If I can be permitted to make a few assumptions about you, dear reader: You are not surprised about the combination of watermelon and feta but did, perhaps, raise your eyebrows when you got to the mustard vinaigrette part of this recipe title. However, you are an adventurous eater who likes to try new things and so were intrigued.

Or, you already know that mustard and watermelon is a delicious combination, and so, when you saw this, you knew this was the kind of salad you would probably enjoy.

It was my daughter, Anne, who inspired this recipe after asking if I would make a watermelon and feta salad for the simple reason that, as my recipe tester, she wanted to eat it. But when I told her the salad had a mustard vinaigrette, she said, “That’s weird, mom.”

Au contraire, my dear daughter. Mustard and watermelon is f

abulous.

Now, if you do a quick search on the interwebs, you’ll see that some people like to treat their slices of watermelon like a hamburger or a hot dog, covering it with mustard straight from the bottle. I am not on TikTok, but have recently learned that the whole mustard-and-watermelon is (or was?) a trend.

That’s cool I guess, but slathering slices of watermelon with mustard does not appeal to me. The combo works, in my opinion, when there’s enough mustard to know it’s there, but not so much that it takes away from the flavor of the ripe, juicy, sweet summer watermelon.

That’s what you get in this salad. The vinaigrette includes a generous amount of dijon mustard. You’ll definitely taste it. But it’s softened by honey and olive oil and brightened by some chopped shallots and lemon juice.

The combination of sweet, juicy watermelon, crunchy cucumbers, creamy feta, and sharp, sweet-and-tangy mustard vinaigrette really works. Try it and let me know what you think.

Recipe notes:

• This recipe will make enough vinaigrette for one of those small or small-ish watermelons you can usually find in supermarkets these days. They are usually labeled as “mini” watermelons. You can, of course, use half of a regular size watermelon, or double the amount of vinaigrette for a whole, large watermelon.

• This salad will keep well in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. If you’re going to make it in advance, I suggest not adding the feta until right before serving.

Pairs well with…

This is the kind of salad I love to serve with other easy summer recipes, the less preparation and cooking required, the better.

• Sesame Chicken Salad with Tahini Dressing: A bold, crunchy chicken salad with tahini, sesame oil, soy sauce, lime, ginger, and just enough heat to keep things interesting. It’s quick to make, easy to pack, and perfect for picnics, road trips, and summer lunches.

• Hummus Platter + Easy Homemade Hummus Recipe: This hummus platter is one of my favorite ways to make it look like you tried a heck of a lot harder than you actually did.

• Vegan Pearl Couscous Salad: This healthy, vibrant pasta salad is made with pearl couscous, whatever fresh herbs and vegetables you like, and dressed simply with lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.

• Grilled Lemon Rosemary Chicken: This super easy recipe is all about layer after layer of flavor. The chicken only takes a few minutes to cook and is delicious eaten all on its own or in sandwiches or salads.

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure. Find out more.

This is also one of my favorite things to make on sailing days. It’s simple and easy enough to make in my galley kitchen and, just like I do for travel days in the RV, I pack it into jars so we can eat it on deck while we’re on the water.

But you don’t need to wait for a to-go or picnic situation to try this spicy chicken salad flavored with sesame and tahini. It takes roughly 30 minutes to prepare (less if you start with rotisserie chicken) and will keep well in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

You can serve it on greens or toast, if you like. Or, pile it into a tortilla or wrap and roll it up with a few leaves of lettuce for a hand-held situation. Or, eat it just as it’s pictured here, piled into bowls with extra peanuts and sesame seeds.

Recipe notes

• Make this chicken salad even easier by starting with rotisserie chicken. Simply shred the meat of the rotisserie chicken, skip Step #1, and jump straight into mixing up the tahini dressing.

• That’s a wrap! Turn this chicken salad into a hand-held by wrapping it up in a flour tortilla or sandwich wrap. I like to add a few lettuce leaves.

More of my favorite recipes for travel days and sailboat days:

1. Couscous Salad with Fresh Veggies: This healthy, vibrant pasta salad is made with pearl couscous (toasted Israeli-style pasta), whatever fresh herbs and vegetables you like, and dressed simply with lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. The salad keeps well for days and can be packed into mason jars for the perfect packed lunch or camping meal.

2. Israeli Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette and Roasted Nuts: This Middle Eastern salad is low in calories, vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free, making it the perfect option for dietary restrictions and anyone interested in clean, plant-based meals. But don't let its health benefits fool you. Israeli Salad is also bursting with flavor and easy to prepare. So whether you're looking for a quick lunchtime bite or a tasty side dish for dinner tonight, this salad has got you covered.

3. Hummus Platter: This is one of those recipes that’s the perfect thing for so many different situations. It’s one of my favorite things to serve as an appetizer for dinner party guests. It makes a gorgeous no-cook lunch for hot summer days. And, it can be packed into a to-go container for picnics, hikes, or days on the lake.

4. Mediterranean Chicken Salad: Packed with rotisserie chicken, capers, tarragon, parsley, chives, and plenty of fresh lemon, then layered onto a bun with roasted red peppers, radishes, and cucumbers, this chicken salad is about as far from basic as you can get. This chicken salad is endlessly customizable, meal-prep friendly, requires no cooking, and takes less than 15 minutes to make.

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure. Find out more.

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.

—> Get this and every issue and recipe directly on rebeccablackwell.com.

Are you a fellow food writer? Come see what’s happening over in Mastermind for Food Writers and in the Food Writers Business Lab!

I started my first recipe website in 2013. I had no idea what I was doing and, honestly, no time to do it. I was a freelance marketing consultant and copywriter, a role that suited me in some ways and not in others.

As a copywriter, my job was to dig into whatever my client’s business was and write about that. For some people, the writing itself is the interesting part. The subject doesn’t matter much as long as they are writing about something. This was true for me to a point, and it’s the to a point part that was the problem.

The month I launched my website, I had just wrapped up two huge projects: one for a large housing development and another for a technology company that specialized in data center wiring.

It will not surprise you to learn that neither of these subjects were particularly interesting to me. And yet, I wrote thousands upon thousands of words about them.

What I really wanted to do was write about cake.

So, for months, I got up at 4am and started building a website. I happily dove into the weeds of recipe writing and WordPress publishing. I worked on a few recipes and then ran into a serious roadblock: The recipes would need photos and I knew absolutely nothing about how to take them.

In 2013, my oldest daughter was 15. A year or two before, she expressed some interest in photography so we got her a DSLR camera and signed her up for a photography class. It seemed like something she was enjoying, so I asked if she would take the photos for my brand-spanking new recipe website.

She agreed and about 5 minutes into the first shoot I realized this arrangement was never going to work (pumpkin pie on giant white boards I had dragged onto our back patio… what was I thinking?).

My biggest problem was that I had some thoughts about what a beautiful food photo should look like and absolutely no idea how to create one. Neither, of course, did my 15-year-old daughter. Some basic knowledge of a camera and a bossy mother does not a food photographer make.

I knew that in order to get the kind of photos I wanted (without causing my daughter to want to run away from home) I was going to have to learn how to shoot them myself. So, for the next couple of years that’s what I did. I started with my daughter’s camera and then invested in one of my own. I enrolled in classes, watched YouTube videos and worked my way through food photography books. The learning curve was steep and my first attempts were horrendous. Honestly, most of the photos I published for a good long while were absolutely terrible.

But that’s the thing, isn’t it? The only way to get good at something is to be willing to suck at it for a while.

Eventually I figured out my style and a system that worked for me and my recipes. I transformed a room of our house into a studio and then, when we sold the house and moved into an RV, I learned how to shoot in very small spaces.

Photography has been a tremendously satisfying creative outlet for me. This year, I’ve gotten to do some teaching. I taught a food photography session for a food writers retreat and am working with other photographers to teach a class in the Food Writers Business Lab about the Visual Language of Food Photography.

And earlier this month, I spent a whole day in my daughter’s apartment, teaching her how to take photos of my recipes. Ironically, not the daughter who bravely stepped out onto the back patio to take photos of pumpkin pie. Rather, it’s our youngest daughter, who is a 25-year-old trained chef with an interest in videography and food photography.

Together, the two of us photographed our way through two recipes before my husband, our oldest daughter, and one of our nieces came over to help us eat it. The best part of being a food photographer is getting to eat your work.

From now on, a lot of the photos you see here will be photographed by her. There’s something that just makes my heart swell to bursting to get to share this thing that I love - creating and sharing recipes - with one of my daughters.

So, two of the recipes you’ll find in this week’s issue, Creamy Chicken Stew and Dark Chocolate Brownies, were tested and photographed by Chef Anne Blackwell.

And didn’t she just do such a good job???

My friend published a gorgeous post last week where she describes being inspired to name happiness as often as she finds it, which turns out to be quite often.

I’ve been playing with this game of naming happiness in those tiny glimmers when I sense it—which, if I’m open and available to it, is far more often than I tend to think.

-This is Happiness by Nicki Sizemore

Having daughters like mine… this is happiness.

Small luxuries

Some of my favorite things.

A few weeks ago I wrote about my new obsession with Pique. The obsession is still alive and well, and perhaps even stronger after adding their R.E. Fountain (calming electrolyte) powder to my evening routine.

Every single morning, while waiting for the coffee to brew, I stir a packet of their BT Fountain Electrolyte Powder into a glass of cold water and happily gulp it down. It makes me feel good almost immediately. And while I have absolutely no intention of giving up my morning cup of coffee (seriously, you’d have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands), the truth is that I feel awake before I’ve even taken a sip.

Also, seriously, my skin looks amazing. Just saying.

Last week we flew to Denver to spend a few days with our daughters. On the way to the airport I realized I’d forgotten to pack my morning electrolyte powder and if it wouldn’t have caused us to miss the flight, I would have told Steve to turn the truck around. I thought about it anyway.

It’s funny… Steve and I grew up in Colorado and never knew what out-of-town guests were talking about when they complained about the altitude. Now that we’re no longer year-round residents, we get it. After settling nicely into the low elevation and humidity of Michigan, we felt the thin air and dry climate of Denver the second our plane hit the runway.

And look, I would have felt the difference in altitude and moisture anyway, with or without my morning electrolyte powder fix. But there was also a noticeable difference in how I felt in the morning that was more than just “Oh, Colorado.”

I was a little more sluggish. A lot more dehydrated. A little bit dull. I also drank a LOT more coffee because I just couldn’t wake up.

Happily, we are now back in Michigan with a drawer full of BT Fountain Electrolyte Powder AND Sun Goddess Matcha. My morning and afternoon routines are back in play and all is right with the world. Ok. That’s not true at all. The world is kinda fucked up. But, at least I feel hydrated and invigorated, and my skin has that glowy look. Let’s take what we can get, shall we?

Matcha Banana Shake

Now that the weather is getting warmer, I’ve traded in my hot cup of Matcha in the afternoon for a cold, creamy, super refreshing matcha banana shake. Holy smokes, this shake is soooooo delicious. It feels indulgent, like you’re treating yourself to a milkshake, but with a gentle energy burst that makes you feel like a million bucks.

Your taste buds will be happy, your gut will be happy, your skin will be happy. And if you are like me and often experience an afternoon slump, you’ll get a nice little burst of energy without the crash that comes from succumbing to another cup of coffee or (god forbid) an energy drink.

Here’s what you need:

• 1 frozen banana (the banana doesn’t have to be frozen, but it’s much more milkshake-like if it is)

• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt, plain and unsweetened

• 6 ounces very cold water

• 1 packet Pique Sun Goddess Matcha Powder

• 1 tablespoon honey (more to taste)

Dump everything into a blender and blend until well combined and frothy. Pour into a glass and do your best to sip it slowly, like a civilized person, and not so fast that you give yourself a brain freeze. Not that I would know this from experience.

Pique ceremonial-grade matcha is rich in EGCG antioxidants to support clarity, cellular health, and steady energy, while promoting gut balance. Thanks to Pique’s cold extraction process, it delivers calm, clean energy without jitters or crashes.

In other words, you’ll have a happy belly, beautiful skin, and the energy you need to get through your day. Oh, AND a delicious shake. There’s no downside here, my friends. 👏

Here’s a link to try the Radiant Skin Duo (BT Electrolyte and Sun Goddess Matcha Powder) for 20% off + some very generous freebies.

Radiant Skin Duo

And also, guess what goes really well with a Banana Matcha Shake??? Cookies, that’s what.

This Week’s Menu

Hummus Platter + Easy Homemade Hummus Recipe

This hummus platter is one of my favorite ways to make it look like you tried a heck of a lot harder than you actually did. Start with a generous layer of creamy hummus, pile on crunchy vegetables, olives, feta, and a few finishing touches, and suddenly you’ve got a colorful, flavor-packed platter that’s a perfect for lunch as it is for entertaining. It’s my idea of the perfect summer recipe - easy, unfussy, endlessly adaptable, and no stovetop or oven required.

Hummus Platter

Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Stew

On a recent trip to Europe, we spent a couple of days in Bruges, a storybook Belgian village that captured our hearts from the moment we arrived. After wandering around the town in utter delight, we stopped for dinner at a restaurant in the town square.

I ordered the chicken stew and was delighted to receive a bowl of chicken and mushrooms coated in a rich, creamy gravy with a little round of puff pastry resting on top.

It was the very definition of comfort food for me. And look, I know the phrase comfort food means different things to different people. But, for me, that was it.

I couldn’t wait to get home and try to recreate that gorgeous creamy stew in my own kitchen.

Not only does it remind me of our first night in Bruges, it’s the first recipe I’ve published that was tested and photographed by my daughter, Chef Anne Blackwell. So, it’s not an exaggeration to say that, for me, this recipe now comes with comfort in spades.

I hope it does the same for you, filling you from head to toe with the kind of warmth that has you taking a deep, satisfied breath with the biggest smile on your face.

Creamy Chicken Stew

Dark Chocolate Brownies

This brownie recipe is for true chocolate lovers. Or for lovers who love chocolate. Whichever. Probably both.

Regardless, if you need a bit of love and chocolate in your life, add these brownies to the menu. They are impossibly rich, decadent, and seductive. The kind of brownie that truly deserves to have the name fudge in the title.

These brownies contain a lot of chocolate. More than you thought you could pack into a brownie. So, it’s important to splurge on the best chocolate you can find.

They are also so indulgent that one batch goes a long way. I generally cut them into small pieces, set a few out, store a few in the refrigerator, and pop the rest in the freezer for those times when I just want a bite or two of something intensely chocolaty and decadent.

In fact, you can eat these brownies directly from the freezer, which is my favorite way to eat them. Instead of turning them into ice cubes, they just get chewier and almost truffle-like when frozen.

This makes them the perfect brownies for brownie sundaes. You’ll think you’ve transported yourself into some kind of chocolate lover’s utopia, which of course you have. Enjoy it. Utopian moments are fleeting. Let’s take them where we can, shall we?

Dark Chocolate Brownies

If you’re a food writer:

• Please join us over on Mastermind for Food Writers where you’ll find a ton of education, connection, and resources, for food writers by food writers.

• Check out the lineup of free classes and in-depth workshops in The Food Writers Business Lab, an online learning hub created specifically for food writers who want practical, affordable support for growing their businesses and expanding their reach.

• I taught an SEO for food writers class a few weeks ago where I presented SEO not as a technical burden or a game to be won, but as a practical way to help the right readers find your recipes, stories, newsletters, and posts. The class was recorded and is available here: SEO: Build a Bridge From Your Work To Your Readers

The Lost Supper Club

This newsletter would not exist if not for the members of The Lost Supper Club, who show their support with a paid subscription, thus ensuring that the vast majority of readers can keep reading this newsletter for free. As a thank you, I try to provide those paid subscribers with some cool stuff, including three free cookbooks!

A paid subscription is just $35 a year. Find out more about becoming a member of the Lost Supper Club.

❤️ Did you know that if you hit the heart or recycle symbol at the top or bottom of this post, it makes it easier for other people to find this newsletter?

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.

—> Get this and every issue and recipe directly on rebeccablackwell.com.

Are you a fellow food writer? Come see what’s happening over in Mastermind for Food Writers and in the Food Writers Business Lab!

Jump to…

• Small luxuries: My favorite non-chip drinking glasses

• This week’s menu (Cherry Basil Muffins with Cream Cheese Glaze, Meatball Marinara, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies)

• Really Good Reads

• My latest piece on Mastermind for Food Writers: Everything Has a Shelf Life, Including Your Business

Sailing season is officially upon us and it feels so good to be back on the water.

Steve, in particular, can hardly contain himself. He was born for sailing.

We’ve dubbed our boat the party boat and have already had some friends join us on board for an afternoon sail.

AND - we’ve started planning our first sailing trip.

Later this month, we’ll take off for 9 days, using the first two days to sail up the coast of Michigan before heading across Lake Michigan to Door County, Wisconsin. This is both exciting and a little bit terrifying. The longest sail we’ve done was last year when we sailed north from Muskegon to Pentwater, a 45 minute drive but an 8-hour sail.

We are learning the ropes of planning in nautical miles, finding transient slips where we can spend a night or two, researching places where we might anchor off shore, and reading up on what it really means to sail across one of the Great Lakes.

Because, friends, it’s not the Atlantic, but Lake Michigan is freaking huge.

Steve bought his first motorcycle in 2013 and we rode it from Colorado to Sturgis, South Dakota for the annual motorcycle rally the very next year. That week opened our eyes to the possibility of riding further and the next year we rode from Colorado to southern California, up the coast to San Francisco, and then back home.

From there the trips got longer and longer and after riding through every single state in the lower 48, and riding a rented motorcycle around the Hawaiian island of Kauai, we set our sights on Alaska.

In July of 2019, we spent 28 days riding from Colorado to Alaska, an epic 11,000 mile trip that we still talk about.

So, I don’t need a fortune teller to tell me how our sailing story is going to go. I’ve seen this film before. Our 9 day trip to Door County is just the beginning. And I can’t wait to take you all along for the ride.

If you’re new here, Steve and I traveled to Michigan last summer so we could learn how to sail. We had absolutely no intention of buying a sailboat, at least not for many years. But 3 weeks after our sailing class ended, we were the proud owners of a 37-foot sailboat AND had put the RV into storage and moved onboard.

It was a whirlwind experience that you can read about here…

And here…

Small luxuries

Some of my favorite things.

When we first moved into the RV, over 6 years ago, I purchased a set of colorful plastic drinking glasses. I just couldn’t see how non-plastic drinkware could possibly hold up while carting our home across the country on a regular basis.

The plastic cups were fine in the sense that they didn’t break of course. But I missed the feeling of glass in my hand. In our house in Colorado I had quite the collection of delicate antique drinking glasses, and wine and cocktail glasses. I kept the prettiest ones out on display, at the ready for anyone who stopped by to select the one they liked.

Fancy, antique glassware does not work when you basically take your house through an earthquake every few weeks.

