Does anyone know of any good Recipe books.
"Making something out of nothing" for food.

Basic recipes for rice, beans, fish, etc... using the most minimal of ingredients...

Camping Recipes?
Survival Food Recips?

Is there a book? Good Website?

Chicken N Rice

1 cup rice
1 6oz can Chicken chunks (just like a can of tuna)
2 Chicken Bullion Cubes
2 cups water

Boil rice until done.
Open can of chicken and buillion cubes, dump into cooked rice. Add a little more water. Cook until chicken is done (don't trust the canning company).

Salt and pepper to taste.

Simple. This coming from someone with the screen name "Grits"

Boy Scouts are always looking for easy, simple camp foods. There are a lot of Boy Scout sites with camping recipes. For an example try:

http://www.scoutorama.com/recipe/index.cfm

or just Google "Boy Scout recipe"

Grits,

This really fits the something from nothing idea. My grandmother's version was to take an old hen or rooster that was too tough to fry and simmer for a few hours until tender. (any wild game or road kill would work)

Basic white rice recipe is 1 cup rice to 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Cover. Simmer for 25 minutes.

Use the broth from your rooster instead of water. Add a 1/4 cup of chopped onion, (or some green pepper, garlic or whatever you have) and about a cup of the chopped up chicken. Add rice, salt and pepper and cook.

I have done this with left over roast beef, pork and even leftover cooked hamburger patties. Just chop the cooked meat up and use broth or bullion cubes that matches the meat.

It is a good way to turn a little bit of meat into a whole meal.

Ron,

Know what you mean when talking about tough old birds.

As a kid growing up we had anywhere from 25 to 50 chickens in the old hen house. Dad had the chickens for egg production. They laid enough eggs to supply us and the extra's were sold to buy the laying mash to feed 'em. Every once in a while one would land up in the soup pot or the skillet.

Nothing like fresh chicken put in the frying pan without ever having a chance to get cold.

Agreed. The best chicken I ever had had it's head chopped, it's feathers boiled off and was in the skillet and then in my belly within an hour.

In the words of the Comic Book Guy: Best. Chicken. Ever.

www.freezerbagcooking.com

My Favorite
1. Remove MRE entree from cardboard box.
2. Tear top off of MRE heater.
3. Insert entree in heater package.
4. Add water to heater packege per instructions on package.
5. Put heater package with enclosed entree back in cardboard box.
6. Wait until heated (about 7 minutes)
7. Remove entree (Careful it is HOT).
8. Cut off long side of entree package.
9. Eat contents.
<img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

This story has a point if you will bear with me.
I grew up in an urban area where food came from the store. When I was about 8 years old I was sent to spend summer vacation with my grandparents in Rural Tennessee. One morning my grandmother said 'What would you like for dinner?
Being a smart kid I replied that I wanted Fried Chicken. She took my hand and led me out to the chicken coop. Once inside she flared out her big apron and cornered a bird. She reached down and grabbed the hen by the head and gave it a sharp flip. The Chicken (sans head) ran around for a minute and flopped over. I was speechless as I watched her pick up the chicken by its feet, carry it back the the porch, sqeeze its excrement out, and dunk it into a pot of boiling water. When the chicken came out of the water she easily pulled the feathers off, cut the breast open and cleaned out the chest cavity, finally cutting up the chicken up into familiar pieces. Next the flour and into the hot oil.
The chicken was great!
The moral of the story? This image was burned into my mind when I was very young. I'll never forget it. Although I have never actually repeated the process myself I know how and that I could if needed. It's something every child should experience and maybe practice whether with Chicken, fish, deer, whatever.
Also, I never gave that good old woman any sass!

Barbara Swell put out a series of old timey cookbooks that have some simple recipes in them, depression era stuff. They're not bad. I subscribe to the notion that necessity is the mother of invention, and will figure out a way to cook up whatever is at hand into at least a pallatable meal.

In all my cooking experience, nothing serves me better than pasta. It packs well, lasts long, and satisfies the appetite. For simple recipes, nothing is easier. It is surprising that more pasta wasn't eaten on the frontier and the range. I guess beans and corn were the thing back then.