Ly Linda - The New Camp Cookbook: Gourmet Grub for Campers, Road Trippers, and Adventurers

To our ray of light, Gemma Lumen.

In your first six months of life, you have followed us to eleven states and seven national parks, bounced along backcountry roads deep in the Rockies, weathered snowy hikes in Montana and rainy walks in Oregon, and slept on strange beds in tents and trailers and motel rooms. A born traveler and explorer, you did it all with such ease and big smiles, making friends wherever you went.

This book is just as much yours as it is ours, and the grandest of adventures is just beginning. Our greatest hope for you is a life of taking risks, dreaming big, and doing things that bring you joy, all while eating well.

We love you.

2017 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

Text 2017 Linda Ly

Photography 2017 Will Taylor

First published in 2017 by Voyageur Press, an imprint of The Quarto Group, 401 Second Avenue North, Suite 310, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA. Telephone: (612) 344-8100 Fax: (612) 344-8692

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the copyright owners. All images in this book have been reproduced with the knowledge and prior consent of the artists concerned, and no responsibility is accepted by producer, publisher, or printer for any infringement of copyright or otherwise, arising from the contents of this publication. Every effort has been made to ensure that credits accurately comply with information supplied. We apologize for any inaccuracies that may have occurred and will resolve inaccurate or missing information in a subsequent reprinting of the book.

Voyageur Press titles are also available at discount for retail, wholesale, promotional, and bulk purchase. For details, contact the Special Sales Manager by email at or by mail at The Quarto Group, Attn: Special Sales Manager, 401 Second Avenue North, Suite 310, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA.

Digital edition: 978-0-76035-937-2

Hardcover edition: 978-0-76035-201-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ly, Linda, 1980- author.

Title: The new camp cookbook / Linda Ly ; photography by Will Taylor.

Description: Minneapolis, MN : Quarto Publishing Group USA, Inc., [2017] |

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016054283 | ISBN 9780760352014 (hc : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Outdoor cooking. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.

Classification: LCC TX823 .L89 2017 | DDC 641.5/78--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016054283

Acquiring Editor: Thom OHearn

Project Managers: Caitlin Fultz and Alyssa Bluhm

Art Director: Brad Springer

Cover Designer: Amy Sly

Layout: Amy Sly

Picture this: Its a brisk and cloudless afternoon. After bagging a peak in the High Sierra, you hike back to camp and crack open some cold ones to celebrate another summit. Your friends come back with foraged firewood in their arms, and you season the steaks while they add logs to the fire pit. Hiking boots get swapped for sneakers, laughter echoes through the air. Salty snacks make their way around the group as stomachs start to grumble. An orange moon appears above the trees just as everyone settles into a chair around the fire. You watch the flames leap and snap as the first steak lands on the grill with a satisfying hiss.

Or imagine pulling up to the lake where youve been camping every summer since you were a kid. Now, youre bringing your own kids there. After delegating responsibilities of pitching the tent, setting the table, and gathering kindling for the fire, you prop your chair at the waters edge, sit back, and wait for trout to tug on the line. In the distance you see the kids setting up a slackline and the dog snoozing in the grass. Dragonflies skip across the lake to the soundtrack of songbirds in the trees. At twilight youre called back to camp, where a crackling fire and hungry family awaits your fresh catch of the day.

Whether hiking with friends or camping with family, Ive found theres a lot to love about cooking at camp. The thrill of being in the wild can only be topped with a homemade meal, even when youre a hundred miles from home.

As soon as my favorite mountain passes and campsites open for the season, I start looking forward to my first meal in the woods. Over the years, Ive come to find that cooking in the elements and with the elements (of earth, fire, wind, water, and metaleverything you need for an alfresco meal) is almost meditative.

Yes, cooking at camp takes longer than cooking at home. You have to start your stove or get the fire going, dialing the heat or piling the coals to just the right amount you need. You probably have to unpack a bitand if youre like me, you go further, arranging your tools on the table and organizing any bins so theyre within easy reach. Yet I see all this work as a good thing. Cooking outside forces you to slow down, take things in stride, and be more aware of where you are and what youre doing. After all, the weather and views will be as much a part of your meal as the ingredients.

Theres also the indescribable: theres no arguing that theres something magical about cooking outside that makes food taste so much better. Maybe its the woodsy perfume from a smoky grill or the sharpened appetites after an accomplished day of adventure. Maybe its the simple fact that fresh ingredients dont need much in the way of preparation. Their flavors and textures are allowed to shine through in dishes that seldom demand a lot of effort to put together.

The first time I went camping with a large group of friends, I was getting away for my twenty-eighth birthday on a sweltering summer weekend. Eleven of us caravanned from Los Angeles to Kings Canyon, six hours away from the congestion of city life and into the primitive beauty of the national forest. We camped on the banks of the Kings River, rafted down Class III rapids, lounged in inner tubes, and cooled off in swimming holes.

What we remembered most, however, were the nights we spent sitting around the campfire, grilling meats and vegetables and passing bottles of wine and whiskey. With only the rise of the moon to guide our concept of time and no curfew of life to rush us along, dreams were shared while inhibitions were shed. Long and honest conversations mixed with laughter and lighthearted chatter until the last embers finally faded deep into the night.

Camping brought us outside, but the meals brought us together.

That river trip kicked off a big campout every summer that moved from place to place but stuck to three key principles: good food and great friends gathered around a roaring fire. No matter where we were headedfrom Kern River to Sherwin Creek and from Florence Lake to Sequoia National Parkevery camping trip began with a stop at a grocery store and cars loaded to the roof with enough food to feed us for a week (even if we were only camping for a couple of nights).