But man, I was sick of those plastic glasses.

Then last year I found these pretty Jupiter Drinking glasses in Lagoon Blue. They are very sturdy glasses, with thick walls that I thought might be difficult to chip. Happily, I was right and a year later they still look brand new.

I now have them in two different shades of blue and those plastic cups are long gone.

This Week’s Menu

Meatball Marinara, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies + Cherry Basil Muffins with Cream Cheese Glaze

Last month, only days after our sailboat came out of winter storage and returned to its rightful place in the water, some friends of ours came through Michigan on a long motorcycle ride from California to Washington DC.

We, of course, took them sailing, then settled into the cockpit of the boat at sunset where we opened bottles of wine and filled our plates with Meatballs in Marinara spooned over fresh homemade pasta. I had made the meatballs, marinara, and pasta that morning so all that was left to do before we ate was reheat it on the gas stovetop in the boat’s galley.

And this is why I’m sharing this recipe with you now: It’s the perfect crowd-pleasing make-ahead dish. The marinara can be prepared days in advance (or even weeks or months in advance and frozen). The meatballs can also be prepared up to 3 days in advance and stored in a covered container in the refrigerator, nestled into the sauce.

And, of course, you don’t have to make fresh, homemade pasta. But, if you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at pasta making, I promise it’s easier than you might think and so, so, SO much better than the dried packaged variety. It’s also, in my opinion, quite fun. Homemade pasta can also be made as far in advance as you like. Simply leave it out to dry and then package it up and place it in your pantry where it will happily wait until you’re ready to use it.

We ended our meal on the boat with oatmeal raisin cookies, which I made because they are Steve’s favorite and also, cookies require no slicing or plating. I served them straight from a ziplock bag because I’m super fancy like that.

Meatballs in Marinara

Honestly, if my tastebuds were fully in charge of my life, I would eat baked meatballs in marinara every single week for the rest of my life. I love them that much.

This recipe uses a combination of ground beef and Italian sausage, mixed with bread crumbs, buttermilk, cheese, onion, garlic, and a copious amount of Italian seasoning.

Once the meatballs are formed, you have two options - fry them on the stovetop or broil them to perfection. Either way will give the meatballs a gorgeous crispy exterior. Then simply nestle the meatballs in a rich, homemade marinara sauce and let them bake until they are tender, juicy, and mouthwateringly delicious.

Meatballs in Marinara

How To Make Homemade Spaghetti Noodles

This recipe for homemade spaghetti produces noodles with a rich, buttery egg yolk flavor that is so good you may never purchase dried pasta again!

Homemade pasta is such a treat and, once you master the basics, it's surprisingly easy and fun to make. This step-by-step picture tutorial will walk you through all the details of how to make a perfect batch of delicious homemade pasta.

Homemade Spaghetti Noodles

Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I’ve been making this exact recipe for more than 20 years. They are Steve’s favorite cookie and this recipe never lets us down. These are thin cookies that are soft and chewy in the center and slightly crispy around the edges.

It includes an interesting technique for plumping up the raisins and boosting the flavor: soaking the raisins in eggs for an hour before adding them to the batter.

When I made these a few weeks ago, I wanted to get a head start on the prep work so I set the raisins in the eggs to soak in the morning and then put them in the refrigerator where they hung out for about 12 hours before I made the dough.

To my surprise, this one little change resulted in thicker cookies. My theory is that the longer soak in the eggs caused the raisins to absorb more of the moisture. More moisture in the raisins means less moisture in the dough and thicker cookies.

Both Steve and I agreed that we couldn’t decide which we liked more, the thin and chewy ones we were used to or these thicker, softer cookies. I still don’t know which I like more. Both are delicious.

I leave it up to you to decide which version you prefer. Follow the recipe as is and bake up thin and chewy cookies. Let the raisins soak in the eggs for 8-12 hours for thicker, softer cookies.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Cherry Muffins with Fresh Basil and Cream Cheese Icing

These cherry muffins are what you get when you combine fresh summer fruit with a lazy morning, except the recipe starts with a homemade muffin mix, so the lazy morning is not required, it’s just desirable.

Regardless of how lazy your morning is, these cherry-studded muffins are a delicious way to start the day. They are loaded with juicy cherries, kissed with just enough fresh basil to make people say, “Wait, what is that?,” and topped with a tangy cream cheese glaze that absolutely knows what it’s doing.

Cherry Muffins with Cream Cheese Icing

Links you might like

Really good reads:

• I purchased This Will Make You Happy by Tanya Bush a few months ago and it keeps making its way into various conversations. It’s a vulnerable combination of memoir and recipes as Tanya tells the story of baking her way out of a serious depression.

• Has anyone else read the Thursday Murder Club series? I’m on the second book and I absolutely love it. The dialogue is so smart and witty, and not only moves the story forward but lets you get to know the characters in a show-not-tell way that’s difficult to do. The first book was adapted into a Netflix movie and I loved it too. Fingers crossed that they’ll make a sequel!

• This piece from is so good. I too relate to this compulsion to be productive at all times. “And yet they seem to have remained immune to a particular kind of stress I fall prey to constantly, the compulsion to be productive at all times, to fill every gap.” Read: The Shoe-Cleaning Machine in London

• I love this piece from nostalgic Ghirardelli recipe cards and I wonder… does the nostalgia we feel for printed recipe cards translate to our modern world? Will we swing back to printed words on a page if only as a way to remind ourselves of our own humanity? “It’s marketing genius wrapped in gorgeous design: sixteen prize-winning chocolate recipes, printed on individual cards, slipped into a collectible envelope, and mailed free to anyone who asked.” Read: From Estella’s Archive: Ghirardelli’s Sweet Sixteen

And check out this piece from yours truly about how everything has a shelf life, including your relationships and your business, and why I think burnout is normal: Everything Has a Shelf Life, Even Your Business

If you’re a food writer:

• Please join us over on Mastermind for Food Writers where you’ll find a ton of education, connection, and resources, for food writers by food writers.

• Check out the line up of free classes and in-depth workshops in The Food Writers Business Lab, an online learning hub created specifically for food writers who want practical, affordable support for growing their businesses and expanding their reach.

• I taught an SEO for food writers class a few weeks ago where I presented SEO not as a technical burden or a game to be won, but as a practical way to help the right readers find your recipes, stories, newsletters, and posts. The class was recorded and is available here: SEO: Build a Bridge From Your Work To Your Readers

The Lost Supper Club

This newsletter would not exist if not for the members of The Lost Supper Club, who show their support with a paid subscription, thus ensuring that the vast majority of readers can keep reading this newsletter for free. As a thank you, I try to provide those paid subscribers with some cool stuff, including three free cookbooks!

A paid subscription is just $35 a year. Find out more about becoming a member of the Lost Supper Club.

❤️ Did you know that if you hit the heart or recycle symbol at the top or bottom of this post, it makes it easier for other people to find this newsletter?

Regardless of how lazy your morning is, these cherry-studded muffins are a delicious way to start the day. They are loaded with juicy cherries, kissed with just enough fresh basil to make people say, “Wait, what is that?,” and topped with a tangy cream cheese glaze that absolutely knows what it’s doing.

At first glance you may think that fresh basil in muffins is not the sort of thing you’d want to eat. But, please reconsider because basil is the perfect complement to cherries. These muffins contain only 2 tablespoons of very finely chopped basil, which is just enough to highlight the flavor of the cherries but not so much that you’d call these basil muffins. They are still firmly in the cherry muffin category.

This recipe starts with my favorite homemade muffin mix. I try to keep a container of this all-purpose mix in the pantry at all times because it makes whipping up a batch of warm, homemade muffins so easy!

If you already have the muffin mix made and pit and chop your cherries the night before, mixing up the batter in the morning only takes a few minutes.

Recipe Notes:

• Homemade Muffin Mix is perfect for anyone who loves the ease of a boxed mix but prefers the flavor and comfort of something truly homemade. The recipe includes the addition of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, or cloves. For these cherry muffins, I suggest leaving those spices out to allow the flavor of the cherries and basil to shine through.

• Using a cherry pitter to remove the pits from fresh cherries makes quick work of what is otherwise a labor-intensive task. I have this Oxo Cherry Pitter and I love it.

• When you’re dividing the batter among 12 muffin cups, you’ll think there’s too much batter, but just keep pressing more onto the tops of the muffins until you’ve used it all up.

A few more muffin recipes that take full advantage of fresh summer fruit

1. Chocolate Blackberry Muffins. Packed with juicy blackberries and chocolate chips, these are so rich and fudgy they are almost brownie-like.

2. Blackberry Muffins with Oatmeal Streusel. These are the kind of thing you make when you want a rich, bakery-style muffin that's too good to be anything but homemade.

3. Raspberry Muffins with Crumb Topping. The crumb of these muffins is exceptionally soft and tender, a perfect match for delicate, sweet raspberries. And the butter crumb topping literally melts in your mouth.

4. Sour Cream Streusel Blueberry Muffins. These are light and tender, can be made with either fresh or frozen blueberries, and laced with the flavors of vanilla, almond, and a touch of lemon.

5. Mixed Berry Muffins with Streusel. These delicious mixed berry muffins are packed with fresh or frozen berries and topped with loads of buttery brown sugar streusel.

6. Blueberry Lemon Muffins. These have a soft, light, cake-like texture that's flavored with lemon and vanilla, packed with blueberries, topped with a buttery crumb topping, and drizzled with lemon glaze for even more bright citrus flavor.

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure. Find out more.

This recipe for homemade muffin mix is adapted from a recipe in Bravetart by Stella Parks. She uses virgin coconut oil in her muffin mix, a genius trick because it’s nonperishable so you can stock your pantry with a bag of this muffin mix where it will keep for many months.

As opposed to refined coconut oil which is liquid at room temperature, virgin coconut oil is solid at room temperature. To measure it, pack it into a measuring cup with the back of a spoon.

How to use this mix to make muffins

Add one recipe muffin mix to a mixing bowl and add

• 1/2 cup milk (any kind, including buttermilk and any non-dairy milk)

• 2 large eggs

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon almond extract).

Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to stir until blended.

Divide the batter among 12 paper lined baking cups and bake at 350 degrees for 18 - 22 minutes.

Muffin mix ins!

• For berry or fruit muffins, gently fold in about 2 cups of fresh or frozen berries or peeled and diced apples, peaches, or pears.

• To make chocolate chip muffins, add about 1 cup regular size or mini chocolate chips.

• You can also add a handful of nuts or shredded coconut.

• To make zucchini muffins, press as much water as you can from 3 cups of shredded zucchini (I usually twist it in a clean kitchen towel) and fold that into the batter.

For crumb topped or streusel topped muffins:

• Top muffins with the oatmeal streusel in this recipe for Blackberry Muffins with Oatmeal Streusel

• Top muffins with the butter crumb topping in this recipe for Raspberry Muffins

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure. Find out more.

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.

Get every issue and recipe directly on rebeccablackwell.com.

Are you a fellow food writer? Come see what’s happening over in Mastermind for Food Writers and in the Food Writers Business Lab!

I have such a treat for you today, friends.

The piece below, No Chef!, was written by , who I met last year at a book proposal workshop. What you really need to know about Wendy is that she lived for years on a boat and is now slow-traveling around the world with her husband.

Um, also, she survived a class 5 hurricane in the Bahamas while living on her boat.

So, she’s a badass. Obviously.

We live in an RV and occasionally on a sailboat with a cabin that provides us with about 150 square feet of living space, so we are used to moving about the world while living in small spaces. As you might imagine, I spent a fair amount of time drooling over the comparatively massive size of Wendy’s boat.

However, Wendy and her husband Christopher now live out of a suitcase, which really just puts my whole minimalistic-nomadic life in perspective. Honestly, I’m not sure I could do it, but she inspires me to think I might (someday) want to try.

This piece arrived in my inbox on Thursday morning as I was starting to work out some details for a couple of long-ish sailing trips. The article includes a couple of recipes that are perfect for small spaces with limited refrigeration and no oven. So, her timing is impeccable. I made them both and they are DELICIOUS.

Not only are they the perfect thing to make when you are short on space, time, or major kitchen appliances, they are perfect for hot days when the last thing you want to do is turn on the oven. Those days are coming (for some of you, they’ve already arrived), so Wendy’s timing is impeccable for you too.

Enjoy.

xo

-Rebecca

PS. Even yachtlings (Wendy’s word) come with one-butt galleys.

P.P.S. Subscribe to Wendy’s newsletter now and thank me later.

Moving Forward

Humor and insights of my nomadic, carpe-the-dang-diem life and writing about it from a boat + the far corners of the world. Think of it as a place to rest and reset; less of a "How To" than a "How I" journey forward.

By Wendy Hawkes

No, Chef!

I met Rebecca last summer during the Dream to Deal Book Proposal Workshop. Though we worked in slightly different disciplines—me prepping to query my travel-survival memoir while Rebecca designed her narrative cookbook like the powerhouse recipe developer she is—the uncanniness of our nomadic lifestyles practically demanded we become friends, at least virtually. I had recently sold my boat and transitioned from four years as a full-time cruiser to full-time globetrotter. Conversely, professional RVer Rebecca had just purchased her sailboat, moving aboard during the eight-week workshop. Kismet.

When Rebecca invited me to write a guest post for Let’s Get Lost, I was simultaneously honored and terrified. My newsletter, Moving Forward, focuses on resilience, going with the flow, and finding equanimity when faced with inevitable changes and challenges through the lens of my off the beaten path, carpe-the-damn-diem life. What could I bring to a culinary ‘stack? I’m no cook. I was raised on frozen fish sticks, canned veg, and ’80’s food court dinners at the mall. Zero training, borrowing other people’s creative food flair via recipes found on Pinterest.

If “No, chef!” were a thing, it would apply to me.

But I learned. Boat life will do that to you.

Living on a mini yacht—a yachtling, as I called it—taught me a boatload of life skills I didn’t know I needed that have come in handy as I transitioned to a nomadic life on land. “Dirt life”, as full-time cruisers call it, was supposed to be easier than life on the water. In most respects it is, but cooking our meals in unfamiliar kitchens has been an interesting challenge, a duty which falls to me out of recent-ish habit and history.

My tiny home on the water measured 43’ by 21’. Deduct the watery space between the two hulls of our powercatamaran, and our dream mansion provided less than 800 sq. ft. True to the nature of marine vessels offering weenie spaces, our boat’s kitchen was a one-butt galley. Being the professional control freak I am, I decided at the outset the galley was my domain. One person needed to keep track of our provisions, which also meant meal planning. And one of my superpowers is organization (and stashing butt-tons of foodstuffs into itty bitty spaces). That settled it: I’d cook; he’d clean.

To my surprise, I discovered a new interest in cooking.

The creativity required to manifest a tasty, nutritious meal out of limited ingredients, utilizing produce on its last legs, or about-to-expire meat and dairy items spoke to my practical, problem-solving nature. When I needed to make lunch during our first 10-hour Gulf Stream Crossing from Miami to the Bahamas, old cabbage, almost-slimy carrots, and an English cucumber soaked in sweetened rice vinegar added to a healthy dollop of peanut butter became Pad Thai Cole Slaw (recipe below).

Four years of practice becomes habit, and now that my husband and I are both north of 60, we’re too old to change too many things in our lives at one time. I still cook; he still cleans.

Nowadays as a full-time traveler, I also borrow other people’s homes, kitchens, and utensils, making do with what’s on hand (including ingredients). Turns out, necessity is the mother of, well, creativity, in some instances.

This is what I offer you, dear readers. Inspiration to work with whatchya got, and see what happens if you shake things up a bit.

Slow travel—staying in one location for about a month—allows us to snag long-term discounts for apartment rentals through Airbnb and Booking-dot-com. A kitchenette also means saving money with home-cooked meals.

Our first slow-travel destination was my husband’s home country of England.

A projected one month in the motherland extended to a six month stay, thanks to a house sit opportunity. My first foray into commandeering someone else’s kitchen revealed that not everyone keeps their knives sharp (we now tuck our brand-new Santoku into the one checked bag we’ve allowed ourselves). But I still had access to a ginormous oven, four-burner induction hob/stovetop, and decadent appliances too power hungry for our boat.

Oh, hello, Vitamix, it’s been so long. Good morning, De’Longhi bean-to-cup home espresso machine, you sweet dumpling, you.

When we made the big jump to Southeast Asia, things changed. In all our rentals on “the other side of the world,” if we were blessed with an oven, it was microwave only. At best, cooktop (as described in the rental listing) meant two burners. And inventorying which pots and pans may or may not be present became a treasure hunt.

Our current apartment has a toaster...we can toast! And I don’t mean pan-fried bread. The simple joys of pushbutton meal prep. Bonuses abroad include omnipresent electric kettles—critical in lieu of any brewing machinery (coffee, not beer)—which aid in boiling rice and pasta water in single-saucepot abodes.

Constant travel also restricts meal creation in ways I didn’t expect.

Namely, spices. Can’t purchase new ones every month; can’t waste the luggage space to bring them along. I’ve figured out a few staples that are readily available everywhere we’ve been (UK, Spain, Portugal, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, so far) that make cooking abroad easier, and tastier.

May these travel-tested methods and modifications inspire you to cook outside the box, if not off the beaten path. And may capital-L-Life find you forever Moving Forward with a smile on your heart.

My Weensy Go-To Grocery List for Pantry “Staples”:

• 1 grinder/shaker Himalayan sea salt (pink if possible). We’ve pivoted away from black pepper and don’t really miss it in our home meals.

• 1 smallest possible bottle of olive oil

• 1 jar pesto: Adds garlic and basil flavor to any pasta dish, plus makes a great base for naan pizzas

• 1 bottle sesame dressing (I like Kewpie, an Asian brand easily found in SE Asia where I’ve been since November): For salad dressing, veggie dip, in place of sesame oil mix into stir fry dishes

• 1 small bottle soy sauce: For flavor, saltiness. That unique umami-ness.

• Garlic (lots): For flavor, as a natural (ingested) bug repellent, & overall health boost like smelly Airborne

• 1 red onion: For flavor. I prefer white for sauteed dishes, but there’s arguably more flavor in red so I’ve adjusted

• Local farmers markets often sell small quantities of spice by weight, but so far I’ve opted for occasional fresh mint or parsley or whatever’s needed for a specific craving dish we can’t find so must cook ourselves.

Here’s a dish I recently concocted using all of the above (minus the soy sauce) with the remaining half of a can of salad-enhancing chickpeas, when I had no more salads left in me for the week.

Veggie Omelet Pizza with Hummus

Serves 2

Time: about 20 minutes

Recipe with Disclaimer: As noted above, I’m no Cordon Bleu chef. Since this is one of my off-the-cuff ideas, the measurements are rough guides. I’m more of a measure-by-glug gal. My mantra: “To taste”

Note: No oven meant this isn’t reallllllly a pizza, but prepackaged naan bread makes a nice base, even when toasted not baked. Also, when one doesn’t have a food processor, or blender, or Nutri Bullet (oh, how I miss thee), one makes due.

