Blather

Cooking for Guys

Live to Camp
Camp to Live

Poetry
and Other Lies

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...

Roast Pumpkin and Chanterelle Soup

Roast Pumpkin and Chanterelle Soup

Deborah Moran posted a recipe for roasted pumpkin and chanterelle soup in the Cooking With Wild Mushrooms forum. It sounded so good, I knew I had to try it. I modified the recipe slightly and cooked it last time we went camping. Rich and creamy, with a smokey flavor...

Leucoagaricus rachodes

Leucoagaricus rachodes

  Leucoagaricus rhacodes, sometimes spelled  rachodes (it is also known as Agaricus rhacodes, Lepiota rhacodes, Macrolepiota rhacodes, and Chlorophyllum rhacodes), is a stately and delicious mushroom,  despite its somewhat confusing taxonomy. Brilliant white with a...

Pie Iron Tuna Melt

Pie Iron Tuna Melt

We were going to do tuna melts in the pie irons at Fungal in the Jungle, but Wayne and Peter fed us so well we never got around to cooking for ourselves. I was really looking forward to seeing how potoato bread worked in the pie iron, so a couple of days after we got...

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 Morning

Good Morning

  7/24/26 6:00 59F (15C) Clear, blue sky with no wind. Walter has temporarily run out of bark and it is quiet for the moment. Good morning.                                  ...

Good Morning

Good Morning

  7/23/26 6:00 65F (18.3C) Calm and clear with some haze around the edges. It is pleasantly cool. I can smell the faint perfume of woodsmoke. Yesterday, it smelled like BBQ and the haze was so thick I couldn't see the mountains. It was hot and muggy. A rain...

Good Morning

Good Morning

  7/22/26 6:00 67F (19.4C) Cloudy, still, quiet. Puffy white clouds hover motionless above me. Autocorrect and predictive text turn what I write into gibberish as soon as I look away AI is pervasive, unreliable, and an unrepentant pollutant of information,  art,...

Good Morning

Good Morning

  7/21/26 5:30 60F (15.5C) Calm, mostly clear, no smoke. Yesterday's gray skies have been replaced by blue, decorated by brilliant white tufts, illuminated by the sun, still struggling to rise above the ridge. Good morning.          ...

Good Morning

Good Morning

  7/20/26 6:00 62F (16.6C) Overcast, no wind. This morning is as soft and gray  as the underdown of a dove's belly. A crow's rasping call tears the stillness. A hummingbird perches on the top branch of a birch. It is quiet once more. Good morning.    ...