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 or recipe developer? Here are three resources just for you!

November 1, 2026, is the first annual National Buy a Cookbook Day!

designated November 1 as National Buy a Cookbook Day (it’s registered here) as a way of celebrating and supporting the entire genre. The goal is to encourage all of us to buy a cookbook or two (or three), something I need no encouragement to do but will happily take the excuse for

I will be buying two books:

1. ’s latest book, Eat Happy Cocktail Hour. I’ve been dying to get my hands on this book since its release a few weeks ago but we haven’t been in a place where we could receive packages. Today we’re traveling to Colorado, where we have plenty of addresses to send things to. 🙂

2. Baking and The Meaning of Life by Helen Goh. This book has been on my wish list for a really long time and this is just the excuse I need to finally treat myself to it.

If you want to join me in jumping headfirst into this delightful excuse to buy a cookbook, I have a few recommendations for you!

Also, just a reminder that a paid subscription to this newsletter, which is $35 a year, comes with three free digital cookbooks. The books are not insubstantial.

1. Let’s Get Lost Vol. 1 includes 143 recipes with full color photos spread throughout 325 pages.

2. Volume 2 includes 92 recipes, also with full color photos, spread across 124 pages.

3. And The No Recipe Required Cookbook includes 47 recipes that are more of an idea than a formula and perfect for all of you throw-it-together people.

Does a $35 subscription that comes with three cookbooks count on National Buy A Cookbook Day? Yes, I think it does.

Upgrade to Paid

Here are 10 other cookbooks to consider. Happy cookbook shopping!

One and Two

I’m starting with the two books I’ve had the longest and STILL cook from on a regular basis: Baking with Julia by and Roasting by Barbara Kafka. These were among the very first cookbooks I ever owned and were an education that I still rely on to this day.

Three and Four

The True North Cabin Cookbook Volume 1 and The True North Cookbook Volume 2, both by . One of the recipes in Volume 2 is Juicy Lucy Cheeseburger Tater Tot Hot Dish, which Stephanie taught me how to make over Substack LIVE. She baked hers in a Minnesota shaped pan. :-) You can watch that episode here.

And by the way, Stephanie’s husband is also an author, and the two of them wrote a fabulous novel with recipes that you might as well throw into your cart at the same time: The Moon Tavern by Stephanie Hansen and . It includes recipes, so it counts.

Five

Mind, Body, Spirit, Food by . When this book came out last year, Nicki and I cooked one of the recipes together on Substack LIVE, her in her New York kitchen, and me in my tiny kitchen which happened to be parked in Colorado. You can watch the replay of that super fun class right here!

Six

Untamed Mushrooms by . This book has won awards for both content and design and once you get it in your hands, you’ll understand why. The book is a fascinating tutorial about mushroom foraging but you don’t need to head out into the woods to cook the many mouthwatering recipes.

Seven

Art of The Pie by . If November isn’t the perfect time to buy a book all about pie, I don’t know what is! This gorgeous book is an education in pie baking that will not only have you dreaming of the perfect pie but give you the confidence to bake it.

Eight

Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean. This gorgeous book is the culmination of a remarkable career and is filled with Claudia’s favorite recipes from France, Greece, and Spain to Egypt, Turkey, and Morocco. Buy it for the recipes but then devote an afternoon to reading the stories.

Nine and Ten

A Feast of Thorns and Roses and A Guide to The Kitchen Quadrant by . Earlier this year I taught a creative recipe writing class with and and A Feast of Thorns and Roses was one of the examples we used in the class. The book is a brilliant compilation of recipes based on the mega-bestseller by Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses. Chelsea poured that same creative genius into A Guide To The Kitchen Quadrant which is based on Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing.

