Living Overland - A new blog dedicated to gourmet camp cooking

[flyfishexpert]

Bell peppers were in season during our trip to Chile and we couldn't help but begin to crave stuffed peppers as we walked through the produce market in Pucon. Not having the equipment to bake the dish back at our cabin, as we would at home, we decided to try blanching the peppers prior to stuffing. Although the dish lacked the crunchy texture of an oven-baked stuffed pepper, we were pleasantly surprised by how well it turned out.

The produce market in Pucon, Chile

Ingredients

• 1lb ground beef
• 3/4 cup cooked white rice
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3/4 cup diced zucchini
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2/3 cup Queso Chanco (Monterrey Jack would work as a substitution)
• 4 large bell peppers
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 avocado, sliced

Serves 4

You can find the entire recipe on our website www.TheOverlandGourmet.com or by clicking here.

[Obi..]

^Salt and Pepper, lightly. Tomato sauce or paste, if locally available.*You can sub in poultry, but need to add 1/4cup of lard to the meat and precook it a little bit, this keeps the meat from drying out. Beef or poultry broth. Also some powdered/ground basil or rosemary, or other local spice always makes it that much better.

FWIW, from having done it your way for so many years my family actually prefers the softtened version of the pepper instead of crunchy.

[flyfishexpert]

^Salt and Pepper, lightly. Tomato sauce or paste, if locally available.*You can sub in poultry, but need to add 1/4cup of lard to the meat and precook it a little bit, this keeps the meat from drying out. Beef or poultry broth. Also some powdered/ground basil or rosemary, or other local spice always makes it that much better.

FWIW, from having done it your way for so many years my family actually prefers the softtened version of the pepper instead of crunchy.

Great suggestions! Spices were expensive in Chile so we opted for simple produce from the market and seasoning with just the salt and pepper.

[flyfishexpert]

As we were preparing for our 16-day trip to Chile, it was becoming obvious to us that we wanted to bring home some Chilean wine to share with our family and friends. We have traveled with wine tucked away in our checked luggage before and have always feared arriving home to find our bottle broken and our clothing covered in red wine. We contacted Magellan's Travel Supplies and they sent us a pair of their Bottle Armor to review.



Specifications

Bottle Armor can be purchased directly from Magellan's Travel Supplies for $24.85 a pair. The set includes a corkscrew, which stores away in the convenient pouch located on the back of every Bottle Armor. Bottles are protected from damage using a thin layer of bubble wrap which is secured within a durable nylon shell. The shell is designed to be puncture resistant and in the event a bottle does break it is designed with a double zipper-lock closure to prevent liquid from leaking out. Bottles are simply slid inside and the end sealed up by pressing the zippers and adjoining the Velcro.

Bottle Armor can be purchased in two sizes, standard and XXL. Our Bottle Armor was the standard size.

To read more or our thoughts on Bottle Armor, visit our website at www.theoverlandgourmet.com, or by clicking here.

[Obi..]

Nice. Here's a recipe to try out, Carrots a'la mode.

Chop carrots up into thin rounds, sautee in butter until softened, throw on some maple syrup and let it settle and cool. Once cooled throw on top of vanilla ice cream and enjoy.
*Note: Requires fuel and a freezer/fridge for the icecream, but you can also just use it as a sweet side to a dinner or stand alone dessert that the kids and people just love.

[Scuba]

I'm gonna try the stuff peppers soon.

[flyfishexpert]

Ingredients

• 1.25lb chicken breast
• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped fine (about 2/3 cup)
• 6 medium cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 pound broccoli florets, trimmed into 1" pieces
• 1/2 lb penne pasta
• 3 ounces Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp fresh parsley
• Kosher Salt
• Ground Pepper

You can find the entire recipe on our website www.TheOverlandGourmet.com or by clicking here.

[flyfishexpert]

Tapioca Parfait Topped with a Strawberry and Fennel Compote



This is the perfect desert for relaxing after a long day of exploring. The dessert can be quickly assembled on the trail by performing much of the prep-work at home. The tapioca can be made prior to the trip and stored in a reusable plastic container, ready for use.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup small pearl tapioca
• 3 cups whole milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 quart strawberries, trimmed
• 1/2 lemon
• 3 TBSP sugar

Serves 4

You can find the entire recipe on our website www.TheOverlandGourmet.com or by clicking here.

[flyfishexpert]

Review of GSI Outdoors Pinnacle 10" Frypan


As we prepared for our trip to Chile, it was apparent we needed a new frypan, our 12" cast iron just wasn't going to cut it, so we contacted our friends at GSI Outdoors and they sent us their 10" Pinnacle Frypan. Since its arrival, the frypan has followed us on our snowshoeing, Chile, and Yellowstone trips tucked away in our backpack or in the back of the 4Runner.





Specifications
Major Dimension: 10"
Weight: 17.8 oz.
Dimensions: 11.1" x 10.6" x 2.8"
Material: Non-Stick Coated, Hard Anodized Aluminum
Product Use: Car Camping

For our full review, visit our website at www.theoverlandgourmet.com, or click here.

[flyfishexpert]

Freezing Beer for Your Cooler


If you are anything like me, you read the title of this post, tears welled up in your eyes, and you screamed expletives up to the heavens. I assure you no (good) beer was severely injured in the making of this post.


Background
A couple of long-time river rafting friends of mine and I were discussing coolers and keeping food cool when they mentioned 18-day trips they had taken down the Colorado. "We would just freeze our beer," they said, "and we could make the entire trip without ice." " I am sorry," I said to them, "you lost me at 'We would freeze our beer.'". The two of them proceeded to explain how they would utilize two sets of coolers for their river trips. One set would be filled with cans of beer, which would then be placed in large commercial freezers.

The other set of coolers would be used to store their perishable foods. Frozen beer would be used to keep these coolers cold and as the beer began to thaw they would replace these cans with fresh ones from the 'beer coolers'. Now, I remember my roommate in college forgetting about some beer he had placed in the freezer to chill and when we discovered it the next day, several of the cans had exploded. They explained to me how they had made the same discovery and said we would be fine as long as I did not freeze 'Light' beer.

The Experiment



As we contemplated how we would test this technique, we knew we wanted to keep this relevant to the beer we, and our friends, typically drink. We chose to experiment with New Belgium's Fat Tire, Cerveza Tecate, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Coors Light to show 'what not to do'.


Before we got started we contacted New Belgium Brewing to inquire into the possible ill-effects of freezing beer and we got this response back:

"...unfortunately it will only keep your food cold, it will not keep the beer flavor. When you freeze beer- it basically turns the solution back into a mixture of frozen highly alcoholic beer and ice. So when you thaw, you will have high octane beer and water mixture- no bueno. But, if you were REAL thirsty, I bet you would not mind that much."

We pressed on in the name of 'Science' to determine how well this technique really worked. We established a test plan for the experiment:

1. freeze individual cans
2. freeze a 12-pack and a Starbucks Coffee Traveler bladder
3. place the 12-pack and bladder in two separate coolers
4. measure the temperatures in the coolers, seeing which of the two coolers stays the coldest
5. determine which, the beer or the water, thaws the fastest.

Individual cans, of each of the four beer brands, were frozen one at a time in a plastic container to ensure we wouldn't end up with beer on the inside of our freezer.

For more information on this technique and to find the results from our testing, visit our webiste at www.theoverlandgourmet.com, or click here.