Blather

Cooking for Guys

Live to Camp
Camp to Live

Poetry
and Other Lies

Lentil Soup

Lentil Soup

I made this soup in the Crockpot. You could simmer this stovetop or over the fire or cook it in a Dutch oven. No matter how you choose to do it, you will end up with a thick, hearty soup.Ingredients bones and fat trimmed from a cut of lamb shoulder or chop 2 cups...

Humus

Humus

My wife showed me how to make humus. She is extremely camera shy, so there aren't any photos of her, but take my word for it, she's just as cute as a bug's ass. It was nice of her to let me take any pictures at all; she doesn't get the whole taking photographs of what...

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...

Good Evening

Good Evening

8~9~25 7:30 80f Clear, blue sky with the sun dropping low in the west, casting golden beams of light through the almost invisible haze of fire season. I painted the back decks yesterday, and soaked the soft spots with Minwax wood hardener. This morning I filled the...

Good Afternoon

Good Afternoon

8/5/26 2:30 83f (28.3c) , mostly clear with a light breeze. Apparently ,  I  don't have the contagion.  Guess I will run some errands before I run out of ooomph.                              ...

Good Morning

Good Morning

  9/5/26 6:45 49F (9.4C) AQI 19 Cloudy with puddles. The rain has stopped but it hasn't dried out.  There is no wind. The chickens are clucking as the rooster attempts to exert his authority (is that what the kids are calling it now?). Birds chatter and trill....

Good Morning

Good Morning

  9/4/26 5:30 47F (8.3C) AQI 20 Overcast and raining. In the east the waning quarter moon lends a dull luminosity to the clouds. Rain taps through the leaves and soaks into the ground. Good morning.                  ...

Good Morning

Good Morning

  9/3/26 6:00 49F (9.4C) AQI 23 Cloudy, damp. The waning half moon glows behind a thin veil of clouds. The dark is slow to leave this morning. It rained all yesterday and most of last night. I expect it will rain more today. Good.  We were overdue.    ...

Good Morning

Good Morning

  9/2/26 7:30 55F (12.7C) AQI 15 We were promised rain but it has not yet materialized. The sun is above the ridge and shining through broken cloud cover. Southwest winds aloft,  no breeze on the ground. My pumpkins are still setting fruit. A vine has climbed the...

Good Morning

Good Morning

  9/1/26 5:30 55F (12.7C) AQI 79 Under the waning moon, a bat flickers through the trees, a startling motion passing in front of patches of pale light. A little later, the school bus rumbles by. Birds chirp and begin to chatter. A duck grumbles in the shadows....