New Trangia 27 owner, need cooking lessons!

[Jeryx]

I would put my kitchen skill at somewhere around the level of a college student. I have done almost no actual trail cooking, but have just picked up a trangia 27-8 cookset. Now I have to figure out what and how to actually cook over it.
Hot drinks and ramen? No problem. Anything thats "just add hot water" I am set for. An "advanced" box of mac and cheese was next, and while the mac cooked perfectly, it completely filled the pot afterwards! attempting to stir in the cheese powder got quite messy. Good thing theres two pots in the set.

Is there maybe a website that has total noob alcohol stove cooking lessons? My next task is a box of rice a roni over this thing. I know the frypan wont hold a whole box, and I doubt the pots will either. So anyone with an alcohol stove, how do you guys do roni? Am I doomed to break down and pre-portion everything I buy, or could someone suggest some off the shelf foods with trangia friendly portions? I've got 2 pots, a kettle and frypan. with what I paid for this kit I'd like to learn to use it to its full potential!

[The Old Boot]

You probably want to portion pack the mac and cheese and the rice a roni anyways. If you look at the box, each is meant for more than one serving/package although I find that they both are seriously underestimating the size of each portion.

There aren't many foods out there except for ramen noodles that ARE packaged in single serving sizes except for the stuff like Mountain House meals which are all just add water.

I'd seriously suggest learning to cook in a real kitchen, not just because it will be easier but also because cooking skills are a much needed skill in life anyways.

Once you're somewhat competent in a 'real' kitchen, transferring those skills to single serve meals on the trail will be much easier.

[Jeryx]

I'd seriously suggest learning to cook in a real kitchen, not just because it will be easier but also because cooking skills are a much needed skill in life anyways.

Once you're somewhat competent in a 'real' kitchen, transferring those skills to single serve meals on the trail will be much easier.

I am fairly competent in a real kitchen. Some of that translates over to the camp kitchen, some of it doesnt, and some of it just plain gets in the way! I'll use the box of roni I made tonight as an example..
Real kitchen, saute the vermicilli in oil in a large pan, add 2 cups of water, boil, add seasoning and simmer until done, stirring occasionally. The rice absorbs the water or it steams off on the heat.
Trangia, no way to saute that much stuff in the pan, at least not on the 27. So I boiled 2 cups water in one of the pots, dumped the box, waited until a rolling boil, and stuck the pot in a cozy for 20 minutes.
Those of you that have done this before are wondering just how much water the rice was still swimming in 20 minutes later. The answer is, getting the strainer disc for the cookset was a very good move on my part. As was waiting until this point to add the seasoning.

Lesson learned, same as oatmeal, use less water than the stove top directions call for. Yet this didnt apply to the mac N cheese. So when to use less water? How much less? I get that this is a learning process, and part of the experience. I'm just wondering if theres a collection of basics out there that that might take some of the wheel reinventing out of the process for me. Google is not my friend, it keeps trying to sell me things its been paid to try to sell me.

[Mountain Mike]

Websites:

http://www.hungryhammockhanger.com/index.html
http://www.trailcooking.com/

My two favorie cookbooks, although not specific to alcohol cooking:

http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-One-Burner-Way-3rd-Backcountry/dp/0762782110/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384570326&sr=8-1&keywords=cooking+the+one+burner+way

http://www.amazon.com/Cookery-National-Outdoor-Leadership-Library/dp/0811731081/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_3