Date: 2015-07-06
To: My first attempt at lightweight cooking
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

So I tried to cook my first dinner over an MSR Pocket Rocket in a Titan kettle today.I failed (sorta).Here's what happened....1. I unpacked the Pocket Rocket and screwed it into the Snow Peak 100g fuel canister. It scared me pretty bad with the whoooooooshshhhhh noise that it makes when you are stupid and leave the valve open while screwing the Pocket Rocket onto the canister. I got all nervous and took it apart until I realized that I just needed to turn the little handle to 'off" position before putting the parts together. It didn't scare me after that!2. I tried to look up different recipes online to figure out exactly how much water to add. I don't have a pot cozy yet (it's just a Titan kettle at this point) so I figured I'd need to boil/simmer for a while longer in order to actually cook the food. More on this later..3. I chose to put in about a cup and a quarter (1.25C) of water into the pot. Then I assembled the stove (no jump scares!) and lit it. HOLY MOSES IT'S LOUD! I was surprised by how loud the flame was inside my kitchen. I guess I'd read a few comments mentioning how people chose alcohol stoves or Esbit stoves for the volume difference, but I'd never realized that it would be such high volume. Oh well! I don't mind if it's only for a few minutes a day. 4. The water boiled pretty fast - I swear it was less than two minutes - and I dumped in my chosen side (the Knorr creamy garlic shells). Everything looked like it was going great until the pasta started boiling again and the water got all frothy and bubbled and starting POURING OVER THE SIDE OF THE POT. It went all over my countertop, on the Pocket Rocket, on the canister... everywhere. I'm lucky it didn't burn me or get on my computer! I lost quite a bit of moisture/flavored water but I decided to forge ahead and cover the pot and let it sit for a few minutes in the hopes that it was still hot enough and had enough water to cook the pasta.5. Long story short - wrong decision. I had to add more water and bring the pot back up to simmer (this time I turned the Pocket Rocket down so it wouldn't boil over)6. I let it "simmer" for about two minutes, then turned the stove off and allowed the pasta to sit and cool down slightly (uncovered). I chopped up some spam into chunks and added it to the pasta to warm up. I was inspired by the "creamy chicken blt skillet" recipe on the back of the Knorr packet. 7. I got too excited and tried to eat the pasta before it was cooled down enough. I burned my mouth. ouch.8. I finally was able to eat the pasta/spam combination. It was salty. And actually pretty good.Final Review: I am terrible at cooking over the Pocket Rocket. I know it was my very first time cooking with such a small stove setup but it was a little bit disheartening. I made a huge mess and had to re-boil/re-heat the whole dish after my mishap, but I think the 1.25C of water was the right choice and would have worked perfectly if I had stopped it from boiling over. The portion was pretty hefty and I liked the spam in it for protein and flavor. I think once I get the hang of cooking it will be a good dish.