Well, lets start with water. It's one of the more important things in my opinion. First off, drink lots of it. Obviously you need more of it when it's hot or when you're exerting yourself but just because its not hot doesn't mean you don't need lots of water. Water good, Dehydration bad.(I saw a guy dehydrated once, his skin was fire engine red and he was mumbling about his head exploding and then he started to puke all over the place and continued to moan in greater agony as his skin turned a deeper scarlet color.) If your urine is yellow or worse, amber, you're not getting enough water. It should be clear. Make sure you always have plenty of water available. Make sure your water is pottable before you drink any, even a sip. Obviously if it's coming from a stream, lake, river, your neighbor's toilet or such it needs to be treated but remember- just because it comes out of a hydrant doesn't mean it's pottable. If there is any doubt do one of the folowing.
A) Treat it with iodine tablets you buy at camping stores and follow the directions exactly. Remeber after the bottle of tablets is opened they expire quickly. Throw away expired tablets. I will warn you the water will taste awful. Pouring the water from one container to another will help somewhat. I'd suggest some type of drink mix like Kool-Aid to disguise the taste, or better yet Tang. Bring your winter boots and play moonwalker while drinking technology from our space program.
B)Run the water through a commercial filter wich is rated to take the bad stuff out. If you want to be hip and on the cutting edge this is the way to go. Be prepared to spend a significant amount of time filtering water, these filters generally very slow. Some filters just take out foul tasting stuff and will let the really nasty microbes right though. Keep in mind that most filters have to be replaced every so often, follow directions.
C) Boil it. this is my prefered method. No icky iodine taste and no expensive gangly frustrating filters and pumps. Start by straining the water through a hankerchief a couple times to get the large sediment out like fish, gravel, turtle poop etc. then bring the water to a roaring boil. Let the water boil for at least a fifteen minutes. Ok now here it that all important step I know you coudn't have figured out on your own, LET IT COOL, trust me, skipping this step is bad. Boiled water tastes rather stale and flat, but iodine tablets are worse. Pouring the boiled water from one container to another will dramatically improve the taste. A small amount of salt doesn't hurt either. (interesting side not stolen from The History Channel, Chinamen were often prefered to work on the transcontinental railroad not only because they would work for lower wages but also because they seemed to get sick less, probably due to the fact that they drank tead which means they had to boil the water before they drank it killing the bugs.)
A) don't eat the snow without melting it first. Your body likes to stay around 98 degrees, not 32!
B) Use clean snow. I know you really want to use that lemon flavored stuff over by the bush but it just isn't a good idea.
C) If you have any water put a half cup or so to the bottom of the pan and heat it up before adding snow slowly, if you don't the water will taste scorched. Don't ask me how the hell water gets scroced but it sure tastes that way. Keep in mind it takes a lot of snow to get a little bit of water. When you are hiking periodically add a handfull of snow to your water bottle the water already in the bottle will help melt the snow you add.
Just in case you remembered to duck and cover
In the occurance of a nuclear hollocaust or some other disaster and you are unfortunate enough to live through it and pottable water just isn't around you can kill the nasty bugs. If you're alive they probably made it through ok too. Add one teaspoon of Clorox bleach to one U.S. Gallon of water be sure that your bleach contains sodium hypochlorite at 5.25% and that the rest is water, in other words don't use the lemon flavored bleach either. Only do this if you are desperate, since ingesting chlorine bleach is in general not a terribly healthy thing in the long run.
I understand that treating water is a pain espicially since you drinking so much of it right? good, but don't take any shortcuts. I've never had the misfortune myself of getting sick form bad water but I hear it's more than just a nuisance, and being sick as dog twenty miles to the nearest road and fresh out of toilet paper might not be quite the trip you had planned.
What kind of food you eat depends on about four things
1) how far you will have to carry it.
2) how long it will have to last
3) how much you like to eat/cook, and finally
4) how much money you are willing to spend.
