finding out its much harder to back country cook

than I thought.

Normally I just boil water but in two weeks I leave on an 11 day trip in Southern Utah and thought it would be better to cook then boiling water for mountain house meals. Im using a Optimus
Xpress HE Pot with my new pocket rocket. I am finding out that the heat exchanger on the bottom of the pot is holding in too much heat. with this set up I can boil two cups of water in about 20 seconds ( No shite!!) But I dont want to boil water. I tried making some biscuit but cooking them like a pancake but biscuit consistency. Got too hot on low and stuck to the pan. I figured with everything else I have to continuously stiff to keep food from sticking. I made pear couscous and some of it stuck to the bottom of the pot. Hopefully I will have this cooking figured out before I leave

Check out "Sarbar's" website, trailcooking.com. There are lots of recipes there, using supermarket ingredients, that can be done with just boiling water and are a welcome change from Mountain House (yuck). Take a look and you'll find lots of yummy-sounding meals for minimal effort.

At this close to your trip, it's probably not a great idea to change your meal prep methods so radically, unless you plan to spend more time cooking and scrubbing pots of stuck food than hiking. It also sounds as though you need a different pot, preferably anodized aluminum and without heat exchanger, if you want to do actual cooking.

Over the winter, you have two alternatives: (1) Experiment with cooking one-dish meals and dehydrating them. That's what I do--the gourmet (well, sort of) cooking is done at home in the off season! Again, lots of ideas for that on Sarbar's site. Caution--home-dried peas do not rehydrate but remain the consisteny of buckshot. (2) Spend a lot of time experimenting with actual cooking, if this is what you want to do. As I mentioned, a different pot would be advisable.

You may be right on the pot selection. I have a small hope pot that actually a little lighter I could use.. I can probably break off the heat exchange though. The pot is Hard-anodized aluminum

I bought a couple pounds of mountain house dehydrated chicken and a pound of dehydrated whole milk. I wasnt going to do any real cooking. More like Knorr pasta's and rice ( going to try something a little healthier than Korr brand, something I can pick up at wholefoods with out all the salt and MSG), couscous, minute rice, instant potatoes, dehydrated beans and powdered sauces that I get at Wholefood. They also have msg free ramen

You might check out Andrew Skurka's blog. A search for "recipe" will turn up several of his meals. His meals tend to be soupy, which helps to prevent burning. He sells a mini E-book on backpacking meals, but most of the recipes are on his blog. I favor this type of cooking. It's simple and not difficult to clean up. When solo, most of them are eaten right out of the pot.

Just curious. when you dehydrate veggies do you cook them first. Im trading my jetboil for a dehydrater

There is lots of literature on dehydrating, including Sarbar's website mentioned above and the booklet that will undoubtedly accompany your dehydrator.

Veggies need to be at least blanched first, which involves cooking (preferably steaming) for 1-3 minutes depending on the particular veggie. I find it simpler (being a lazy person at heart) to use frozen veggies, since they have been prepared and blanched before freezing. I partially cook them in the microwave, just enough to defrost and bring to boiling temp to kill any germs, and spread them onto the dehydrator tray. As noted, some veggies work better than others (forget peas!). Before dehydrating big batches, do just a few and try rehydrating them at home under camp conditions (i.e. not in the microwave!). That's true of almost everything. There's nothing more horrible than going to all that work for something that either doesn't rehydrate (peas) or tastes terrible to you.

I find that chopped spinach dehydrates well and can be added to almost any dish for added nutrition. It basically becomes a powder and does not have a strong flavor. As with everything food-related, though, Your Mileage May Vary!

Parchment paper is a necessary accessory to your dehydrator. Except for very coarse food, you'll want to line the trays.

You are a downright gourmet, making biscuits Probably you know all that I have to say already, but I'll throw in my 2 cents.
I do like to "cook", but that usually just means, for eg, making a Dr McDougals instant soup cup (which is a pretty decent and cheap base) of whatever, but then adding a little olive oil, minced garlic, cheese, maybe a tiny bit of minced carrots or red bell peppers or some sun dried tomatoes. I always opt to make it soup because it's easier to clean and avoids sticking, and besides, I like soup.
Couscous is something I use regularly, but you shouldn't have to cook it over a fire: just add boiling water and oil/butter/ghee and maybe some other ingredients and let it sit covered, no flame. Maybe do a quick sautee of the added ingredients first before adding water and bringing it to a boil.

Im going to play around some but I cant experiment too much. Where I am parking my truck will be 70 miles from any pave roads and then I will probably be 20 miles away from my truck. I have to weeks to experiment. If I cant get it down then I will just do mountain house. better safe than sorry.

I am going to make some no meat chili and dehydrate it and add the meat later. I have a can of mountain house freeze dried chicken