Two more fabulous lists of fabulous cookbooks:

1. Check out this list of cookbooks and food memoirs from .

2. Go down the rabbit hole of ’s journey to cook his way through a massive cookbook collection, one recipe at a time: Cook The Books

New Road Food Recipe: Chickpea Salad Sandwiches

Whether you’re heading across the country, across the world, or simply across town, this series of recipes is made for life on the move. They’re easy to make, easy to pack, and taste just as good hours later as they do fresh from the kitchen. Perfect for road trips, picnics, hikes, airplanes, potlucks, packed lunches, busy weeknights, and anywhere else you need to go.

When I was a child in elementary school, I remember my mom packing sandwiches of bread, lunchmeat, cheese, and mayo into my lunch box. Or sometimes just cheese and mayo, which I honestly preferred to the ones with lunchmeat. My sandwich was not unique. Most of the kids in my class brought something similar.

I can’t be sure of the exact timeline, but I’d guess my mayo and lunchmeat sandwich sat at room temperature for roughly five hours. And it is only now, in retrospect, that I wonder why we didn’t all have food poisoning?

I can’t be the only one with memories like this.

These days, we are advised to never leave mayonnaise at room temperature for longer than an hour, two at most. Anything longer is taking our lives into our hands. It’s a rule I follow religiously. Anything with mayo must be eaten right away or refrigerated immediately. No exceptions.

Except… that’s the advice for practically everything. Even mayonnaise that’s made without eggs or dairy. It’s like a blanket rule of food safety. Everything, we are told, is a Petri dish of dangerous bacteria if it spends more than two hours in an environment over 40°F.

My friends, I have only had food poisoning twice in my life, and both times it was terrible. I would not wish it for you and hope to never experience it again. In both instances, it was after a restaurant meal. Not once was it from the sandwiches in my lunchbox, or the leftover chicken that sat out on the table for several hours while we were engrossed in conversation with friends, or from the pot of beans that I cooked in the morning and forgot about until midafternoon.

And yet, I do not want to eat anything that includes mayonnaise if it’s been sitting out at room temperature for longer than an hour or so. The two-hours-or-less messages are enough, apparently, for me to disregard the years of experience to the contrary.

One time, I packed chicken salad sandwiches for a long travel day and when I pulled them out of the cooler they didn’t feel cold enough to me. I was suddenly certain that the lunch I’d made was guaranteed to poison us both and tossed them out. We ate truck stop food instead, and as I type this, I am aware of how irrational it was to think that the food inside a truck stop was somehow ‘safer’ than the sandwiches I’d made myself and kept in a cooler with ice.

Like I said, the message from the experts has sunk in.

When I pack sandwiches and salads made with mayonnaise on travel days, it’s always in a cooler packed with enough ice to practically freeze the contents.

When packing a cooler filled with ice isn’t practical, I rely on a homemade mayonnaise that uses aquafaba in place of eggs. Aquafaba is the liquid in a can of chickpeas, which is just one more reason to make it when preparing chickpea salad.

Now friends, is the storage advice any different for egg-based mayo and non-egg-based mayo? No, it’s not. Two hours max, the experts say.

And still, I feel much better about packing a sandwich made with egg-free mayo and chickpeas if I’m not going to be fastidious about keeping it on ice. Hence, this recipe for chickpea salad sandwiches made with egg-free mayo.

If we are bringing these on a road trip, I still pack them into a cooler, but feel that an ice pack, or a ziplock bag with a handful of ice cubes, or a few cold-from-the-refrigerator cans of sparkling water are enough to keep the temperature inside the cooler to something safe.

But I would absolutely pack these in the morning for lunch, with or without an insulated container. I would also pack these into a backpack for a hike, or for a picnic lunch without feeling any pressure to hurry up and eat.

You should not, my friends, take this as any sort of authoritative advice. As my friend often says: You’re an adult. Do what you like.

But if you also feel less nervous about packing a meat-free, egg-free meal when you know it will not be consumed within two hours, this is a great recipe.

The egg-free mayo is creamy and delicious and takes about 5 minutes to make using a food processor.

The chickpea salad comes with plenty of options, of course, so I encourage you to play around with the ingredients and the amounts until you find a combo that makes your heart sing.

