Uhmmmmm, that tastes good, it took little effort, and the terrific flavor was produced while I enjoyed all this great scenery, wildlife, sites, sounds, and aromas.  It’s outstanding to be way out here amongst nature’s habitat.  I need to remember to protect my meal from critters as it cooks, though, because they will get it first if I’m careless.  My food is great tasting, has lots of variety, and is healthy, wholesome and nutritious.  That’s what I need to supply the fuel I burn up loving life here in these places.  Actually some of my meals if on the menu of a diner would be very popular; at least I’d order them.  Most of the time the ingredients are fresh or dried, and don’t need refrigeration.  All my cooking is one-pot meals, the quantity will stuff two people and I eat it all!
    Tent camping enhances my natural experience and perks up my senses, because I’m surrounded by it.  Plus, a blend of these fresh ingredients and spices prepared and eaten in a gorgeous relaxing place is wonderful.  I use a tent that is big enough for several people, but I use all the space myself for a place to sleep and relax, dry and canned food storage in a metal cooler, and a place to put my stuff. Food stored in the tent is mandatory nonaromatic. Odors attract critters.  Fruits & vegetables and all aromatic food stay in the car, especially at night.  I couple a screen house to a door of my tent and the screen walls create a perimeter that keeps most flying insects, raccoons, possums, kangaroo rats, birds, or other critters out of my pot.  The screen house is where I cook, keep fruits and vegetables during the day, and relax, too.
    The pot is where it’s happening.  That’s where the flavor is made. My propane gas camp stove on a table in the screen house is where it starts. The flavors blend after initially boiling for a short period of time.  I’m there when the pot’s contents are boiling, but the simmering and blending is done after the flame is turned off and I go off to wander the woods, beach or desert. I either put a rock on the lid of the pot or put the pot in the car.
    I camped last winter in web sites Big Cypress in the Everglades in southwest Florida in February, south Texas at Big Bend National Park in March and at Organ Pipe Cactus N.M. & Buenos Aires NWMR in April in southern Arizona, and other places in Nevada, Arizona, and southern Utah in the past.  Although the basic ingredients are pretty simple, I usually come up with a different tasty evening meal for every day of the week. That and an occasional meal at a restaurant create quite an assortment of enjoyable dinners. The basic ingredients consist of whole grains (a mix of oats, barley, rye, wheat, rice or waterever I can find sold in bulk bins), potatoes, beans, whole wheat noodles, dry peas, couscous, fresh fruits and vege tables, and my coffee mix and an occasional adult carbonated beverage (ACB).  Yogurt, eggs, tostados and leftovers from restaurant meals compliment the meals, or sometimes things like a rattlesnake becomes the meal. Of course, pepper, spice mixes, tomatoes, green peppers, and onions are used in most evening meals.
    As I migrate from Florida west, the fresh fruits and vegetables vary. In Florida fresh picked sweet corn is available and sometimes luscious tasting tomatoes, unlike the brick-like super market kind.  The sweet corn when it’s snowing here is worth the drive to Florida if everything else went wrong. Strawberries have become a “loss leader” in supermarkets there then too, so are a favorite in my menu.  I found in New Mexico and Arizona large green peppers were 35¢ a piece, so their presence increased, too. I even made stuffed peppers one afternoon.  Plus, condiments from restaurants (powdered cheese and red pepper from take-out pizza and all those little unipacks I could scrounge where I ate) come in handy.
    Breakfast is a big cup of my coffee and a breakfast bar eaten as I begin my morning walk before sunrise. Whole grains with some kind of fruit (apples keep very well, but strawberries or bananas don’t) diced up in them or honey is brunch with more coffee after my walk.  Sometimes I make pancakes, grits or eggs, too.  I boil the grains for several minutes adding the fruit, then turn the flame off, and they’re cooked when I return and I eat right from the pot. My coffee mix is unique and tasty and is made up of: 2 parts coffee, 2 parts creamer, 1 part powdered bakers chocolate, and a dash of nutmeg & cinnamon. Once I’m done my whole grains, I boil water in the same pot, with the utensil I used, then put one of my basic ingredients in it.  The boiling “sterilizes” the pot and utensil and begins the cooking of the ingredient(s).  Spices are added, the lid is placed on the pot, and it simmers till I come back from afternoon bike ride, walk or kayaking. When back the tomatoes, green pepper and/or onion or other items is added and the pot is reheated.  Fish dip (I like mullet best), peanuts (very good in the whole grains), conchs or an occasional fish, and string cheese, other items compliment the basic ingredients.  Fresh items are backed up by canned tomato sauce, tuna, and beanless chili, and yes, one day even a rattlesnake ended up in the pot!  Some of my meals (menu items) recipes will be included in some of my articles in the coming months.  Many of them are chili or Mexican-like and any food that has onions, peppers and tomatoes simmering in it is scrumptious to me.  I guess the stuffed peppers and chili were best, not the rattlesnake.  I found it rather tasteless.
    Life’s a fantasy, keep a handle on it, treat people right, and everything will be OK!  Lighten Up & Enjoy!
    If you’d like to set up a family photo on the beach call PHOTOS As You Want Them  410-289-7339.