Kitchen gear on hand: 1 medium skillet, 1 very small skillet (used as a lid in this case), a toaster, knife and cutting board, soup spoon.

Step#1: Make the hummus

Smush a 1/2 can of chickpeas with the back of a spoon then add the following ingredients and stir everything together. Taste and adjust.

• A dollop (teaspoon?) of pesto basil from a jar

• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped and smushed/pressed with a chef’s knife

• 1 splorp of Kewpie sesame salad dressing,

• ½ splorp of Kewpie spicy salad dressing (because I didn’t read the label, okay?!?!) for zest

• ½ glug of olive oil—not too much, you don’t want it too runny (“to eyeball”…spit-balling here)

• Salt (many grinds, please add black pepper if you have it, which I assume you do)

Step #2: Prep the pizza base:

Cheat! If you have an oven, kudos. If not, try pan frying pre-packaged naan to heat/crisp bottom. I used the toaster. Not ideal as naans were a little too big. Solution: toast one end, then the other. My only skillet big enough was busy making omelets. At least it warmed the bases.

Spread hummus all over the naan bases.

Step #3: Make the Omelet:

1. Add a tablespoon of oil to a skillet along with 1/2 of a red onion, chopped, and 4 cloves of garlic, also chopped.

2. Add some 2-4 ounces of chopped spinach and a diced tomato (or whatever veggies you like) and cook till done.

3. While the veggies cook, crack 4 eggs into a bowl, add a splash of milk, and whisk. Pour into the skillet with the veggies.

4. When eggs are almost set, add ¼ - ½ cup cheese, diced or shredded (I used diced cubes—we’ve no grater & buy block cheese).

5. When cheese has melted, fold one side over the other, remove the pan from the heat, and cut the omelet in half.

6. Serve atop the hummus-laden naan breads.

Notes from Rebecca:

I made this Veggie Pizza Omelet on Thursday night and it was sooooo good! For all of you who love the No Recipe Required series, this one is right up your alley.

This is absolutely something I’m going to make on the boat. I followed Wendy’s advice and used spinach and chopped tomatoes (cherry tomatoes) because that sounded great, but you really could use whatever veggies you like in there. Just be mindful that some veggies take longer to cook than others. This would also be a great way to use up any leftover cooked veggies hanging out in your refrigerator, by the way.

I cheated and started with store-bought garlic hummus to which I added a spoonful of pesto and some miso sesame dressing. SO GOOD AND WHY HAVE I NEVER THOUGHT TO JAZZ UP STORE BOUGHT HUMMUS BEFORE???

I added more cheese than she suggested, which should surprise no one.

Also, because I was determined to not turn on the oven and my skillet was occupied with cooking the omelet, I brushed some melted butter over the naan, covered them with a damp paper towel, and heated them in the microwave for 40 seconds before smearing with hummus and topping with the omelet.

One final note: If you have an oven and don’t mind using it, you might want to consider making a frittata instead of an omelet. Heat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Follow all the same instructions to make the omelet, but sprinkle the cheese across the top of the eggs about 1 minute after you pour them into the skillet. Pop the skillet into the oven and cook until set.

If you’re going to go the frittata route, consider adding in some bite-size potatoes that you’ve boiled in salt water AND some additional cheese whisked right into the eggs because, holyshit, that would be delicious.

Pad Thai Cole Slaw

Serves 6 – 8

Time: 20 minutes + a few hours to marinate the cucumber

Step #1: Make a quick pickled cucumber

1. Slice a cucumber into thin slices and add it to a jar. Add enough rice vinegar to cover and sprinkle in a teaspoon of salt.

2. Screw on the lid and shake gently to distribute the salt. Let rest for at least an hour, or overnight.

Step #2: Make the slaw

Chop or shred (oh, how I miss my silly Salad Shooter) into a large bowl:

• 1 small head of cabbage (can mix purple with green, if desired)

• 1 gala apple

• 8 oz or ½ bag of baby carrots, or whatever the equivalent of ‘just’ carrots is

• ¼ of a red onion

Add to the veggies:

• 1 tablespoon (?) rice vinegar (I prefer Seasoned, the sweeter taste works well against the acid)

• 8 shakes or splorps of Thai fish sauce (Thai Kitchen’s has a shaker top…so maybe a half of a teaspoon??)

• 1 teaspoon-ish avocado oil (or substitute with any oil, sesame would work nicely)

• Ginger (when I created this, I only had powder…this is for sure “to taste”)

• 1 tablespoon peanut butter (I prefer creamy…you do you)

• Sizable handful of fresh cilantro/coriander, chopped (“to taste”)

Mix well. Add marinated cuke slices and as much of their vinegar soak as you like. Top with:

• Chopped peanuts

• Salt and pepper, to taste

*Option: add heat with dried chili flakes or chopped jalapeño if desired.

Give a good stir and enjoy!

Notes from Rebecca:

For the slaw, I started with a 12-ounce bag of pre-shredded cabbage to which I added some shredded carrots, 1/4 of a red onion, and a honeycrisp apple. I used my food processor to shred the carrots, onion, and apple. If you don’t have a food processor, just finely chop everything.

By the way, if you’re skeptical of the apple, set that skepticism aside because you’re gonna love it. You might even want to add two.

I mixed all the dressing ingredients together in a bowl before dumping it over the veggies. I also modified the amounts of some the ingredients as follows…

• 1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar + 1 tablespoon of honey

• 1 teaspoon fish sauce

• About 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

• 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter

• Salt and pepper

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (I used jalapeño olive oil for some extra kick!)

Whisk all of these ingredients except the oil together until smooth. Slowly add the oil, whisking constantly as you pour, until the dressing is emulsified, smooth, and creamy. Taste and adjust.

I added a large bunch of chopped cilantro directly to the veggies, then poured in the dressing, stirring until everything was well coated. I did not add any additional vinegar from the cucumbers.

We ate this on Friday with Chicken Schnitzel and the combo was delectable. Fresh and indulgent all at the same time. However, while I WILL be making the slaw on the boat, I’ll save the chicken schnitzel for my air-conditioned RV kitchen. For a little added protein with no additional cooking, cold rotisserie chicken would be perfect.

Don’t forget dessert

I feel like both of these dishes might benefit from being capped off with a cookie or two, don’t you? Maybe one of these…

1. Matcha Shortbread Cookies: Buttery, tender, and full of bright citrus flavor.

2. Classic Oatmeal Raisin: I made these last weekend for an evening sail with friends and we had some left over. They hit the spot!

3. Cream Cheese chocolate Chip Cookies: These little cream cheese chocolate chip cookies are so tender and buttery that they literally melt in your mouth.

4. No Bake Cookies {aka Preacher Cookies or Cow Pies}: Fudgy little peanut butter and oat-filled balls of bliss, that's what these cookies are. And if that's not enough, they only take a few minutes to make and do not require an oven.

Small luxuries

Some of my favorite things.

I’ve been buying Ruggable rugs since we moves into the RV 6 years ago. All the rugs are machine washable which, as you might imagine, is important when your home is mostly parked on dirt, sand, gravel, and sometimes mud.

After we did some major renovations last year, I decided that it was also time to update our rugs. That was over a year ago and all three still look fantastic AND they still make me smile every time I walk into the room… especially the one in the kitchen, which our daughters say is “kind of creepy, mom”, but I LOVE it.

Muse, by Jonathan Adler. Yes, it’s technically a doormat, but I don’t care. I absolutely love how it adds some whimsy to my kitchen.

Flutterby Rug, by Iris Apfel. I couldn’t believe how the colors in this rug pick up the other colors in the room so perfectly.

Seiene Camel and Ivory Rug by Nina Takesh. I love the calm, cozy, woodsy feel this rug gives to our bedroom.

If you’re a food writer:

• I wrote this piece earlier this week about how recipes are more about how we feel than what we make: Eat Your Feelings

• Please join us over on Mastermind for Food Writers where you’ll find a ton of education, connection, and resources for food writers by food writers.

• Check out the line up of free classes and in-depth workshops in The Food Writers Business Lab, an online learning hub created specifically for food writers who want practical, affordable support for growing their businesses and expanding their reach.

This newsletter would not exist if not for the members of The Lost Supper Club, who show their support with a paid subscription, thus ensuring that the vast majority of readers can keep reading this newsletter for free. As a thank you, I try to provide those paid subscribers with some cool stuff, including three free cookbooks!

A paid subscription is just $35 a year. Find out more about becoming a member of the Lost Supper Club.

❤️ Did you know that if you hit the heart or recycle symbol at the top or bottom of this post, it makes it easier for other people to find this newsletter?

One evening in 2024, after packing up the RV in preparation for the next day’s drive from Colorado to Montana, we went over to my friend Charlene’s house for pizza (she is a MASTER).

As a before-pizza snack, she had prepared the most beautiful and delicious hummus platter topped with veggies, olives, and crumbled feta. She said she made it because every single time she’s been to our home she’s noticed all of these flavors in our refrigerator.

And you know what? She’s 100% correct. So correct that I made the platter you see here just a few days later even though we were out in the middle of nowhere. It required no trips to the grocery store because I had all of these ingredients in my kitchen already.

We’ve eat this frequently for lunch, but it’s a brilliant appetizer for when you’re entertaining. Charlene spread the hummus out onto a large platter that was perfect for feeding a group (there were 8 of us), and included bowls of tortilla chips and focaccia for dipping. You could also serve it with warm buttered naan, pita chips, crudités, cheddar and almond crackers, or even homemade flour tortillas.

The basic idea is this:

1. Spread a thin-ish layer of hummus over the surface of a plate, bowl, or serving platter. (My recipe for hummus is below, but use any kind of hummus you like.)

2. Sprinkle diced cucumber and red pepper over the top of the hummus (or any kind of chopped veggies), followed by chopped olives and crumbled feta cheese. The only veggie that doesn’t work well here is tomatoes because they make the whole thing watery. (And yes, I know tomatoes are technically a fruit.)

3. Drizzle everything with some good quality extra virgin olive oil then sprinkle on whatever else you want. As you can see here, I added some toasted pumpkin seeds and a sprinkle of sumac. To toast pumpkin seeds, add them to a skillet with some olive oil and cook over medium heat until about half of them are golden brown. Remove from the heat and toss with salt. You can do the same thing with pine nuts if you prefer.

Recipe notes:

I had a Cuisinart food processor for years but when it finally kicked the bucket, I replaced it with a Ninja food processor and will never go back. I LOVE the double blade and can’t understand why every food processor doesn’t have the same.

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure. Find out more.

I only make it a couple times a year, but when eaten with forkfuls of cream cheese mashed potatoes, it’s one of our all-time favorite meals.

One of the secrets to great chicken schnitzel is to allow the chicken to soak overnight in a salty buttermilk brine. I learned the power of soaking chicken in buttermilk from Samin Nosrat’s incredible book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and it’s now the only way I make a roast chicken.

It also works magic for chicken schnitzel. The salt and acid in the buttermilk work together to flavor and tenderize the chicken from the inside out. The result is exceptionally tender, juicy, and flavor packed chicken with a gorgeously crispy crust.

Recipe Notes:

• When frying chicken, or frying anything, it’s extremely useful to have a high-heat thermometer. I love my Thermapen ONE food thermometer for this and many other uses.

• We like to eat chicken schnitzel with cream cheese mashed potatoes. But good condiments to serve with schnitzel include mustard, mayonnaise or aioli, harissa, lemon paste, or for Asian flavors with wasabi or sweet Thai chili sauce.

• Chicken schnitzel is also delicious in a sandwich or stuffed inside a pita slathered with homemade hummus. 😋

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure. Find out more.

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.

Get every issue and recipe directly on rebeccablackwell.com.

Are you a fellow food writer? Come see what’s happening over in Mastermind for Food Writers and in the Food Writers Business Lab!

Just give me water

The first time we were in Muskegon, Michigan was in June of 2022. It was the beginning of a long, enchanting journey around Lake Michigan, starting where the tip of Indiana touches the Lake and moving slowly, every few weeks, up Michigan’s coast, through the Upper Peninsula, and down the Wisconsin side. That summer was when we fell in love with Lake Michigan and every single coastal town on its shoreline.

Having lived in Colorado for the first 45 years of our lives, we didn’t know that if given the chance, we really just wanted to live next to the water. We thought we were mountain people.

And, I suppose we were. There’s a time and a season for everything, and all that. But, after settling into a life where we could move our home anywhere, all we wanted to do was park it next to water. Lakes, streams, rivers, the ocean, a babbling brook. I didn’t care. Just let me see water out my window.

Sometimes, we pushed the boundaries for how close is too close…

And there were those epic 7 weeks parked right on the beach, the ocean out our front door. We still have the rust to prove it and we still think it was worth it.

And then last year, we decided being close to the water wasn’t close enough. We needed to be ON the water. So we bought a sailboat.

After its long winter spent in dry dock, the boatyard lowered our sailboat into the water on Monday and delivered it to our slip, which we can almost see from our campground.

We (well… Steve) spent the evenings organizing the lines and putting on the sails. The deck and the cabin need a good scrubbing. I’ve ordered a new mattress for the berth and new cushions for the seating in the cabin. I’ve started stocking the galley with essential snack and beverage options.

This weekend, we’ll be ready to sail.

Small luxuries

Some of my favorite things.

The hardest working pans in my kitchen.

There are a few pans in my kitchen that get used more than any others:

1. my cast iron braiser

2. my 9x13 rectangular baking pan

3. my 9-inch square baking pan

4. and my nonstick ceramic saute pan.

All of them made by Caraway and all in marigold, the color I am obsessed with. These pans show up often in recipe photos because I use them all the time.

And here’s the thing… it’s wonderful if you have a lot of cupboard space in which to keep a large collection of pots and pans. But if you have a small kitchen like me, I can tell you that even when you make a living creating recipes, you really only need a few.

The pans I just mentioned plus a 3-quart saucepan and a large stock pot, and you’ll be set.

I’m a late-ish convert to Caraway products, having been devoted to Cuisinart for many years. And, I’ll be honest, it’s the color that got me. But, after using them for quite some time now, the nonstick finish is still pristine. They conduct heat well, are sturdy enough to get knocked around inside my cupboards while we haul our home across the country and still look new, and have shown no signs of warping even though I do things you really shouldn’t do to your pans like rinse them with cold water when they are still smoking hot.

And no, Caraway isn’t paying me to say any of this. I just really like their pans. :-)

Here’s where you’ll find these pans and a few more of the hardest working pans in my kitchen.

This week’s menu

Steak and Rice Bowls with Garlic Aioli and Chimichurri, Crunchy Cabbage Salad with Toasted Bread Crumbs and Parmesan, and simple vanilla loaf cake.

Steak and Rice Bowls with Garlic Aioli and Chimichurri

These colorful high-protein bowls start with thin slices of perfectly cooked reverse-seared steak piled over bowls of fluffy rice and oven-roasted veggies. Then we kick it up a notch with smoky garlic aioli, a bright, flavor-packed punch of chimichurri sauce, and fresh cherry tomatoes.

The combination is hearty, fresh, creamy, and herby all at once, kind of like a steakhouse dinner... but honestly, maybe even better. It’s the kind of meal that’s perfect for your basic weeknight, but impressive enough for your next dinner party.

Steak and Rice Bowls

Crunchy Cabbage Salad with Toasted Bread Crumbs and Parmesan

The concept for this salad is so simple and adaptable to any kind of veggies you like, with or without the cabbage. And, it’s an excellent way to use up leftover bread. Here’s what we’ve got going on here:

1. Cabbage and veggies cooked at very high heat until charred (you could also do this on a Blackstone griddle or a grill).

2. Drizzle the veggies with a basic vinaigrette.

3. Top with crispy garlic bread crumbs and some parmesan cheese.

The result is a very satisfying salad with so much flavor and plenty of crunch. It’s delicious served with almost anything but is also hearty enough to serve all on its own. How much you make is up to you, but be sure to make enough bread crumbs to include a generous proportion of crispy crumbs to veggies.

Crunchy Cabbage Salad

Basic Vanilla Loaf Cake

This moist and tender Vanilla Loaf Cake makes the perfect quick and easy dessert, afternoon snack, or breakfast.

Follow the basic loaf cake recipe to bake a simple, flavorful vanilla cake that’s covered in vanilla icing. Or, use this recipe to create 4 other delicious loaf cake varieties: cinnamon, chocolate chip, blueberry, or raspberry swirl.

Vanilla Loaf Cake

Links you might like

Really good reads:

• shares a sentiment I relate to and a recipe for no cook hemp-sunflower high-protein bites that looks like a great snack for long afternoons spent sailing. “Probably because my nature is to turn away from anything that smells of fad. It’s not always a positive attribute, this distrust of the popular.”

Mind, Body, Spirit, FOOD

How I Finally Made Peace with “Snack Balls”

Naturally allergen-friendly and sugar-free adaptable, these protein bites are a grounding snack that nourishes without spiking. They come together in minutes and are designed to flex with you…

Read more

4 months ago · 24 likes · 12 comments · Nicki Sizemore

• The incomparable Mira Dessy just launched a new series called “The Nourished Shelfie” (such a great name!) where she asks food and nutrition folks about their books. I got to be the first person she talked to for this new series which has me positively bursting with pride! A feature on Mira’s Substack AND a conversation about cookbooks???? How could it get any better than that?

Mira Dessy on Substack

The Nourished Shelfie

Get weekly holistic nutrition and preparedness insights to help you build a nourishing kitchen, resilient lifestyle habits, and lasting peace of mind—one thoughtful choice at a time…

Read more

a month ago · 10 likes · 9 comments · Mira Dessy

• I’ve been reading The Moon Tavern by and and it’s so good!!! It’s a delightful story about a chef born in Croatia, raised in America, who takes off on a journey to trace her family roots back through generations. The descriptions of the food she cooks makes my mouth water and I love the addition of actual recipes after every chapter!

Really good listens:

• If you’re the kind of person who is interested in hearing the stories behind your favorite food writers, recipe developers, food bloggers, and cookbook authors, the Betty Eatz Podcast from is just so, so good. (Psst! I was her first guest when she launched the podcast in January of last year!)

• This week’s episode of This American Life is both infuriating and heartwarming, and 100% worth the listen.

If you’re a food writer:

• Please join us over on Mastermind for Food Writers where you’ll find a ton of education, connection, and resources for food writers by food writers.

• Check out the line up of free classes and in-depth workshops in The Food Writers Business Lab, an online learning hub created specifically for food writers who want practical, affordable support for growing their businesses and expanding their reach.

This newsletter would not exist if not for the members of The Lost Supper Club, who show their support with a paid subscription, thus ensuring that the vast majority of readers can keep reading this newsletter for free. As a thank you, I try to provide those paid subscribers with some cool stuff, including three free cookbooks!

