Rehydrating Dinner
Preparation for that night's dinner began about a week earlier when I dehydrated a little over half a jar of pasta sauce. I spread it on parchment over a cookie sheet and heated it in the oven at 170 degrees. After about four hours the top was dry and I was able to flip it over, exposing the damp side to dry too. It took about six hours in total and came out looking similar to a fruit roll-up. Getting all that water out caused it to shrink quite a bit — the entire jar was smaller than a sandwich-sized ziplock bag.
Dinner Took Some Doing
We used the sauce with spaghetti and some store-bought, dehydrated beef. At camp I rehydrated the sauce and beef separately, but made a few mistakes (big surprise ☺). The biggest problem was using cold instead of hot water. I had to wait for hydration, then wait longer to heat everything. On top of all that waiting I also needed to cook the pasta, but all pots were already in use!
A solution might be to cook the pasta first and use that hot pasta water to do the hydrating. The problem here is that the pasta would cool while waiting for the sauce and beef to soak up water. If I knew how much water the sauce would take, it might be possible to avoid the strainer by throwing the dehydrated stuff directly into the boiling pasta.
Those were my thoughts until Kevin Outdoors taught me the right way. He cooks then dehydrates the pasta at home. At camp, everything is mixed together and he uses boiling water to heat and rehydrate it all at the same time.
Once again eating in the wilderness really is the chef's best friend. I put cubes of cheddar cheese on top and we all thought it was fancy.
Shore Fun
While I was working on this the kids spent more time playing at the shore. William took many pictures of daredevil Katherine leaping between rocks. After many tries, he eventually got one with her in mid-leap.
Using the Candle Lantern
While camping with William's Cub pack, I learned about candle lanterns. This special candle holder hangs from a chain and the flame is surrounded by a glass shield. With care it can be used in a tent.
I'm still not sure if it is a good idea to have fire in a tent, but we decided to try it out anyhow. The shield at the top gets very hot — too hot to touch — and it would be a big problem if it touched the tent. We wound up using it all night, and it was really nice.
I hung it from the corner of the tent's loft, which is near our feet and away from the door. The candle light inside with rain outside made for a very cozy place to read. I've heard that candle lanterns can keep the dampness away, but I'm not convinced that it made any difference. It lasted until around 5 or 6 in the morning. It was a nice little night light and we used it the following night even though it wasn't raining then.
Post Dinner Activity
After dinner I started dishes right away, mainly to avoid problems with the pasta pot. This wound up being the right idea because no sooner had I finished than the rain started. It wasn't a heavy rain but it was enough to chase us to the tent at 6:30. Our site was mostly closed up, but when it became clear that the rain wasn't leaving, I headed out to hang food and get other things under cover.
Although the rainfall wasn't heavy, we did get quite a bit of wind across our point, so there was no chance for our evening fire. Once back in the tent we got ready for sleeping and read the rest of the evening. The rain continued through the night.
