Cold Splinters

After a long, wet, and muddy day on a New Hampshire section of the AT this last weekend, eating Mexican-ish pumpkin soup in a dry lean-to was a great way to end the hike. Happy fall travels, y’all.

2-3 cups water
1/2 vegetable bouillon cube
1 can pumpkin (Make sure not to buy the pumpkin pie mix.)
1 small can green chiles
1 small can corn (Mexican style if you’re feeling it)
1 can black beans (I’m a fan of butter beans as well)
1 small bag Corn Nuts
1 tbsp dried cilantro
1 small yellow onion

Cut up your onion and throw it in the pot with water. Bring the water to a boil, drop in your bouillon and stir. Add your pumpkin, green chiles, corn, black beans and let simmer for a few minutes, adding water if you like it a little thinner. Take it off the heat, stir in your cilantro and pour it into your bowl. Top with Corn Nuts and dive in. Will feed two hungry hikers.

MP3: Thoughts & Words – Morning Sky

Yes, GORP, GRANOLA, and all those other trail snacks  are all about personal preference and the art of worldly wisdom. (The GORP pictures above, from an old BACKPACKER, feature a recipe with Teddy Grahams. Genius.)  And on the few occasions that posts about food have showed up on this rag, the conversations have turned out to be pretty darn interesting. Nerdy as hell, but pretty darn interesting nonetheless. Most of the time, as I’m sure you’ll agree, trail snacks are better to make at home (when you’re carving your pumpkins this season, roast the seeds and stick em in whatever you’re hiking with) but it doesn’t always pan out like that. Case in point: EARLY BIRD GRANOLA. Without diving too deep – it’s granola, for heaven’s sake – this stuff, made in Brooklyn, NY, makes you wonder what else you’ve been missing out on over the years. I guess sometimes you just have to leave it to the pros.

**Go get yourself some and then tell me what’s better.

MP3: Billy Fay – Tiny

Published in 1972, The Complete Sourdough Cookbook is a little bit more story-telling than biscuit-making, but with tales like the one above, that’s doesn’t matter much. And if you actually read “Bannock Bill the Biscuit Maker” and are wondering what a bannock is, well, it’s a type of quick bread – bread that doesn’t utilize yeast – similar to a scone.

Don Holm and his wife, Myrtle, also wrote the Old Fashioned Dutch Oven Cookbook, Don Holm’s Book of Food Drying, Pickling and Smoke Curing (which are both just as fine and just as available on Google Books), and Wholesome Country Living (not available on Google Books.) It is no easy task to read about sourdough biscuits being made over an open fire while sitting on a laptop.

MP3: John Jacob Niles – Go ‘Way From My Window

Adding hot water to an instant packet of oatmeal or mac and cheese is easy as pie, sure, but you have the wrappers to deal with, you need about 5 of them to feel full, bla bla bla. It might take a few extra minutes to cook, but if you’ve got that time, and I know you all do, try bringing bulgur wheat along the next time you’re in the woods. It’s cheap, cooks quickly (buy the least coarse variety you can find), and tastes just as good with something sweet for breakfast as it does with something salty for dinner. That means if you’re in a safe enough place to do it, you can make extra at night and use the leftovers in the morning.

Put some dry bulgur in your bowl, add boiling water, cover it for a couple of minutes, and when it’s soft enough for your liking (I prefer it a little chewy, actually), sprinkle on whatever you’ve got in your pack. Honey and raisins, dried mushrooms and chili sauce, sardines and sliced almonds. Enjoy it.

I’m sure many of you have long stretches of taking the same food on each hike, swearing by a recipe, not able to understand why you ever ate anything else. Happens to me all the time. Then, a week or two later, you’ll find something totally different and have the same love affair. These past couple of weeks have been the good ol’ PBHB (judging the B’s ripeness and not smooshing it in your pack is a camping skill in itself, yeah?) because, really, there’s not much better. Period. Sure, if you’re home and the bananas are frozen, that’s better. And if you have the energy to toast up the bread a little near the fire, that’ll make it slightly better too. And, of course crunchy. Always crunchy. What do y’all got?

Some serious foraged-food porn over at Whole Larder Love. Spending time on his site gets me more and more antsy for the sun to stay awhile. Forage some mushrooms and ramps with your buds, get some eggs & potatoes from the farmers’ market (or your backyard) and ask Ro how to make breakfast. Beautiful photos, good eatin’.

If you’re going to be anywhere near South Pittsburg, TN on April 31st or May 1st, make your way to the 15th annual National Cornbread Festival. South Pittsburg is home to Lodge, the only company still making cast iron cookware right here in these United of States. Once you’re there, you can buy yourself a dutch oven to make, well, cornbread in, and then pay $2 to enjoy samples from the National Cornbread Cookoff. Because what’s better than cornbread made in cast iron? Nothing, that’s what. 

Watch a video of how Lodge cookware is made here and then watch an old video about the festival here.

When you’re out this spring gettin’ your land legs back, keep an eye out for the Ramp, or Wild Leek (Allium trioccum). These small wild onions have a strong garlicky odor and flavor. You can munch ‘em raw, sauteé them, add ‘em to a pesto, or make a ramp and wild morel quiche. This stinky veggie is getting some serious street cred at many restaurants these days (in the near shadows of the Morel mushroom). Ramps grow best on hillsides, in sandy, moist soil. Try checking close to the banks of small streams or rivers. The leaf of the ramp is broad, tender and bright green in color, fading to purple near the stalk. Before pulling up and chowing down you can verify it as a wild leek by tearing a leaf in half. You’ll know it’s a ramp by the smell. Holy onions. See ya at the Cosby, TN Ramp Festival?

Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day, and if you’ve just woken up from sleeping in a tent, there are few better things in this world than preparing a hot meal that’s easy to make. Enter the Johnny Cake. Often claimed to have originated in Rhode Island, Johnny Cakes, which are cornmeal flatbreads, were being made long before Europeans showed up by the Native Americans of the Atlantic coast.

All you need is a bag of yellow or white cornmeal (I prefer yellow), salt, water and a little bit of oil. All of the toppings and fillings like jalapenos, cheese, maple syrup, etc. are up to you. I enjoy ‘em plain with a dab of hot sauce, but if you need a little bit of sweet in the morning, do what you gotta do. It’ll all taste good.

Mix in cornmeal, a pinch of salt, and equal parts BOILING water, stir and let the batter sit for a minute or two. (A 1/2 cup – 1 cup of cornmeal per person will probably suffice.) If you want that cheese, jalapenos, sweet corn, bacon etc. in your johnny cakes, now would be a good time to add those things. If you don’t have those things, fine. They’re just as good plain, trust me. Turn on your stove, put some oil in the pan, let it get hot and spoon on the batter the same way you would a pancake. Cook for about 5 or 6 minutes, until they’re a little crispy, then flip. Top with hot sauce, maple syrup, honey, salsa verde, fried eggs or the fish you caught before anyone else woke up. OR nothing at all. They should come out looking a little something like THIS.

The mid-February thaw here in the Great Lakes and the visit from our ol’ pal sunshine got me breaking out the Peterson Field Guide and brushing up on my local wild edibles. I know I’m jumping the gun a bit (a lotta bit), but seeing grass for the first time in months in bits and patches will tide me over. Cold Splinters toured Prospect Park, NY with “Wildman” Steve Brill (pictured above) a while back, but duck over to his website and get lost. The highlight of his site (aside from his real wealth of knowledge) is his archive of media surrounding his arrest in NYC in 1986 for “eating a dandelion”. Spring!