This is the fourth time I've been a scoutmaster. However, my last training was in 1981 and according to the local scouting council, they don't keep records back that far so in order for our troop to have a "trained" scoutmaster, I had to take the scoutmaster training again. I was in the Buzzard Patrol and as our patrol flag suggested, food came to be the most important part of our training. We did the usual knot tying, fire building, first aid, and axe sharpening that I had just done with my troop to get them all to be first class scouts (and as of the last court of honor, they are now star scouts), but one of our patrol members in the training program was an executive chef for a chain of gourmet restaurants and he decided that for the same amount of money, we could eat in style rather than have the suggested food. We had Italian sausage, potatoes, eggs for breakfast cooked in a dutch oven, trout imported from Idaho cooked wrapped in parchment paper and stuffed with thin slices of tomatoes, oranges, and various fresh herbs, asparagus cooked over an open fire, toasted gourmet bread, and heavenly apple cobbler topped with whipped cream for the cooking contest dinner (we won by a landslide and I'm getting hungry just thinking about our cooking fun), and eggs, ham, cheese with various herbs on flatbread for our second breakfast. The lunches were boring meals provided by the camp. Cooking our meals was like being on a TV timed cooking contest--someone watching the clock as we mixed, cooked, timed, and tested the dishes. The cooking made the whole experience worth the time. We were also able to prepare our required three meals over an open fire 60 cents under the $13.70 budget per person, including the cost of the charcoal. It helped that our master chef could get everything wholesale through his restaurant.
Next week I am starting my backpacking training. All this should keep a 74 year old young. We may be hiking the Appalachian Trail next summer.
