caramelized onion sauce

This is a recipe that is NOT included in the book, but it's heart wrenchingly wonderful. I'm adding it here to this blog as a way to share the love!

CARAMELIZED ONION SAUCE

3 yellow onions (finely chopped)
5 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
1 red pepper (finely chopped)
4 oz olive oil
2 oz peanut oil (or any high heat oil)
1 oz soy sauce
1 oz hot sauce
tablespoon tahini
tea spoon salt
tea spoon pepper
dash of vinegar
dash of sugar

(all weights above are measures, not weight)

Start by cooking the finely chopped onions in a large skillet on low heat with the peanut oil. Stir frequently for approximately 20 minutes, until the onions are caramelized and brown.

Add the finely chopped garlic and red pepper let cook approximately 10 minutes.

Add the soy sauce, hot sauce, salt, pepper, vinegar and sugar. Let this cook another 10 minutes or so. The stuff in your pan should be brown and gooey.

Take off the heat and let cool for a few minutes.

Put the warm concoction in a blender or food processor with the olive oil and tahini. Blend until smooth.

You will now have a brown flavor packed sauce that can be added to your camping meals. Carry it in a small lightweight plastic bootle. Approx. 2 ounces (in weight) per person per meal will bring tears of joy at dinner time.

PLEASE NOTE:
I'm a cook that ignores recipes, I pretty much just wing it in the kitchen. I encourage anyone reading this to get creative and tweak the above recipe to meet their own needs, and to match whatever you might have on hand in your pantry!

Bon Appetit!

toothpaste dots

Tip number 54 in the book is how to make toothpaste "dots" by drying stuff out of the tube yourself. But look what I just found (thanks Clayton)! Linked HERE.

Product description:
Archtek's Toothpaste Tablets are a chewable tablet that replaces paste in a tube and creates an incredibly clean feeling mouth. The tablet is placed in the mouth, chewed, followed by normal brushing and rinsing. Chew, brush, go! Travel-friendly Toothpaste Tablets are lightweight, more sanitary than toothpaste and the packaging is recyclable. Less mess, less weight, more green, more sanitary.

it really IS just this easy!

Shirking the fancy-schmancy. Living the dream.

Howdy Mike!

I thought you would enjoy this photo. It is of a student I had here at NAU [Northern Arizona University] - he was already pretty committed to the lightweight gospel but went the extra mile this past April on a 17-day trip in the Gila Wilderness. He made his own pack the day before the trip from mostly recycled materials - tyvek scraps from a construction site, buckles and flat webbing straps from an old pack he found at goodwill and an old cut up ensolite half-pad. The only new items I recall were some gorilla glue/adhesive and thread from the sewing machine.

I think the empty pack weighed in at 10 or 12 ounces. He was able to carry a 7 and then a 10 day ration, group gear and such with the pack and I think his largest pack-weight was in the upper 20's during the 10-day ration period. We had just received a half dozen copies of your book - hot off the press - loaned him one about 3 days before the trip and he attributes his inspiration and success to YOU!

Peace,
Aaron

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From Mike C:
The above just arrive in my in-box. Oh how I dearly LOVE this kind of thing!

(photo by Aaron Divine)