Eat the chickpea salad in between slices of bread, with crackers or flatbread, stuffed inside a pita, or rolled up in a wrap.

The day I made the sandwiches you see here, we had some marinated feta in the refrigerator, so I cut the cubes into thin slices and laid them on top of the chickpea salad. The combination was delightful.

If you’re a radish fan, a few thin slices will provide a delicious crunchy, bitter contrast to the creamy chickpeas. Or add some chopped nuts, celery, bell pepper, or even halved grapes. If it sounds good, it probably will be.

One final note to all the bakers in the room: If you have a morning at home and fancy a sandwich made from fresh baked bread, this is my go-to recipe: Homemade White Bread. I’ve been baking it for 30 years. If you have a stand mixer, the hands-on time is, like, 20 minutes because the mixer does all the work.

Sometimes, as I did in the bread you see in the photos here, I swap out some of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour. Or sometimes I make this Honey Whole Wheat Bread. Both options will elevate your sandwich and give you toast the next morning that’s guaranteed to get your day off to a great start.

Here’s where you’ll find this recipe and every Road Food recipe:

Road Food: Good food that travels well

The Road Food Series is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers). It’s just one way for me to say thank you to the people who make this newsletter possible. Paid subscribers also receive three free digital cookbooks and access to The CookStack Collective.

Upgrade to Paid

One final confession:

I also sometimes lick the spoon even when there are raw eggs in the batter. 😱

New recipe: Pistachio Muffins with Pistachio Streusel!

These pistachio muffins are made with ground pistachios and creamy pistachio paste so you get so much rich, nutty flavor in every bite. Pistachio paste and sour cream are the secret to their soft, super moist, creamy texture, while cardamom and almond extract bring out the nutty flavor.

But the best part of these muffins, in my opinion, is the pistachio streusel. Oh, friends. This streusel is so delicious that it’s almost impossible to describe. It includes chopped pistachios and pistachio paste, and bakes into a thick, crumbly topping that melts on your tongue and makes these muffins feel like something special from your favorite bakery. No pudding mix or artificial food coloring required. Just pure, buttery pistachio flavor in every bite.

Recipe: Pistachio Muffins

25 Delicious Leftover Chicken Recipes (Plus Plenty of Sides)

As far as I’m concerned, this is officially roasting season. I started last week by roasting two chickens at once, side by side in one pan. On Sunday night, we filled our plates with mashed potatoes, and brown buttered carrots, and juicy slices of roast chicken, the skin crispy and crackling underneath the knife, then settled onto the couch to dig into the latest season of The Diplomat.

Later that evening, I picked the rest of the meat off the bones to use in different meals later in the week.

This is pretty much how I’d like every Sunday night to go from now until summer. There are few things I appreciate more on a Sunday night than a roast chicken dinner, and opening the refrigerator to find leftover chicken the rest of the week is a delicious bonus.

It’s not much more work to roast two chickens instead of one. If your family is large and your oven can handle it, roast three or four. Eat one for dinner that night and then use the leftover meat to make a creamy soup, a bubbling casserole, cheesy enchiladas, or a pot pie crowned with biscuits.

So, here are 25 of the best ways to use cooked leftover chicken plus sixteen side dish ideas that just might steal the show.

25 Leftover Chicken Recipes

To all my paid subscribers: This newsletter would not exist without your generous support. The CookStack Collective classes and the new Road Food series are exclusively available to you. They are two ways for me to say thank you.

Join me for the November CookStack Collective class on Tuesday, November 10 where will show us how to make one of her favorite cozy fall dishes: Cabbage-Wrapped Chicken Parm Meatballs! Here’s where to get more information and register!

❤️ 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?

Whether you’re heading across the country, across the world, or simply across town, this series of recipes is made for life on the move. They’re easy to make, easy to pack, and taste just as good hours later as they do fresh from the kitchen. Perfect for road trips, picnics, hikes, airplanes, potlucks, packed lunches, busy weeknights, and anywhere else you need to go.

