Delicious Cheddar, Beef and Ham Breakfast sandwich.

Today is move day, back to Shackleton Glacier Camp. It’s been a relatively protracted field season for Team B, but it’s been fun. We now have the long return to civilization.

In the meantime, I wanted to share some news about our breakfast habits for the last few days. Up until about five days ago, we had been religiously eating Julianne’s now famously described ‘Oakmeal’. What can I say about this oatmeal? In truth, after three weeks you really crave something else. As Crocodile Dundee would say ‘It’s edible, but tastes like rubbish/trash/other words’.
That’s where ‘Cooking breakfast with Scott’ comes in. We’ve been taking turns, but Scott is really chief instigator of the….drum roll please, percussion encore….. Breakfast Sandwich!!!
How to make a classy breakfast sandwich in the field:
1. Wake up, generally moan about the deflated Thermarest, check temperature in the tent. Way too cold. Turn on burner for 10 minutes. It’s blowing a gale outside, and the tent is shaking. Time for a breakfast sandwich! 2. James makes a cheeky cup of coffee before breakfast proceedings. 3. Scott reaches into the roof bag where things are kept thawed. Only six slices of bread, with four ends. No good. Someone has to go outside. I offer as I have recently filled two Pee bottles. 4. Dress up warm, open tent door, and launch like Superman (or a slug, whichever method you prefer envisaging) onto the cold ice outside. Discover it’s like Eight Below, or north of the Wall in Game of Thrones, but ten times worse. 5. Run/slide to freezer box containing last loaf of bread (good whole grain from NZ; who’d have thought it?). Throw bread into the tent. Rush to Pee mound. Drop contents of bottle, at an angle to avoid the dreaded ‘Antarctic Polar Vortex’ effect. 6. Come back into tent. Find Scott, dropping copious butter blocks into frying pan. Close tent door, defrost fingers and watch the cooking magic happen. 7. Very important first step. Fill the tent with vapours of butter, and the greasy fry aroma. It must last ALL day. 8. Reach and collect ‘Canadian Bacon’ (off in May 2017), ‘Roast Beef’ (in truth, could have come from the Discovery Hut from the British Antarctic Expedition), and prize Cheddar Cheese. 9. Select eight pieces of frosty bread. Throw four into the frying pan (all that can be added) and dowse liberally in melted butter, browning the bread. 10. Repeat step 9 with remaining bread. Put to side to properly cure the bread. 11. Now fry off the beef and ham. Do so, creating as much steam as possible. The goal is to not be able to see the tent mate across three feet of space. 12. Put bread back in after cooking meat. Add cheese and melt. Oh yummy! 13. Place all ingredients back together. Serve piping hot. Delicious!
That’s all we have time for for now. Have to put all our gear on and head outside. It should be easier than previous moves. We’ll see. See you on the other side, at SHG!
Posted by James. Last day in the Scott Tent with Scott. Lonely Ridge, Antarctica on 11 Jan at 8am.