Setting up a Versatile Camp Kitchen that works for YOU
hello beautiful people my name is amanda ziddo if you are new here i make motorcycle travel vlogs how to's and general encouragement for you to get out and do the thing today we're going to be talking about motorcycle camping kitchen setups i've watched a bunch of other youtube videos about this topic but most of what i can find is more like show and tell of people's personal gear which is totally awesome but my goal today is to show you some of your options and maybe bring up some things you may not have thought about so that you can set up your personal camping kitchen set up to do whatever you need it to do on the road whether that's just boiling the bag food dehydrated food that kind of stuff or if you're gonna get a little bit more fancy make some nice meals while you're camping in the woods and the desert wherever you go camping okay shout out to moto campner the sponsor of today's video if you are just getting started more cell camping or if you're one of my many followers who haven't tried yet but want to they do have a whole section on their website for budget beginner kits or if you are an experienced moto camper and you're just looking to upgrade a few things if you head on over to motocampnerd.com and use the code magpi at checkout you can get 10 off of your order which i think is pretty cool they carry a lot of the gear that i already use and love and they did send me a couple new pieces that i'm very excited about to use in this upcoming season camping gear is just about as personal as your motorcycle everybody has their own preference there's a lot of specialty equipment out there that is made for camping you can find a lot of cheaper alternatives for that do the same job they might not always be as lightweight or as compact but they do the same job let's start with just the essentials that you need to make food at camp fuel a camping stove a way to light that camping stove whether your camping stove has an igniter or not a pot an eating utensil a way to clean up afterwards and water storage that's it that's the simplest cake that you need we can make this simpler hold on i'm sure that you've heard of jetboils msr also makes a very similar thing to the jetboil called the windburner that i really enjoy it's super compact it's really only good for boiling water but if you're a dehydrated meal person this is perfect it's very compact you can fit your fuel the whole stove and there's your pot and a bowl to eat out of but we're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit having the simplest setup won't always make the fanciest meals though this is more for like pre-made food cans of soup cans of chili packets of oatmeal dehydrated meals freeze-dried meals stuff that really only needs hot water to make now i hear a few people saying that i don't need a camp stove i use a campfire to cook which is awesome but i live in the western united states where we have a fire ban part of the year almost every year having a camping stove even just a small one as backup gives you versatility that only relying on a campfire to cook with doesn't give you with that out of the way let's get into more kit options and things to make making food at camp a little nicer starting with camping stoves we have the ones that we're most familiar with here in the united states like jetboil msr wind burners pocket rockets prima stoves things like that that use an isobutane mixture as their fuel but there are also camping stoves like the dragonfly that use petrol or gas as their fuel supply there are also propane stoves those are a little bit bigger and not always as portable for motorcycle campers there are also newer camp stoves now that just require wood as their fuel although it's a lot harder to manage your heat every kind of stove and every kind of fuel type has its own pros and cons if you're doing a lot of stuff close to home you know isobutane canisters they're easy they're simple to use i've never been through a town in the united states that was big enough to have an outdoor gear store that did not have isoburn tank canisters but then again if you're going to be crossing borders a lot you're gonna be in a lot of remote areas maybe you wanna think about a stove like the dragonfly so that you can use gasoline that you're putting in your motorcycle to also cook with but that kind of stove also has its own pros and cons for usage and maintenance no matter what stove you go with though please please remember to always have backup matches and a lighter no matter if the stove that you go with has its own auto igniter those things can break having a mattress or a lighter is actually also a part of the 10 essentials of the things that you need when you're going to be spending time in the back country anyhow so things that you should be carrying yes i have put on a heated jacket thank you for noticing it is cold in my garage can't feel my fingertips but shall we talk about cooking vessels next there are so many options for pots and pans you guys i don't i'm not gonna be able to cover everything but i will cover a few things that i want to highlight and bring to your attention starting with stanley pots which are a great budget option i myself had a stanley pot for a long time it served me