This series of recipes is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers).

Chickpea Salad Sandwiches

When I was a child in elementary school, I remember my mom packing sandwiches of bread, lunchmeat, cheese, and mayo into my lunch box. Or sometimes just cheese and mayo, which I honestly preferred to the ones with lunchmeat. My sandwich was not unique. Most of the kids in my class brought something similar.

I can’t be sure of the exact timeline, but I’d guess my mayo and lunchmeat sandwich sat at room temperature for roughly five hours. And it is only now, in retrospect, that I wonder why we didn’t all have food poisoning?

I can’t be the only one with memories like this.

These days, we are advised to never leave mayonnaise at room temperature for longer than an hour, two at most. Anything longer is taking our lives into our hands. It’s a rule I follow religiously. Anything with mayo must be eaten right away or refrigerated immediately. No exceptions.

Except… that’s the advice for practically everything. Even mayonnaise that’s made without eggs or dairy. It’s like a blanket rule of food safety. Everything, we are told, is a Petri dish of dangerous bacteria if it spends more than two hours in an environment over 40°F.

My friends, I have only had food poisoning twice in my life, and both times it was terrible. I would not wish it for you and hope to never experience it again. Both times it was after a restaurant meal. Not once was it from the sandwiches in my lunchbox, or the leftover chicken that sat out on the table for several hours while we were engrossed in conversation with friends, or from the pot of beans that I cooked in the morning and forgot about until midafternoon.

And yet, I do not want to eat anything that includes mayonnaise if it’s been sitting out at room temperature for longer than an hour or so. The two-hours-or-less messages are enough, apparently, for me to disregard the years of experience to the contrary.

One time, I packed chicken salad sandwiches for a long travel day and when I pulled them out of the cooler they didn’t feel cold enough to me. I was suddenly certain that the lunch I’d made was guaranteed to poison us both and tossed them out. We ate truck stop food instead, and as I type this, I am aware of how irrational it was to think that the food inside a truck stop was somehow ‘safer’ than the sandwiches I’d made myself and kept in a cooler with ice.

Like I said, I got the message.

When I pack sandwiches and salads made with mayonnaise on travel days, it’s always in a cooler packed with enough ice to practically freeze the contents.

When packing a cooler filled with ice isn't practical, I rely on a homemade mayonnaise that uses aquafaba in place of eggs. Aquafaba is the liquid in a can of chickpeas, which is just one more reason to make it when preparing chickpea salad.

Now friends, is the storage advice any different for egg-based mayo and non-egg-based mayo? No, it’s not. Two hours max, the experts say.

And still, I feel much better about packing a sandwich made with egg-free mayo and chickpeas if I’m not going to be fastidious about keeping it on ice. Hence, this recipe for chickpea salad sandwiches made with egg-free mayo.

If we are bringing these on a road trip, I still pack them into a cooler, but feel that an ice pack, or a ziplock bag with a handful of ice cubes, or a few cold-from-the-refrigerator cans of sparkling water are enough to keep the temperature inside the cooler to something safe.

But I would absolutely pack these in the morning for lunch, with or without an insulated container. I would also pack these into a backpack for a hike, or for a picnic lunch without feeling any pressure to hurry up and eat.

You should not, my friends, take this as any sort of authoritative advice. As my friend often says: You’re an adult. Do what you like.

But if you also feel less nervous about packing a meat-free, egg-free meal when you know it will not be consumed within two hours, this is a great recipe.

The egg-free mayo is creamy and delicious and takes about 5 minutes to make using a food processor.

The chickpea salad comes with plenty of options, of course, so I encourage you to play around with the ingredients and the amounts until you find a combo that makes your heart sing.

Eat the chickpea salad in between slices of bread, with crackers or flatbread, stuffed inside a pita, or rolled up in a wrap.

