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Cooking for Guys

Live to Camp
Camp to Live

Poetry
and Other Lies

Moussaka Hand Pie

Moussaka Hand Pie

I made moussaka for dinner last night and had some left-over filling. Today I got out the pie-irons and made moussaka hand pies for lunch.   Forcing the Greek pita bread into the buttered pie irons, I spooned some tomato paste over the pita, I filled it with the...

Grandma Wade’s Mince Meat

Grandma Wade’s Mince Meat

Grandma Wade used to make mince meat pies for the holidays. She shared the recipe with Mom,and this delightfully sweet pie has been a treasured memory of mine for decades. The recipe is pretty labor intensive and contains your entire annual dietary allowance of fat in...

Chili and Corn-sticks

Chili and Corn-sticks

Chili and Corn-sticks I had Friday off. I intended to make dinner, but that required an amount of preparation I didn't manage to get around to. I spent the day changing the tire on the Triumph, staring off into space and generally procrastinating. Go figure. Amy got...

Chuck Roast and Mushroom Gravy

Chuck Roast and Mushroom Gravy

With the weather gone to cold drizzle I find myself using the Crock Pot more and more. Once the food is in the slow cooker, it can be turned on low and ignored for a few hours. Well, it could be ignored if it didn't fill the entire house with savory aromas. Slow...

The Bombardier

The Bombardier

The Bombardier is a drink inspired by the early days of military aviation, when the British airforce was still part of the Royal Navy. Pilots and their crew were issued a daily tot of rum, just like the sailors were. To stave off the cold on long sorties over No Man’s...

Bushcrafty

Bushcrafty

If you're not bringing a cocktail shaker you are doing it wrong. Bushcrafty: Two ounces Irish Whiskey, two ounces Shanky's Whip, one ounce filtered stream water, one-quarter lemon, one quarter lime-both squeezed and dropped into the cocktail shaker with a handful of...

Zodi Shower

Zodi Shower

I've used solar camp showers and never been happy with trying to wash myself under the dribble of tepid water they provide. The water doesn't get hot enough, there isn't enough of it and there isn't enough pressure for a satisfying shower experience. The Zodi propane...

A Bear Et My Kayak – Part 1

A Bear Et My Kayak – Part 1

Pistol Creek Longhouse June, 2022 It had been three years since I had set up my first big longhouse – enough time to forget what a pain in the ass it was and for it to sound like a lovely idea. Why not take a couple of weeks off, set up a forty-foot longhouse on...

Good Morning

Good Morning

    3/6/26 6:30 43F (6C) Cloudy with patches of blue.  No wind, no rain.   The sun tops Snakehead ridge, flaring golden-yellow through a crack in the clouds. I  hear turkeys calling from the tall trees up the canyon. Birds are singing, the rooster  is...

Good Morning

Good Morning

    3/5/26 5:45 44F (6.66C) Breezy,  mostly cloudy, beginning to rain. Trees sway in the wind. The moon, waning gibbous behind the clouds, is setting. Birds are singing it to sleep in the dim grey blue of a morning not quite realized. Good morning.  ...

Good Morning

Good Morning

    3/4/26 6:00 45F (7.2C) No wind.  Gray and wet. It is raining here. Apparently it is snowing on the mountain  with the  freezing level  just over 5,000'. That is good. Whether it is good  enough we will discover  come fire season. I expect a long summer...

Good Morning

Good Morning

      3/3/26 40F (4.4C) 3:00 - 4:45 full moon eclipsed like  a round, pink, salmon egg. I slept through my alarm and almost missed the eclipse. It was a red ember when I got outside. Descending into the tops of the oaks, it went from a glowing red...

Good Morning

Good Morning

    3/2/26 5:00 34F (1C) Clear and calm. The moon, waxing to full, round and bright against the dark sky, hangs above the west ridge between Willow Flat and Middle Mountain. Early tomorrow morning there will be a lunar eclipse. As the nieghbors begin to...