very well in the pilgrimage i will note though not nonstick i could cook rice in it noodles that kind of stuff but i could not cook an egg in it without having to do a whole lot of cleanup afterwards see the sun makes excellent compact cooking gear including their ex line which i'm sure you're probably familiar with by now if you've done any kind of research because this nice little pot here collapsed to be tiny and i was skeptical at first too know that cedar summit does not recommend frying in this kind of pot because you will damage the silicone if you cook something in this pot without liquid in it the great thing about purchasing into the sea to summit like x-pot that kind of line is that they're stuffed nests together like this lovely frying pan look how nice that pot fits in that pan yes i got a new pan thank you for noticing i have personally settled on like the whole pot and a pan combo because that works better for me i can cook rice in the pot set it aside you know all stuffed up so it stays warm and fry veggies and that kind of stuff in the pan and then just put it all together and eat it that way there are also other brands that carry pots kind of like the stanley like the gsi hall light this is also a perfectly good pot not nonstick you may also want to think about things like metal skewers or a grill rack if you want to cook over a campfire my friends over at two wheels big life make room for a cast iron skillet in their personal setup which definitely makes wonderful camp meals but not all of us can afford the extra weight and space that a cast iron skillet would take up but they're also pulling a trailer so they can afford the space and the weight see where i'm getting at where camp kitchen systems are very personal to like what you want to do with them what your personal bike setup is there's so many factors really quick i want to touch on water water filtration and water storage because that is incredibly important when we're talking about food preparation at camp if you're going to do any kind of camping at campgrounds or disperse camping where there is not potable water i highly encourage you have some way to treat that water or filter it having something is ultimately way better than nothing especially if you end up at a campground that you thought had potable water but doesn't likewise there are so many water bladder options out there i prefer the heavy duty kind this is my msr dromedary bag that i've used for ages and this is my new ceta summit water cell that i'm super excited about they are both four liters can you believe that this is so much more compact than this even if you do carry a hydration bladder with you in a backpack or something i still encourage you to have some kind of dromedary bag to store extra water with washing up always takes more water than it should right it does all right food preparation you're going to need something to cut your food with especially if you're not pre-prepping your food at home if like you're a weekender you can pre-cut all of your veggies pre-wash everything at home put them in a little ziploc bag so all you do is dump it in the pan and cook it when you get to camp so if you're a weekend warrior highly recommend that route it saves a lot of time in camp and just because you think it'll be super romantic to do all the food prep in camp it isn't always especially if you've been riding all day anyway and then i have this little martini bamboo cutting board that is my fave it still hasn't broken it's pretty pretty impressive it's kind of old now but you can also get a dedicated plastic cutting board or there are people who use like the bottom of the x bowls as cutting boards totally an option for you depends on your preference other things you can think about do you want to take a dedicated vegetable peeler or are you going gonna take your chances with chopping your fingers off with a knife like i do um bottle openers can openers graters think about tinfoil if you are a person who loves yourself some campfire meals tinfoil is like a must i will go over like the 101 of tin foil meals in the next video but think about the tin foil you want to think about if you're going to bring any measuring tools or if the bowls and cups that you have already have markers on them for like quarter cups and tablespoons and that kind of stuff if you're making more elaborate meals at camp you want some way to measure what you're putting in unless you're doing it all by sight which more power to you but i have this tiny little like quarter cup measuring cup it also has the tablespoons on the side um and ounces and all the good things this has just been super invaluable and it's so tiny and since it's made of plastic it doesn't break um another thing that you know isn't a camping thing i just found in the regular kitchen section of a walmart i also highly encourage you to think about bringing a bandana or some kind of tablecloth to put between your workstation and the surface that you're working on especially if you're working on like a picnic table that may or may not have a lot of bird poop on it things to think about or between your puff station and the dirt small things the next thing is to keep in mind that you need a way to clean up afterwards a pot scraper and a scrubber like combo like