When I don't have to carry my food too far I like to eat good. if you can do it in your kitchen you can probably do it camping. If on the other hand, you are carrying your food a ways that cast iron dutch oven and that 30 pound turkey just may not be worth it. If you have a money tree growing in your front yard you can buy those freeze dried meal packages sold at backpacking stores, they really do taste pretty good and they're light, easy and convenient. However if for some odd reason fourteen bucks a meal is a bit much look for dry foods in the grocery store. for example pasta, instant/reg rice,beans, dried scalloped potatoes, ramen noodles<--(just a wee bit cheaper than those backpacking meals) instant puding, dried milk, cereal etc. If you're serious about backpacking an investement in a dehydrator would be well worth it. Don't forget to plan well rounded healthy meals in your frenzy of buying lightweight food. Woudn't want you getting scurvy aye mate.
Some of my favorite recipes
Turkey in a pit.
dig a hole in the ground about twice the size of the turkey being sure to save the sod, put the sod in the shade and keep it moist. Line the pit with non exploding rocks (don't ask me how you tell) build a fire in the pit large enough to leave sufficient coals for the turkey. Let the fire die down to a nice bed of coals. put the turkey in a wet paper bag along with potatoes carrots celery etc. and wrap the whole thing in tinfoil. place in the pit and bury it. In a few hours you can dig up your succulent turkey. Sometihg about digging up dinner appeals to me.
Tinfoil meal for the lazy soul
Here is the easiest and probably most popular meal next to s'mores made on campouts. bring along a roll of aluminum foil (Was tinfoil ever actually made out of tin?) Everyone gets their own piece. Wrap up a chunk of hamburger or even steak and a bunch of potato carrot celery, whatever chunks in the foil, salt and pepper it, and throw it in the coals. If you're with a group the best part of this meal is watching everybody argue about which one is theirs and hearing just exactly why they know it is the one that belongs to them. The next best part is watching them figure out how to get it out of the coals. :)you may want to remember the burn cream
My trail mix pet peeve
Nothing irks me more than people telling me exactly what I should put in my trial mix or even what to call my trial mix like GORP. (Good ole' raisins and peanuts) Trail mix should be tasty. If you don't like raisans for pete sakes don't put raisins in your trial mix. You'd think this would be obvious, but my estimated IQ of the general public is dropping steadily so I put it in. Trail mix should contain sugary stuffs, carbohydratey stuffs and proteiny stuffs, other than that put whatever you want in it and call it whatever you want to. I do however think (yes I'm a two faced hypocrite) that all trail mix should contain ample M&M's. Trail mix without M&M's is kinda like cake without the frosting.
Peach Cobler
This is a pretty straight foward, easy, and cheap concotion for the dutch oven. Simply buy a couple cans of peaches and a yellow cake mix. Mix up the Cake mix, pour it in the dutch oven, and throw a few coals on it. when the cake is done pour on the peaches, let them warm up a bit and enjoy. you can also make this with trustee bisquick instead of cake mix if you perfer.
Another easy midnight campfire snack
Buy a package of flour tortillas, some cooking oil, and some cinamon and sugar. If you are a scout troop the last two are proabably already in your food boxes. Heat up an inch or two of oil in the bottom of a pan and have someone dip the tortillas into the oil, preferably one of the more carefull members of your crowd, then have his/her assistant coat the fried crispy with cinamon and sugar to distribute amongst the crowd, this job can be done by the less coordinated.
POTATOES Throw em in the coals. They grow in the dirt guys I woudn't waste the tinfoil
CORN ON COB remove silk, replace husk, moisten, throw in coals
HOT DOG I hope you can figure this one out it is my opinion roated hot dogs are far superior to boiled ones.
HAMBURGERS pretty much however you want to, but tinfoil covering the grill tends to lead to more problems than in solves like large grease flames and hamburgers in coals. I understand the desire to keep the dishes cleasn though, if anyone has any sugegtions let me know. *WARNING* Do not cook on anything galvanized, it will poison you.
SPAGHETTI Just remember the seive! Just ask Ryan our accident magenet.
