Eating Well While Camping

Did I mention that Giz is an anxious mother?

Evidence #1: I thought Giz wouldn't have any nervousness about our upcoming trip to Australia and New Zealand (leaving mid-April - SO EXCITED). We finally booked our tickets and I sent the itinerary to Giz. Her response: "...it sounds pretty intense to me. Wouldn't you rather spend the night in LA and then continue on after a good sleep?

Am I crazy or does that make no sense at all? Why would I want to be well-rested in preparation for a 14 hour flight? You'd think it would be the opposite. My current plan is to take some night time cold medicine and sleep for as much of it as possible. Any other recommendations are welcome!

Evidence #2 of Giz's being an anxious mother - here's a recent telephone conversation:

PG : We're going on an overnight xc ski trip this weekend.

Giz: Oh yeah? Where will you stay?

PG: In a yurt, like usual.

Giz: Won't it be cold?

PG: No, it's fine. It's actually really warm in the yurt with the wood oven.

Giz: Are you going to take food?

PG: No. I'd figure we'd just rough it.

Giz: WHAT!?! No. You need to take food.

PG: I'm sure there will be wild animals out there. We can just hunt for our food.

Giz: Are you serious? I really think you should take some food with you.

PG: Seriously mom? Do you think I'm going to go on an overnight trip without food? Have we even met?

Giz: Well... I just wanted to make sure.

Rest assured mom. No one went hungry.


It started with picking up a sandwich from DiRienzo's, a xc ski tradition.


I know I've talked about DiRienzo's on here before. It's an Ottawa institution. You go into this corner store that looks pretty run down on the outside. Quite often the line wraps around the aisle of the store. But, the staff working behind the counter are so fast, you'd think they were moving in fast forward. As you work your way closer to the front counter, you pick up a bun (not my favourite aspect to have to select a bun from a bin that hundreds of people root through). You then select a sandwich number, based on the option posted (I always get #6 -- proscuitto, turkey and havarti cheese). The meat is sliced fresh and you tell the staff your preferred toppings (e.g., lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard, pickled eggplant). All of that for $4 (prices increased from $3.50 this year, but it's still well worth it).



After making our way to Gatineau Park, we set off for the yurt (our home for the evening).


This year, we decided to switch it up from the usual hot dogs and salad and make chicken fajitas.

Having everything cut up ahead of time makes this a really quick, convenient and tasty meal to make on a wood stove. Sorry, not a great picture, but it was dark out by the time we ate.

Breakfast was also delicious -- home made hasbrowns and omlettes stuffed with sausage and veggies.



By splitting up the meals between 6 of us, it was really easy to ski in carrying a good variety of food that was more interesting than the usual camping fare.

You can read about a previous ski trip here.

Aahar: The Taste of India

Aahar is one of those restaurants I've had on my "to try" list for a couple of years. I would drive by their Carling and Churchill location occasionally and make a mental note that I still hadn't gone. I'm glad to have have changed that.

Upon entering the restaurant, I was surprised how bright it was inside. From the outside of the restaurant, it looks like it's really dimly lit, but on the inside I almost wished the lights were a bit dimmer, to give that dining feel.

For starters, we ordered Allo Tikki, which is a spiced potato with curried chickpeas, tamarind sauce, mint sauce, yogurt and coriander.

I would rather there have been less yogurt on the plate. I'm not an expert on Indian food, so maybe that's just the way it is served. Personally, I found that it overly neutralized the spiciness of the potato and took over the other flavours in the dish.

We also ordered samosas, which were quite good. The accompanying sauce was just okay.


For the mains, we order Vindaloo, which included a warning that it was hot even though it was relatively mild. We both really enjoyed it though.

Finally, we went with the typical Butter Chicken. Along with the naan, it tasted great. We even debated over who would get to have it the next day for leftovers.

The service was mixed. The younger guy seemed really nice, although only came out of his shell to chat with us toward the end of the meal. The female working there was polite, but really missed the mark when we gave her feedback on the house red. I told her that the meal was good, but the wine that they served was off. After a quiet giggle, she said, "we don't make the wine." I think it's kind of a ridiculous response. I wasn't assuming that they were producing wine in the back of their restaurant. However, if they're serving wine that tastes bad, they should still feel responsible for the quality of it. It's not like I drank the whole glass and then said it was off. I had two sips and could stand any more of it.

That incident aside, I'd definitely recommend Aahar and intend to go back and order take out from them in the future.

Jewish Minestrone Soup

I fall into the category of people who could have soup every day. I've been hanging with the golden girls as a babysitter/general slave but no complaints - I'm in southern California escaped from the brutality of Canadian winter. My mother's friend "R", not to be mistaken with Psychgrad's "R" showed me her version of Minnestrone soup. We call it Jewish Minestrone and it's quite different than the Italian version that we're all very familiar with. It all begins with 2 packages of Manishewitz Minnestrone dry soup mix.


2 pkg Manischewitz Minnestrone soup mix
3 carrots, diced
3 medium sized diced potatoes
1 head cut cauliflower
1.5 pints sliced button mushrooms
6-8 cups water
1 tsp of granular chicken broth (such as Maggi or Osem)



Take both packages of the soup mix and add to the bottom of the pot.



Add cold water to fill a large pot approximately 2/3 full, keeping in mind you're adding a number of vegetables.
Bring soup mix with water to a boil and turn heat down to medium; cook until the pea and bean soup mix combination is beginning to soften.
Add the diced carrot to about 50% doneness.



Add potatoes and cook to approximately 50% doneness






Now the cauliflower and mushroom and continue cooking until all vegetablest are fully cooked without being mushy. Mix in the granular broth, stir well and you're done.