mother’s Day! What food defines your family? Or your mama?

The race lasted all three days. Friday was a time trial (ride as fast as you can by yourself) up Glendora Mountain Road (the mountain that Wes made me ride up for his birthday last year). Saturday was a road race around Bonelli Park where I run every week (8 laps around a 7 mile loop). Sunday was the “crit” (ride around a tight circle a million times in a big group and don’t crash, taking everyone around you out with you).

Saturday truly was the saddest weather I’ve seen in a long time. That’s the day I went to watch, and I got some good gear testing done on my new softshell, because it was hailing and windy and pouring the whole 10 minutes I was outside. We watched from the top of the steepest climb, and even the pros looked like they were going slow. Ben told us they all just pressed their brakes as hard as they could on the descent to keep them going slow enough not to die. He said he saw three crashes, and each just involved one guy falling over from the wind or slippery pavement or their legs no longer continuing to work. He said that he was so cold that he tried to eat a goo and couldn’t even close his hand around it so it just fell.

Luckily, Sunday gave them sun (haha), and there were a lot less people left to race against. The boys struggled through it, and then the worst part was that they had to drive ALLLL the way back up to the northernest part of the state. They were some tough boys, even for my standards.

They also can eat. We made 3 full trays of enchiladas, about 10 lbs of potatoes, and 2lbs of spaghetti. It’s all gone, as well as the 6 packages of bagels they brought and all the food they went out to eat as well. I wish I’d tried out this Sweet Potato Tostada recipe on them while they were here. I heard it creates a feeding frenzy with big crowds, like Aimee’s family, without the cook actually having to do the assembling (always a plus when cooking outside).

If you wanted to take this car camping, you could make the sweet potatoes and chop the veggies ahead of time for a super quick camp meal. If your goal is less around quick and more around delicious, cook the sweet potatoes in foil in a campfire and pan fry tortillas in a cast iron skillet at camp for fresh tostada shells. Yum!

When we decided to move in with John, he said he hadn’t had meat in the house for 12 years. Tony and I decided that it would be ok to only have meat when we went out to eat, but eliminating cheese was a deal breaker, and John compromised. Since we’ve lived here, though, I’ve barely eaten any meat or cheese (even while out), and I’m rarely dissatisfied, which continues to shock me. I’m still technically a meat eater, though I understand how important it is to eat much less of it. I’m interested in it mainly for environmental reasons (what’s best for the overall harmony of the earth is also best for us individuals), but haven’t officially put any labels on myself for several reasons:

1. I never decided to officially take the stance to become a strict vegetarian or vegan for my own reasons. I started by just trying it out to respect my roommates, and it ended up being easier than expected. I don’t want to call myself an official vegetarian or vegan until I have made that big decision myself.
2. I think it is more beneficial to be willing to eat the food that would only be wasted if you were strict about your diet, especially because I think it tastes great (for instance, the leftover pepperoni pizza that a house guest left in the fridge).
3. If I consume sustainable, organic meats and cheeses, the trend of producing better products might just continue. If I completely avoid those things, the industry will still only be catering towards people who don’t care at all about the quality of their food.
4. There are a lot of people in my life that are turned off immediately when you use the buzz words, so even if I never eat meat again, I feel like I could probably get more people to listen to me if I just don’t say the word.

Anyway, the funny thing about my vegan(ish) household is that these boys are very meat and potatoes kinda boys. We have fake meat and fake dairy everything! I’m still a snob about a lot of it, because I know the taste of real meat and dairy. But I have learned that certain things are almost identical. One of those things is Soyrizo, which is a substitute for Chorizo, a Mexican sausage. Ben eats a Soyrizo scramble almost EVERY single day for breakfast. I ate it with him for about a week, and then got totally sick of it. But then one day, he stuffed it into mushrooms. and stuck them on the grill just like that. They are awesome with just these two ingredients, but we also occasionally add leeks to the top, and they would probably be good with cheese or sour cream (real or fake). Soyrizo Stuffed Mushrooms. The easiest, quickest, realest tasting fake meat recipe you could make.

If you’re looking to cut some meat out of your diet, the transition can be easy. Try starting out by learning to make a bunch of vegetarian dishes first before actually committing to vegetarianism. Then you’ll have plenty of dishes in your arsenal and it won’t be hard to think of what to make. This recipe will help you out, because you’ll think you’re eating real sausage, and you won’t even have to deal with all the gross stuff they normally put in sausage- win win!

When I was a kid, something I could always expect from my grandpa was home-grown pickled beets and a hot bowl of alphabet noodle soup with a slice of bread slathered in his famous garlic butter. I instantly feel nostalgic and happy at the same time thinking about that dinner, and often find myself craving that soup.

