Blather
Cooking for Guys
Live to Camp
Camp to Live
Poetry
and Other Lies
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
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
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
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
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...
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...
Down the Rabbit Hole
When we camped at Peter’s place up above Lyle, I found some pretty, red rocks that fractured with a sharp edge and threw good sparks when struck against steel. They were granular, not glassy where they were broken, so the edge didn’t stay sharp very...
The Barge
Walter has been out in the canoe with me several times. He does well - doesn't seem to be very enthusiastic about it, but it beats being left home. The canoe isn't as much fun as my kayak but the kayak isn't big enough for the both of us, so I had...
Good Afternoon
7/1/25 2:00 91f (32.7c) Sunny, hot, and windless. Walter, Mike and I went up into the Gifford Pinchot to seek relief from the hot weather in the tall trees. We did a couple of short walks (no mushrooms, no surprise), then sat down had a whiskey and...
Thanks, Joe!
Thanks for taking me sailing, Joe. It's a beautiful, sweet handling boat and it was a lovely day on the water. ...
Good Morning
4/28/26 5:45 44F (6.66C) Clear with tattered pink clouds moving across a light blue sky. A jay preens himself as an inconstant breeze stirs the willows. The birds sound like an orchestra warming up, playing scales and fragments of stanza. Amidst the honks and...
Good Morning
4/27/26 5:30 42F (5.5C) Mostly clear with the tickle of a breeze. Birds sing in the dull luminosity of dawn. Somewhere, a woodpecker is hammering. Walter has done his lap of the perimeter, barking where necessary. Now he rests wachfully on the deck....
Good Morning
4/26/26 6:30 42F (5.5C) The city is quiet for a city. The sirens settled down last night and there is little traffic moving this early on a Sunday morning. Amy is sleeping. We came north to Seattle for my aunt's burial yesterday. My brother Dave...
Good Morning
4/25/26 5:00 38F (3.3C) Clear and calm. Stars dot the dark blue sky above. Birds are bursting with the morning gossip, vying to be heard over the loud rattle of orchard fans. Walter, still exhausted from yesterday's excursion, sprawls sleeping on the...
Good Morning
4/24/26 6:45 36F (2.2C) Clear, calm, and beautiful. I am surrounded by the thunder of orchard fans. Three ducks wheel overhead, twisting and turning, describing great arcs and figure eights as they fly through blue sky tinged with pink. Where are they...
