Hittin' the Road

This morning (and last night, since Ross had to work the early shift this morning) we had to say goodbye to two of our very good friends - Lauren and Chris. 

We are going to miss our rock climbing buddies so so much! 

Lauren is moving back to DC with her family and Chris is hitting the road to go on a band tour with Tom Evanchuck and the Old Money. Who knows - maybe they will make it big?!?!? 

A huge congratulations to Lauren who successfully defended her thesis on Friday and is now officially a Master! She'll formally graduate with her Masters in Geography with me in December, but from a distance.

We went to the Copper Hog to celebrate! 

LOVE Brown Ales. 

And the next night we continued to celebrate with a Big Mama Margarita from Jalapenos. Holy Mole these things knock you on your ass! They are so strong - 32oz for $6.50 and that's more than all you need for the night. =) 

And now Lauren and Chris have hit the road and are on a cross-country adventure. They are planning stops at Glacier, Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, Chicago, Cleveland and then to DC. But their first stop was my house for breakfast!!!! 

I decided to slice up the brioche and get my French Toast on! 

So simple - a beaten egg, some cinnamon, and homemade bread! LOVE our griddle. 

Because of the braid these were more like french toast sticks in a way - and they were a treat! 

So delicious slathered in REAL maple syrup. I don't mess around. 

Farewell to Chris and Lauren - safe travels. We will hopefully catch up with them in November when the band is going to be playing in Seattle! 

Backpacking Food Prep

Tomorrow I am leaving for a 9 1/2 day backpacking trip! It is the final component of my summer block classes. I know - graduate school rocks! We're hiking from Cascade Pass into Stehekin and then out the War Creek Trail in the North Cascades National Park. Should be incredible!

 I thought I would share how I plan to feed myself and carry 9+ days worth of food with me.

For breakfasts I packed Nature's Valley Organic Instant Oatmeal and Trader's Joe's cereal bars. Get it - "this strawberry walks into a bar..." - ha ha ha! 

For snacks I packed Luna Bars of many flavors. I figure you usually need about 2 of these a day, perhaps 3 if you have a particularly strenuous day, like a 9.5 mile with 5,000ft of elevation gain (like we will on the 5th day of our trip!!!) 

For snacks fruit is a must. Apples are nice if you're willing to pack out the core (remember - Pack-it-in-Pack-it-out and Leave No Trace! because even though apples are "natural" they are most likely not native to the area in which you are recreating, therefore they will have an impact on wildlife). Dried or dehydrated fruits are great especially on the short term. I usually don't get as many veggies in on the trail, so I make up for it in fruit. 

For lunches I alternate between two things: either bagels or tortillas and a nut butter (like Justin's organic nut butters - they are great for on the trail!) and a combination like featured below: dried meats, cheese and crackers, sometimes with hummus (you can usually find dehydrated hummus in a bulk section - just add water!). 

The easiest dinners are one-pot dinners, or just add boiling water dinners. Then you only have one dish to clean! 

We went to the Co-op bulk section where they had a variety of dehydrated soups and meals. For instance they had pinto bean and cheese burritos, kettle chili, lentils rice and Indian spice, and a sweet corn chowder and black bean soup - all just add boiling water! Plus without the water weight these are super light meals! 

I also packed some garlic naan to go with the soups a couple nights. We're going to try backcountry sushi with instant rice and the fixins - you can always bring in fresh veggies for the first night! So we'll have avocado and smoke salmon sushi. 

Bag it all up and you are good to go!!! The nice thing about backpacking is that when most of your weight comes from food your pack gets significantly lighter as they days wear on. And although it's hard work and can make for long days - I love being out in the Wilderness! (And I love how toned your body gets when you hike for 5-8 hours a day!) 

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As part of this trip we had to prepare a natural history presentation about a plant and an animal. While I'm gone I'm going to be sharing a little with you about the plant and animal I chose: purple mountain saxifrage and the pine marten. I am especially excited about the pine marten because I have prepared a collection of Limericks from which to introduce cool facts about this creature. Does anyone listen to Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me on NPR?!?!? If so, you now how this goes: I will post the limerick with all but the last word, and you can fill in the word in the comments section if you think you know what it is! 

 I will be back on August 16th with pictures and stories to tell! 

