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Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Stew is one of the easiest, most comforting foods to make. With slightly more attention this slow cooker recipe would work just as well in a Dutch oven or even in a kettle on the stove-top or over a fire. You hardly need a recipe, but the dredging the meat in flour...

Dutch Oven Shepherd’s Pie

Dutch Oven Shepherd’s Pie

I love Shepherd's Pie. The thick filling of meat and vegetables, topped with mounds of mashed potatoes, makes the perfect comfort food. The sound of it bubbling, the tantalizing aroma, mixing with the smoke from the coals as it leaks out from under the heavy lid of a...

Mashed Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes

There’s not much to making mashed potatoes. They are tasty, filling and inexpensive. If you don’t finish them at dinner, you can fry them in butter for breakfast. Ingredients   1/3rd cup of buttermilk, more or less 4-6 baking potatoes, peeled and cut up  2 cloves...

Sparassis Lasagna

Sparassis Lasagna

Essentially, I just substituted the Sparassis for lasagna noodles. I actually did half cauliflower mushroom and half noodles in the same casserole-my wife doesn't like mushrooms. I had some of each, and the Sparrasis half compared favorably in texture and presentation...

Borscht

Borscht

When my wife and I were first going out, I had her over for dinner. I made this recipe. Almost everything in it came from my garden. Amy was so impressed. I hardly garden at all anymore, and I haven't made this more than once or twice since. I don't know why. It's...

A Good Afternoon on Pistol Creek

A Good Afternoon on Pistol Creek

The weather forecast was for  hotter than blazes. It met or exceeded expectations, touching near 100f (38.7c) according to the thermometer app on Mike's phone. Anticipating the heat, Mike,  Walter and I headed up to Pistol Creek  to stick our feet in the water.  ...

Walter Gets His Sea Legs

Walter Gets His Sea Legs

The weather forecast this afternoon was for hot to unbearable. Amy and I loaded up the kayaks, Walter jumped in the truck, and we all headed north to Goose Lake in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.                  ...

Good Afternoon

Good Afternoon

  7/5/2025 4:00 79f (26.1c) Tuckered out after a late night last night.           Amy and I ran up to Trout Creek Ridge and bought a stack of books at a garage sale, including Jack London, Earl Stanley Gardner, and Robert Service, for a...

Good Morning

Good Morning

    5/24/26 9:00 Warming with the clouds burning off. I didn't check the temperature but it was a little cooler than yesterday morning. Around 4:00 I got up to use the latrine. Went back to bed and didn't rise until 6:30. Robert made bacon and eggs, with a...

Good Morning

Good Morning

    5/23/26 6:00 49F (9.4C) Clear blue sky, just a tickle of breeze. Birds sing beneath a rising sun. A few cook fires are burning. Tea in hand, I watch the camp come to life. Good morning.                  ...

Good Morning

Good Morning

5/22/26 5:30 46F (7.7C) Clear , calm, quiet. 6:15 The critters are fed and I am on the road.                                                  ...

Good Morning

Good Morning

    5/21/26 5:15 45F (7.2C) Calm, clear, dry. The sun has yet to crest the ridge. The sky is clear. No wind stirs the trees. The canyon is a palette of muted greens and blue. Riotous birdsong fills the air. The rooster vocally protests his confinement. My...

Good Morning

Good Morning

    5/20/26 6:30  50F  (10C) Warm, clear,  calm. The sun is up in a sky as blue as a robin's egg. Good morning.                                          ...