A paid subscription is just $35 a year. Find out more about becoming a member of the Lost Supper Club.

❤️ Did you know that if you hit the heart or recycle symbol at the top or bottom of this post, it makes it easier for other people to find this newsletter?

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.

Get every issue and recipe directly on rebeccablackwell.com.

Are you a fellow food writer? Come see what’s happening over in Mastermind for Food Writers and in the Food Writers Business Lab!

Last month, Steve and I went to Paris with two of our favorite people, all of us there for the first time.

As you are supposed to do in Paris, we ate.

We sat at cafe tables, chairs facing out towards the street, perfectly positioned for people watching while nibbling on pastries. We ate bread and cheese in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower.

One night, we got dressed up and splurged on a fancy dinner at a fine dining restaurant to celebrate my friend Charlene’s birthday (pictured above, holding Parisian picnic essentials).

After a delicious meal, we topped the night off with bowls of chocolate mousse and warm chocolate chip cookies topped with ice cream.

And as we dug in, we noticed something unusual... it all tasted of sesame. Or maybe soy sauce? We weren’t exactly sure, but what we did know is that our desserts were laced with a peculiar savory Asian flavor.

We asked our server about it... Is there soy or sesame in our desserts? No, he reassured us. No soy. No sesame. Just chocolate mousse and chocolate chip cookies with caramel sauce.

Are you certain? we asked.

Absolutely! he replied.

Conspiratorially, I whispered to our table that obviously our server didn’t know what he was talking about because there was absolutely sesame in there. And maybe soy sauce.

Suddenly my husband exclaimed: “It’s the caramel sauce!” We dipped our fingers into the caramel sauce on the edge of his plate to discover that it was, in fact... sesame dressing. Like the kind of sesame dressing you’d drizzle over salad or roasted veggies.

Like... not caramel sauce.

We called our server back over. After listening to our assessment, he turned to the open-concept kitchen (which was right next to our table) and asked a question, in French of course. The young pastry chef picked up the bottle of caramel sauce and gave it a shake. We watched the horrified expression on her face as she realized what we already knew: the caramel sauce was not caramel sauce.

The entire kitchen erupted in laughter as she rushed to our table to apologize. But you know what? It kind of worked.

I mean… not quite. But almost.

Sesame and chocolate are a delightful combination and while I would never suggest that you start dipping your chocolate chip cookies in sesame vinaigrette, a healthy dose of tahini is a different story.

So that’s what we have here, my friends: Gooey, chewy, soft-in-the-middle cookies studded with melty chocolate and infused with the warm, nutty flavor of ground sesame seeds. Think of these as the more sophisticated version of chocolate chip peanut butter cookies with creamy ground sesame seeds stepping in for peanuts.

I knew I was going to create this recipe the moment we walked out of the restaurant onto the streets of Paris if only for the excuse to tell you this story. But can I just say that good stories and warm tahini flavored chocolate chip cookies are an exceptional combination. Just save the dressing for your salad.

Recipe: Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Small luxuries

Some of my favorite things.

I am a notorious over-packer. You might think that I’d be great at it since I live in a tiny home with wheels with a very small closet. But no.

Perhaps taking my entire home with me everywhere has confounded my ability to pack light. I don’t know. I like to be prepared for every situation and don’t know how to do that without packing entirely too much stuff.

Regardless, I was determined to do a better job of packing light on my recent trip to Europe.

I thought that a “capsule wardrobe” approach was probably the way to go but had no idea how to create such a thing. So, I did some googling and learned that the whole idea of a capsule wardrobe is something that I’ve kind of been doing already, just not very well.

As you might imagine, my closet space is small. This doesn’t bother me because I’m really only interested in wearing the same 5 things over and over and over again. The 5 things are somewhat threadbare, not particularly put together, but they ARE comfortable and, honestly, that’s the most important thing to me these days.

But still, I wanted to up my game for our trip (we were going to Paris for goodness sake), so I started plotting my packing choices early.

The idea of a capsule wardrobe is simple:

• Some basic bottoms and tops and maybe a jacket or two.

• Everything goes with everything.

Got it.

Because I don’t like to shop, I stuck to ordering clothing from the two places where I know exactly what size to order and there is a reasonable expectation that if I stick to that size it will fit: Loft and Quince. This strategy worked reasonably well and I managed to create a small collection that fit in a small-ish suitcase AND lasted me through 2 weeks in Europe.

Here’s the gist of what was in there:

• 5 pairs of pants: blue jeans, ivory jeans, olive cargo pants, Loft Petite Parker Straight Pants in Black and Brown

• Quince ultra stretch ponte pencil skirt (mygod I love this skirt so much!)

• 3 Quince poplin long sleeve button-down shirts: The same shirt in 3 different colors - white, black, and blue striped. (Because when you find something you like, get it in every color.)

• 2 Quince washable stretch silk blouses: the same blouse in 2 different colors - navy and black (I know the model is wearing white in the photo but I cannot be trusted to wear white silk. It would be stained in about 5 minutes.)

• 1 Quince cashmere sweater in black (Soft and cozy and not too warm. Good for layering.)

• 3 jackets: Loft herringbone relaxed blazer, a basic jean jacket, and a rain jacket

• 2 black t-shirts: one long sleeve and one short sleeve

• A pair of white converse chucks, sandals, and a very comfy pair of low black heels that I’ve had for at least a decade.

• A new suitcase, also from Quince.

The whole system worked better than I thought it would but my absolute favorite pieces are those cargo barrel pants (I’ve basically been wearing them every day), that stretchy black pencil skirt (SO comfortable) and the three very basic button down shirts.

And now I’m thinking about how to revamp my normal summer wardrobe around the same concept because the beauty of a capsule wardrobe is you don’t really have to think about what goes with what and I LOVE that.

Who among you does this capsule wardrobe thing? I’m hooked but a little bit stumped on summer… I mean t-shirts and linen pants, obviously. But, what else? Leave a comment with your recommendations of things that are not pricey, not high maintenance, and easy to care for. Also, everything must be able to be worn on a sailboat.

Yes, I know. I’m high maintenance about my low maintenance requests. We are who we are.

This week’s menu

Pasta bolognese, Salad with marinated peppers, Raspberry cupcakes

Pasta Bolognese

Bowls of pasta covered in bolognese sauce were not in the meal plan for this week and yet, there’s a container of leftover sauce in my refrigerator at this very moment.

In this week’s Mastermind for Food Writers meeting I mentioned that my Bolognese sauce is a blasphemous interpretation with red wine, bacon instead of pancetta, and no milk.

When the meeting was over I could not shake the craving and honestly, why should I even try? One of life’s greatest joys is the good fortune to discover that you have the ingredients in your kitchen for exactly the thing you’re craving AND the time to make it. Kismet.

And by the way, blasphemy is delicious.

My Unconventional Bolognese Sauce

Marinated Peppers

If you have some marinated peppers in the fridge and any kind of greens, you have a salad. Use a drizzle of the marinade as the dressing, and then top the salad with a few shavings of pecorino, romano, or parmesan cheese. And maybe the crunch of ground roasted almonds. YUM!

Marinated Roasted Peppers

Raspberry Cupcakes with Raspberry Cream Cheese Buttercream

Honestly, my biggest challenge with this recipe was the raspberries. I tried several variations using whole fresh or frozen raspberries folded into the batter and no matter what I did the berries seemed to weigh down the texture of the cake creating a slightly heavy cobbler-like texture.

This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, a rich cobbler-like texture is exactly what I was going for when I created this buttery crumb-topped raspberry bread recipe. But I wanted these cupcakes to have a light, fluffy, and delicate texture.

The trick was to chop frozen raspberries into tiny pieces and then fold the frozen pieces into the batter right before baking. This allowed me to evenly distribute the raspberries throughout the batter and the tiny pieces of chopped berries did not interfere with the light and fluffy texture of the cake. 👏

Raspberry Cupcakes

Links you might like

Really good reads:

• My daughter Kate got me Witchcraft for Wayward Girls as a birthday gift and it’s honestly one of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s in the horror category, which is not my favorite genre (risky choice, Kate). Had it not been given to me as a gift, I wouldn’t have given it a second glance, and that would have been SUCH A SHAME because it’s so, so good. 5 stars, highly recommend, even if you don’t like horror.

• Will This Make You Happy by Tanya Bush is my latest cookbook obsession. It’s come up in conversation several times this week and it occurs to me that I haven’t yet shared it with you. A gross misstep that I am correcting now.

• What I Learned Selling Fireworks in Rural Texas and What I Heard When My Mother Was Dying by : If we (humans) decide to save ourselves instead of the alternative, it will be because we tell the truth like Kelsey manages to do every single time she presses “publish”.

• Sumac is one of my favorite things but I’ve never once thought to add it to cake… unlike who published a recipe this week for Sumac Drizzle Loaf Cake that has just moved it’s way up my must-bake list.

• My friend tells a story about me and one of the worst (and most hilarious) comments I ever received on a recipe, “Rebecca is a liar and cannot bake.” True story. And also, she makes some really great points about why the comment section might be the most valuable part of a recipe.

If you’re a food writer:

• Please join us over on Mastermind for Food Writers where you’ll find a ton of education, connection, and resources, for food writers by food writers.

• Check out the line up of free classes and in-depth workshops in The Food Writers Business Lab, an online learning hub created specifically for food writers who want practical, affordable support for growing their businesses and expanding their reach.

• and I had a Substack LIVE conversation this week about how to create a Values-Led Brand. Amongst other things, we talked about the difference between values and virtue and how showing up as you are is the key to creating a business that’s sustainable.

The Lost Supper Club

This newsletter would not exist if not for the members of The Lost Supper Club, who show their support with a paid subscription, thus ensuring that the vast majority of readers can keep reading this newsletter for free. As a thank you, I try to provide those paid subscribers with some cool stuff, including three free cookbooks!

A paid subscription is just $35 a year. Find out more about becoming a member of the Lost Supper Club.

❤️ Did you know that if you hit the heart or recycle symbol at the top or bottom of this post, it makes it easier for other people to find this newsletter?

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.

Get every issue and recipe directly on rebeccablackwell.com.

Are you a fellow food writer? Come see what’s happening over in Mastermind for Food Writers and in the Food Writers Business Lab!

We are the oddities in this story

A couple of years ago, Steve and I saw the movie Here in a theater in Saint Louis. If you look up the ratings, you’ll notice that it generated extremely polarized reactions. Most of the reviews are either 5 stars or 1 star. People either love it or they hate it, and most people hate it.

We loved it. In fact, as we sat glued to our seats in the theater watching the credits roll, I said, “I don’t think I can be married to you if you didn’t like that movie.”

Steve says that what I actually said was not that dramatic, so maybe I restrained myself. But, that’s how dramatic I felt.

It was like the movie’s creators had reached inside my head and made the film from what they found there. (There’s a commentary there about how many people would be bored to tears with what they found inside my head, but that can wait for another day.)

For those of you who haven’t seen it, the entire movie is shot from one camera angle. It’s a story told in a nonlinear fashion, covering a single plot of land and its inhabitants over thousands of years. As a viewer, it gives you the feeling of being a fly on the wall… a fly that gets to bear witness to centuries of history that play out on a tiny pinprick of earth. It somehow made me feel that our lives were both huge and tiny at the same time. That what we do here matters enormously and also, not at all.

Many years ago, when we were moving out of the first house we ever lived in, I stood in the middle of the living room and said, “Isn’t it incredible how much of our life happened in this small space?”

This is the story of every home: so much life happens within its walls, often in a space that covers no more than a few hundred square feet. And not only our life, but the lives of the people who lived there before us and the lives of those who will move in after we are gone.

The most monumental moments and the most mundane, intimate discussions, grand celebrations, pivotal decisions, quiet reflections, and all the normal day-to-day things that make up our entire lives… so much of it happens in tiny little plots of land, enclosed by a roof and a few walls.

I spent a little over 2 weeks in Europe last month and this was the kind of thing that was on my mind for the entire trip. We don’t have history in the US like they do in Europe. It’s not that ancient history doesn’t exist on these lands, it’s that most of it is gone. Erased. Out with the old, in with the new.

In the US, we marvel at the antiquity of buildings that are more than 100 years old but in Belgium we stayed in a building from the 14th century and walked on cobblestone streets through castles and churches that were raised in the Middle Ages.

In Paris we learned the history of the Louvre, how it was originally constructed as a fortress in the 12th century. We walked below the museum’s main floors through the excavated remains of the 12th-century moat and the base of the original, medieval fortress tower. Our tour guide pointed out markings from stonemasons who signed their work with symbols. One of those medieval stonemasons marked his work with hearts.

In Amsterdam we visited ancient seaside villages that are a mix of old and new, but in which much of the new is contained within the walls of the old. We toured a castle built in 1280 and the home of Anne Frank which isn’t very old but contains more than its fair share of weighty moments.

Every step I took was one moment in the millions of moments that happened in that space, my experience added to the layers of history contained in buildings built by people who couldn’t have begun to imagine the reality of our modern age.

I thought about the generations that will come later. I wondered if, hundreds of years from now, there will be someone who will wonder about me.

Last month marked 6 years that Steve and I have been living in an RV with no home base. We are, obviously, not the kind of people who like to stay in one place.

I’m not sure why we’re like this… we don’t come from nomadic families. Quite the opposite. Our families are rooted, established in their communities, with very few family members in many generations venturing far from where they were born. There’s beauty in that - the stability of staying put. It exists in most people. We are the oddities in this story.

Ironically, it’s the people who stay that capture my interest and my imagination. It’s their stories that I long to hear and their lives that play out inside my head when I am captured by abandoned buildings, old grave markers, and light pouring out from windows at night before whoever lives inside thinks to close the shade. It’s their stories, real and imagined, that make me want to keep wandering, my curiosity pressing me to see what’s around the next corner, and the one after that, and the one after that.

In Europe we traveled to Paris, then to Bruges, then to Amsterdam. Steve came home before me while I stayed to spend a week with one of my favorite people. I returned on a Thursday to San Diego, on Saturday we traveled to Phoenix, on Sunday we traveled to Santa Fe, and 5 days after that, we drove to Michigan. Some parts of the journey were hard. All of it makes me want to keep moving.

A few photos from Europe

#1-3: Paris! The Louvre was SO MUCH BIGGER than I realized. Until this trip, I was really only familiar with the iconic glass pyramid at the center and holymoly, there’s a lot more to it than that. Our travel companions at one of the many beautiful cafes in which we stopped to have pastries and coffee. One of the thousands of photos we took with the Eiffel tower in the background.

#4-6: Bruges! Steve and I fell in love with Bruges, Belgium almost immediately. It feels plucked straight from the pages of a fairytale. Also, there are a crazy number of chocolate shops, every single one more beautiful and enticing than the last.

#7-9: Amsterdam! Canals, bridges, and SO MANY bicycles. We had a blast on a canal boat tour and Char, my fearless travel companion, jumped at the chance to steer the boat. Tulip season in the Netherlands is worth the hype.

Small Luxuries

So here’s the thing about Steve and I: We’ve happily lived in a 400 square foot RV for the past 6 years. We’ve taken our home on wheels all over the country and parked ourselves in some pretty remote places. Steve’s outfitted our rig to be self-sustaining, meaning we can plant ourselves in the middle of nowhere and still have power and running water.

But we’re not into roughing it. We’re not real campers. I know real campers. And we are not them. We like comfortable spaces filled with creature comforts. The spaces just don’t have to be large and the creature comforts are selective.

So, in the next several issues I’ll be sharing with you some of our favorite things. The things we use every day, the things we love, the things that brighten up a normal day and make our RV feel like home. The little luxuries that make me feel grounded, cozy, and completely at home.

Do you have any recommendations for small luxuries you can’t live without?

Click the comment icon at the top or the bottom of this issue and share them with me!

Pique

In December of last year I received an email from the Partnership Manager at Pique. They wondered if I might like to try out a few of their products and if I liked them, share about them in this newsletter.

I’ve worked with brands to create recipes… brands like Bob’s Red Mill who make ingredients you’ll find in my kitchen all the time. But this was different. I was intrigued, but also skeptical. Still, I thought, what do I have to lose?

Pique promptly sent me their Radiant Skin Duo, a combo of Matcha and Electrolyte powder that promises to “help improve the overall health and appearance of your skin by protecting it from damage, strengthening its barrier function, and deeply hydrating it.”

I mean… ok. That sounds good.

I started mixing the electrolyte powder into the water I guzzle every morning and making myself cups of matcha in the afternoon. I went through ALL of the product they sent me, a month’s worth, and felt a little bit panicky. So, I ordered more. And that’s when I knew I was absolutely going to tell you about it because here we are in May and I am still drinking my electrolytes in the morning and matcha in the afternoon.

I even took the electrolyte packets with me to Europe. I miscounted and ran out two days before the end of the trip and was bereft. Ok. I’m exaggerating. But, I did pout for a little while.

So here’s the full disclosure and absolute transparency: Pique sent me free product and is paying me to write about their products. AND, I’m now one of their most loyal customers and would tell you about their products even if they weren’t (we don’t have to tell them that).

Here’s the other thing I want to tell you about their products: they aren’t cheap.

In fact, when I went to replenish my supply, I had a serious moment of contemplation. A little conversation with myself about what’s really important to me and if these products made my list of “small luxuries”.

And then I clicked the button to place the order and have done so every month since. I have not regretted it.

Here’s what I love: the electrolyte powder makes me feel good almost immediately. I am not exaggerating. I mix one of the little packets into a glass of water and chug it while the coffee brews.

We all know that electrolytes are essential to our overall health and wellbeing. I used to keep a few Liquid I.V. packets in the tea drawer for those times when we went for a long hike or spent a hot day on the lake and felt dehydrated. BUT we had to feel a little bit desperate to chug that stuff down because …. have you tried it? It tastes terrible. And honestly, it didn’t make me feel that great.

Another reminder that you get what you pay for.

The Pique electrolyte powder tastes great. So great that I actually crave it. It makes me feel hydrated, awake, and (god, I’m sorry this is so dramatic), alive. It’s true. I don’t know how else to say it.

AND, I’ve seen an actual, genuine improvement in how my skin looks. Pique said the Radiant Skin Duo would promote plump, radiant, and resilient skin, and I’ll be damned, it actually does.

So, there you have it. An electrolyte powder that tastes good, makes you feel good, and makes your skin look good. I’m hooked.

Over the next few issues, I’ll be sharing some recipes with you for how I’ve been using their Matcha powder, starting with the recipe for Matcha shortbread below.

Here’s where to try Pique out for yourself. You’ll even get 20% off and some free gifts!