These last few weeks have been overwhelming with moving to a new place on top of a crazy busy schedule at work. I’ve had no time to play (I miss you Joshua Tree!) and even less time to make a meal that I consider decent. For all these reasons, soup has been on high rotation for dinner, including this Tortilla Soup recipe from Aimee.

It’s a deceivingly simple recipe that you can literally throw together in less than 10 minutes. On top of that, it delivers the flavors and actually fills you up so you can go straight to the next thing (hopefully it’s something relaxing!).

I still don’t know the recipe for my grand-pa’s soup but somehow I don’t want to. I’d have way too much to live up to if I tried to recreate it. Sometimes it’s better to just bask in the memories.

You can just as easily make fantastic quesadillas on a grill or campfire if you don’t want to use your stove. All you need is some foil and if you’re using a campfire, a grate. The trick is to use one tortilla, pile on your ingredients, fold it almost like a burrito, and wrap it in foil. Then stick the foil packet on the grate, and let the it cook until the cheese is melty and the tortilla slightly crisp. My favorite part is that you get beautiful grill marks through the foil—you won’t get that in a skillet at home!

You don’t even need a plate to eat a campfire quesadilla. Just let it cool off a little bit, and then eat it straight out of the foil packet, like a burrito. If you make a few extra, they make a perfect lunch for the next day. No need to heat them up—they’re good cold too.

The recipe below is for Mushroom and Corn Quesadillas, but do experiment with other ingredients. I like to use veggies like bell peppers, onions, zucchini and tomatoes. You really don’t even have to cook them first—just throw them in raw and the quesadillas will still be great, they just won’t have that same caramelized and smoky flavor you get if you cook the veggies first. Black or pinto beans (whole or refried) are also delicious. And you can’t go wrong with plain cheese.

Yesterday, we drove down the coast of California from San Francisco to L.A. – yep, the whole way. It took 9 hours, but we stopped and just ran around in a bunch of places, noticing the redwoods, the wildflowers, the elephant seals, and the beach rocks. It was so much more fun than taking a speedy 7 hour trip down I-5. I think its important to utilize these chunks of time in life to experience the “real” world around you. Eat dinner out on your back porch, or take a sandwich out to the park at lunchtime. Food is always a good excuse to go outside- especially in the summertime.

Everything that’s available in the summer is sweet, and corn is at the top of that list. The summer sweet corn is dwindling now, but if you’re like me, you’re hoarding the last of it to hide in your freezer for fall pot pies and chowder. I eat corn almost every day during the summer, and this is one of the easiest quickest ways to prepare it anywhere. I made this for myself at home the other night when I realized it was 10p.m. and I had forgotten to eat dinner. By the time I realize I’m hungry, I’m usually starving, and immediately have a panic attack about what I can make and eat NOW.

You can do all the prep work at home, and dump it in a pot when you get to your destination, which would be especially helpful on a backpacking trip. It is plenty easy to do the chopping at the campsite otherwise. This is also a perfect side dish to tacos or freshly caught grilled fish. Its a dish that has been complimented many times, and I’m always surprised since its totally easy. I think the sweet corn really does the work.

Traveling by bicycle is awesome because it is a non-threatening mode of transportation. It initiates conversation and appeals to the most people’s sense of adventure. Many would approach us, curious to know more about our travels. Sharing our stories allowed them to live vicariously through us, and in return they offered advice, meals, and even their homes – arms wide open.

It was after a particularly long and hot day of cycling through endless fields of farmland that we finally made it to the town of Hastings in Ontario, Canada. We had no idea where we going to camp out for the night, but that didn’t matter. We were starving and craving something fast and high in protein. A quick run to the grocery store, and we popped out with all the ingredients we needed for Black Bean Huevos Rancheros.

The official version of huevos rancheros, or ranch hand eggs, includes refried beans and red sauce. It is a traditional Mexican breakfast, although, I think it’s great for Iunch or even dinner. In this version, I used black beans and fresh salsa instead, on top of corn tortillas and sunny-side up eggs covered in melted cheese. If you’re car camping or are not worried about pedaling it all back to camp, top it all off with avocado and sour cream for an extra tasty meal.

After our Black Bean Huevos Rancheros feast, we took on the daunting task of finding a place to camp out in a town that had no campgrounds. What we found was better than we could ever have asked for – a hot shower, iced tea, and a real bed in the brand new 5th wheel of the local funeral home owners. Thank you Dena and Phil, not only for your generosity, but also for making me realize that true unselfish kindness does exist.