April has been a busy month. Road trips, camping, canoeing, sightseeing, multiple deadlines at work and a friend's wedding have left little energy else for anything other than just enjoying those moments. I've had less time than I'd like for writing but plenty for thinking. Much time driving in the car, or sitting in a canoe, was spent in comfortable silence with my boyfriend as he thought about the things he saw from his seat, amongst other things, while I happily got lost in thought about food. From devising what we were going to eat for our next meal to what I'd like to write about here.
For example, I got to thinking: one of my favourite things about these weekends away was definitely cooking on the cuff. Without all the tools and ingredients available at home, and only the selected items that I'd deemed useful enough to bring along. After previous camping trips, we had a list of things that we knew we would need: a good knife, pan, mandoline, tongs, can opener, oil, salt and black peppercorns (ground with two flat stones found somewhere in the South Island). Chickpea flour was also on the list this time. Being off the grid for some of those weekends required forward-thinking when it came to what we would want to eat; and what we would want to eat would have to work with that set of tools and little refrigeration, if any.
After all that, the meals of greatest success were:
So simple and relatively quick, I was proud to prepare these meals even if there was no-one to share it with other than ourselves. Cooking away from home need not be limited to instant-anythings. (However if it's instant noodles, with an egg stirred through towards the end of cooking, I could be okay with that.)
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| The Whanganui River |
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| Breakfast at Whangaparoa Bay, SH35 (The Pacific Coast Highway) |
For example, I got to thinking: one of my favourite things about these weekends away was definitely cooking on the cuff. Without all the tools and ingredients available at home, and only the selected items that I'd deemed useful enough to bring along. After previous camping trips, we had a list of things that we knew we would need: a good knife, pan, mandoline, tongs, can opener, oil, salt and black peppercorns (ground with two flat stones found somewhere in the South Island). Chickpea flour was also on the list this time. Being off the grid for some of those weekends required forward-thinking when it came to what we would want to eat; and what we would want to eat would have to work with that set of tools and little refrigeration, if any.
After all that, the meals of greatest success were:
- Zucchini fritters; then,
- Zucchini fritter, carrot and peanut butter sandwiches;
- Beetroot, chickpea and feta salad (with Steak);
- 2 Bean and Beef Nachos; and,
- Spaghetti Carbonara
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| Dinner at Sponge Bay, Gisborne |
So simple and relatively quick, I was proud to prepare these meals even if there was no-one to share it with other than ourselves. Cooking away from home need not be limited to instant-anythings. (However if it's instant noodles, with an egg stirred through towards the end of cooking, I could be okay with that.)