Pique Radiant Skin Duo

This Week’s Menu

Mexican Adobo Chicken, Crispy Fried Potatoes, Homemade Tortillas, and Matcha Shortbread Cookies with Lemon Icing

Mexican Adobo Chicken

Last weekend, we moved our home on wheels across the country to Michigan where we’ll stay through the summer. Our first day here was gorgeous - sunny and warm enough to open the windows and sit out on the back deck to watch the sunset. Since then, it’s been on the chilly side and, after a few months in San Diego, we pulled the space heaters and extra blankets back out of storage.

I can’t complain because after a ridiculously dry winter, Colorado got hit with the biggest snowstorm of the season this week. And that’s how May is for many of us around the country… warm days with open windows and nights cold enough to keep the furnace on. So, I’m craving the kind of meals that still feel a bit warm and comforting, but also bright and fresh, and with the promise of sunlight.

That’s what this is.

Mexican Adobo Chicken

Crispy Fried Potatoes

I LOVE the combination of Mexican Adobo Chicken and Crispy Fried Potatoes, especially when there’s a homemade tortilla nearby to sop up all the extra sauce. 😋

The secret to perfect fried potatoes that are crispy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside is to boil them in saltwater briefly before frying them in butter and oil.

If you start with raw potatoes and try to fry them, you’ll end up with potatoes that are burned on the outside and crunchy on the inside. That’s because it takes much longer for the inside of potatoes to cook than the outside.

The key is to boil them first in salt water. This gives the inside of the potatoes time to get all nice and tender and seasons them from the inside out.

Potatoes are like sponges - they soak up a lot of water. If you season the water with plenty of salt, the potatoes will absorb the salt water. This means your potatoes will be seasoned all the way through, not just on the outside.

Another reason to cook potatoes in heavily salted water is that the salt will allow the water to boil at a hotter temperature. This will cook the starch in the potatoes more thoroughly and give the inside of the potatoes a creamier texture.

Crispy Fried Potatoes

Homemade Flour Tortillas

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know how much I love these… soft, buttery, and about a thousand times better than anything you can buy.

Also, I need to tell you that most people are surprised at how easy homemade tortillas are to make. If you’ve made them you know.

And this is where I offer you a warning: Try them once and you’ll never go back to the pre-made packaged kind.

Homemade Flour Tortillas

By the way, the same thing applies to homemade corn tortillas - they are better than the pre-packaged variety and even easier to make than flour tortillas.

Matcha Shortbread Cookies

These matcha shortbread cookies are buttery, tender, and full of bright citrus flavor. Made with high-quality matcha powder, they have the perfect balance of earthy, sweet, and tart and a delicate texture that makes them hard to stop eating. If you’re looking for an easy spring cookie recipe that feels a little elegant and a little unexpected, these citrusy matcha shortbread cookies check all the boxes.

Also, isn’t that bright green color just gorgeous????

It’s VERY important to use high quality, culinary-grade matcha powder in these cookies. The matcha flavor really comes through here, so the better the quality of the matcha, the better the flavor of the cookies. Just like wine, if it doesn’t taste good enough to drink, don’t add it to your food.

I used Pique Life Sun Goddess Matcha Powder. It’s made from 100% organic ceremonial grade matcha from Japan and the flavor is potent, clean, and better than any other brand I’ve tried.

Matcha Shortbread Cookies

This newsletter would not exist if not for the members of The Lost Supper Club, who show their support with a paid subscription, thus ensuring that the vast majority of readers can keep reading this newsletter for free. As a thank you, I try to provide those paid subscribers with some cool stuff, including three free cookbooks!

A paid subscription is just $35 a year. Find out more about becoming a member of the Lost Supper Club.

❤️ Did you know that if you hit the heart or recycle symbol at the top or bottom of this post, it makes it easier for other people to find this newsletter?

Also, isn’t that bright green color just gorgeous????

I am a sucker for matcha flavored anything so I’m not sure what’s taken me so long to add it to shortbread cookies. Matcha is a delightful compliment to shortbread, adding a touch of bitterness that balances the richness of all that butter. 😋

When combined with a bright burst of citrus, the buttery matcha flavored dough becomes something that tastes like spring. A little bit earthy, just the right amount of sweet and tart, and with a subtle hint of umami that makes them positively addicting.

Additions and Substitutions

• Use any kind of citrus you like in these cookies. I used a combination of orange, lemon, and lime zest but you can certainly choose to use just one or two of those options if you prefer.

• If you’re not a citrus fan, leave out the zest and omit the lemon icing.

• Instead of the lemon icing, dip these matcha shortbread cookies in some melted chocolate. 😋

• Speaking of lemon icing, the icing doesn’t have to be lemon. Use lime juice, orange juice, or grapefruit juice if that sounds better to you.

• To make these gluten free: Swap out the all-purpose flour for a measure to measure gluten free flour mix. My favorites are Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free One-to-One Baking Flour and King Arthur Gluten Free Measure to Measure Flour.

Recipe tips

It’s VERY important to use high quality, culinary grade matcha powder in these cookies. The matcha flavor really comes through here, so the better the quality of the matcha, the better the flavor of the cookies. Just like wine, if it doesn’t taste good enough to drink, don’t add it to your food.

I used Pique Life Sun Goddess Matcha Powder. It’s made from 100% organic ceremonial grade matcha from Japan and the flavor is potent, clean, and better than any other brand I’ve tried. (That link, by the way, will get you 20% off and some free gifts!)

Keep it cold, baby. It’s very important to keep shortbread cookie dough cold. You’ll notice two places in the instructions where it’s critical that you let the dough chill out in the refrigerator for a while: Right after mixing the dough and right after rolling the dough.

In both cases, you can chill the dough just long enough to keep all that butter nice and cold or for a few hours or even a few days. This allows you to shape your cookie baking to your schedule and don’t we just love it when things conform to us and not the other way around???

The easiest way to roll out shortbread cookie dough is to roll it between two sheets of parchment paper. This will keep it from sticking to your countertop and your rolling pin and doesn’t require you to dust the dough with extra flour which can dry these cookies out.

The dough will still stick to the parchment a tiny bit so before you cut the dough into shapes, peel back the top layer of paper to loosen it from the dough. Lay the paper back over the dough and flip the whole thing over. Remove the paper that is now on the top. Cut the dough into shapes. Because you’ve already loosened the bottom sheet of parchment, the cookies will release much easier.

Recipe notes:

• Use culinary-grade matcha for the best flavor and color. I used Pique Life Sun Goddess Matcha Powder. (That link will get you 20% off and some free gifts!)

• These cookies keep well in an airtight container for up to a week, though the green color may start to fade over time.

• This recipe says it will make 36 cookies but that depends entirely on the size of your cookie cutters, of course. I used the 2-inch round cutter from this 6-piece set.

• The prep and bake times for this recipe do not include the time it takes to chill the dough. There are two points in the process for making these cookies where it’s important to chill the dough: right after you mix the dough and after you roll it out. In both cases, you can chill the dough just long enough to keep it cold or keep it in the refrigerator for several hours or even several days.

Because there’s no such thing as too much shortbread or too much citrus

1. Brown Butter Citrus Shortbread Cookies: Nutty brown butter shortbread and the bright, sunny flavor of citrus come together in these irresistible cookies that are so tender they literally melt in your mouth.

2. Cranberry Pistachio Shorbread Cookies: These incredibly rich and tender pistachio shortbread cookies are baked with a dollop of cranberry orange sauce, then drizzled with vanilla icing, and topped with a crunchy sprinkle of roasted pistachios.

3. Lemon Bundt Cake with Tart Lemon Glaze: By layering lemon zest, lemon juice, a touch of lemon extract or lemon oil, and plenty of tart lemon icing, this all butter cake is guaranteed to make all the lemon lovers swoon. I know from experience.

4. Orange Drizzle Cake: This orange drizzle cake is so rich, buttery, and tender you might actually call it creamy. The cake includes a few whole oranges stirred right into the batter and a generous drizzle of orange syrup.

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure. Find out more.

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences.

You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot. If this is your first issue - WELCOME!

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.

Get every issue and recipe directly on rebeccablackwell.com.

Hello everyone!

After spending most of April in Europe, I flew from Amsterdam to San Diego last Thursday night. On Saturday, we packed up the RV and drove to Phoenix where we met friends for dinner that we hadn’t seen in a decade. On Sunday we drove to Santa Fe and as you’re reading this, we are on our way to Michigan.

So many time zones!

I have much to share with you about Europe, Phoenix, and Santa Fe what it means to manage your work and life when you’re skipping across time zones like jet lag is just a personality trait.

But all of that will have to wait until next week. This week, nearly all my time and energy was devoted to a project I’ve been dreaming about for a while… The Food Writers Business Lab.

I know most of you aren’t food writers. But some of you are! If you’re a food writer, don’t miss the announcement about this exciting resource at the bottom of this email.

For the rest of us, I have some new recipes to share with you!

This week’s menu

Crispy Carnitas Taquitos with Roasted Pineapple Salsa

Before we sold our house and moved into an RV to become full time nomads, my husband and I lived in Colorado. Our two daughters and our extended family still live there, so we make a point to head back to our home state as often as possible.

We generally park ourselves in the small mountain town of Lyons, which is only about 20 minutes from the larger town of Boulder. This location choice is based on several factors, but I’d be lying if I said that one of our favorite Mexican food restaurants doesn’t have something to do with it.

The Rio Grande was founded in Fort Collins, Colorado in 1986. Today, they have 5 locations and one of them is in Boulder. It’s kind of a Colorado icon. 🙂

So, look. I feel that I need to tell you that the primary draw (for us and maybe everyone else) is the Rio’s margaritas. They are delightfully tart, not overly sweet, and potent. We love them. But we also really love the food, I swear!

The last time we were there, I ordered carnitas taquitos with pineapple salsa from their seasonal menu and decided on the spot to go home and figure out how to make them.

This recipe is the result.

Just like the taquitos I ordered in the restaurant, these hit that perfect balance of crispy, creamy, and cheesy. The filling is made from smashed black beans, crispy carnitas, cheese, and green chilies, a combination you honestly can’t go wrong with.

But, friends, the roasted pineapple salsa is the star of this show. I could eat it by the spoonful (and maybe have). It’s gorgeously bright, slightly sweet, a little bit spicy, and transforms these taquitos from really good to something you can’t stop eating.

At least, that’s our experience. I hope you feel the same way!

Carnitas Taquitos

Low Alcohol Margaritas

As you can tell, we love a good margarita around here but have officially reached the age where too much tequila is NEVER worth it, so when we make margaritas at home, this is often how we make them.

Low Alcohol Margaritas

Hummingbird Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Buttercream

Hummingbird Cake was a relatively recent discovery for me when I created this recipe.

According to the internet, the cake originated in Jamaica and is named after the island’s national bird - the hummingbird. (Incidentally, in Jamaica the Hummingbird is also sometimes called the Doctor Bird. Hence, this cake is also sometimes called the Doctor Bird Cake.)

In the late 1960’s, the Jamaica Tourist Board included a recipe for Hummingbird Cake in a slew of media kits sent out to various cities in the USA. The cake caught on, especially in the South, where it won a favorite cake award at the Kentucky State Fair.

In 1990 it was selected as Southern Living’s favorite recipe and noted as the most requested recipe in the magazine’s history.

Hummingbird Cake is typically baked as a three-layer cake that’s flavored with bananas, pineapple, pecans, and cinnamon or allspice, and covered in cream cheese buttercream.

I wanted to recreate the cake in cupcake form, but without the pecans and with a touch of coconut. This recipe is the result.

Hummingbird Cupcakes

Recommended reading

Sticking with the low-alcohol theme, my friend published a delicious mocktail recipe this week that is certain to become a regular thing around here. Here’s where you’ll find it:

Betty Eatz Newsletter

Sunny Weather Mocktail

Hello from Southern California! If you like tacos, kimchi, seasonal produce, and bright flavors, you’re in the right place…

Read more

2 months ago · 16 likes · 21 comments · Betty Williams

Hey there butter lovers… I read an interesting piece from this week about butter and whether the expensive stuff really matters. Here’s where you’ll find that: The Best Butter To Buy At The Grocery Store According To Experts

I love everything writes and this piece does not disappoint.

Kurt Johnson Books

Can’t We All Just Dance?

My wife Stephanie and I flew across the Atlantic to reach Istanbul for a tour of Turkey. I’d always wanted to see the Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman historic sites, but, like a real amateur, I really hadn’t done my homework. I knew Istanbul was once Constantinople, that Troy once graced Turkey’s shores, and that it was now a mostly Muslim (though …

Read more

2 months ago · 8 likes · Kurt Johnson

This recipe from is as delicious as it is GORGEOUS. Elegance meets comfort food, that’s what we’ve got going on here.

Jessie-Sierra; The Last Bite

Simple and Juicy Roasted Chicken with Thyme

Welcome! My name is Jessie-Sierra, and I’m a former ballerina turned cookbook author and food TV host. Pull up a chair - here’s a little coffee and cake. I’ll dish out original recipes for you to make, life stories that touch the heart, and easy gathering ideas that will help you shine among your friends. My kitchen is open to all! I share my low-fuss l…

Read more

2 months ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Jessie-Sierra; The Last Bite

Announcing The Food Writers Business Lab!

This idea been percolating in my mind for a while and I am astonished and nervous and excited to see it actually come to life.

The Food Writers Business Lab is an online learning hub created specifically for food writers who want practical, affordable support for growing their businesses and expanding their reach.

This collaboration between Mastermind for Food Writers and Write Up offers classes and workshops for food writers, taught by food writers. Because who understands this expansive, ever-changing industry better than the talented, hard-working professionals who built it?

Through a mix of free introductory classes and in-depth paid workshops, The Food Writers Business Lab provides content-rich, highly actionable education designed to help participants immediately apply what they learn to their own work.

Upcoming classes and workshops include…

• SEO: Build a Bridge From Your Work To Your Readers

• Creative Recipe Writing: How to Write Recipes with Voice, Humor, and Story

• Creating a Values-Led Brand

• The Visual Language of Food Photography

Here’s where to find out more

The Food Writers Business Lab

Earlier this week I kicked off the first class in the Food Writers Business Lab with a free Introduction to SEO for Food Writers. The class was recorded and is available for anyone to watch:

And an article I wrote on the same subject…

Mastermind for Food Writers

An Introduction to SEO for Food Writers

If the idea of SEO makes you want to run the other way, I understand…

Read more

2 months ago · 6 likes · Rebecca Blackwell

This newsletter would not exist if not for the members of The Lost Supper Club, who show their support with a paid subscription thus ensuring that the vast majority of readers can keep reading this newsletter for free. As a thank you, I try to provide those paid subscribers with some cool stuff, including three free cookbooks!

A paid subscription is just $35 a year. Find out more about becoming a member of the Lost Supper Club.

❤️ Did you know that if you hit the heart or recycle symbol at the top or bottom of this post, it makes it easier for other people to find this newsletter?

If you live in Colorado, there’s a good chance you’ve been to The Rio Grand Mexican Restaurant. (If you live in Colorado and you’ve never been, I don’t know what you’re doing with your life.)

It’s one of our favorite restaurants largely because of their margaritas. Much of the time, restaurant margaritas tased like sugary limeaid with some tequila in it. I feel the same way about most margarita mixes. They are just too sweet.

The margaritas at the Rio are tart, strong, and not too sweet, which is just the way we like them. And now you can buy their margarita mix. The catch is that you have to actually go to the restaurant to buy it. Which is great news if you live in Colorado and terrible news if you don’t.

And also we love a good margarita around here but have officially reached the age where too much tequila is NEVER worth it, so when we make margaritas at home, this is how we make them.

Recipe Notes:

• I suggest an equal amount of real tequila and zero proof and usually use Ritual Zero Proof Tequila. But, how much you add of each is up to you. Ritual tequila isn’t bad but lacks the bite of the real stuff. What we’ve learned is that a splash of real tequila in with the zero proof stuff is enough to compensate.

• I learned a few years ago that the quality of tequila really does matter both to the taste of your margarita and how it makes you feel. I don’t know the science here, but it’s my personal experience that low quality alcohol is guaranteed to make me feel like shit the next day where the higher-shelf stuff (as long as I take it easy!) comes with fewer adverse effects.

• Like the tequila, it’s up to you how much orange liquor and orange juice you use. I like 1 ounce of the real stuff and 2 ounces of OJ, but play around with this ratio to find what tastes good to you. For a stronger orange flavor use a tablespoon or so of frozen orange juice concentrate.

• If you have a favorite margarita mix, you can use that in place of the Rose’s Lime Juice. Another great option is fresh lime juice with a few dashes of simple syrup.

• I got this Yeti Cocktail Shaker last year after we bought a sailboat. Because obviously, if you have a sailboat, you must also have the ability to make cocktails on the boat. I LOVE it and have since bought a second one for the RV (our actual home).

Serving Suggestions

For those of us who want some food with our booze (even if there’s not a lot of booze in our cocktail), here are a few meals that are just begging to be served with a cold, crisp margarita.

1. Mexican Adobo Chicken (Adobo de Pollo) is chicken cooked in smoky, vinegar-based red chili sauce. This one-pot dish is pure comfort food that's super easy to make.

2. These Crispy Corn Tortilla Quesadillas are super quick and easy to prepare. Each quesadilla only takes about 5 minutes to make. And, they are the kind of lunch or dinner that I always have the ingredients for.

3. Creamy black beans, buttery potatoes, and plenty of melted cheese tucked into a crispy flour tortilla shell and served with sour cream salsa verde sauce. These crispy black bean tacos are quick and inexpensive to make but will fill you with happiness from head to toe. That, my friends, is what I call a good deal.

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure. Find out more.

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.

Get every issue and recipe directly on rebeccablackwell.com.

This issue is a reheat

If you’ve ever listened to the podcast The Sporkful, you know that when they re-release an episode, they call it a “Reheat”. I love this and am stealing it. :-)

I’ll be on vacation in Europe through must of April and so am re-publishing a few of the most popular past issues while I’m away.

This issue was originally published in June of 2024. It contains a lot of my favorite recipes, ones you may have missed if you subscribed at some point after then. I hope you enjoy!

From the local saloon to the grocery store, this is Small Town, USA

We’ve spent the past two weeks in Reed Point, Montana, a quirky small town with a population of 96. The heart of the town is the Waterhole Saloon, where you can show up on any night of the week for a drink and a burger, and plenty of local color.

One of the things that drew us to RV life is the promise of experiencing what it’s like to live in different parts of the country. This is easier said than done because while we actually do live in every new location (eat, sleep, work, and all the necessary tasks that come with normal life), we are still visitors.

So, the Waterhole Saloon is exactly the kind of place we love to find in small towns because it offers an authentic experience of the local culture. We sit ourselves at the bar and try to gather a sense of what it means to belong in this little corner of the world.

We spent 4 evenings at The Waterhole Saloon during our two weeks in Reed Point and my sense of the town is this: The only rules here are the unwritten ones that, when abided by, will grant you access to Mayberry-like small town hospitality and when crossed, will get you run out of town faster than a speeding bullet (which you might have to be).

