Book Review: Lipsmackin' Backpackin' by Tim and Christine Conners

I purchased this book as well as the vegetarian sequel recently off of Amazon for our upcoming AT trip. There are some pretty good recipes in here, most of which require a dehydrator. Last week I made one of the vegetarian recipes in which you take a jar of spaghetti sauce and mix it with 1 lb. of frozen veggies, a bell pepper, and some spices. You then puree the sauce and dehydrate it. Just to make sure it would taste as good re-hydrated, I tested it out and it was great and full of vitamins! 2 days ago I tried making one of the vegetarian chili recipes. I used the book's basic recipe but added a lot of my own spices. Sadly, because whole pieces are left in it while it dehydrates, it took too long and the moisture + the heat created mold. I was disappointed since a hot bowl of chili on the trail would be amazing. This wasn't the book's fault however, as I have a very old food dehydrator which doesn't take moisture out as well.

GSI Outdoor Pinnacle Dualist

 My shipment from Campmor.com arrived earlier this evening! One piece of gear that I have been really excited about purchasing is the GSI Outdoor Pinnacle Dualist. When I first pulled out the box I was confused because it was so small! I opened it and pulled out the case with everything inside. I was still baffled by the size so I checked the box to make sure I hadn't ordered the Soloist. After confirming that I was holding the Dualist in my hands, I started to take it apart. Inside the bag (which double as a sink!) was the pot, two color coded bowls, which separate into mugs, two sporks, and a stove pouch.

I immediately ran to my kitchen and grabbed a box of macaroni. I poured the entire box into the pot just to see how much it could hold. Unfortunately, it took up half of the pot's volume. I decided to test it out by cooking just 1/2 of a box of pasta. It was hard to estimate how much water would be needed in such a tiny pot. The water boiled within 5 minutes as the package had promised. I poured the macaroni in, but the water ended up spilling over 3 different times even after pouring some out. The macaroni was done by the time I was ready to give up. One thing I will say is that the lid has a feature that allows you to pour water out without it spilling everywhere and it works great. I almost feel that you would have to cook pasta in small amounts, which would be a waste of fuel. I am going to keep playing with it and will update in the near future.