Two New Eagles!

With all the rush around our Spring Fellowship and Ordeal, we've been remiss in recognizing a great accomplishment by two of our brothers.  Ian, our Chapter Chief, and David, our Vice-Chief, both had their Eagle Boards of Review on Thursday and are the two newest Eagles in our Chapter.  Congrats guys!

I know we have several more who are close, let's help them make it happen.

Spring 2010 Fellowship (and new members)

We had a great fellowship this weekend. Fourteen candidates went through their ordeal including five from our chapter:  Henry, Hunter, Jon, Joshua, and Mesake.


The weather started out fine but during the night the rain started to fall and then turned to snow.  By morning we had a couple of inches covering our campsite.

We spent Saturday working on several camping and picnic grounds in American Fork Canyon.  Among other jobs we spread road base and gravel, cleared brush from stairways, and shovelled snow from the walkway into camps.

After a hard day's work, we enjoyed a great dinner together welcoming all of our new members.

What's Cooking at Roundtable (May 2010)

Our chapter was asked to help with a cooking demonstration at the May Roundtable.  Since this was a last minute request Michael and I (Pat) decided to do it alone.  Everyone else was demoing dutch-oven cooking (and pie-makers, a close relative), so we wanted to do something different — backpacking food seemed like the way to go.
We took along three stoves, two gas cartridge stoves and our WoodGas LE Stove.

We made up one of our favorites, Chicken, Raisins, and Cashews. We cooked up a bigger batch before the demo so that people could try it, then we made a single batch to show how easy it is to make.  Here's what you need to do to make two servings (plan on sharing with a buddy since the all chicken needs to be eaten at one meal).

• Assemble ingredients:
  
  
  
  • 1 7.5 oz foil pack of chicken
  • 2 cups instant rice
  • 1/2 cup cashews 
  • 1/2 cup raisins or diced, dried apricots 
  • 1 tsp dried onion flakes
• gather ziplock-style bags: 4 qt, 4 snack size
• find an old stocking cap (this will be a combination hot pad, cozy, and placemat)
• put 1 cup of rice into each of 2 qt sized baggies.
• put 1/4 cup of cashews into each of 2 snack sized baggies
• put 1/4 cup of dried fruit into each of 2 snack sized baggies
• put 1 bag of rice, 1 bag of cashews, and 1 bag or dried fruit into each of the remaining 2 qt sized bags.  (put the foil pack of chicken into one of the bags)

To prepare the meal:

• Boil 2 cups of water (more if you want a hot drink to go with it).
• Place the bag containing the rice in the stocking cap and open the top of the bag.
• Carefully pour 1 cup of boiling water into the bag of rice, seal the bag up (squeeze out most of the air), and gently knead it while holding the bag in the cap.
• Let sit for about 10 minutes, then add half the chicken, the cashews, and the dried fruit.
• Roll the brim of the cap to form a bowl, and set the bag inside it.  Eat right from the bag.

Other than the several baggies and an empty foil wrapper (which all fit into one of the qt sized baggies for packing out), the only cleanup you should have left is your spoon.
What kind of backpacking foods do you like to assemble and take with you?

New Member of our Chapter

The Hotametaneo'o chapter held an Ordeal on Apr 30-May 1, and one of our candidates was there with a couple of Arrowmen from our chapter. Fotu and the rest of the candidates did a great job of cleaning up the trails, grounds, and volleyball pit at the Alpine Bowery.  They endured a cold night with light rain and snow, but everyone seemed happy and healthy at the end of the day.

After the candidates were inducted in the Ordeal ceremony, they were joined by parents and lodge members at a feast of BBQ chicken, dutch oven potatoes, and cobbler.  Food always seems to taste so good after an ordeal.

We're looking forward to Fotu joining us in our activities in the future, especially the Fellowship Weekend and Ordeal we have planned for 21-22 May at the Granite Flat Campground above Tibble Fork Reservoir.  Hopefully many of our candidates will join us there.