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Trail Bytes, Sept. 2024: Rice Salad for the Road, Mac & Cheese for the Trail.
September 25, 2024
Hello,

Grüezi from Pfäffikon. Dominique and I are back from hiking a bit of coastline in Northern France. The photo below was taken at Cap Blanc-Nez (Cape White Nose) on the English Channel just below Calais. We camped at a cozy Airbnb—not roughing it this trip—and most of our hiking could best be described as beach strolling and tidal pool hopping.

We had some windy days; no wonder there are so many wind turbines spinning over the French countryside, where hedges between fields of corn, sunflowers, grass, and cows keep the soil from blowing away, and old rock walls keep flower pots from turning over in backyard gardens.

Our car’s navigation system, which we call Betty, routed us through Paris at rush hour on the way to the coast. On the way home, we retired Betty and used our cell phone navigation, which we call Lily. She got us home safely, but we were left fondly remembering the days when we took road trips with a road atlas.

I packed Peach Salsa Rice Salad for our lunch stops along the motorway for the way there and back.

GSI Outdoors Cook Pot Comparison

Before we left, I ran two GSI Outdoors pots through a side-by-side evaluation, and the review of the Soloist and Boiler pots is now up on Backpacking Chef.

Which pot did I like best? Let’s call it a tie depending on if you need the extra goodies that come with the Soloist pot. Both of these hard-anodized aluminum pots have 1.1 liters of capacity. Cooking large servings of Veggie Mac & Cheese in the pots was easy, and boiling water was fast for cooking meals freezer bag style.

You’ll find the review, plus the mac & cheese recipe on the new page:

GSI Cook Pot Comparison: Halulite Soloist vs Halulite Boiler

Pot Cozy Design for GSI Outdoors Pots

I made a 2-piece pot cozy to accommodate either pot, or the larger 1.4 liter GSI MicroDualist pot.

Making a pot cozy is usually a simple matter of tracing the shape of the pot top onto double-bubble foil coated material. But with the GSI pots, the handle sticks out a little when positioned over the pot during transit. So I needed a cozy top that was a little wider.

Apparently, I had been paying attention in high school geometry class after all. Deep in the googly-grey matter, I found the equation:

C=2πr, where C = circumference, π (pi) = 3.14, and r = radius (½ the diameter).

All I had to do was measure the distance across the center of the pot (diameter), including the extra bit for the handle, then divide by 2 to get the radius. From there I drew the circles for the top and bottom using a compass, and determined the lengths of the side pieces (circumference) using the equation.

I’ve added the instructions and photos to the Pot Cozy page.

Making a Pot Cozy for GSI Pots

If you’re rehydrating meals using the freezer bag method, you’ll find a cozy for your freezer bag meals on the same page here:

Insulating Cozy for Freezer Bag Cooking

Photo: Homemade pot cozy, GSI windscreen and stove, folding spoon, 230 g fuel canister, and GSI Boiler pot.

National Preparedness Month Book Sale

I almost missed that September is National Preparedness Month. It’s good to keep a supply of dehydrated meals on hand for emergencies, as well as for those long drives and cold-weather hikes where a thermos filled with hot chili beats a cold turkey sandwich every time.

As a Trail Bytes subscriber, you’re on your way with a 25% discount on Recipes for Adventure II: The Best of Trail Bytes.

Use discount code BOTB25 at check-out for the extra 25% off the e-book format.

Also, take advantage of the current “Buy one e-book, get $5 off each additional e-book” sale. That’s on top of the RFA II discount.

If you prefer a printed book, you’ll find the links to Amazon on the same page here:

Get Prepared with Recipes for Adventure Books.

Next month, I’ll take a close look at the larger GSI Dualist pots, and use them to cook up a new recipe. See you then.

Freundliche Grüsse,

Chef Glenn & Dominique

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