It’s always motivating to have a trip coming up. We’ve been hiking and running pretty consistently to get in shape for all the activities we plan to cram into one little week. This week, we spent a morning running in the local mountains, and we stumbled upon blackberry bushes growing right up against the trail. We ate a few on the way out, and I focused on finishing my water bottle so I’d have storage for more on the way out. It was a perfect running morning, because it was gray and rainy. We rarely get these, so I was really excited to take advantage of it. It’s amazing how much less whiny I am on cool days.

Though we sacrificed a bit of fitness to stop (for a while!) and pick a whole bunch of blackberries, it was worth it. We got back to the car stained red, scratched up, and quite happy. The day stayed rainy, so we stayed in the kitchen. I taught Dutch Oven Cooking basics at REI the night before, and had overpurchased peaches for the cobbler I made, so I pureed them with the blackberries, and dried the whole thing into a big roll of fruit leather.

It was very easy to make fruit leather, but I did make a small mistake. I wanted to show off the contrast between peaches and blackberries, so I swirled the two purees together without mixing them fully. This turned out beautiful, but created inconsistencies in the thickness of the puree while in the dehydrator. It dried unevenly, so I had to peel chunks out as they dried and leave the rest to continue. I think the swirl would still be pretty if I’d done a bit better job of evenly distributing the puree.

I’m going to try to get this fruit leather to last until Canada (August 1), but I don’t see how that’s going to be possible. If it does, I’ll give you a full report about the perishability of the product.

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.

Cleaning out your garden is a perfect time to also clean out your fridge. And cleaning out your fridge usually means making way too much food, so a picnic is a great way to share. We received spring onions and lots of little pink potatoes in our Farm Fresh To You box the past few weeks, so I couldn’t help but make a delicious, grandma-style potato salad. We usually avoid mayonnaise-based salads since we’re always focused on perishability, but we recently discovered egg-free Just Mayo. It works for our vegan family members, and we can worry less about spoilage. I made what looked like a huge vat of potato salad, but it was gone by the end of the evening.

Our picnic was wonderful. We walked down to the park closest to Aimee’s house, and family members showed up as they got off work or got sick of playing basketball. Babies and dogs ate straight from the serving bowls, a bottle of Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider exploded all over our (no longer) crispy butternut squash taquitos, and we had no regrets. We’re going to do this much more often.

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.

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.

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!

Whether you got the flu of the year, ate and drank your way through the holidays, or are just excited about the opportunity of a new fresh start, here’s a super easy recipe to start with. Layered Picnic Cabbage Salad is great on it’s own, or as a slaw-style topping to a burger or sausage. Cabbage is hearty enough to take outside with you fresh, which is such a nice treat. You have the choice to keep the dressing separate and add at the time of eating, or add the dressing to a jar first, place the cabbage on top, and shake to combine at the time of eating. It’s mayonnaise free, which reduces it’s perishability.

Make it easy on yourself as you try to implement new habits. Camping recipes like this one will make it more likely that you’ll bring fresh, homemade food on your trip. That, in turn, will make you want to go outside. Hopefully that will get you outside more often!

Have you been on an amazing winter camping trip that we should know about? We’re making plans and looking for advice. Share your winter adventures with us in the comments or in photos on our Facebook page.

We went to our favorite shop, The Cheese Cave, and got plenty of cheese (they recommended 7 lbs, so I got 11) to go with Aimee’s amazing Hazelnut Raisin Crisps. We found really great castelvetrano olives, and I wanted to do something a little more interesting to them than just put them out plain.

We’d been to a little tapas restaurant near us that makes excellent paprika olives, so we just made up a sauce recipe similar to what we had there. It turned out perfect without requiring too much effort. This recipe would be perfect on a day trip or picnic, and easy to make for a glamping party. I call castelvetranos “the gateway olive,” because they are buttery and salty, rather than the typical briny taste. See if you like them, even if you don’t think you like olives.

Earlier in the week Mai-yan shared a great tutorial on how to cook in a foil pouch on a campfire, so take a look at that if you haven’t already before you make this recipe. To make this really easy at camp, make the vinaigrette at home.

The West Rim Trail cuts across the rim between two canyons. Its very scenic, and very lacking in crowds. There are two ways to access the West Rim Trail. I took Wes on his first backpacking trip from the valley floor straight up to the rim in a short, steep, five(ish) miles (check out the post about the trip). The more common route is to drive around to the north and enter near Lava Point. Its more mileage (about twice as much), but probably a lot less work.

You could choose to do an out-and-back from Lava Point or from the valley, or you could park a car in two different places and do a one-way traverse. Or, you could do the full traverse from Kolob Canyon to Zion Canyon, which is a beautiful 40 mile trip, and you should definitely park two different cars (or plan more than a week).

Zion National Park is beautiful no matter which section you hit. Get out there and enjoy it!