How to Cook a Killer Pizza on your Campstove

Friends and family often ask what we eat when we're on the road. I think people picture a lot of ramen, but we actually eat really well and incorporate tons of fresh veggies into our meals. Here is a recipe for one of our favorite dishes- pizza!  

1. Choose your dough. We usually use a tortilla, but today we had some fresh focaccia from a local bakery, which we sliced in half to make it a bit thinner. Get your dough into a pan and start dressing your pie. 

2. Sauce it! We use pasta sauce on our pizzas. Next time you make pasta remember not to dump in the whole jar of sauce- save just a bit for your next pizza meal. 

3. Cheese! Lots and lots of cheese. 

4. Toppings. Do it up however you like it!

5. Cook your pie. We put pots upside down on top of the pan to create a little oven. This step takes lots of patience. You need to keep the heat very low so you don't burn the bottom of your pizza and leave the top raw. So turn it way down and open a beer because you're going to have to wait a bit. Eventually the cheese will start melting and the toppings will start to cook. You can open the oven up and squirt a little water on the side of your pan then put the lid back on. This will create steam that will help cook the top of your pizza as well. Once everything on the top looks melty you're ready to eat! If you're using a tortilla, it should have crisped up enough at this point that it will be sturdy and you can slice it and eat it like a regular pizza. Enjoy!

Mammoth

The only thing I really knew about Mammoth before arriving, was that it’s a big mountain.  Understatement.  It’s HUGE.  We were expecting to see signs that would direct us to the mountain, where we assumed it would be obvious where the ticket office was, we would pick up our pass, and be on our way to the lift.  There was no such sign because Mammoth Mountain is so big that there are multiple bases all around town that get you to the mountain.  We were confused when we drove up the road and saw several places to park and buy tickets and several different places to get on lifts, but eventually we wound up at what I think is considered the main lodge, and got our passes.  If I’m being honest, I was really sad that we didn’t get to take a picture for our pass!  We were actually really lucky to discover what would become our favorite section of the mountain within our first few minutes of being there.  Lots of nice groomers, no people.  I have to hand it to the mountain ops crew at Mammoth, the grooming and conditions were amazing despite them not getting snow in… a while.  We explored all over the mountain, enjoyed taking the gondola all the way to the top, were really confused and then excited when we could see Yosemite from the summit, and ended the day feeling tired and excited for our second day on the mountain.  

Of course, we can’t ski two days in a row because we have to take a dog day before and after each ski day.  The dogs are kind enough to oblige us while we ski by spending the day sleeping in the van, so in return, we take them hiking or snowshoeing and wear them out.  We walked around a trail in town that would have been an awesome xc ski if there had been snow, and then headed up 395 a few miles and hiked another scenic and snowy trail.  Then we decided to head back to the mountain and sleep there due to the fact that the van has been having a lot of trouble starting up on cold mornings and we didn’t want to miss out on skiing because we spent an hour trying to get the van going.     

We fell asleep to the soothing sound of snowcats moving up and down the mountain, turning the terrain into a continuous sheet of perfect corduroy for the morning’s skiers to enjoy.  Despite sleeping two hundred yards from the lift, we still did not manage to make first chair.  We realize of course, that doing so is a source of pride on a powder day, and not so much a necessity when the mountain hasn’t seen snow in a month, but we figure some where down the line on this trip we will encounter a powder day and there is no time like the present to practice waking up before 9:30.  Regardless, we were on the mountain in time to carve our own signature s’s into the firm grooves running down the mountain.  Our skis made a satisfying bbrrrmp bbrrrmp noise as they turned over the corduroy.  We explored even further on our second day, but kept making our way back to our favorite spot- Chair 12.  By the end of the day some rocks started exposing themselves and I managed to take a huge gouge out of one of my skis, so we spent our last few runs in the kid’s beginner park sliding over box rails and flying over whoop-de-doos.  Truly fun.  Soon enough we were back in the van and our skiing in the Sierras was behind us.  

