I've been doing the same thing for years with my Jetboil. Whether it is Knorrs or tortellini or Mac & Cheese, or most anything else, I bring the mixture to a full boil and then put the pot in a homemade cozy for about ten minutes. Then I bring it to a boil again (usually just 10-20 seconds) and put it back in the cozy for another ten minutes. At that point, almost any of these packaged foods are ready to eat. It saves a lot of fuel.
To make a homemade pot cozy, check out this article. The original pot cozy I made nine years ago is still the one I use today after hundreds and hundreds of meals.
https://blackwoodspress.com/blog/658...king-pot-cozy/
When hiking from town to town, my food rotation is standard Knorr Sides, Instant Mashed Potatoes, Ramen (with veggies,cashews or peanuts if available) & Dressing etc . . . .
Every now & then, I'll obtain 4 freezer bags & make the following purchase:
- Quick Oats, 42 ounce size divided up into 4 freezer bags (390 calories)
- Carnation Breakfast Essentials Powder Drink Mix, 2 packets per bag (260 calories)
- Instant nonfat powdered milk, about 1/4 cup in each bag (80 calories)
The 4 meals may be consumed hot or cold soaked.
This is my favorite meal for a weekend hike. I never get tired of it.
https://andrewskurka.com/backpacking...fritos-cheese/
AT Flip Flop (HF to ME, HF to GA) Thru Hike 2023; LT End-to-Ender 2017; NH 48/48 2015-2021; 21 of 159usForests.com
For the TJ tortellini, at home I measure out about 130 grams, or 4.5 ounces, and put this into a ziplock bag with a half packet of Knorr’s pesto sauce and 1-2 tablespoons of Nido full fat dry milk. When I’m ready to cook, I combine 14 ounces of water and 2 ounces of olive oil in my jetboil and add the contents of the ziplock to the pot. I bring this to a boil, being sure to mix while it heats up. As soon as it reaches a boil, I remove the pot from the stove and put it into my pot cozy for ten minutes. After ten minutes, I return the pot to the stove and again bring the mixture to a boil. Then it gets returned to the cozy again for ten minutes. Sometimes, I will do a third boil/cozy cycle but it’s basically done after the second cycle, if you don’t mind the pasta firm. I have never used freezer bag cooking and doubt it would work for this recipe because I need to reheat the mixture at least once.
I should mention that the dry tortellini has disappeared from my local Trader Joe’s but there is a Barilla brand that is similar at my local supermarket. It’s in the pasta aisle. TJ was $2.99 for a pound but the Barilla is about twice that much unfortunately. But essentially the same thing.
BlueRibbon.jpg
This post has it all, everything I had in mind with my query.
Simplicity, ease of acquiring simple ingredients, easy prep.
*Plus the awesome link which was the grand slam putting it right outta the park.
“I did it. I said I'd do it and I've done it.” ~Grandma Gatewood
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace". ~Jimi Hendrix
If you have the financial resources, join the AMC a week or so before you hit the Whites and book yourself into huts. For that stretch of trail, eat what they haul and cook for you and lighten the pack up considerably. He huts aren’t cheap, but when you factor in the food and the hauling I felt they were a pretty good deal. So were the four walls on a couple of wet, blustery afternoons.
I booked online from Rattle River (RIP) headed SOBO July of 21. No problems with availability. YMMV.
It was also a great social experience, talking with mostly non thru hikers, but still outdoors people.
Thanks Hank! I just popped over to THE TREK/Allalachian trail and had a look at their huts page. "The Huts" aka "High huts of the White Mountains". Looks awesome and yes indubidably, indeed and in earnest shall I be stoppig in.
the only downside I saw, if there was one, is that for $90 to $140 per night I cannot charge devices there.
Copy & paste from their site~ "The Huts do not have electricity outside of the kitchen and dining room, so no – you cannot charge your phone".
Ah well, it will be a welcome respite nonetheless.
MM
“I did it. I said I'd do it and I've done it.” ~Grandma Gatewood
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace". ~Jimi Hendrix
Yeah, they aren’t hostels. But they are 2 hots and a cot. But if by the time you hit Hanover, you can do 25 mile+ days followed by another full day, and not come in after dark, then you could use them.
