PJ
Outdoors
Cooking
on the Road
One
of the things that I pretty well insist on doing a rather regular basis is…eating! As I prepare for my upcoming bicycle trip
from Whiteville to Charleston some folks have asked me how in the world I will
keep up with my eating habit during the ride.
Now, I could pull out my map on my phone that has restaurants along the
way marked and tell them that I will simply eat out. While I do have them marked on route map on
my phone, this is really information I carry as a “just in case”. I mean…eating out can get expensive. Plus, after spending all day pedaling a
bicycle who in the world would want my dirty, smelly self sitting near them
while they try to eat? Heck, I may not
even want to sit near my self!
So,
the plan is to cook. Every day. Each meal.
I’ll share what I plan to cook in another post as the ride gets
closer. Today I just want to share how cooking
is possible. I do enjoy cooking. Especially when I have a spacious and
well-stocked kitchen. On a bicycle trip
I’ll actually have neither.
My
cookware consists of four pieces. I have
a 24-oz Stanley Adventure pot and a mug…both Walmart specials, but quite
handy. The Stanley pot is great when I
just want to boil water for coffee, oatmeal, or some other instant type of
food. The Walmart stainless steel mug is
typically used for coffee or other such things…though I have a new cup/mug I’ll
share later. My “real” cook set is one I
picked up from REI…but for the life of me I can’t remember what brand it
is. It is a pretty simple
backpacking/camping set…it comes with a cook pot and a frying pan; and the
frying pan also serves as a lit to the pot.
My “utensil
drawer” is really quite skimpy.
Actually…embarrassingly skimpy.
My entire “utensil drawer” consists of three items: a spatula, a spork,
and a knife. The spatula pretty much has
one purpose…flipping things. But
honestly, I’m thinking that I may have to break the rules and turn it around
and use the handle for stirring things.
(I guess should be ok…just another type of multi-tasking!) I suspect most of you are familiar with a
spork…a wonderfully terrible utensil that is supposed to be a both a spoon and
a fork. I doesn’t do either very
well. But, I would say that it serves
it’s purpose just fine. Lastly, is my
knife. For those of you who are germ-a-phobes
you may want to skip to the next paragraph.
You see, this knife is not exclusively my “kitchen” knife. Nope…it is a multi-tasking powerhouse. Need a rope cut? Here…use my knife. Need to whittle a stick to cook your
hotdog? Here…use my knife. Need to cut your apple? Well…I suspect you know where this is
going. But, I will say. So far I haven’t gotten sick. I do rinse it off the best I can and then
figure I’m really just building up my immune system!
Another
new addition to my kitchen…and I am really so excited about this…is my “spice
cabinet”. Now, perhaps you have seen it. Walgreens and other drug stores sell it…but
they call it a pill dispenser. But it
works great as a spice holder. Each
section screws to the bottom of another section…perfect for storing and
carrying spices!
If
you didn’t know this by now I’ll just go ahead and say it…I like things that
are free or cheap! (As long as they do
their job, of course.) Two things I carry
with me that make a little easier…and maybe a little nicer are a couple of cozies. One is flat, like an envelope and the other
is more like a mug (hmmm?). Some of the
meals I usually pack are foods that I have dehydrated. Once dehydrated I put them into a quart sized
Ziplock freezer bag. When it is time to
prepare this meal, hot water is poured into the Ziplock bag, which is then
sealed and placed into the envelope sized cozy until it is hot and ready to
eat. The other one, that I said was
shaped like a mug…well, when I make my coffee in the morning or perhaps some
soup for dinner, I use my mug. Can you
guess where the mug then goes? Yep, into
the mug shaped cozy so it will stay nice and warm. Both of these were virtually free as I made
them from some reflectix I had bought to insulate my cooler for camping.
OH,
I almost forgot my stove. I have the brs
3000T. That sounds really fancy…but it
is basically just a small, lightweight, inexpensive backpacking stove. Works great…and at $15 it is easy on the
wallet!
Well…that
is my bicycle touring kitchen. Not very
fancy. Not well stocked. But it will do the job just fine and keep me
nourished along my 5-day/4-night 265-mile ride from Whiteville, NC to
Charleston, SC! OK, so all this talk
about kitchen and cooking is making me hungry…time to go get something eat!
-
PJ
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