The day I made the sandwiches you see here, we had some marinated feta in the refrigerator, so I cut the cubes into thin slices and laid them on top of the chickpea salad. The combination was delightful.

If you’re a radish fan, a few thin slices will provide a delicious crunchy, bitter contrast to the creamy chickpeas. Or add some chopped nuts, celery, bell pepper, or even halved grapes. If it sounds good, it probably will be.

One final note to all the bakers in the room: If you have a morning at home and fancy a sandwich made from fresh baked bread, this is my go-to recipe: Homemade White Bread. I’ve been baking it for 30 years. If you have a stand mixer, the hands-on time is, like, 20 minutes because the mixer does all the work.

Sometimes, as I did in the bread you see in the photos here, I swap out some of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour. Or sometimes I make this Honey Whole Wheat Bread. Both options will elevate your sandwich and give you toast then next morning that’s guaranteed to get your day off to a great start.

More road food recipes:

I have follow up questions around running a creative business on the road…. Can we do a Substack Live? On the agenda: batching work, scheduling in various time zones, staying focused, work/life balance, etc etc etc.

Well, sure!

As you’ll see in this recording, I forgot what time zone I’m currently in and was 30 minutes late to our conversation. This mixup was appropriate, I suppose, since one of Laurie’s first questions was about how I manage different time zones when scheduling my life.

Ummmmm, sometimes not very well. 😂

Talking with Laurie is always a treat so even though we only had 30 minutes to cover a lot of ground, she made talking about our life on the road and managing all the moving parts of running a business so easy and fun. I hope you find something interesting, useful, or entertaining in our conversation!

xo

-Rebecca

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 or recipe developer? Here are three resources just for you!

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 or recipe developer? Here are three resources just for you!

10 things worth sharing

I was inspired this week by my friend , who published a list of 10 things worth sharing. I decided to follow her lead in this week’s issue, starting with an invitation to join Laurie and me on Tuesday for a LIVE conversation about living, working, and running a business from the road.

#1: Join me LIVE this week

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about some of the frequently asked questions we get about our life as nomads without a home base. responded to that post with this comment:

I have follow up questions around running a creative business on the road…. Can we do a Substack Live? On the agenda: batching work, scheduling in various time zones, staying focused, work/life balance, etc etc etc.

Well, sure!

Join Laurie and me this Tuesday, October 27th at 11:00am Eastern to talk about living, working, and running a business from the road.

Join us LIVE

#2. Baking with Anne

Earlier this week, my pastry chef daughter and I taught a class on Substack LIVE about how to make a German Apple Pie. We offer tips about what pie crust to use and how to cut the apples, and we show you how to make a regular-size pie or cute little four-inch mini pies!

German Apple Pie is seriously one of the easiest and creamiest apple pies I’ve ever baked. The filling is simply apples coated in cinnamon and sugar, covered in cream and sprinkled with sugar. And oh my, is it delicious!

#3. Book proposal hot seat

In the middle of a conversation with Kelsey Erin Shipman on Monday, she asked if I’d be willing to talk over Substack LIVE about a book proposal I’m working on. Kelsey is the master of book proposals, so I would never in a million years turn down a chance to get her advice and feedback. I knew I’d get a lot out of our conversation, and I was not disappointed. Here’s where to watch it.

Also, yes, I am writing the book we discuss in this conversation. 🙂

#4. New Road Food Recipe: Pumpkin Miso Chocolate Chip Cake!

Why have I never thought to pair pumpkin and miso before? It’s a lavishly interesting combination. I’m picturing it in soup, pasta, and maybe gnocchi? Maybe some kind of roasted pumpkin salad?

Or maybe just more of this cake.

This pumpkin miso chocolate chip cake combines pumpkin, maple syrup, cinnamon, and cloves with all the interesting flavors of white miso and little pockets of semisweet chocolate. This cake is dense but not heavy, exceptionally moist, and not too sweet. Wrap slices individually for road trips, picnics, and packed lunches, or freeze a stash for another day.

