To stay light, we'd like everything to accomplish either one critical task - or multiple tasks. Here's a very simple one that does at least three tasks: A seat pad you can use to sit on, kneel on beside your boat to load/unload, and cook pasta. Here's how I did it; you may want to modify some.
We all seem to have spare scraps of old, closed-cell foam laying around. If you don't have some - go to Wal-Mart and buy one of their blue, closed-cell pads (about 28” X 72”) for about $7. I laid down a 1 gallon Ziploc bag and allowed some room around it. My piece measures about 15” X 26”. I folded it double to 15” X 13” and put duct tape strips on the 13” sides. I also “clipped” the folded edge on the ends 1” deep to relieve some pressure on the duct tape. Some guys may stitch the side seams instead of taping them.
Using it as a kneeling pad and a seat pad on top of, say, a 5 gallon bucket of food with a Gamma Seal top (Googelize “gamma seal” for selection of vendors) is obvious. What isn't so obvious is how to cook pasta with it.
Some of us like spaghetti with tomato sauces, seasoned in various ways. Here is a way to cook them in camp using minimum fuel and allowing time to lounge as you get supper ready. I carry about 1 ½ to 2 cups of raw pasta in a plastic bag; that's one serving for me, but, others may vary. Add about a ½ teaspoon of salt along with that pasta in the bag. Separately, I carry a sandwich bag with spices for the sauce – oregano, sweet basil, garlic, etc. to add to the sauce as it simmers. I like to carry pasta that has a minimum of sharp corners to prevent the bag getting punctured before I use it. Just to be safe, carry a separate 1 gallon Ziploc heavy duty bag (freezer weight works nicely) to actually cook in.
About an hour before supper time, boil a quart of water. Into the heavy duty Ziploc bag of pasta and salt that is now nestled inside the seat pad, carefully pour in the boiling water. BE CAREFUL – this is hot. Carefully express as much excess air as you safely can – you will not be able to remove all, just most of it. Then seal the bag tightly. Again, be careful to not squeeze the bag and push boiling-hot water out onto yourself. Test the Ziploc seal, they sometimes seem to lock, but don't. Now, simply lay the seat & bag on its side for about 20-30 minutes, then turn it over on the other side. After about 45 minutes to an hour your pasta is cooked.
I use a small can (6 oz) of tomato paste as the base of my sauce. Put the tomato paste into a cook pot (at least 1 liter), and add seasoning from that pack. Hold the bag of now cooked pasta above the pot & carefully poke a hole in it to drain excess hot water into the pasta and begin reconstituting it. Add more water if necessary, and heat it up to simmer. You can figure out how to eat it without any more coaching, ehh?
We all seem to have spare scraps of old, closed-cell foam laying around. If you don't have some - go to Wal-Mart and buy one of their blue, closed-cell pads (about 28” X 72”) for about $7. I laid down a 1 gallon Ziploc bag and allowed some room around it. My piece measures about 15” X 26”. I folded it double to 15” X 13” and put duct tape strips on the 13” sides. I also “clipped” the folded edge on the ends 1” deep to relieve some pressure on the duct tape. Some guys may stitch the side seams instead of taping them.
Using it as a kneeling pad and a seat pad on top of, say, a 5 gallon bucket of food with a Gamma Seal top (Googelize “gamma seal” for selection of vendors) is obvious. What isn't so obvious is how to cook pasta with it.
Some of us like spaghetti with tomato sauces, seasoned in various ways. Here is a way to cook them in camp using minimum fuel and allowing time to lounge as you get supper ready. I carry about 1 ½ to 2 cups of raw pasta in a plastic bag; that's one serving for me, but, others may vary. Add about a ½ teaspoon of salt along with that pasta in the bag. Separately, I carry a sandwich bag with spices for the sauce – oregano, sweet basil, garlic, etc. to add to the sauce as it simmers. I like to carry pasta that has a minimum of sharp corners to prevent the bag getting punctured before I use it. Just to be safe, carry a separate 1 gallon Ziploc heavy duty bag (freezer weight works nicely) to actually cook in.
About an hour before supper time, boil a quart of water. Into the heavy duty Ziploc bag of pasta and salt that is now nestled inside the seat pad, carefully pour in the boiling water. BE CAREFUL – this is hot. Carefully express as much excess air as you safely can – you will not be able to remove all, just most of it. Then seal the bag tightly. Again, be careful to not squeeze the bag and push boiling-hot water out onto yourself. Test the Ziploc seal, they sometimes seem to lock, but don't. Now, simply lay the seat & bag on its side for about 20-30 minutes, then turn it over on the other side. After about 45 minutes to an hour your pasta is cooked.
I use a small can (6 oz) of tomato paste as the base of my sauce. Put the tomato paste into a cook pot (at least 1 liter), and add seasoning from that pack. Hold the bag of now cooked pasta above the pot & carefully poke a hole in it to drain excess hot water into the pasta and begin reconstituting it. Add more water if necessary, and heat it up to simmer. You can figure out how to eat it without any more coaching, ehh?