Here’s the other thing about Reed Point: We have been to small towns that are the kind of places you get stuck in. The feeling is that the people living there are not there because they want to be. They are there because they haven’t been able to figure out how to get out. That’s not Reed Point.

The people in Reed Point live here because they choose to - many of them moved here from elsewhere because they fell in love with the place - and you can feel that from the moment you step foot inside this clean, cared for small town.

The other place that never fails to provide a taste of local color is the grocery store. Even in touristy locations, grocery stores are filled with local people just living their lives. From the employees who work there to the neighbors who shop there, local grocery stores are an immersion into the energy of a town.

Some of them make me want to settle in and get to know the place and others make me anxious to leave. Both experiences are insightful in their own way.

I have also come across some of the most, shall we say, unique people in grocery stores… such as the grown man happily pushing his cart around the grocery store while wearing a Superman cape, and the man in a full Spiderman costume perched atop the grocery store sign as I turned into the parking lot. And no, it wasn’t Halloween.

Or the checker who gave me an uninterrupted NPR-style monologue of current events while scanning my groceries, and the checker who held up the line for several minutes so he could marvel at a package of mushrooms in my cart and finally exclaiming, “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a new kind of mushroom around here.”

Or the somewhat embarrassing experience of the checker calling her coworkers over to gawk at “the biggest order they’ve every seen” after ringing up my $300 worth of groceries.

Also, the items on the shelves of a store is a window into the town. There’s a store in Crystal Beach, Texas called The Big Store that is not very big in size but has a tiny selection of literally everything. I shopped at a grocery store in Wisconsin with three full isles devoted to frozen pizza and a store in South Dakota with an impressively large meat selection and a produce section not much bigger than my refrigerator. I shopped at a store in Oregon with an ice cream counter and nearly every single person shopping there was pushing their cart with one hand and holding an ice cream cone with the other.

I have also shopped in stores where the end caps are filled with locally made jam and jelly rather than big brands who paid the highest stocking fee. And I’ve stuffed my refrigerator and freezer with meat and produce from local farm stands sold by people who know what real food is.

Over the past 4 years, Steve and I have had many conversations that go something like this, “We would have never discovered this place if we didn’t live in an RV.” And that, more than anything, describes why we do it.

Friends from Louisiana that we met in Wisconsin and who visited us in Montana

The beautiful happy people sitting on my living room sofa in the photo above are Jack and Marsha. They are from Louisiana, but we met them two years ago in Wisconsin.

They were two campsites down from us and in between them and us was a little girl, Sophie, camping with her aunt and uncle. Sophie is going to grow up to be the kind of person who is friends with everyone in the entire world.

From the moment we pulled into our campsite, Sophie was a part of our lives and before I knew it I was taking her and her friend out kayaking, sitting around the campfire with her aunt and uncle, and accepting fresh vegetables and homemade wine from her mother’s garden.

One morning, I heard a knock on our door and opened it to find Jack and Marsha, who had, of course, also met Sophie. Marsha (who is basically the exact same person as Sophie) makes pot holders while her and Jack travel around the country (“making pot holders has saved our marriage” - her words, not mine 😂). After introducing themselves and explaining that Sophie told them all about us, she gifted me a couple of pot holders and just like that, they became lifelong friends.

We enjoyed getting to know them so much that we visited them the next year in their home town in Louisiana. And, upon discovering that our campground in Reed Point was on the way to their summer destination in Alaska, they parked themselves next to us for two nights and it was such a treat to have them as neighbors.

In the morning, I looked out my kitchen window to see a “good morning” sign hung in their window and now that sign is on permanent display in my kitchen. Also, Marsha is a photographer with a photographer’s eye and some of the photos above are stolen from her. ❤️

Poblano corn chowder

The Colorado town that I grew up and that we raised our children in is surrounded by farmland. In the summer months, visits to local farmers markets, with their overflowing baskets of fresh picked produce, were an exercise in restraint.

I wanted to take home armfuls (and sometimes did) of everything there. But, two of the things I looked forward to the most were the sweet corn and fresh chilies. In late summer, barrels of roasting chilies would blanket the entire town with a smell that I will forever associate with late summer.

All that to say, this chowder is the perfect thing to make when you have access to fresh summer corn and peppers. But, it’s also delicious with frozen corn and caned green chilies, so there’s absolutely no reason to deprive yourself.

• 6 large Poblano peppers - roasted, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped (About 1 1/2 cups) *If you can’t find poblano peppers, or don’t want to bother roasting, peeling, and chopping them, use canned chopped green chilies instead.

• 1 pound thick cut bacon - cut into bite size pieces that are about 1-inch long

• 2 tablespoons butter (I used salted butter)

• 1 large onion - peeled and diced

• 2 red bell peppers - stem and seeds removed and diced

• 6 cloves garlic - peeled and diced

• 1 - 3 teaspoons chili powder or Aleppo pepper (*to taste, depending on how spicy you want your chowder to be)

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

• 6 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth (I used Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base mixed with water)

• 1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes - scrubbed, peeled, and cut into 1 or 2-inch cubes

• 8 ounces cream cheese, cut into chunks

• 12-ounces corn kernels (1 1/2 - 2 cups) - freshly cut from the cob or frozen

• 2 cups (about 8 ounces) shredded smoked Gouda cheese (good alternatives: Provolone, Monterey Jack, Fontina, and Muenster).

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Roast the poblanos: Place peppers on a rimmed aluminum foil-lined baking sheet. Set a rack in your oven so that it’s about 8-inches away from the broiler and heat the broiler to high. Place the peppers in the oven and broil until they are are almost entirely black, approximately 8-10 minutes. Use metal tongs to turn the peppers over and cook until they are blackened on the other side. Remove the pan from the oven and cover with another sheet of aluminum foil or another rimmed baking sheet. Let sit for 10-15 minutes then peel the peppers and and remove the stem and seeds. Chop and set aside.

2. Add about a tablespoon of oil to a dutch oven or large stock pot and set it over medium heat. Add the pieces of bacon and cook, stirring frequently, until crispy. Use a slotted spoon to remove the bacon from the pan to a paper towel lined plate. Pour the bacon fat into a bowl.

3. Add 4 tablespoons of the bacon fat back to the stock pot and add the butter. Add the chopped onion and bell pepper and set the pan over medium heat. Cook stirring frequently, until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped garlic, chili powder, cumin, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and ground black pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute more.

4. Add the flour all at once and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Very slowly, pour in the chicken or vegetable broth, stirring constantly as you add it to prevent lumps from forming. Add the potatoes and bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook at a gentle simmer until the potatoes are tender.

5. Add the cream cheese and stir until it’s melted into the soup. Add the peppers (or green chilies) and the corn and bring back to a simmer. Add the cheese in small handfuls, stirring until it’s melted before adding more.

6. Stir in half of the bacon. Taste and season with salt and ground black pepper.

7. Serve in bowls, garnished with the rest of the crispy bacon.

Coconut Pineapple Rice Pudding

My three favorite ways to use up leftover rice are Costa Rican beans and rice, Blackstone fried rice, and THIS coconut rice pudding. In fact, whenever I make rice, I almost always make extra just so I’ll have some leftover for one, or all three, of these dishes.

This recipe calls for 2 cups cooked white rice. I usually use Jasmine rice, but any medium or long grain rice will do.

If you want to cook the rice fresh just for this pudding, rinse 3/4 cup medium or long grain rice in water until the water runs clear. Add the rice to a saucepan along with 1 1/4 cups of water and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover the pan, reduce the temperature to low, and let the rice cook for 15 minutes, or until all the water has been absorbed. Spread the rice out onto a plate to let it cool and then proceed with the recipe.

A quick note about coconut milk: In most supermarkets, you'll find both canned coconut milk and cartons of refrigerated coconut milk. The main difference between the two is how much water the coconut milk contains. Cartons of refrigerated coconut milk are much more diluted than what you'll find in the can.

In this recipe it's important to use full fat coconut milk that comes in a can. Typically, you'll find canned coconut milk in the Asian foods section of your supermarket. You can also order coconut milk online.

• 3 tablespoons honey

• 16 ounces fresh pineapple, cut into 1/2-inch chunks (about 3 cups)

• 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut

• 14 ounces full-fat coconut milk from a can

• 2 tablespoons white granulated sugar

• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

• 2 cups cooked rice that’s been allowed to cool completely (this is a great way to use up leftover rice)

1. Add the honey to a non-stick skillet and cook without stirring for 2 minutes. It will bubble and start to smell a bit like caramel. Add the pineapple, 3/4 cup water and about 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a simmer, cover, reduce the heat to medium low, and cook, stirring every once in a while, until the fruit is very tender and the moisture has evaporated. This will take about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice.

2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, toast the coconut until about half of it is golden brown. Stir in the coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened - about 5 minutes. 

3. Remove 1/2 cup of the coconut mixture to a measuring cup with a spout and set aside. Add the rice and 1 cup of water. Cook, stirring frequently, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is creamy. This will take about 15 minutes.

4. Allow the rice pudding to cool in the pan for 10 - 15 minutes. Serve warm in bowls drizzled with the reserved coconut mixture and topped with the pineapple.

Pepper jack potatoes

In the last issue, I wrote about one of my most treasured gifts - a recipe book of my Grandma’s favorite recipes. In that issue, I shared her recipe for Denver Chocolate Cake. (And if you haven’t made it yet, what are you even doing with your summer?)

In this week’s issue, I’m sharing her recipe for pepper jack potatoes.

I’ve never met a potato recipe I didn’t love and these are covered in cheese, so there was never any possibility this wasn’t going to be one of my favorite recipes. These make a delicious side dish for any kind of roasted or grilled meat or, do as we did and use them as a base for vegan taco meat, salsa, and some fresh tomatoes.

Here’s what you need:

• Potatoes - peeled and cut into 1/2-inch wedges (We like Yukon gold potatoes)

• 1 yellow onion, cut in half and sliced crosswise into very thin slices

• Butter - about 1/3 of a cup per 6 medium potatoes, melted

• Chili powder, paprika, cumin, and salt

• Grated pepper jack (or any kind of grated cheese); 2-3 cups for a 9x13 pan of potatoes

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Add the potato wedges and sliced onion into a 9x13 rectangle baking dish (I love my Caraway non-stick baking pan for these potatoes because the non-stick surface really does keep everything from sticking).

Pour the melted butter over the potatoes and onions and stir everything around so the vegetables are coated in butter. Sprinkle with spices and salt and top with half the cheese.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake until the potatoes are tender, about 40 minutes.

Remove the foil from the pan and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese. Put the pan back in the oven and cook until the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 5 minutes longer.

Homemade muffin mix

This recipe for homemade muffin mix is adapted from a recipe in Bravetart by Stella Parks. She uses virgin coconut oil in her muffin mix, a genius trick because it’s nonperishable so you can stock your pantry with a bag of this muffin mix where it will keep for many months.

As opposed to refined coconut oil which is liquid at room temperature, virgin coconut oil is solid at room temperature. To measure it, pack it into a measuring cup with the back of a spoon.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour

• 3/4 cup sugar: white granulated sugar, brown sugar, or a combination of the two

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/2 teaspoon table salt)

• 1/8 - 1/2 teaspoon spices: nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, or cloves (this is optional; use as much or as little as you like)

• 3/4 cup virgin coconut oil

Add all the ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed for a couple of minutes until the coconut oil completely disappears into the dry ingredients. Store in a zip-top bag or other air tight container at room temperature (do not refrigerate). The mix will keep up until the sell-by date on your container of coconut oil.

This mix makes enough to bake 12 muffins.

How to use this mix to make muffins:

Add one recipe muffin mix to a mixing bowl and add 1/2 cup milk (any kind, including buttermilk and any non-dairy milk), 2 large eggs, and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon almond extract). Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to stir until blended.

Divide the batter among 12 paper lined baking cups and bake at 350 degrees for 18 - 22 minutes.

Add ins: Gently fold in about 2 cups of fresh or frozen berries or peeled and diced apples, peaches, or pears. To make chocolate chip muffins, add about 1 cup regular size or mini chocolate chips. You can also add a handful of nuts or shredded coconut. To make zucchini muffins, press as much water as you can from 3 cups shredded zucchini (I usually twist it in a clean kitchen towel) and fold that into the batter.

If you like crumb topped or streusel topped muffins:

• Top muffins with the oatmeal streusel in this recipe for Blackberry Muffins with Oatmeal Streusel

• Top muffins with the butter crumb topping in this recipe for Raspberry Muffins

My 10 Favorite Cookbooks (as of today)

Someone asked me recently to share a list of my favorite cookbooks and I’m not sure a more challenging question has ever been asked of me. 😂

It is difficult for me to express how much I love cookbooks. Before we moved into an RV I had stacks and shelves of them in every single room of the house except the bathrooms and the kids’ rooms.

When we decided to move into an RV, we spent months getting rid of almost all of our stuff and making really hard decisions about what we would bring with us. Out of all the things we sorted through, deciding what cookbooks to bring with me was probably the most difficult.

Steve would argue that we have too many cookbooks in our tiny home on wheels. I would counter that in comparison to how many I want to have with us, I should be awarded a medal for Herculean self restraint.

So, to answer my friend about my favorites, I looked to the ones I choose to cart around with us. Every time we move to a new location I have to pack them all away and then unpack them again and this never feels like a burden. I actually kind of love it. I feel inspired just by holding them and setting them on the shelf. Like somehow all the delicious ideas inside might be absorbed just by having them near me.

For context, before writing this, I counted how many I actually have with us - 48. Plus a growing number on kindle, which is not my favorite format, but I’m learning to live with it. Out of those 48, here are my current top 10:

1. Mastering The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child (this is a two volume set, but I’m counting it as one just because I can).

2. How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

3. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

4. Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi (although it’s a true tossup between this and my other favorite Ottolenghi book, Flavor)

5. Baking With Dori by Dori Greenspan

6. Bravetart by Stella Parks

7. Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen by Rick Bayless

8. Bake Wise by Shirley O. Corriher

9. Simply Julia by Julia Turshen

10. Bouchon by Thomas Keller

I also want to mention a book called The Flavor Matrix which I rely on heavily during recipe development, especially in the idea stage. The book breaks down the flavor compounds of specific ingredients and groups them together in charts that let you discover unexpected combinations.

For example, it might sound surprising, but strawberries and mushrooms have a lot of the same flavor compounds. Learning this, I created this recipe for Mushroom and Noodle Stir Fry with Strawberries. The combination is not something I would have expected to work - but it really does.

So, if your interested in what flavors go together and why, this will likely be an interesting book for you.

This newsletter would not exist if not for the members of The Lost Supper Club, who show their support with a paid subscription thus ensuring that the vast majority of readers can keep reading this newsletter for free. As a thank you, I try to provide those paid subscribers with some cool stuff, including three free cookbooks!

A paid subscription is just $35 a year. Find out more about becoming a member of the Lost Supper Club.

❤️ Did you know that if you hit the heart or recycle symbol at the top or bottom of this post, it makes it easier for other people to find this newsletter?

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.

Get every issue and recipe directly on rebeccablackwell.com.

This issue is a reheat

If you’ve ever listened to the podcast The Sporkful, you know that when they re-release an episode, they call it a “Reheat”. I love this and am stealing it. :-)

I’ll be on vacation in Europe through must of April and so am re-publishing a few of the most popular past issues while I’m away.

This issue was originally published in May of 2024. It contains a lot of my favorite recipes, ones you may have missed if you subscribed at some point after then. I hope you enjoy!

Hello from our home state of Colorado!

Both Steve and I were born and raised in Colorado and lived here until we sold our house and moved into our RV in early 2020. Our daughters live here as do both sides of our family and many of our closest friends so our time is always packed with activity. And even though we do our best, we never manage to see everyone we want to see.

These return trips to the place where we spent the first 45 years of our lives is an interesting experience. I thought that I would always think of Colorado as home, but as the years go by, it feels like home less and less. It’s strange to be in a place that’s so familiar but in which I feel like the visitors that we are. 

Being in Colorado also causes me to spend more time in the past. I’m sure anyone reading this who has moved away from the place they were raised knows exactly what I mean.

For me, there is value in trying to understand the past. And anyway, I’m compelled to introspect on where my thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors come from. It’s who I am. I try to understand the systems in which my life has played out, how I’ve contributed to and been affected by the whole mess, in ways both good and bad. We either repeat the past or repair what’s broken and do something different and I don’t know how to do that except by thinking about it.

But at some point we have to recognize that who we were in the past is over. Those moments no longer exist except in my mind. All I can ever do is be who I am now.

The only tangible thing I can do with the past is decide today to be better than I used to be and recognize that joy comes from being present.

This is a daily practice, isn’t it? Being present in each moment is a gift we give ourselves. 

I actually laughed out loud a little bit when writing that last sentence because what a funny, ridiculous thing us humans are to have to remind ourselves to be present. 

5 Things to make next week

A few recipes to consider adding to the week’s meal plan:

1. Beer Battered Fried Fish

Beer does several fantastic things for fried fish batter, but the main effect comes from the carbonation. The bubbles in beer aerate the batter, which helps to make it light and crispy. The same effect can be achieved by adding plain club soda, but beer also adds flavor. Recipe: Beer Battered Fried Fish

2. Skillet Vegetable Lasagna

This cheesy, saucy vegetarian lasagna is packed with zucchini, cauliflower, walnuts, mushrooms, roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, onions, and garlic all layered up with creamy parmesan béchamel, pasta, and three kinds of cheese.

The veggies are chopped up in a food processor and create a meaty texture that's as close to cozy lasagna perfection as you can get. Recipe: Skillet Vegetable Lasagna

3. Crispy Coconut Lime Chicken

This recipe is such a great example of how salty, spicy, sweet, and sour can balance and complement each other to create interesting layers of flavor that keep you going back for more.

And, holy smokes, the sauce. If you love tart citrus flavors, you're going to want to pour this sauce on everything. Recipe: Crispy Coconut Lime Chicken

4. Cherry Crumble Bars

These buttery cherry crumble bars are little slices of heaven, that's what they are. The buttery shortbread base is topped with orange liquor-spiked cherry preserves and crispy, crunchy, sweet butter crumbs for bars that resemble cherry crumb pie in cookie form. Recipe: Cherry Crumble Bars

5. Chocolate Chip Cake with Peanut Butter Fudge Icing

This easy Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake is extra soft and fluffy, with the most delicious balance of chocolate chips and buttery cake. Topped with Peanut Butter Fudge Icing, it's the kind of crowd pleasing cake recipe that's perfect for nearly any occasion, including your run of the mill Tuesday night. Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cake

Red lentil and oxtail stew

Oh my, this recipe was a happy accident. I have never before in my life purchased or cooked oxtails and honestly, wasn’t interested in trying.

But, while my intention was to purchase 4 packages of short ribs, what I actually purchased was 3 packages of short ribs and one of oxtails. Not knowing what else to do with them, I added them to this red lentil stew and wow! So good!

