Trail Thanksgiving

Outdoor Pantry Homestyle Turkey Dinner and Brown Butter Sweet Potato Mash

This combination was saved for the final dinner on my Pictured Rocks hike, and it was the culinary standout of the week.

Now, at a combined $16.95 this obviously isn’t something you would be able to do on a regular basis. But for a special treat, this was money that I felt was well spent.

The Homestyle Turkey Dinner is basically stuffing with big chunks of freeze-dried turkey. It’s pretty hard to screw up stuffing. But getting big chunks of turkey that rehydrate perfectly AND taste almost like what you get at Thanksgiving is special, and Outdoor Pantry pulls it off. I was surprised that the turkey turned out so well.

The Sweet Potato Mash makes this a complete meal. It’s a proper side dish that for a vegetarian would make a fine stand alone meal.

The sweet potatoes were also surprisingly good, but they would’ve really popped with some extra brown sugar or some maple syrup. Regardless, they made an excellent side dish alongside the turkey and stuffing. My friends in camp that night were rather envious.

I’m going to make some doctored StoveTop stuffing on one of my upcoming hikes, partly to compare it to this meal. But as it stands right now, I’ll be splurging a little in the future to bring this one along again.

My overall experience with Outdoor Pantry meals during that hike was excellent. I heartily recommend them if you have the coin.

Grades: Turkey Dinner- A Sweet Potato Mash- B