UPDATE: Dehydrating, Kids Camping, Cool Links

With the trip being counted down in days (29 days 8 hours and 18 minutes), Gerry and I have started to put together some of the things that can not be done in advance (TRANSLATION: "Holly crap we are running out of f***ing time"). With that in mind, last night we started the process of dehydrating some of our trip food and trying our hand at making beef jerky.

We are using a dehydrator Gerry got from his Mom. It is one of those ones that has the stackable rings and a base that blows warm air through the stack.

Our Dehydrated Fruit Experiment:

1. Watermellon: Yes, I said watermelon...stop laughing already! We did a quarter of a mellon and I was surprised how little fruit I got once the Rhine is removed.From what I have read, this should be one of the best fruits to dry. It is a fruit that is very sweet despite being diluted with all that water, so removing the water should result in a natural candy.
2. Grapefruit: Gerry and I both like this one fresh, so dry should not be too much of a stretch. The contrast of the sweet and bitter, combined with the coarse texture should be a real treat...thats the theory anyway.
3. banana: A backpacking staple...you can never go wrong with banana chips.

Beef Jerky Experiments:

1)Quick and Easy Recipe (Jim's):

1. INGREDIENTS:1 pound eye of round, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon brown sugar, 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
2. DIRECTIONS: In a medium bowl, combine the soy sauce, ground black pepper and brown sugar to taste. Mix well and add the steak slices. Place entire mixture with meat into a sealed plastic container and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours. Place in dehydrator for 24 hours (more time may be needed)

2)Dry Cure Southwest Jerky (Gerry's):

1. INGREDIENTS:1 ts Salt,1 ts Pepper1/2 ,ts Cayenne pepper,3 tb Chili powder,2 ts Cumin,2 Cloves garlic minced,2 lb Steak sliced thinly
2. DIRECTIONS:Combine ingredients and thoroughly mix together. This is a dry marinade so there is no liquid. Sprinkle the spice mixture on the meat slices and work into the grain with your fingers. Cover and marinate overnight. Place in dehydrator for 24 hours (more time may be needed)

We statred the fruit last night and it should be done tonight...just in time for our marinating beef to be thrown in for 24 hours, before it is made into mouth watering (we hope) beef jerky!

We will update with the results...

On a different note, this coming weekend Gerry and are are taking our kids (Gerry's 3 boys and my 2 boys, 1 girl...sorry Lauren) camping. Gerry and his crew will be spending Friday and Saturday night, we will be joining them for the last night. We are going to Sibbald Point Provincial Park and it is a close call as to who is more excited, the kids or the adults...but I am going to have to go with the kids. My guys have been wanting to go camping with me for a while, so this will give them a taste for what it is all about and for them, this will be quite an adventure.

Lastly, I have found some very cool links for stargazing. For this you need to input a city, so I used Mattawa, as it is the closest to Algonquin. This is part of the Weather Network site and allows you to input a date / location and print the moon cycles and how to view start and other celestial point of interest. Check it out HERE