The thing I love the most about this recipe is how meaty it tastes without containing much meat. An oxtail is just the tail of cattle. Most of the time it’s sold in pieces that include a tailbone with some marrow in the center, and a bony portion of meat surrounding the tail. It’s mostly bone and marrow with a little bit of meat.

For this stew, I simmered a few pieces of oxtail in broth flavored with onion, celery, garlic, paprika, cumin, and tomato for a couple of hours, until the meat was tender. This long simmer created the most luxurious and rich broth in which to cook red lentils and rice.

The meat from the oxtail is pulled from the bone and added back to the stew - there’s not a lot of meat, but honestly, you don’t need more. This stew is richly satisfying in a rustic, homey, super comforting way and I hope you’ll love it as much as we did.

• 3 tablespoons vegetable, canola, or extra virgin olive oil

• 1 large yellow sweet onion, peeled and chopped

• 2 stalks of celery, chopped

• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

• Salt and pepper

• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika (more to taste)

• 2 teaspoons ground cumin (more to taste)

• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

• 2 tablespoons Better Than Bouillon Sofrito Base (optional)

• 2 pounds of beef oxtails

• Water or broth (If using Better Than Bouillon Sofrito Base, use water. Otherwise use any kind of flavorful broth or stock, or just use water.)

• 1/4 cup long or medium grain white rice

• 1 cup red lentils

• Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

1. Add the oil, onion, celery, and garlic to a saucepan or braiser and cook until the onions are soft and beginning to look translucent. Sprinkle with a small amount of salt and pepper and add the paprika, cumin, tomato paste and better than bouillon sofrito base (if using). Cook, stirring for another minute or two to open up the flavors of the spices and caramelize the tomato paste.

2. Add the oxtails to the pan and pour in enough water or broth to come about 3/4 of the way up the sides of the oxtails. Bring the liquid to a boil, then cover the pan and lower the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Let the oxtails simmer for about 2 hours, until the meat is tender. Lift the lid of the pot every now and then to check the volume of liquid. Add more as necessary to keep enough liquid in the pot to come 3/4 of the way up the sides of the oxtails.

3. Remove the oxtails from the pan and set them on a plate or cutting board. Add the rice and lentils to the pan and bring the liquid back to a boil. Cover the pan, lower the heat to maintain a gentle simmer, and cook until the lentils are very tender and falling apart, about 30 minutes. (*The thickness of this stew is up to you - as the rice and lentils cook, add more water or broth to achieve the desired consistency.)

4. When the oxtails are cool enough to handle, tear the meat from the bones, and cut or tear it into small pieces. Add it back to the stew and taste for seasoning. Add more salt and pepper if desired.

5. Serve with a sprinkle of chopped fresh Italian (flat leaf) parsley.

Double chocolate rye cookies

If you are not a chocolate lover, move along, these cookies are not for you. BUT, for all you chocolate and brownie lovers, gather up your ingredients and get baking because this is about to become one of your new favorite cookie recipes.

Chocolate and rye is a delicious combo (have you tried these double chocolate rye muffins???) The rye flour adds a subtle nutty complexity that balances the bitterness of the chocolate and just makes everything sing.

These double chocolate cookies have a brownie-like texture, with a soft, fudgy interior and slightly crispy edges.

Makes 16 large cookies

• 9 ounces bittersweet, semi-sweet, or milk chocolate bars - OR 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips

• 17 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 1/3 cup granulated white sugar

• 1 cup packed dark or light brown sugar

• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste

• 2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk

• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons dark rye flour

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 7 tablespoons cocoa powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

1. If using chocolate bars, chop them into small-ish pieces that are about the size of chocolate chips. Add half of the chocolate to a heatproof bowl and set it next to the stovetop.

2. Add the butter to a light colored saucepan and set it over medium heat. (Dark bottom pans make it difficult to see when the butter is browned.) Heat the butter, stirring often, until it’s melted and begins to boil. As you stir, pay attention to the color of the butter underneath the foam. When it's done, the butter beneath the foam will be golden brown with dark brown specks on the bottom of the pan and will smell nutty. (For images of the process of browning butter, take a look at this recipe for brown sugar cookies.)

3. Immediately pour the brown butter over the chocolate. Let it stand for 10-15 seconds then stir until all the chocolate is melted.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.

5. Add the butter and chocolate mixture to a bowl with both sugars. Beat briefly with an electric mixer (or whisk vigorously with a wire whisk) to combine then let rest for 10-15 minutes to allow the mixture to cool slightly.

6. In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk the egg and egg yolk together with the vanilla. Add this mixture slowly to the butter, chocolate, and sugar mixture, using an electric mixer to beat the dough as you pour it in. Beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds after all the eggs have been added.

7. Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and stir with a wire whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients and the remaining chopped chocolate or chocolate chips to the batter and use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to stir until everything is combined.

8. Form the dough into 16 balls (approximately 1/4 cup of dough per ball) and set them on the baking sheets, spacing them at least 3 inches apart.

9. Bake the cookies for 8 -10 minutes then remove the cookie sheet from the oven and let the cookies rest until they are firm enough to be removed from the sheet without breaking. When done, the edges will look set but the center of the cookies will look under-baked. As the cookies rest, their centers will firm up.

Breakfast tacos

Having made these earlier in the week, there was a container of rice and beans and some corn tortillas in the refrigerator when I sat down to write this recipe. Immediately after adding the photo, I went to the kitchen and made some for my lunch because writing about tacos without eating tacos is an unreasonable ask.

I have been making these simple, nutritious, delicious tacos every single week since returning from Costa Rica earlier this year. We mostly eat them for breakfast and keep it pretty simple - a few warm homemade corn tortillas filled with flavor-packed rice and beans and some salsa. Sometimes I add some chopped cherry tomatoes and usually drizzle mine with hot sauce.

But there are an endless number of variations on this theme and so I’ve listed a few ideas below to get you started. But first, the basics:

All you need to make these tacos is corn tortillas and a pot of rice and beans and corn tortillas.

• Homemade corn tortillas

• Beans and rice

• Your favorite salsa or hot sauce

That’s it. Pile some rice and beans into a warm tortilla and pour on some salsa or hot sauce or both. Here are a few ways to elaborate on this theme:

• Add more protein: The combo of beans, rice, and corn is a complete protein but if you want to really boost the protein content of these tacos add scrambled or fried eggs, bacon or ham, sausage or chorizo, tofu, or pork carnitas.

• Add some veggies: top your tacos with diced tomatoes, bell peppers, thinly sliced radishes, shredded cabbage, marinated bell peppers, quick pickled onions, or roasted corn. We also often have some leftover crispy fried potatoes in the refrigerator and they are so, so good in these tacos.

• Sauce it up: Drizzle some vegan nacho cheese sauce, chimichurri sauce, or roasted tomatillo sauce over your tacos. Or, top them with almond salsa with green chilies or homemade pico de gallo.

Sangria mocktail

This is my new favorite summer drink. It’s light, refreshing, and fruity and even though it contains exactly 0% alcohol, it comes with strong carefree, day-drinking vibes and no regrets.

Ingredients:

• Brewed black tea - any kind you like. For the sangria pictured here I used peach black tea which made it extra fruity.

• Orange juice - fresh squeezed, or 100% juice

• 100% cranberry juice or 100% pomegranate juice (not cranberry juice cocktail)

• 7-up or zero sugar 7-up, or ginger ale

• Fresh fruit 

So, I do understand that it’s difficult to believe that this list of ingredients could produce something that mimics sangria which is made with red wine and brandy, but you’re going to have to set your skepticism aside for the time being and just try it.

The combination of black tea and cranberry or pomegranate juice mimic the acidity and tannins of red wine especially when mixed with orange juice. Also, it’s just plain delicious, which is all I want anyway from any beverage, with or without alcohol.

How to make:

1. Brew some black tea and let it cool.

2. For each cocktail, mix 2 parts tea with 1 part orange juice, cranberry juice, and 7-up.

3. Add some fresh fruit and ice to a cocktail or wine glass. Pour the sangria into the glass and garnish the glass with a slice of whatever fruit you like.

To make this for a crowd, I like to mix everything except the 7-up in a pitcher. Allow guests to pour their own and add as much or as little 7-up as they prefer.

This newsletter would not exist if not for the members of The Lost Supper Club, who show their support with a paid subscription thus ensuring that the vast majority of readers can keep reading this newsletter for free. As a thank you, I try to provide those paid subscribers with some cool stuff, including three free cookbooks!

A paid subscription is just $35 a year. Find out more about becoming a member of the Lost Supper Club.

❤️ Did you know that if you hit the heart or recycle symbol at the top or bottom of this post, it makes it easier for other people to find this newsletter?

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.

Get every issue and recipe directly on rebeccablackwell.com.

This issue is a reheat

If you’ve ever listened to the podcast The Sporkful, you know that when they re-release an episode, they call it a “Reheat”. I love this and am stealing it. :-)

I’ll be on vacation in Europe through must of April and so am re-publishing a few of the most popular past issues while I’m away.

This issue was originally published in April of 2024. It contains a lot of my favorite recipes, ones you may have missed if you subscribed at some point after then. I hope you enjoy!

The build your own soup bar!

Hello friends! I am so excited about this issue! Instead of several recipes, this issue is devoted to one super fun and unique idea that you can use for easy entertaining any size group.

• Everything can be made in advance 👏

• Scale up or down to feed as many people as you like 👯

• This idea is just as well suited for a sit down meal as it is for a buffet or an open house 😌

• There’s only one thing to keep warm - everything else can be served at room temperature 🙌

• Serve this meal inside or outside - it’s perfect for camping or entertaining in a small space - AND if you’re not in an entertaining kind of mood, it’s also a great way to meal prep 😍

As most of you know, my husband and I sold our house in April of 2020 and moved into a 43-foot 5th-wheel RV. In comparison to many RV kitchens, mine is humongous. But, compared to the kitchen in our former suburban house, it is absurdly tiny - especially for someone who makes a living as a recipe developer and food photographer.

I was nervous about how I could work in my new tiny kitchen and kind of thought that my days of entertaining more than a small handful of people were over.

But since moving into our RV, I’ve cooked my way across 38 states, created and published a few hundred recipes, and hosted gatherings with as few as 2 guests and as many as 40. (For those of you with a small kitchen, I piled a whole bunch of tips and tricks for organizing a small kitchen into this article.)

Along the way, I’ve learned a few things about easy entertaining.

But regardless of the size of your kitchen, the idea I’m going to share with you today is my new favorite way to cook for a group.

The Build Your Own Soup Bar

Here’s the basic idea: Prepare a really flavorful, super delicious and complex broth. Then, prepare as many different ingredients as you like for people to build their own bowls of soup. Set all the options out in separate containers and let your guests go to town.

Every single thing can be prepared in advance and the only thing that needs to be kept hot is the broth.

Every good bowl of soup begins with really good broth

If you are the kind of person who occasionally makes a roast chicken, you can turn the bones into a pot of rich chicken broth for nothing more than the cost of the water in the pan. Here’s how to make chicken broth.

So, you can start there if you like, with a pot of homemade chicken broth.

But you can also just start with some veggies, herbs and spices, Better Than Bouillon, and some water and have a rich, flavorful broth in about an hour.

Ingredients:

• A few cloves of roughly chopped garlic

• An onion or two

• Carrots

• Celery

• Bell peppers

• Mushroom stems - remove the caps from mushrooms and roughly chop the stems. Save the caps to sauté for one of the soup ingredients. (If mushrooms are not one of the ingredients you want to offer, just leave them out.)

• Tomato paste - about 1 tablespoon for a small pot of broth and up to a 1/4 cup for a large stockpot of broth. I like to use the tubes of concentrated tomato paste that you can find in most supermarkets.

• Dried herbs and spices - about 2 tablespoons for a small-ish pot of broth and up to a half cup for a large stockpot of broth. Use whatever herbs and spices you like. Scroll down for herb and spice combos I love.

• Better Than Bouillon soup base and water - OR your own homemade stock. If using Better Than Bouillon, choose the flavor that matches the flavor profile you want to create.

• Chopped fresh herbs (optional)

• Lemon juice

1. Add a couple of tablespoons of oil to a large saucepan or stock pot (any kind of oil you like). Roughly chop all the veggies and add them to the pot. How many vegetables you use depends on the amount of broth you are wanting to make.

2. Set the pot over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are starting to brown. This could take as long as 20 minutes if you’re cooking a lot of veggies.

3. Add the tomato paste and whatever herbs and spices you are using. Stir everything around in the pan for a couple of minutes.

4. Add the Better Than Bouillon and water OR your own homemade stock to the pan. How much you add depends on how much broth you want to make. Please note that as the liquid simmers, some of it will evaporate. Also, the veggies will be strained out of the broth before serving - so add more liquid than you think you’ll need. For example, if you want 6 cups of broth, add at least 8 cups of liquid to the pot.

5. Bring the liquid to a boil then lower the heat to maintain a gentle simmer and let the broth simmer for at least 20 minutes and up to an hour.

6. Pour the broth into a strainer that’s been set inside a large enough pot or bowl to hold all the broth. You want to strain the veggies out of the broth. Use the back of a spoon to press all the liquid out of the vegetables, then discard.

7. Taste the broth and add as much salt and pepper as you like.

8. If chicken is an ingredient you want to include in your soup bar, return the broth to the stockpot or saucepan and add pieces of chicken. You can use bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces or boneless, skinless chicken pieces. Bring the liquid to a boil and then lower the heat to a gentle simmer until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken from the broth and let rest until cool enough to handle. Shred the chicken into bite size pieces.

9. If you want to add some chopped fresh herbs to the broth, add them now along with some lemon juice. Lemon juice adds a remarkable brightness to the flavor of the broth. Start by adding a couple of tablespoons, taste and add as much more as you like.

10. The broth can now be poured into a covered container and stored in the refrigerator for up to a week or frozen for up to 3 months. The shredded chicken can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months.

Delicious flavor profiles for your broth

These are a few of my favorite ways to flavor broth for a soup bar.

• For Thai inspired flavors: Lemongrass, turmeric, ginger, coriander, and basil. Or use a good Thai spice blend and/or red or green curry paste. Stir in some coconut milk and/or coconut cream and lime juice instead of lemon juice.

• For Chinese inspired flavors: ginger, garlic, scallions, star anise, cinnamon, and Sichuan peppercorns

• For Japanese inspired flavors: chili powder, sesame oil, wasabi, sansho pepper, ginger, and garlic

• For Indian inspired flavors: turmeric, cumin, coriander, cilantro, garam masala, ginger, or a good curry powder or Indian spice mix + thicken the broth with a cornstarch slurry as described below

• For Mexican and Latin American flavors: anchiote, allspice, cacao, cinnamon, chili powder, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, paprika, and Mexican oregano. You might also want to add some chopped green chilies and enchilada sauce to your broth.

• For Italian flavors: basil, oregano, rosemary, marjoram, and thyme + the egg and cream enrichment described below

• For Greek flavors: basil, oregano, cinnamon, dill, marjoram, parsley, rosemary, nutmeg, thyme. Serve plain yogurt or tzatziki sauce as one of the toppings.

• For Cajun flavors: paprika, garlic and onion powder, oregano, cayenne, thyme + thicken the broth with the roux described below

It’s also important to add at least one ingredient that adds some umami to the broth.

Umami is a savory flavor that's one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. It's that thing in a dish that makes it taste rich and satisfying. Tomato paste (in the broth ingredient list) is an umami ingredient that I add to nearly every pot of broth, but you might want to add another one or two - or more!

Some of these ingredients are quite salty so add them to the broth before adding any additional seasoning. Also, be cautious about how much of each of these you add to your broth - they are highly concentrated flavors. Add a little bit, taste, add more, taste, etc.

1. Miso paste

2. Soy sauce

3. Fish sauce

4. Worcestershire Sauce

5. Anchovies or anchovy paste

How to thicken and enrich the broth

Here are 5 easy ways to thicken up and enrich the broth.

1. To thicken the broth with a roux:

A roux is a nothing more than mixture of flour and fat that’s cooked, then used to thicken soup or sauces. To make a roux, use equal amounts fat (I usually use butter) and all-purpose flour.

A good ratio is 1 tablespoon of fat + 1 tablespoon of flour for each cup of broth.

1. Add the butter to a saucepan and set it over medium heat.

2. When the butter has melted, use a wooden spoon or whisk to mix the flour into the butter, stirring constantly until smooth and lightly golden in color- at least 5 minutes of cooking time.

3. Remove the roux from the heat and add some of the broth - Add the broth very slowly, bit by bit, while you whisk constantly to prevent lumps. When the mixture is the consistency of a thick gravy, whisk it into the rest of the broth.

4. Bring the broth back to a boil and cook for a few minutes to thicken. If your broth isn’t as thick as you would like it, add more roux.

2. To thicken the broth with a cornstarch slurry:

1. Add a few tablespoons of cornstarch to a small bowl. Slowly whisk in some broth to create a slurry.

2. Whisk the slurry back into the broth. Bring it to a simmer and cook for a few minutes.

A good ratio is one tablespoon slurry to 4 cups of broth.

3. To thicken the broth with starchy vegetables or grains:

1. Add some peeled and chopped potatoes (any kind of potato, including sweet potato) to the broth and let them simmer until they are so tender that they are beginning to fall apart.

2. Pour the broth and the potatoes into a blender and puree. The starch in the potatoes will start to thicken the soup before you puree it, but blending it will thicken it further.

Corn and squash also work well if you’d rather use them instead of or in addition to potatoes.

You can also use rice or quinoa. Add some rice or quiona to the pot (you won’t need much - about a tablespoon per cup of broth) and let it cook until very tender then puree in a blender. Arborio rice works particularly well for this.

4. How to thicken broth with cooked beans or lentils:

1. Add some cooked or canned beans or lentils to a blender and about an equal amount of broth.

2. Puree until completely smooth then stir the mixture back into the rest of the broth.

1 cup of beans or lentils is enough to thicken 6-8 cups of broth. White beans and chickpeas work particularly well for this purpose.

5. How to thicken and enrich broth with cream and eggs:

This is one of my favorite way to create a slightly thickened, silky broth that tastes utterly indulgent.

1. Add a few egg yolks to a bowl along with some cream. A good ratio is 2 egg yolks + 1/2 cup of heavy cream per 6 cups of broth.

2. Whisk the egg yolks and cream together to blend then very slowly drizzle in some broth, whisking constantly as you trickle it in.

3. After you’ve added a cup or so of broth, whisk the mixture back into the rest of the broth. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly, then remove the broth from the heat.

Please note that if you enrich the broth with eggs and cream it cannot be frozen. It will still keep well in the refrigerator for a few days. Or, you can just add the enrichment right before you serve it.