It would seem wrong to be in Mammoth and not go to Bishop, so we made our way down 395, listening raptly to the Serial podcast (Download it!  It’s so good for long drives.  And short drives.  And any time really).  We spent a day climbing in Bishop, took a much needed shower, and then headed down to Lone Pine for a bit of sport climbing at Alabama Hills.  Hoping to avoid any crazy MLK Jr. weekend crowds, we then headed off the beaten path a bit in Death Valley National Park (first time visiting for both of us, and we were able to find a few places where the dogs could go- bonus), and today we were in Vegas for a few errands, including a much needed new stove.  Our two burner has a faulty part which causes it to leak, so obviously for safety reasons we haven’t been using it.  We’ve just been using the JetBoil, and with extreme talent I have been able to catch on fire (sorry puffy) and severely burn two of my fingers in two of the last three times using it.  So I’m pretty excited for a new stove.  Til next time! 

Squaw | Alpine

Hitting Tahoe as the first stop on our winter ski tour was obviously a risk.  If the last three seasons have been any indication, we were not confident that we would have good conditions, or even any snow for that matter, in the early season.  However, due to the starting location of our trip (the Bay Area), it really didn’t make sense not to go to Tahoe first.  (As a reminder, our pass gets us two days at Squaw/Alpine, Mammoth, Alta/Snowbird, Aspen/Snowmass, Jackson Hole, Lake Louise, and Whistler.)  We figured we would get our California skiing done, and move on to steeper and deeper terrain as the trip progressed.  I love Tahoe.  I consider myself a semi-local as I’ve lived there on and off for the last four years.  I just really hope that winter can come back again like it used to.  During the 2010-2011 season, Chelsea and I picked up skis for the first time, bought our first season pass, and were rewarded with deep powder during our stay in December, and 100” of snow in the week we were there over spring break.  80 closed and no one could get up to the mountains, or everyone was in Cabo, and we had the mountain to ourselves.  It was glorious.  

Back to the present.  We prepared for the worst (I pictured mud skiing and got out my rock skis), yet were very pleasantly surprised to have two great days of skiing.  Squaw wasn’t fully open when we went in mid-December, so we got our passes and headed up the funi to the top of the mountain.  It had snowed a decent amount during the week before so we were pretty excited about the conditions.

  

The day was pretty socked in with low visibility and having never skied Squaw before, we weren’t entirely sure where to go.  In a stroke of luck, on our second chair we ended up riding with a super friendly local named Michael.  He was slightly shocked that we had never skied the mountain before and quickly took up our case.  “You’re coming with me!” he exclaimed.  We spent the rest of the morning diligently following Michael all over the mountain to all the best spots.  After he determined that we didn’t fully suck, he took us to ski the Attic, which turned out to be the best powder stash on the mountain that day.  Seriously, it was actually pretty deep.  Around mid-day, Michael had to return to work, and we met up with our friend Eric and enjoyed following him around for the rest of the day.

The holidays came and went, I was held hostage in my hometown due to a 12-day jury summons, but once I was finally released, Chelsea and I were officially on the road and the trip was fully on.  We headed back to Tahoe and were greeted with spring conditions- sun and temperatures in the 50’s.  We took the dogs out on a long snowshoe (we were wearing t-shirts), scoped out a couple of rock climbs on Donner Summit to see if they were dry and decided to check out Alpine the following day.  Alpine is a really user-friendly mountain.  You drive up, park, and you’re on the lift before you even lose feeling in your toes (is this a personal problem, or just an accepted truth about ski boots?).  We cruised around the mountain, and were once again really happy with the conditions.  Sure it got a little soft by the end of the day due to the high temps, but the mountain was mostly covered, and the snow was quite nice.  We met up with Eric again and it was a super enjoyable day of skiing groomers.  With that, our two days of skiing in Tahoe were complete.  

Before heading to Mammoth, we got a last minute invite to hike out to the Bradley Hut in the Tahoe backcountry.  We had a great time with our college friends, Matt and Kelley.  The weather was gorgeous, we got in a lot of snowshoeing, tuckered out the dogs, ate well, and played Bananagrams and Yahtzee in front of the fire.  Satisfied with a fantastic time spent in one of our favorite places on Earth, we got in the van and headed to Mammoth (with a short stop at the Bridgeport hot springs of course!). 

Video Van Tour

Here is a video tour of Silas.  Listen to me awkwardly tell you about the inside of the van!  This may be a better lesson on how not to do your build out (the end product is fine, I LOVE it, but the order of operations during the build was slightly off), but hopefully it will give you some ideas for your own van, and give you a little idea of what it's like living in a van.  Downsizing and simplifying your life makes doing what you love super accessible.  Van life for life!  Enjoy the video, let me know if you have any questions, and remember, when you live in a moving vehicle everything must be well secured.