Snow Cream

Way back in the day my grandfather made some ice cream tasting substance out of snow. As a little kid I found this all kinds of amazing. I hadn’t thought about it in a while so I decided to look up the recipe and maybe if and when it snows here I might give it a shot. Here are the directions I found on the interwebs.

• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• large bowl of snow (about 3 quarts)

And what do you do with all this…
Blend milk, sugar and vanilla. Stir in enough snow to make snow cream to an ice cream consistency.
Thats it.
Feel free to add some chocolate syrup or fruit to make different flavors.

Some important items to note:
You must make sure the snow is clean. It takes at least one to two hours for snow to clean the pollutants from the air, then use only snow that has fallen after that first cleansing snow. Little known fact about the outdoors…gross things happen out there.

This info was pulled from Sandy’s Old-time Snow Cream Recipe

Add comment December 20th, 2007

Thanksgiving Camping Cobbler + bonus!

This recipe is delicious. I tried it a few months back while out camping. Word on the street is that this is an old boy scout recipe. I pulled this exact recipe from about.com, but we made it the same way. About.com also mentions the boy scout roots.

What ya need:

• 2 cups Bisquick
• 1 1/3 cups milk
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• cinnamon, to taste
• 2 large cans of fruit of fruit filling (about 29 oz.) - I like blueberry or blackberry
• 12-quart Dutch Oven
• heavy duty aluminum foil
• bed of hot coals

Use the aluminum foil to line the Dutch oven, and put it on the coals for 10-15 minutes to preheat. Mix all ingredients except for fruit. Take Dutch oven off of coals and pour in fruit (draining if necessary). Pour batter over top of fruit. Add cinnamon on top, if desired. Put lid on Dutch oven and place back on coals. Place about 8 pieces of coal on the bottom of the oven and 13-15 on top. Bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown on top. Remove from coals and crack lid to allow it to cool. You can use a toothpick to check if the cobbler is done. This is about it. It is also great with ice cream…but seriously, what isn’t?

I also wanted to include a recipe for green bean casserole, just because it is way easy and one of my favorite things to make and take places. I am usually in charge of it for thanksgiving meals around the Emile household.

What ya need:

• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 2 cans of cut green beans
• 1 & 1/3 cups french fried onions
• 1 & 1/2 quart casserole dish

Ready…don’t blink or you will miss how easy it is. Open the cans and drain the green beans. Pour all the ingredients except for 2/3 cup onions into the casserole dish. Mix and bake at 350°F for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes take it out and top with the rest of the onions. Bake for five more minutes.

Done!

2 comments November 21st, 2007

Thanksgiving and the Outdoorz

I have been trying to find some good recipes for outdoor cooking for Thanksgiving and haven’t been able to find much. There was this recipe for the Backpacker’s Thanksgiving Dinner which is ridiculously easy, but I was hoping for something more. Many places warn about not trying to cook turkey over a campfire, so the search has come up pretty empty.

Do any of you guys have any suggestions for an outdoor Thanksgiving meal?

Also a few years back Wade and I did a Thanksgiving day bike ride and that was a lot of fun. This year I may run in a 5k turkey trot Thanksgiving morning.

Any other outdoorzies have outdoor Thanksgiving traditions?

3 comments November 9th, 2007

Omelet in a bag

Here is a quick and easy way to make some “omelets” while camping. I use the term omelets very loosely as really this turns out to just be some scrambled eggs loaded with other stuff in it.

1 serving, takes about 10 min.

What you need:

• Small to medium sized pot
• Water to fill pot
• Fire/Stove to boil water
• 2 – 3 eggs (depending on how many eggs you feel like eating)
• A “zip lock” type bag (BAG MUST BE ABLE TO BE USED IN BOILING WATER! See comments section below)
• Salt and Pepper (not to be confused with Salt and Peppa, the early 90s hit female rap duo)
• Any other item you would like in your omelet (ham, cheese, mushrooms, baby seal…nah, don’t do that, they are endangered)

First get your water boiling. After the water is boiling pretty good, turn it down a bit so that it isn’t a rolling boil. Crack your eggs and drop the yolkey goodness into the zip lock bag. Then dispose of the shells, adding shells to the omelet is gross and not advised. Then add your other items such and cheese, meats, and seasoning. The meats should already be cooked, you don’t want to put raw meat in your omelet.

Next close the zip lock back and lay it in the boiling water, every minute or so pull the bag out for a few seconds and mash the concoction around in the bag between your fingers. You should be able to see the eggs cooking. Repeat this process of dipping in and out of the water each minute until the eggs are cooked to your satisfaction. Be sure to watch the zip lock bag and try to keep it from melting.

Once finished you can either eat the eggs right out of the bag or pour them on a plate like the fancy little camper you are.

I hope you enjoy your omelet in a bag!

8 comments August 30th, 2007