Recipes that travel far – on the Appalachian Trail

Grand Island Dispatch, June 22, 2007

As I travel through a supermarket, two areas seem to intrude on my concentration – the bakery and the greeting card section.

Grads, wedding and any classification of other events worthy of a cake or a card is hyped.

I do family birthday cakes and I have done a wedding cake and a few graduation cakes. They are so easy and so delicious.

I had a friend who showed me a few tricks with boxed cake mixes. Her cakes were first-rate. Her frostings and decorations surpassed my abilities by a mile. I try. She excelled.

This year, it seems, June isn’t the first choice for brides. A date in July has come up as a favorite. What date? July 7, 2007. What could be luckier than a date with all those sevens. Only once in a decade does anything close to this occur. Luck can’t hurt, but it doesn’t cover all the angles, does it?

Over the weekend, I had a good phone chat with my grandson, Gil. He is walking the length of the Appalachian Trail. It’s a challenge he’s pursuing after college and some work. An Eagle Scout, he’s had a lot of experience in camping and hiking.

He and his walking buddy, Rob, have done from 10 to 20 miles a day.

Gil said there were times when he and Rob were not exactly on the same wavelength. When they decided to set up their tents and do their meals separately, things smoothed out.

I thought about what this almost-23-year-old was saying and said from the heart: “Gil, this walking thing should teach you a real lesson for life. This is similar to a marriage. And don’t forget the way you worked it out. To give each person their own space, their own way of doing things, thinking through the difficulties is not a matter of luck. It is work.”

Gil’s reply: “Grandma, you aren’t the first person to point this out. I will remember this; don’t worry.”

So, choose any date for your wedding, but don’t put all your faith in luck to make it a good marriage.

It may be a lucky date for me, as July 7, 2007, is my birthday.

So, grads, brides and grooms, and any other birthday pals, hope for a great cake and lots of cards. The hints are everywhere.

As I don’t bake my own birthday cake or do much cooking that day, look for me in someone’s back 40. I’ll have my feet up with a cold soda in my hand.

Gil promised me some trail food recipes. He says they are simple and help to ease the trail-weary soul – and the soles of his feet. Try them. Let me know.

Campin’ Candy Bars

Total weight: 4 lbs., 5 oz.
Weight per serving: 2.2 oz.
Total servings: 32

Ingredients

1/2-cup dates, chopped
1 cup apricots, chopped
1 cup yellow raisins
1/2-cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 and 1/2-cups Rice Krispies
1/2-cup low-fat granola
1/2-cup wheat germ
1/2-cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/2-cup unsalted sesame seeds
1/2-cup cashews, chopped and salted
2 (12 oz) packages of chocolate chips
2 (6 oz.) packages of butterscotch chips
1/2-cup honey

At home:

In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients, except chips. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips in a double boiler (or microwave) and add honey. Blend this mixture with dry ingredients, stirring well. Reheat in microwave to soften, if mixture becomes too stiff. Pour onto greased 10.25/15.25-inch sheet. Cool and then cut into 32 squares. Wrap in plastic wrap or zip baggies and store in freezer or refrigerator until ready to hit the trail.

Secret to Success Cookies

Total weight: 4 lbs.,12 oz.
Weight per serving: 0.6 oz.
Total Servings: 120

1-lb. margarine
3 eggs
1 and 1/2-cups white sugar
1 and 1/2-cups dark brown sugar
4 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup wheat bran
3 cups oats
1 and 1/2-cups walnuts, chopped
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together in a very large bowl; proper mixing is important. If the dough is too runny, add more oats. Drop teaspoon-size balls on greased baking sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Trail Spaghetti

Take your favorite spaghetti sauce, which can be vegetarian or not, and spread in a thin layer on a food dehydrator sheet. You can also use an oven if you don’t have a dehydrator. Set the temperature for either appliance at around 120 degrees for vegetarian sauce, or if using a meat sauce, set the temperature around 150 degrees. Depending on thickness and consistency of sauce, proper dehydration may take up to 20 hours, but normally around 10-12 hours. On the trail, about 30-45 minutes before you’re going to have dinner, rehydrate brittle sauce flakes and chunks in Ziploc bags, using just enough water to reach about 2/3 of the way through the mixture, shaking and rolling the sauce around so that as you wait, it hydrates. Remember that you can always add more water later, you can’t take it away! You want sauce, not soup! Reheat and add to whatever type of noodles you brought.

The first two recipes come from “Lip Smackin’ Backpackin’ by Tim and Christina Conners.

These recipes are really something, aren’t they? But I will try to explain a bit of the philosophy that will make them make sense.

Gil and his hiking buddy of course carry all the necessary gear in back packs as they go. To ease the load so they don’t have to carry all they need for the months-long trek, they have mailed supplies to post offices along the way. So if their families have addresses of post office locations, the hikers can retrieve a pre-wrapped frozen package of fixings or energy bars and send it along. The boys have also sent themselves gear to be picked up along the way. Pretty neat, huh?

The message at the bottom of the e-mail sent with the recipes reads: “And that’s a small smattering of what we eat. I’m leaving for West Virginia (Thursday) morning. Talk to you again soon, and I’ll see you in September or October.