Lazy Cabbage Rolls Recipe

Here is a recipe that I've made a couple of times for trips and it's worked really well. Be careful not to overdo the quantities. Although I've seen it elsewhere (can't recall where), it has been posted by "Tripper" on the MyCCR.com forums. I'm putting it here so that I can find it again more easily the net time I'm looking for it. I'm making it today, getting ready for net week's Reindeer Lake kayak trip.

http://www.myccr.com/phpbbforum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=38377

My modifications will include using a powdered tomato sauce purchased from Thrive Life (I highly recommend their freeze-dried and dehydrated products for camping foods) and using minute rice.

Lazy Cabbage Rolls

• 1 - small head of coarsely cut cabbage (dehydrated)
• 2 - large cans of tomato sauce (dehydrated and ground into powder)
• 1 - can diced tomatoes (dehydrated)
• 1 - pound lean cooked ground beef (dehydrated)
• 1 - package of Uncle Ben's precooked heat and serve rice
• 1/3 cup - dried onion flakes
• Some - salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika

NOTE:
When drying the cabbage, fill the trays up! The trays should be overfilled. Cabbage dries really well and you'll end up with next to nothing after it dries. You should end up with one medium freezer bag of dried cabbage for every single head of cabbage dried.

Layer the cabbage on each tray very thickly. One head will fit in a four tray dehydrator and look very overfilled as the trays will not nest properly if at all. Trust me, it will not look that way the next day after it dries. Cabbage dries down really small.

Dry the tomato sauce as leathers and grind them into powder using a blender or other similar device. Turning it into powder speeds up the re-hydration process. Store the powder in it's own bag.

How to Cook

Rehydrate the cabbage, diced tomatoes, ground beef and onion flakes in a single pot with warm water.

After about four hours or soaking bring the mixture to a boil to cook the cabbage. Cook until the cabbage is heated well but not cooked to the point of being soggy. El Dante is best.

Drain the water off into a separate pot leaving enough water equal to half the height of the mixture in the pot.

Stir in the tomato sauce powder a bit at a time. As the sauce thickens, slowly add in small amounts of the drained water as needed while adding the tomato powder until you get the desired consistency. Always add water sparingly. It's easier to add a bit of water than it is to boil it off.

Then add in the the package of rice, some salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika to taste.

Gently heat for another 5 to 10 minutes and serve.

The List: International Version

The following is something that's been languishing in my drafts folder for years. I's not doing any good there, so I might as well publish it as is, even if I haven't quite finished it or polished it.

Some time ago I published a list of places I want to paddle. I am definitely Canadian-centric and all but one of the destinations picked for that list are located here in Canada. However, my dreaming of paddling goes beyond our borders and I was reminded of this when a Norwegian paddler (and moose hair researcher) visited our lab a while ago. So, in honour of Knut, here is my international wish list of paddling, again in no particular order.

1. The Fjords of Norway. The west coast of Norway looks simply stunning and I would love the opportunity to paddle there. Perhaps we can travel to Norway under the guise of visiting my wife's Norwegian relatives. 
2. St. Kilda. These remote Scottish islands are the featured location of the stunning video Sea Kayak with Gordon Brown, An Instructional Journey Around the Spectacular Islands of St Kilda. What can I say? The subtitle doesn't lie. 
3. New Zealand. Rugged fjords, mountains, wildlife. 
4. Australia. Home of kayaking greats like Fat Paddler & Gnarlydog, the Great Barrier Reef, Tasmania and so much more. I should really break this out into 5 or more individual items on this list.  
5. Cape Horn, Chile. Way beyond my skillset, but man the southern tip of South America looks awesome with a coastal environment that's just about as rough as it gets. Those fjords and islands looks so inviting, in a harsh way. 
6. San Francisco, California. Golden Gate Bridge, my buddy Cam (nearby in Sacramento), and a hotbed for California sea kayak activity. 
7. Homer, Kenai Fjords, Kodiak, etc., Alaska. Lots of potential destinations, all of them pretty awesome. To be inspired, have a look at the video I shared a some time ago here. 
8. Iceland. Hmmm, maybe remote fjords are a theme here?
9. Isle of Man. Another branch of my wife's family is Manx and it looks like this "self-governing British Crown Dependency" would be pretty cool to circumnavigate.
10. Belize. Since this made the first version of the list, I better keep it on the international version. Jimmy's pictures still look pretty cool. 
11. Baja. A winter feeding ground for grey whales and abundant sea life. Sounds good to me.

Freya Hoffmeister - North American Circumnavigation

Freya is doing it again - she has set out on yet another circumnavigation and this time she has her eyes set on North America. She set out from Seattle on March 23rd, 2017 heading northward. She plans to do the circumnavigation in a a couple of legs, the first of which has her heading toward the arctic in a clockwise direction around North America.

I've been reading along as she posts to her blog and it's created some very enjoyable reading - I love living vicariously through adventurers like Freya. You can read her blog here: http://freyahoffmeister.com/posts/

As I write this, she is approaching the northern tip of Vancouver Island (Day 23). I decided to create a map showing her progress because, well, I like maps. :)



~ UPDATE: Freya has uploaded her track so far, and it seems to be updating with the camping locations as she goes, rendering my map above both inferior and redundant. :) Check out her version here: https://fusiontables.googleusercontent.com/embedviz?q=select+col2+from+1h2vMAo6H1yO7eRDeXfdFP1uUnTDOL06MUeAtDUws&viz=MAP&h=false&lat=63.6722663543392&lng=-114.11640625000001&t=3&z=4&l=col2&y=3&tmplt=4&hml=KM


Early in her trip she crossed over from Port Townsend, WA, to Victoria, BC. I was surprised with how easily she tosses off a crossing like that.

Open this map full screen.