Modern Vespa

Carrying a ripe peach in your topcase is a very bad idea.

The bouncing will reduce the fruit to an unappetizing, inedible mushy mass wrapped in a slimy peel.

Tried it twice, the second time I wrapped it up in a paper towel hoping to pad it some.

Yuck.

P.

you've started a new culinary craze

I feel a "topcase recipes" thread coming on ... maybe even a pet carrier one too.

For the past few weeks, I've been going to our Sunday morning farmers market 20 minutes from home, and things get home just fine. But I haven't braved buying a p-i-e.

who needs a cuisinart when you have a topcase?

I specialize in turning a perfectly good banana into a mushy mass (but not leaky!) by carrying it in my messenger bag.

Did I mention that I hate mushy bananas?

Will save you having to go out and buy a blender though!!

Hand picked cases of strawberries don't do very well either. Last year I led a ride to a Strawberry Festival north of the city and bought a flat of strawberries. Let's just say my topcase smelled great but was a bitch to clean when I got home. Vibration and strawberries don't get along.

Perhaps you could also use the heat in the PET carrier to slow cook your ingredients. The shaking about would mean you wouldn't need to stir anything. Those people that have just refuelled could probably also reproduce a few flambé dishes by just dropping in a match.

Back in the day, someone did make a minor media splash by publishing a cookbook of recipes that could be prepared by wrapping ingredients in aluminum foil and cooking them on the hot exhaust manifold of a car.

That would be difficult on a Vespa, but the pet carrier probably does get hot enough to use as a mobile crock pot on a long day's run.

One day's errands = Baked beans for dinner!!!

P.

Oh, there's a whole world to foil cooking! Recently had to learn that for Girl Scout leader training. I doubt I could cook dinner for my troop in the pet carrier that way, but I could certainly keep it warm. It takes a lot more heat than you'd think for foil cooking. The stuff we made during training, we ended up shoving under the coals to get hot enough.

Potato Chips in the top case after a long ride make for great bread crumbs.

I'm sure you know this but foil reflects heat - which is why it's good for either keeping things hot or keeping them cold but not so good at allowing transferring heat through. Foil also has two sides, a shiny side and a dull side. If you're cooking food in foil (or want to keep food hot) then put the dull side on the outside. If you're wanting to keep food cool then put the shiny side on the outside to reflect heat.

Yes, we did it with the dull side out, it just took a lot longer than we were anticipating (was also a little windy out, which didn't help keep the heat where we needed it). The instructor suprized us by telling us we were actually going to make our lunch, with a makeshift campfire out in the parking lot. Which actually turned out to be quite good... most of us were just under the impression we weren't actually going to be doing stuff, just learning about it.

Well, this is a food thread and many of us go camping - are you going to tell us the recipe? Or is it a girl scout secret?

I'd like to put in a plug for zip-lock bags

You cut the fruit up, add a little sugar and lemon juice or wine,
seal it in the bag, stash it in the fridge overnight, and grab it the next morning
You'll also need a spoon

Very yummy!
(Except for the bananas, I don't have a solution for that one)

No big secret, there wasn't even a recipie to start with!

We were divided into two groups, and told to take note of whatever was in the kitchen. Then we had to prepare a main dish, drink, and dessert, using only food that was already in the kitchen, and the tools we were given. For my group, we made what we called "pizzaritos" for the main dish.

Mix tomato sauce and spices together in a bowl, spread onto flour tortillias, and sprinkle them with shredded cheese. Roll them up in foil, burrito-style, and set them over the coals on the campfire. Setting them on top of the other group's dutch oven helped, too. Took quite a while to cook them until they were hot, but they were very yummy. Handle them with an oven mitt or tongs while they're still hot. Adding meat probably wouldn't be too hard, but you might want to use something already pre-cooked, just for safety.

My BF rode off on my scooter and came back with a Banana Split for me!

This is how it worked:
He used an old towel and and old faucet box.

It was awesome!

Here's what you need

http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/Banana-Guard-p-18434.html

The other night i had a craving for a Nutty Buddy ice cream cone so i zipped up to the local gas station market and bought one. The clerk and i got a good laugh when i said i had to do 70mph all the way home so it wouldn't melt I wonder if a cop would of understood my dilemma if i had gotten caught

I usually get a cup of coffee and a couple of doughnuts on my way to work and put them in the pet carrier. It's about a 25 minute ride from the stop. The coffees always still hot and the doughnuts are always nice and warm like they were just made.

