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Excerpt: Outdoors Cookbook For Dirtbags To Glampers

best served wild brandon leonard outdoors cookbook
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Think ‘Nutella Crepes for Peak Baggers Who Can’t Make Crepes’ and ‘Protein Bars That Don’t Taste Like Chalk’ sound yummy? Brendan Leonard and Anna Brones offer goofy and practical recipes in the outdoors cookbook, ‘Best Served Wild.’

best served wild brandon leonard outdoors cookbook

There is a widely held belief that food tastes better when camping. But you can still put in a little effort when cooking around the campfire.

In the upcoming outdoors cookbook “Best Served Wild,” Brendan Leonard and Anna Brones offer new recipes, updates to classics, and hilarious alternatives.  The 200-page cookbook has more than 60 recipes, with pictures and easy-to-follow directions.

The recipes are categorized for single day adventures, overnight trips, and multi-day outings. All recipes are vegetarian, but as noted by the authors, can be supplemented with meat.Brandon Leonard Best Served Wild

“If you want to add precooked chicken to the chilaquiles, please do,” notes the book. “If you want to add bacon to the nachos, go for it. ”

“Best Served Wild” retails for $22 and is available in August. We’ve included a recipe from the book, so you can see what it is all about.

Excerpted with permission of the publisher.

Seven Can Chili For Six People

This chili is no joke. It really is for six people—maybe for seven. And if you don’t have that many friends, you’ll make some at the campsite. This is an easy outdoor meal that doesn’t take a whole lot of thought, and it’s perfect if you are on a trip like a bike tour where you are restocking regularly! Crack open a few cans and get cooking.

Don’t have five friends to share this with? You can decrease the recipe as you see fit; just keep the tomato to “other stuff” ratio about the same. The onion and garlic are optional if you need to keep this a “strictly cans” recipe, but if you have them on hand, they add a little extra flavor.

Ingredients

  • Makes about 6 servings
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons cumin powder
  • 2 teaspoons chipotle powder
  • 3 (15-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
  • 1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, drained
  • 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained
  • 1 (15-ounce) can corn, drained
  • 1 (4-ounce) can diced green chiles
  • Optional: 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • Optional: 1 small onion, finely chopped

Preparation

best served wild chiliIf you are cooking with the optional onion and garlic, add these to a pot with the olive oil, cumin powder, and chipotle powder. Cook over medium heat until the onions have started to turn translucent.

Add the cans of tomatoes, beans, corn, and chiles. (If you are not cooking with onion and garlic, add in the spices with the tomatoes and beans.) Bring the chili to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes, or as long as you can wait before you go hungry; cooking it a little longer lets the flavor develop more.

Keep the chili on low heat and stir occasionally while cooking so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Remove from the stove and spoon into bowls to serve.

—Excerpted with permission from Falcon Guides; Best Served Wild: Real Food For Real Adventures by Brendan Leonard and Anna Brones. (c) 2017 Brendan Leonard and Anna Brones, 2017.—

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