Soup bar ingredients and toppings

This is the fun part!!! You are really only limited by your imagination when it comes to ingredients to add to your soup bar. My only suggestion here is that you match the soup bar offerings to the flavor profile of the soup.

For example, if you flavored your broth with Thai spices and coconut milk, the soup bar offerings might include:

• rice noodles

• cooked white rice

• caramelized mushrooms

• a handful of veggies that have been sautéed with some oil over very high heat until slightly charred: bok choy, sliced red bell pepper, and carrots

• Cubes of sweet potato that have been boiled in salted water until tender

• Toppings: thin sliced red chilies, scallions, chopped fresh cilantro, peanuts, chili garlic sauce, fresh lime slices

If you flavored your broth with Latin American flavors, the soup bar offerings might include:

• cooked white rice

• black or pinto beans

• Red bell peppers and sliced onion that have been sautéed with some oil over very high heat until slightly charred. Or, char the peppers and onions on a grill or in the oven under the broiler.

• Roasted corn

• White or yellow potatoes, or sweet potatoes, or yucca, peeled and cut into cubes then boiled in salty water until tender

• Chopped chilies - roasted poblanos, Hatch green chilies

• Pickled jalapeño and quick pickled onions

• Aleppo pepper oil

• Any kind of squash, roasted until tender

• Toppings: toasted pumpkin seeds, fresh chopped cilantro, sliced avocados, chopped fresh tomatoes, tortilla chips for crumbling

For Italian flavors, include cooked pasta, tortellini, ravioli, or gnocchi plus plenty of veggies and shredded parmesan cheese.

For Cajun flavors, include Andouille sausage, cooked shrimp, potatoes, beans, and shredded cheese in addition to several types of veggies.

You get the idea.

You can add additional protein to the spread:

• Italian sausage, cooked crispy bacon, chorizo, ham, pork carnitas, Andouille sausage Polish sausage, cooked or smoked seafood, Italian meatballs, or Greek meatballs.

• Tofu, hard or soft boiled eggs, or any kind of cooked beans or lentils.

Top tips for ingredients for your soup bar:

1. Cook everything ahead of time. The beauty of the soup bar is that all the ingredients can be made in advance and served at room temperature. As long as the broth is piping hot, it will heat up everything in the bowl.

2. Season the ingredients. It’s important that every ingredient taste good on its own. If boiling vegetables, add enough salt to the water to make the water taste salty. This will ensure that the vegetables are properly seasoned. Likewise for sautéed, roasted, or grilled vegetables.

3. Cook vegetables until crisp-tender. No one likes mushy vegetables in their soup. Whether boiling, sautéing, roasting, or grilling, cook vegetables just until they are crisp-tender then dump them into a bowl of ice water to stop their cooking.

4. Don’t forget toppings. The main ingredients for your soup bar will include foods you would put in a soup - vegetables, beans, noodles, rice, etc. But, it’s also great to add some toppings: toasted pumpkin seeds, croutons, thinly sliced radishes, thinly sliced chilies, tortilla chips, fresh herbs, thinly sliced scallions, etc.

5. Add enough ingredient options for your guests to have fun picking and choosing what they want in their bowls but not so many as to be overwhelming or exhausting for you, the cook, to prepare.

Putting it all together

About an hour before you’re ready for everyone to dig in, pour the broth into a large saucepan or stock pot and set it over low heat so it can reheat slowly. Then set all the ingredients for your soup bar out so they can come to room temperature.

That’s it! Give everyone a bowl and let them have fun choosing the ingredients they want in their bowl then ladling the hot broth over the top and adding any toppings.

Bread and dessert options

1. Buttery homemade dinner rolls are a delicious accompaniment to pretty much any kind of soup.

2. Tall, flaky buttermilk biscuits pair particularly well with creamy soup or flavor profiles that are warm and comforting

3. Homemade flour tortillas are a must with Mexican and Latin American inspired flavors

In keeping with the spirit of the make-your-own soup bar, I think serve-yourself dessert options are also appropriate.

1. Anything Cookies {One Basic Cookie Dough, Endless Kinds of Cookies}

2. Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

3. Brookies (Chocolate chip brownie bars)

4. Cherry crumble bars

5. Lemon bars

6. Raspberry cupcakes

Two more ideas before wrapping this up:

1. This is also a great way to meal prep. Prepare the broth and a variety of ingredients and dinner for several nights of the week is just a matter of putting everything into a bowl and heating it in the microwave.

2. Instead of making everything yourself, do a soup bar potluck. You make the broth and a couple of the essential ingredients then ask your guests to bring what they like to contribute to the soup bar.

This newsletter would not exist if not for the members of The Lost Supper Club, who show their support with a paid subscription thus ensuring that the vast majority of readers can keep reading this newsletter for free. As a thank you, I try to provide those paid subscribers with some cool stuff, including three free cookbooks!

A paid subscription is just $35 a year. Find out more about becoming a member of the Lost Supper Club.

❤️ Did you know that if you hit the heart or recycle symbol at the top or bottom of this post, it makes it easier for other people to find this newsletter?

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.

Get every issue and recipe directly on rebeccablackwell.com.

This issue is a reheat

If you’ve ever listened to the podcast The Sporkful, you know that when they re-release an episode, they call it a “Reheat”. I love this and am stealing it. :-)

I’ll be on vacation in Europe through must of April and so am re-publishing a few of the most popular past issues while I’m away.

This issue was originally published in February of 2024. It contains a lot of my favorite recipes, ones you may have missed if you subscribed at some point after then. I hope you enjoy!

Not believing our own bullshit

“I will take my mind out of its iron cage and let it swim.”- Virginia Wolf

This time last year, we were camped on the Texas gulf coast, parked right on the hard packed sand of Crystal Beach with the sound of ocean waves as our constant soundtrack. We had intended to stay for 2 weeks and ended up staying for 7. (If you’re curious about what that was like, I wrote about that experience here.)

The first week there I got up early and went for a morning walk just as the sun was starting to rise over the water and got caught in a conversation with another camper. I shared that conversation with some folks back then and wanted to share it with you now because it taught me a lesson that I am currently still trying to learn. Here’s what I wrote last year…

While on my morning walk today, a man camped on the beach started a conversation with me. “Conversation” is probably not the right word. More accurately he talked AT me for a few minutes while I contemplated my escape.

He railed against the world for all of its ineptitude while simultaneously telling me all the ways in which he was smarter, tougher, and just generally better than “all those sissys” who can’t get their shit together. I determined that there was no polite way to escape this encounter (and honestly, why did I even care about being polite???) and just started walking away.

As I did, I said, “It sounds like you’ve got it all figured out. Too bad you’re surrounded by a world full of idiots.” He shouted after me that he doesn’t have it all figured out and the good lord teaches that we should show love and kindness to everyone and that’s what he’s “TRYING TO DO GODDAMMIT!”

Love and kindness wasn’t exactly the vibe I was getting from him. The problem is, he believes all his own stories and tells them on repeat. And for the rest of my walk, I thought about the one important lesson this man taught me:

Freedom is realizing you don’t have to believe your own bullshit. Or anyone else’s.

So here I am a year later still trying to not believe all my own bullshit. Dang, it’s hard.

Our thoughts are not the truth of things. They are not facts. A lesson I must continue to learn is that I do not have to believe all my own thoughts. This is different from ignoring them or trying to hide the most difficult thoughts in some isolated corner of my mind in a futile effort to pretend they’re not there.

In fact, the best way I know to deal with painful, difficult thoughts is to bring them fully into awareness. To shine a spotlight on them and not only acknowledge their existence, but allow them to take center stage.

In doing so, it is sometimes possible to see the thought for what it is - as just a thought.

Likewise, the narrative of who I am and of who I think others are is not the truth. They are just stories, constructed in my mind.

What I’m trying to say is, we’d do well to hold the stories we tell ourselves loosely.

On that note, let’s talk about food.

Recipes for citrus lovers

I keep a huge bowl of citrus fruit on the table from around October through May and in addition to eating it straight from the bowl, I juice it and add it to everything from salads and tacos to cake.

In this issue you’ll find two recipes that include crispy panko crusted avocados - one for tacos and one for salad, both including slices of juicy, sweet CaraCara oranges. And also, the most delicious, sloppy, sticky orange drizzle cake.

Here are a few of my other favorite ways to make the most of citrus season:

• Salmon salad with citrus vinaigrette and almond salsa

• Adobo fish tacos with citrus and crispy fried onions

• Salmon bites with citrus and almond salsa

• Shredded pork tacos with citrus and pico de gallo

• Pepper blossom cocktails

• Orange olive oil cake with mascarpone frosting

• Candied orange slices

• Lemon olive oil loaf cake

• The best lemon bars with a buttery shortbread crust

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

Love is the way I feel about this plate full of creamy, cheesy, saucy, perfectly cooked pasta and roasted mushrooms topped with plenty of cracked pepper and fresh herbs.

Just to be perfectly clear here, when I say I love this plate of pasta I am not speaking metaphorically. I love and adore it with each and every silky, creamy, earthy mushroom bite.

And I promise that all of you all you fellow pasta and mushroom lovers will also fall head over heals for this dish. I know because I am you.

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

Homemade Mushroom Pizza

My oh my. This homemade mushroom pizza is a stunner. It deserves your complete, undivided, wholly devoted love and adoration. This will not be difficult or a sacrifice, believe you me.

It’s the kind of thing you make when self care means an evening at home tucked in with rich and cozy, deeply comforting, simple-meets-decadent, cheesy, saucy mushrooms on a soft and chewy homemade pizza crust dripping with truffle oil and roasted garlic.

Homemade Mushroom Pizza

Crispy fried avocado tacos

If you’re an avocado lover, you’re probably going to want to add these tasty little tacos to your plan for the week. This is the kind of recipe that you can easily scale to make as many tacos as you need, from two to twenty. And the combination of crispy panko and creamy avocado + cheese + all the bright fresh flavor from orange slices, quick pickled onions, and salsa verde is just plain dreamy.

Ingredients:

• Corn tortillas

• Vegetable or canola oil

• An avocado or two - or however many you need for the number of tacos you want to make

• Chili powder, salt, and pepper

• For the breading: Panko bread crumbs, all-purpose flour, an egg or two

• Cheese: Cotija, Queso Fresco, Machego, or Oaxaca

• Orange slices (I used CaraCara oranges): use a sharp knife to cut the peel from an orange and then cut each segment away from the segment wall (seperate the fruit from its “skin”)

• Quick pickled onions

• Salsa verde - We like Herdez

Brush the corn tortillas with a little bit of oil and stack them on a microwave safe plate. Cover with a damp paper towel and set aside.

Cut the avocado in half, remove the peel and the pit, and cut each half into 1/2-inch thick slices. Spread the slices out on your cutting board and sprinkle them on both sides with chili powder and a generous amount of salt and pepper.

Add about a cup of panko bread crumbs to a plate, dump a couple tablespoons of flour onto a separate plate, and crack an egg or two into a bowl. Add a teaspoon or two of water to the eggs and whisk to combine.

Working with one avocado slice at a time, dredge each slice in flour, dip it in the eggs, then coat with panko bread crumbs. When coating with panko, use your fingers to really press the bread crumbs into each slice so you get a nice thick layer. Lay the breaded slices out onto a plate.

Pour enough oil into a large skillet to come up the sides of the pan about 1/4 of an inch and set it over high heat. When the oil is very hot, use metal tongs to add the breaded avocado slices to the pan. (To test that the oil is hot enough, dip one corner of a breaded avocado slice into the hot oil. If it sizzles, the oil is hot enough.)

Cook the avocado slices in the oil, turning them every once in a while, until they are a rich golden brown. Remove the slices to a paper towel lined plate.

Place the plate of tortillas in the microwave and heat for 45 - 60 seconds to warm.

To serve: lay a couple of tortillas on a plate and add some cheese. Top the cheese with a couple of fried avocado slices, then a couple of orange slices, some pickled onions, and a spoonful of salsa verde.

Recipe notes:

• There is no need to try and keep the avocado slices warm. The tacos are perfectly delicious at room temperature.

• You can skip the flour and egg and simply season the avocado slices before coating them directly with bread crumbs. The downside is that the avocado slices will not be as firm after they are fried. In fact, they get kind of mushy. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I prefer the firmer texture of the slices that have been breaded with flour and egg.

• The point of brushing the corn tortillas with oil and then microwaving them is to soften them so they don’t break in half when you fold them over into a taco. You can also do this in the hot oil left in the pan after frying the avocados. Simply keep the oil over high heat and use metal tongs to dip the tortillas, one at a time, in the hot oil, flipping them over after 2 or 3 seconds, then removing them from the pan to drain on a paper towel.

• Not sure what I’m talking about when I say to cut the fruit from it’s skin? Here’s a video of someone doing exactly this.

Crispy fried avocado and citrus salad

We loved the crispy fried avocados in the tacos above so much that I made some more the next day and added them to a salad. Here’s how to make this salad:

1. Whisk up a quick citrus vinaigrette. Check out last week’s issue for a basic vinaigrette formula and a couple of hacks for getting all the ingredients to come together a they should. For this salad, I used lime juice, a diced shallot, honey, about a teaspoon of mayonnaise, salt, pepper, and extra virgin olive oil.

2. Follow the instructions in the taco recipe above to bread avocado slices and fry them in hot oil until golden and crispy.

3. Use a sharp knife to cut the peel from an orange and then cut each segment from the segment wall (the “skin” around each segment).

4. Add salad greens to a plate and drizzle the greens with vinaigrette. Lay a few slices of orange and a few crispy avocado slices over the greens then top with toasted, salted pumpkin seeds.

*To toast pumpkin seeds: add the seeds to a skillet along with enough olive or canola oil to coat the seeds. Sprinkle the seeds with salt and then cook the seeds over medium heat, until about half of them are brown. Stir often while the seeds are cooking to prevent burning.

Orange drizzle cake

This orange drizzle cake is so rich, buttery, and tender you might actually call it creamy. The cake includes a few whole oranges stirred right into the batter and a generous drizzle of orange syrup. But don't think the drizzle means it's overly sweet. This cake isn't anywhere near the neighborhood of cloying. It's just bright orange flavor and sunshine on a plate.

Orange Drizzle Cake

BBQ chicken nachos

This was one of our kids favorite meals growing up. I almost always made it following a trip to Costco where I would purchase chips, grated, cheese, BBQ sauce, and a rotisserie chicken.

After getting everything from my Costco haul put away, I’d throw together a large tray of these nachos which, thanks to the precooked chicken, only took a few minutes. Who wants to spend a bunch of time in the kitchen after a family-sized grocery store run? Not this girl.

Now that it’s just my husband and I, I don’t make these nachos nearly as often. But every now and then they hit the spot. There is an endless number of ways to top these simple nachos, but I prefer to keep the whole thing pretty simple - just chips, cheese, BBQ chicken, and onions. Here’s how to make them:

1. Coat some pre-cooked chicken with your favorite bottled BBQ sauce. This is a great way to use up leftover chicken, or follow the super easy method for cooking chicken in Issue #1 to cook a package of boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs. You can also just use a rotisserie chicken.

2. Heat the oven to 450 degrees F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

3. Spread some tortilla chips out onto the baking sheet (I usually made my own because it’s easy and they are so freaking delicious - here’s how to make homemade tortilla chips).

4. Scatter BBQ chicken over the chips and then add a generous amount of shredded cheese (cheddar, Monterey jack, pepper jack, or a grated Mexican blend).

5. Pop the baking sheet in the oven and cook until all the cheese is melted and bubbly.

6. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, scatter some quick pickled onions over the top of the nachos, then just dig in.

A great alternative to pickled onions is to cook a sliced red or yellow onion in some oil in a skillet until they are caramelized to a rich golden brown.

This newsletter would not exist if not for the members of The Lost Supper Club, who show their support with a paid subscription thus ensuring that the vast majority of readers can keep reading this newsletter for free. As a thank you, I try to provide those paid subscribers with some cool stuff, including three free cookbooks!

A paid subscription is just $35 a year. Find out more about becoming a member of the Lost Supper Club.

❤️ Did you know that if you hit the heart or recycle symbol at the top or bottom of this post, it makes it easier for other people to find this newsletter?

This creamy mushroom soup tastes like something you might have eaten at one of Julia Child’s dinner parties (I wish!) but in reality, it’s a soup for real, actual life.

It comes together quickly and can easily be the entire meal, especially when served with a few buttery biscuits or dinner rolls. But it’s also the perfect complement to any number of main dishes. It’s equal parts comfort and sophistication, a truly satisfying meal that won’t break the bank, and I think we’re all down for that these days.

Years ago my mom gave me the 2 volume set of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking for my birthday. Or maybe it was Christmas? Regardless, I dove into those books like they were the actual holy grail and for a while dinner at our house was all Julia all the time.

I think we all look back on those butter soaked days with a kind of sleepy satisfaction that’s not dissimilar to the hours following a really good Thanksgiving meal. It was a good time while it lasted, but I did realize the importance of relegating all that rich food to more of a special occasion category.

Still, the techniques in those books continue to influence the way I cook and there are recipes I make on the regular that I can absolutely trace back to Julia’s influence. This creamy mushroom soup is one of those recipes.

There are two genius tricks in this recipe that are plucked straight from the pages of Mastering:

1. Separate the mushroom stems from the caps and use them to make a rich mushroom broth.

2. Slice the mushroom caps and caramelize them in a skillet before adding them to the soup. This deepens and develops their flavor in a way that’s simply impossible otherwise.

You will find those techniques in play in many of my other recipes, like this one for creamy chicken stew with mushrooms and puff pastry. And this recipe for creamy chicken noodle soup with garlic and mushrooms.

This is the kind of soup that will impress the socks off dinner party guests when served as a starter. Around here we mostly eat it as the main event, often on a weeknight because it doesn’t take long to make and includes a relatively short ingredient list, sometimes with good crusty bread, buttermilk biscuits, or homemade dinner rolls, and a stack of gruyere crisps.

Recipe Notes:

• I keep several kinds of Better than Bouillon in my refrigerator at all times and the mushroom base is one of my favorites. It’s not always available in major supermarkets, but easy to order online: Better than Bouillon Mushroom Base

Serving suggestions

1. The Ultimate Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits: If you’re craving fluffy, tender buttermilk biscuits with hundreds of flaky, buttery layers, stop right here.

   Here’s how to make homemade buttermilk biscuits that are soft on the inside, slightly crispy on the outside, and rise to impressive heights with layer after delicious layer.

2. Homemade Dinner Rolls: These dinner rolls are incredibly soft and pillowy, with the perfect amount of chew. The enriched dough is easy to work with and the whole process only takes a few hours and most of that is hands-off.

3. Cinnamon Biscuits with Cream Cheese Frosting: These tender, buttery biscuits are filled with a swirl of cinnamon and sugar, topped with more cinnamon and sugar, and include the option of serving them with cream cheese frosting.

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure. Find out more.