I bet the manifold thing would work on the
Vespa by simply using a coule of large hose clamps on the forward heat shield or making a unit that would fit on the small heat shield screws to fit a can or alluminium container or vegies wrapped in foil.

You hate mushy bananas?? Then THIS is for you!

I always thought some things were invented without a real audience, but maybe not: Get it HERE if you really want one. It looks like they might have something for a peach also!


on review I see someone else posted a link to the same thing on Aerostitch, sorry

When I was a very new rider I tried to transport a carton of eggs in my top case home from the grocery store about a mile from my house. This was a poor decision.

Ahh, memories of a Peach Festival ride a couple of years back, two baskets of peaches reduced to pulp. A mushed cupcake too, with a jar of jam impaled in its remains.

Yeah, on Sunday I briefly considered bringing beautiful fresh brown eggs home from the farmers market but thought better of it. I like to scramble my own eggs.

My top case still smells like chocolate chip cookie from a ride I took two years ago. When I got there (about 300 miles later), it was chocolate cookie dust. Every time I open my top case, I get hungry.

I bought some oranges at a Farmer's Market and then went on a 100+ mile ride just because it was a nice day. My oranges were just fine because luckily I put the bag on the bag hook. 8) I have used the bet carrier to keep potluck dishes warm on the ride to work though.

The Banana Guard-- and once the banana's gone, just let your imagination run wild. 8)

I just recently carried a pint of strawberries and a pint of blueberries in my topcase. Put in a plastic bag one on top of the other and tied it. I had really good luck as they were all in one piece (each berry) and looked good. I had never thought about them getting mushy. Maybe I just had good luck on my side.

I've done that...I call it "forgotten chocolate surprise".
Recipe:
Forget a bar of dark chocolate in your backpack.
Insert rain pants in backpack.
Insert backpack in pet carrier.
Ride around for a day.
When it starts to rain, the dish should be ready.

Served on a pair of rain pants.

Take some time to figure out wether you want to get wet, or ride around looking like you've had a very bad "lavatorial accident".

Those banana carriers give me the willies I'm all for new inventions but a paper bag and a little foam could work just as well.

Funny this would come up. I'm going to have to go back into my old issues of Mother Earth News. I seem to remember an article about packaging food and placing it on the engine block to slow cook. Not sure if they did it while traveling but it may be possible and when you stopped for the night during a trip supper would be ready to eat (maybe)

I never tried that one my self.

People in Hershey, PA wouldn't think anything about it. Chocolate is natural to them.

One of the great perks of county rides on the scooter is bringing home some fresh produce from a farmer's roadside stand. (They often ask my about the scooter, too.)

Some of the best corn I've ever tasted (not popcorn...it's not that hot in the pet carrier) came back with me on my scooter.

Helpful hint!
I've found that wrapping stuff in my CoolAss seat cover helps keep it cooler while in the pet carrier.

This is an unsolicited statement, I am not an actor, and I was not paid for this endorsement. So there.

I thought about getting a watermelon the other day being sold on the road side. Didn't know how to carry it. They were all too big to fit in the topcase.

I seem to remember Clarkson and co. doing something similar on an old episode of "Top Gear" with some celebrity chef.

He served a rack of lamb or something that apparently tasted of motor oil.

Thanks! Good idea. Just bought one at AmeriVespa and it is working as advertised. Multipurpose is good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifold_Destiny_(cookbook)
The first edition is actually a pretty valuable collectible. I think they were going for a couple hundred bucks last time I looked. There's a 2nd ed. on Amazon for $175. You can get the 2008 edition for $0.81 on half.com, ha.

In the first Feasting on Asphalt series, Alton Brown cooked using a metal tin strapped to his exhaust. That would probably work on a scooter if you could go far enough, for long enough, to cook before running out of gas. First week I had my topcase, I made a little trip to the taqueria a few blocks away. The case smelled like cheap tacos and beans for a month.

I'm thinking we need to see how hot my seat carrier gets on a long ride and design some crock-pot like recipes that are based on the length of the ride!

We've all accidentally cooked something in there and smashed something in the top case...maybe now we should do it on purpose...

I'm thinking of a baked apple dessert in the seat case and some graham crackers in the top case so they'll be all smashed and crumbly to go on top of the baked apples. Yum.