Tag: testing

September 16, 2024 – Right For Me

***This was last week’s podcast. It published on Castbox and all the usual platforms but I am having a technical problem with Castbox. I have an open ticket, but for now, I cannot copy the code from my host to my site and sync everything as I normally do. I may temporarily move podcasts to later in the week so I can use one of the other players while I sort out the technical issues. Bear with me as things are getting back to a more normal schedule,***

I hit on a lot of different subjects today. This is probably a topic that could have gone on for several more hours. I kept thinking of additional things and different applicable examples that fit in with what I was trying to say. I found that I got results that I didn’t expect both negatively and positively. But, I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t try different things.

July 3, 2024 – The Gear List

Those of you that have fantasies of hiking the PCT like I do may have a disconnect with reality. As it pertains to gear, we can spend a lot of money on getting outfitted and can easily get lead in the wrong direction. As an example, my wife used to be fairly active in a local kayaking group. Almost without fail, you would see new participants show up with the cheapest possible kayak. They would struggle, get discouraged and quit soon after.

I don’t necessarily think that inexpensive will lead to failure. Nor do I believe that trying something for the first time warrants buying the top of the line. But, what it does mean is like all things in life, you need to apply critical thinking about it. Start small or reasonable. Maybe even borrow things rather than investing in a failure to launch. Once you get to know what you like and not, then you can start personalizing the things you want versus what you really need.

I have or can find any of the gear that I really need for my trip. I have been on a weeklong hike before. That part I am confident in. But, now that I have some means I am likely in line for some upgrades. I would say that we had top of line gear in the early 1990s. But there have been some significant technological advances since that point, primarily in weight.

Most of the trips included my brother. We had a two man tent. One of us would pack the tent and the other would pack the stove as an example. That tent probably weighed ten pounds and strictly speaking a tent is not required. But, I want to be able to get out of the weather if necessary and I am a little worried about being eaten alive by bugs. That puts the tent on my list of wants.

Part of the reason for me to put this gear list together is that I need to start practicing. I want to know if my current gear is adequate or not. I want to start planning so that I don’t end up buying things all at once and give me some time to practice and make decisions. I want to know what doesn’t work as well so I am not stuck out in the wilderness with something I have never used.

My existing pack is an external frame pack from the late 1980s. At the time I purchased it, it has a lifetime warranty. My recent research has revealed that the company has gone out of business. Not from making poor products but from having poor company management. It is an age old story of company sold and run into the ground by the new owners.

Now that I am freed from that life long warranty, I can admit that newer designs and materials may have advantages. But, I want to take some hikes with this old pack. It has seen plenty of use but I want to determine if this fifty year old can tolerate 1980s technology. My son has also been using it for Boy Scouts. I may want another pack if he decides to go. But, at this point, there is no reason to rush out and spend $300 on a new pack without determining if what I already have will serve. Even if my boys decide not to go or they cant, I still might want to have some practice hikes including them. Upgrading my pack remains to be seen.

Certain costs on my list are unavoidable. I am going to need to eat on my hike. I might be able to mitigate some of that cost by bringing my own homemade granola or trail mix or dried fruit. I figured that I would put worse case scenario down and have an entire menu of freeze dried food. For budgetary purposes, I have a cost of my meal plan.

That of course will be purchased before the hike. But again, it may be worth trying some of this stuff out. I remember that I thought freeze dried food was pretty good when I was a teenager. But the stuff that I have eaten lately has been terrible. I want to try some different brands and entrees to determine what I like best.

I came of age in an era that believed ankle support was necessary. If you look at the NBA today, nobody wears a ‘high top’ shoe. Hiking boots with heavy waffle souls were the trail preferred footwear. But plenty of ultramarathoners wear a trail running shoe for a 100mi race. It is no wonder that Cheryl Strayed threw her boots off the mountain as they were the cause of the pain, and not the resolution of it. The most important footwear is the one that you can walk all day and be comfortable.

In my running days, the common mantra was about 200mi per pair of shoes. I found that after a few months, the padding started to break down causing me knee pain. When my knees started hurting, it was time to get a new pair of shoes. I want to make sure that I am comfortable with my footwear before my trip. The last thing you want are blisters foot pain for a week on the trail.

As with all things, all gear is in degrees. I could choose a much cheaper water disinfection rather than filtration. I probably want some wardrobe upgrades with specialty clothes. I even have some optional items that I haven’t totally settled on. This trip isn’t about how much I can carry but to be comfortable with what I am taking.

End Your Programming Routine: All things considered, outfitting for $2500 is not an outrageous vacation. That would be if I bought all of the options. Plenty of people have a $1500 rifle for hunting and then add all the other gear you are probably topping $5000. As you should know by now, I don’t want to buy stuff just because I can. I have plenty of useful gear already, let’s see if it still works for me.

