Real Soup

On Outdoor Cooking

Without walls, floors, windows, doors--ninety degree angles of any sort--without incandescence, electronics and plumbing, life changes.

We ease up. We get dirty and don't care. The sky is the ceiling. The earth is the floor. We join the elements and the soul is gratified.

We can watch the morning mists arise from the high lakes, white birds ascend from an island into a cloud, water snakes glide across the mirroring surface smoothly avoiding quick handed boys.

The children run in circles for the sweet joy of freedom, they head for the frog habitats with buckets; they wade pensively in the primal, gooshey mud; they explore the outer regions with raft, fin and snorkel.

If you are lucky, they have remembered their juggling equipment and the rubber cockroach along with the baseball gloves and Scrabble and cards. The goal of this mission is fun.

The flurry of preparation is soon left behind. The commanding shouts, lengthening lists, last minute mending, the shopping spree, and the stowing and icing of coolers all form the bedrock of the expedition.

They become the booty you must protect when the afternoon cloudburst comes crashing over the crest of the mountains sending hail and torrents of water drops so large they erect big busy domes on impact and flood the picnic table where you have haphazardly piled the perishables.

And have you ditched around the tent as you know you should? Probably not.

Perhaps it is time for hot chocolate and wine while the heroes dig sluices and the littles ones beg to go home. Cynics become smug in times like these, full of wit and humor.

If we all had proper gear and took small wheelbarrows for portage, this scene could be different.

The players would not be perched on top of the picnic table amidst the deluge in a state of high merriment with dank shoes, speculating on what all emergency gear was not included in the baggage, and what motels might receive wet, gritty runaways.

I do not give much advice about camping. I'm more inclined to quietly learn from my mistakes or to accept clever tips from the more proficient.

I will offer the following: remember the potholders, grey tape and clothespins; clearly mark the cooking oil and dish soap in order to avoid the famous mushroom concoction, Champignons Joie. Take a shovel. And ditch the tent no matter what the sky said when you left home.

Also, don't eat anything that makes rainbows in the skillet.

Whether you find yourself resisting Mother Nature's generosity or revelling in her sweet composure, meals are a focal point for spirited campers.

Our guidebook recommends grilled meats, hotdogs wrapped in bacon and biscuit dough, cored potatoes stuffed with breakfast sausage and wrapped in foil, s'mores of course, smoky Spanish omelets, carbon toast.

But I think I take after my sister, who learned to make Bechamel Sauce on a campstove.

We have agreed that if you can carry all the stuff, you can cook anything. It is a challenge and often a triumph considering the enhancement of appetites outdoors.

Boldly then, we undertake Spaghettini Carbonara in the extravagant outback of Central Oregon. It is fast and simple, accommodates high and low fat people with minor substitutions, vegetarians, and the bottomless.

If you are serving more than six people, I recommend doubling the proportions; leftovers make interesting burritos.

Start a large kettle of water boiling and add to it:

l# fresh pasta

dash of oil and salt

Cut into 1/2 " pieces:

1/2# good bacon

few thin slices of ham or prosciutto

Italian sausage can be crumbled up and added, too, if you want a really rich dish. Sauté over low heat.

When the meat is about ready, move the skillet to a lower heat and add:

3-6 cloves of minced garlic. Quickly, before the garlic browns, add:

13 C. dry white wine

Continue to simmer these all together, stirring, until the wine has evaporated.

Meanwhile, mix together:

1-3 eggs

34 C. cream, half and half, or condensed nonfat milk

23 C. Parmesan cheese

1/2 C. fresh parsley

1 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil

dashes of salt and pepper to taste

Assembly is hasty business because it is the heat of the spaghettini that cooks the eggs. Remember that fresh pasta cooks quickly, thirty seconds for most of these fine noodles.

Drain off the boiling water, don't blanch the spaghettini, just dump it into a bowl. Quickly add the egg mixture, lifting and tossing the noodles so that they become evenly coated. Add the meat and garlic mixture and mix again, lightly.

Serve immediately. (Leftover bacon grease will be good for the morning cooking.) Add extra Parmesan if you wish.

Now the cook has earned a place by the fire and the pleasures of uninterrupted solitude, watching the deep talky embers late into the night, drifting into a state of profound relaxation and reverie whilst turning, on their long forks, all the soggy shoes.