this is super useful scrubber rags like this they have a coarse side and a soft side i like little scrubber rigs like this over a sponge because sponges can hold a lot of water and it can take really long for the time for them to dry out and if you keep them in a ziploc bag after you're done using them they can get moldy blah blah blah blah i don't like sponges then you're also going to need a way to dry those dishes so some kind of like kitchen towel you don't have to take a whole kitchen towel you can take a microfiber towel like a small microfiber towel that packs down small that's perfect something that is going to absorb liquid but also dry quickly and for those instances when you did more than just boil water biodegradable soap highly highly recommend a lot of these wilderness wash soaps are highly concentrated so you don't need anything more than a small drop to do your dishes antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer is also something that should be a must have for your camp kitchen setup because you want to wash your hands before you prepare any food that's going to go in your body also a very important thing to keep in mind before you go on any camping trip is to think about where you're going to put your trash i tend to take like a gallon ziploc bag or like a stasher bag or something to put my trash in because i am one person i don't produce a whole lot but if you're in a large group think about bringing more than like one trash bag ln to you guys leave no choice we'll talk about that again later other things are super useful that people don't normally think about because the cleanup process is never the first thing in our mind we're always thinking about oh i want to make this when i get to camp clothespins super useful rubber bands also super useful extra ziploc bags like if you buy a big bag of pasta to cook at camp and then you have some left over having some way to rebag that or close it up so useful the next thing i want you to think about is utensils and serving gear bowls cups silverware stuff they're going to use to stir eating utensils can also be used to stir food while you're cooking and that kind of stuff long handle spoons are super useful if you're eating out of dehydrated bag that way your hand doesn't get disgusting when you're reaching down into the bottom of the bag to get the rest of the food out long handle spoons perfect for that there are also so many eat on the go zero waste kits that are out now which is cool ignore my chopsticks these are actually part of this kit but i really love the the snow peak chopsticks because they have the nice silicone end that makes it super easy to grab stuff and since they're super long they're good for stirring up stuff when you're cooking too if you haven't tried cooking with chopsticks you guys try it just try it utensils specifically to cook with like my tiny spatula guys should be familiar with this by now it's like my favorite thing or you can use like just a classic wooden spatula those are also super useful pieces like this though are kind of overkill and take up a lot of space unless you are camping with a lot of people and you're making meals for three to four people you may also want to think about tongs metal tongs if you're cooking over a campfire having a dedicated bowl to eat your oatmeal and food out of not totally necessary but kind of nice or if you're making a more elaborate meal and you need to like take something out of the pan and set it aside while you cook something else in the pan having some place to put that food useful having some kind of insulated mug for your beverage of choice pretty nice where you're going like hyper insulated like the hydroflasks or the yetis that are going to keep it hot for a really long time my note about these kinds of insulated mugs is that if you're trying to like drink it right away and it's scalding hot you're gonna have to wait a minute before you can drink it out of this kind of mug or just like a semi-insulated mug like this kind of camp mug it's not going to keep it as hot for as long but it means you're going to be able to drink it sooner than later speaking of hot beverages maybe you want to think about any special equipment you want to bring along to meet your coffee needs i'm personally a tea person so all i need is a tea bag and some honey there are so many ways to make coffee at camp and there are a bazillion videos online about all the different ways to make coffee at camp there are also instant packets and that doesn't require any other kind of special equipment besides your cup let's talk about pantry stuff next i know this is starting to blur the line a little bit between recipes and camp kitchen setups but a few good spices and oils and maybe some sauces can really bring out the flavor and food and just brings it up a whole level i use little nalgene squeeze bottles and jars to carry my spices and liquids in it's cheaper and you get better quality ingredients than buying those like mixed spice jars i'm sure that you've seen them you also have way more control over what kind of spices you are bringing depending on what kind of food you enjoy making a few spices and staples you may want to carry of course salt is a big one it's actually the biggest spice container that i have i