Camping w/ Dad: Day 1

Just got back from another fun camping trip! My Dad had a few vacation days and decided to fly out from Colorado to do some camping. It was gray and cloudy on the west side of the the Cascades - so we went east for some sun and heat! 

We picked my Dad up from the shuttle around noontime, so we started with lunch, of course, at Que Car BBQ in Marblemount. 

My Dad. He had the smoked beef brisket. 

Oh. My. Goodness. These sandwiches are huge! 1/2 pound of meat! 

Ross & me. 

Ross had the pulled pork BBQ sandwich. 

I had a Chicken teryaki BBQ sandwich - so good it was painful. I am pretty much meated out for a while. Worth it? Yes, though next time I'll get the kids size.

Good thing they gave us these! 

We were so full that I was glad we had a hike planned to walk it off - we headed to the Thunder Knob Trail in the North Cascades National Park Complex. 

View of Diablo Lake from the top. (It's actually a reservoir - don't be fooled!) 

Love the wind blown shot my dad captured! 

Then we finished the scenic drive along Highway 20 - the North Cascades Scenic Highway. 

Washington Pass Area. 

We got to Pearrygin State Park in Winthrop around 7:30pm and we were lucky to get the last campsite!!! Definitely make reservations if you plan on camping here. 

We set up camp and made dinner.

Normally I love Trader Joe's pre-cooked chicken sausages for camping - they are so simple! But I really regret not having a veggie option after the heavy lunch. 

The camp store was closed by the time we realized we wanted to buy firewood - but I found a fellow Western student who had some to spare! It was so nice that other campers were willing to share! 

We enjoyed the fire and stargazed. I even saw a shooting star! There wasn't a cloud in the sky or a marine layer like we tend to get in Bellingham - the stars were wonderfully brilliant and mesmerizing. We were definitely ready to crawl into our sleeping bags after sitting by the fire for a while, and I fell asleep almost immediately. 

Stay tuned for Day 2! 

Spiral Garden Pesto Pasta

It was such a perfectly sunny day at the market! 

We've been traveling on weekends a lot lately - Squamish, the North Cascades, Seattle, Leavenworth - which means that I haven't been to the Saturday Farmer's Market in a very long time! I was amazed by the wealth of produce that was fresh and available - the colors of all the veggies were beautiful. I picked up some tomatoes and basil for dinner and more raspberries - I've never loved raspberries like I do now. 

For lunch I was craving a Gourmet Egg Roll.

This time I had the Caprese - sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, basil and garlic with a creamy balsamic reduction dipping sauce. So good! 

And as the gloriously sunny day wore on we were ready for dinner, so I got out the food processor to make pesto. 

Basil Pesto 

2 cups basil leaves

2 Tbsp pine nuts or walnuts 

1/2 cup olive oil

3-4 cloves garlic 

Pinch of salt & pepper 

Parmesan cheese (optional) 

Combine all the ingredients (save half the oil) in the food processor and process. Add in the rest of the oil after it has processed a bit, and then adjust flavor as desired by possibly adding more garlic. I added a lot more garlic - I LOVE garlic. Add more oil if you prefer a thinner pesto. Use it all immediately or save it in the refrigerator for a couple weeks. 

Basil is probably my favorite herb, with cilantro coming in at a close second. How could you not love that beautiful shade of green? 

We used the pesto to make beautiful summer garden pasta dish. 

Spiral Garden Pesto Pasta 

Serves 2 

12 oz spiral vegetable pasta

2 Tbsp Olive oil 

1/2 jar Trader Joe's marinated artichokes

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 onion, chopped 

2 Trader Joe's apple chicken sausage, cubed  (optional)

1/2 cup Pesto 

Parmesan cheese for garnish (optional) 

Cook and drain the noodles, rinse in cold water and place back into the sauce pan. 

Add the Olive Oil to a frying pan and cook the onions until soft. Then add the artichoke and sausage. 

Then add the contents of the frying pan to the noodles in the sauce pan and pour in the pesto; stir to coat. 

You can heat the pasta if you want to serve it hot or cool for a refreshingly cool summer pasta. I added the tomatoes and cheese on top when I served the pasta because I preferred the tomatoes raw and the cheese is  too tough to clean out of the sauce pan. 

I always know my meal is a success when I see Ross craning his neck to check the stove to see if there is any more. There was, but not for long.