June 26, 2024 – Proving That I am Not a Purist

Not that I care about judgement, but I do want you to know that I am a normal person. I don’t always hold true to my beliefs. One of my beliefs is avoiding processed foods. We were experimenting with a ‘boxed dinner’ as they say in Canada. This was to see if this was something that we wanted to use to get by when we are staying up in the hospital.

Back in my early life, before I really started to challenge myself cooking we used to eat these boxed dinners. They were right sized for the two of us, the were cheap and easy to make. I shifted away from them as we started to work toward healthier choices but I remember thinking that they tasted pretty good.

I am a big fan of Crocodile Dundee. He has a famous line ‘you can live on it but it tastes like shit’. After eating one of these, I kind of know what he means. Mushy noodles, thin sauce with a slight chemical undertone. It certainly was easy to make and it definitely filled us up but boy it was not good.

Unfortunately, I bought several of these. Maybe the kids will eat them while we are gone? I doubt it since they didn’t grow up with it and my younger son is a vegetarian. But I will continue to side with Crocodile Dundee.

As I stated on the title, I am not a purist. While I would not like to recommend this as a diet plan, I think that there is a time and place. A good time would be a camping trip or being stuck at a hospital with limited facilities and options. Based on my exposure to freeze dried meals, I don’t think that this is any less bad. This was another thing that I used to think tasted much better.

One of the things that we used to consider gourmet in the early years was a boxed pasta. We would also buy some fish parts that were off-cuts of salmon considered cheeks and odd bits. I would grill them on a tiny barbeque and then serve them with fettucine. We thought that was kind of high society. At least it wasn’t ramen like we were eating in college.

Talking to my wife’s insurance company, they have a benefit for meal planning and food drop off. There is more on that to come but it sounds like they are going to suggest a menu and then drop off the food too. It will be interesting to see what they suggest. One of the restrictions on her recovery is that food cannot be over two days old. So, there is only so much planning we can do. I am thinking maybe those frozen stir-fry packages might be a better option than boxed dinner.

End Your Programming Routine: Well, we have this in our back pocket as an option. I am hoping the meal planning provides a better solution but I am also glad that we tried. It just reminds me why we left these behind. Sometimes we need reminders of why we make the decisions that we make. It is almost like you remember why taking tequila shots on Thursday night is not a good idea on Friday morning.

June 2, 2021 – Recipes and Lies

In my recent stint of ethnic cooking and looking at recipes I have noticed a theme about times and how they are portrayed. They always seem to be way too short.

For a long time, I have subscribed to and enjoyed the podcast ‘Harvest Eating‘. Way early on, probably within the first 20 episodes, Keith talks a little about the process of testing recipes. This was in the context of producing the cookbook and how recipes had to be tested multiple times to validate everything was correct. He never went in depth about the process and I always wondered what the process was about.

My technique for making something new includes trying to find three or four recipes and look for the similarities. If most ingredients and proportions seem to agree, then I generally consider the premise reliable. Sometimes I am looking to add the outlier ingredients and sometimes I am looking to skip them, it depends on what I am trying to use up or not have something that has very little future use.

I suppose that it goes back to simple/easy conversation a few weeks ago. For the most part, recipes are a collection of steps that build on each other. Those steps can be both simple and easy or one or the other but rarely neither. One of my problems is that often I am looking at a blog on my phone and ultimately goes blank and then I have to scroll through all of the pictures to get back down to the recipe.

But also, I question the twenty minutes of prep that seems to be ubiquitous. Rarely do I see something that is less or more than that. Last week, I made a vegan Bahn Mi that contained tofu, yam. taro root and egg plant. That recipe’s prep time was also 20 minutes and I don’t think I had everything on the counter and peeled in that time. Additionally, cook time was twenty minutes which included frying all of those roots, then braising them with the softer and more fragrant items like eggplant and lemon grass. Needless to say, it took more like an hour and a half to get everything done.

It seems like when chef’s test recipes, it may be coming from someone that has done it a dozen times or more. In addition to that, they likely have a vast experience base of culinary skills and tools. It also might be that they don’t care how many dishes are used to make the dish (I try to minimize the number of bowls, utensils and tools that have to be washed at the end, I think that might slow me down some too). This was my first time using taro root, I wasn’t quite sure how to approach it.

We are having Indian tomorrow, and the Aloo Gabi is on the menu because it is vegan (so my son will eat it) and sounds good. I will give it a test and see. I have to peel potatoes and break down cauliflower as well as get all the spices gathered up. I can be kind of a risk taker when it comes to food and cooking Indian never having done it is one of those things. I will start right after work and we will see if I get it done in time for dinner.

One more quick tip I use is you can reduce cooking time by getting everything out of the refrigerator and allowing it to come up to room temperature (while prepping). It also tends to cook better and more consistently. There is nothing worse than trying to cook something that is almost ice cold with a stir fry technique.

End Your Programming Routine: For making something new, exotic or unknown, I would plan on at least doubling the total time of a stated recipe. Using the concept of Mise en Place you can always delay cooking until everything is staged, but you cant get time back if you start too late.