need to refill it pepper is another garlic powder onion powder basil oregano or you make your own italian seasoning a lot of mixed herbs are a good bet like parsley paprika cumin cinnamon ginger powder for my spice lovers cayenne powder red pepper flakes curry powder is also a really good one to carry and sugar i normally just steal sugar packets from like hotels and restaurants that kind of stuff still steel is a strong word i've never taken like a whole handful from a restaurant like one or two you know they were there for me to use i just decided to take it and use it later i'm yep that's how i'm going to justify that real garlic and onions obviously are going to taste a whole lot better but in a pinch the powdered versions can fill in the gaps i also normally carry some kind of soy sauce that's always a good bet especially like any kind of stir fries or you like to make rice you can either carry it in like a little container like this like i do or if you get take out when you're at home these little packets of soy sauce super useful very packable olive oil also super versatile you take any oil you want like coconut oil is good because it can solidify and become liquid again or regular or vegetable oil is also a good option bouillon cubes chicken or vegetable or beef or whatever these are so good for flavoring rice you guys and yes other things you might want to take along but i do not ketchup packets mustard packets mayo packets hot sauce that kind of stuff i hear hot sauce is very useful for flavoring food that maybe didn't turn out so good moving on to staples that are just a good thing to have as a backup or make a meal stretch a little bit farther i always have a few packets of rice i pre-measure and package them at home so each little package is a half a cup of rice which is just the right amount for me pasta is also a really good staple to bring along on the bike orzo is an excellent travel pasta so is angel hair to a certain extent other shaped pastas like rotini and bow tie pasta and that kind of stuff since they have so many more sharp edges are more likely to puncture whatever packaging they're in while they're rattling around on the bike couscous also another really good staple to bring along on the bike highly recommend carrying hot cocoa a tea bag some coffee some kind of hot beverage because even if you're traveling in the middle of summer most of the time the temperature drops a few degrees when the sun goes down so having some kind of hot beverage is just it's just nice you can also get powdered milk to make those like packaged alfredo things you get a little bit creamier instant oatmeal always a good bet also having like a little packet of tuna or a can of spam those kinds of things are an easy way to add protein to a meal nuts are an underutilized and fantastic way to add protein and texture to pretty much any meal sunflower seeds almonds pine nuts peanuts pistachios cashews cans of soup or a can of chili is an excellent bailout food you do not necessarily have to keep the can on your bike you just stop in at like pretty much any grocery store or even a gas station and pick up a can of soup before you head into camp if you can't find anything else i normally have one can of condensed chicken noodle soup on the bike pretty much every single trip as my bailout food because i would rather eat this than ramen noodles the thing about having a good pantry and a couple of bailout foods is that a lot of the things here i can mix together and make a whole meal out of pantry lists are so specific to the person and what kind of food you like to cook so pick a few recipes that you like to eat pick out the spices and things that you need to make that meal and plan to take those along in your next trip and see how it goes and that way all you have to do on your trip is pick up the whole ingredients like the vegetables and the meat and you already have the spices and the liquids you need to make the rest of the meal obviously this won't work for every recipe out there especially more complicated recipes or things you need an oven for but you get the idea the other thing with motorcycle camp cooking is that you kind of learn to make do with what you got there are a lot of versatile recipes like stir fries and different kinds of pasta or you could switch out ingredients depending on whether you have them or not which makes them really great recipes when you're on the road or if you're just gonna go camping for a weekend alright beautiful people i hope that you enjoyed today's video i can tell it's already getting a little bit long so i'm going to split this up into two parts so next week we're going to talk about organization tips for packing a cooler foil packed stuff and also important food safety information that you need to remember when you're preparing food at camp remember to use my code magpie for 10 off your order at motocampnerd.com links to everything in my personal camp kitchen setup will also be linked down in the description and end screen crew question are you a must-have coffee person in the morning a tea person like me secret third hot beverage option or do you not need anything when you wake up in the morning you just pack up a camp and leave what must i be like i don't i don't know [Music] you
2021-03-07 03:44