From Hanover or Glencliff, I would send my stove, tent body, poles and stakes forward to Gorham. Retaining with me tent fly and sleep system, enough to survive a cold night uncomfortably. Leave Glencliff (Hikers Welcome, where I haven’t stayed) or Jeffers Brook with a days worth of cold food for emergencies, and then haul ass with a light pack from hut to hut, skipping roughly every other one. As a SOBO, a bit intimidated by what I read about the Whites, I did not skip every other, but did make most of my legs <10 miles. That did give me time to enjoy the beautiful scenery when the weather was decent. But I burnt up a lot of daylight that I later regretted down south. However I was so grateful to have a short day pulling into Madison Hut with 50F temps and sideways rain, and to grab a bowl of hot soup. I didn’t think out shipping gear to myself in Hanover, but wish I had.
HYOH, this isn’t cheap, but few thrus seem to understand what the huts can do for you on a paying (vs work for stay) basis, that I like to bring it up to those in the 50+ bracket.
As recent events have shown, you have to respect the Whites
I'm in the planning/research stage now. Definitely have these Huts penciled in. I'll be 55 in a few weeks and turning 56 on the trail next year in '23. Since being disabled by being hit by the SUV -I really was busted up pretty good Feb 15th '19, I do feel a tad achey breaky since. A pit stop with hot chow and indoors/bed/roof will be nice. I'm going SOBO too.
“I did it. I said I'd do it and I've done it.” ~Grandma Gatewood
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace". ~Jimi Hendrix
Just had it for lunch at home to test it out before trying it out on the trail and it was great - thank you again Coffee!
I slightly adjusted prep as I prefer to just use my jetboil just to boil water.
1/2 bag (about 6oz) of Barilla Tortellini Three Cheese pasta in a quart freezer bag.
1/2 packet of Knorr Pesto sauce mix and 1T of dry milk in a separate snack ziplock bag.
1T of olive oil (I'm usually carrying a small bottle of it anyway)
FBC just the tortellini, sitting for 10mins, then I drained the water.
Then I added the pesto, dry milk and olive oil and again FBC, sitting for another 10mins.
I didn't keep track of how much water as I did enough to cover the pasta and I gave it a good mix the second time.
Hope this is helpful and let's keep everyone's favorite dinner recipes coming!
AT Flip Flop (HF to ME, HF to GA) Thru Hike 2023; LT End-to-Ender 2017; NH 48/48 2015-2021; 21 of 159usForests.com
I'll have to give that FBC version a try! There are times when I think FBC could work but I've never really tried.
My normal comments on the huts. Even with an AMC membership they are not cheap and they are very popular so reservations are must on weekends. Sort of hard to plan. Early season there are openings that either the huts crews can help with or your call the AMC. Refunds are limited if you do not make them well in advance. This means there can be no shows that free up spaces and the huts crews try to fill them with paying guests. The huts are set up to serve the maximum number of guests, they pack them in. Bring earplugs and a sleeping mask may be helpful as there is traffic back and forth to the shared restrooms all night. There is no hot water, some huts may have an outdoor cold water shower. The "must visit" huts are Greenleaf (near the summit of Lafayette) Lake of the Clouds (near Mt Washington) and Madison Hut (near Madison). Zealand huts and Lonesome Lake are family huts at lower elevations. Greenleaf and Carter Notch have their charms while Mitzpah is jist a wide spot in the trail in good location. If you can only chose one, Lake of the Clouds is the one as there are no good alternatives to do the presidential ridge.
If you can find someone to drive you around, there are options to slack the whites, it adds extra mileage but not having to carry a backpack offsets some of the extra effort.
I had medul dates and pnut butter for breakfast this morning.Am running low on the B&M brown bread but that's what I had last trip out as I went without a stove.Fortunately I was able to mooch some cowboy coffee and it was awesome.
my heart belongs to Skurka’s beans and rice. Slam dunk every single time. Like, every single time. Never disappoints.
https://andrewskurka.com/backpacking...fritos-cheese/