Get the recipe: Pumpkin Miso Chocolate Chip Cake

#5. SEO for Food Writers

This is the latest class in The Food Writers Business Lab and it’s one of the most important, challenging, frustrating, and essential topics for food writers today. SEO has always been a moving target and a thorn in the side of recipe creators and food writers who just want to do good work and put it out there into the world. But, it’s especially thorny at the moment with AI taking over, well, everything.

And still, anyone who publishes anything online knows that hitting the publish button is only part of the story. Your work also has to get found. That’s what this class is about. It’s a messy subject. But also more important than ever.

#6. New Recipe! Roasted Carrot Soup

This soup is so stereotypically fall it’s almost satirical. Having said that, I don’t want you to think for one moment that it’s predictable, and it’s certainly not boring.

Roasting intensifies the flavor of the carrots and adds some complexity that didn’t exist before the veggies went into the oven. I think of roasting as giving nature a hand. Like, ok, thank you, mother nature for putting all that sweet, earthy flavor in these carrots, but I’ll take it from here.

Aside from roasting the carrots, the only other steps involved here are making a quick broth and then pureeing everything in a blender. Peeling the carrots is the most time-consuming step. And if you use baby carrots, you don’t even need to do that. Get the recipe: Roasted Carrot Soup

#7. Pumpkin muffins with no butter or oil

Kalee Tilli - Table Root Farm and Rose Huxford have been talking about pumpkin everything this month and sharing so many mouthwatering recipes that I had to bake one of them.

Rose shared a recipe for dairy and oil free pumpkin donuts (get the recipe here) and then Kalee turned them into muffins. I did the same, but added some chopped apples because I have a refrigerator full of them.

They were so good! I am genuinely impressed with how tender and moist they are with absolutely no butter or oil.

#8. The Magnolia Palace

I just finished reading The Magnolia Palace and then had the pleasure of an evening chat about the book with three friends, all of us in different states. We organized the conversation over Zoom, and I can’t think of a better way to spend a Thursday night.

The book is my favorite kind of historical fiction in that the author does a great job of weaving a fictional story into historical facts. One of the main characters is based on Audrey Munson, a tragic figure known as America’s first supermodel.

#9. Motorcycles and cheeseburger quesadillas

Steve and I have covered the entire country on this motorcycle. Before we moved into the RV, when we still lived in Colorado, we rode it through every single state except Hawaii (we rented a bike in Hawaii). We even rode it all the way up to Alaska.

These days the motorcycle gets a lift in the RV when we are traveling long distances. And, now that we spend our summers on a sailboat, it doesn’t get ridden as much as it used to. But, there is still nothing quite like the feeling of freedom that comes with my arms around Steve’s waist and a stretch of open road, even if we are just riding down a highway to a restaurant in North Platte, Nebraska, which is what we did last weekend.

We discovered Pal’s Brewing Company several years ago and make a point to go there whenever we are in the area. On a visit last year, I ordered their cheeseburger quesadilla and liked it so much that I came home and made my own version. Here’s where you can get the recipe: Cheeseburger Quesadilla

#10. Breakfast tostadas

These breakfast tostadas are, hands down, one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast or any time of the day. A crispy fried corn tortilla topped with scrambled eggs, spicy Peruvian green sauce (Aji sauce), and chopped cherry tomatoes. I made the sauce yesterday, so the whole thing took maybe 10 minutes.

I published the recipe for Aji Sauce in this issue from 2024. I can imagine very few things a spoonful of this herby, savory, slightly spicy sauce doesn’t make more delicious. Making it requires nothing more than piling all the ingredients into a blender and pressing the power button, so the effort to reward ratio is heavily skewed to the reward side. Just as we like it.

Also, try Aji Sauce on these Saucy Salmon and Rice Bowls. These super simple, extremely versatile salmon bowls are the kind of thing I love to make when I want a meal that tastes decadent, feels virtuous, and doesn’t take a lot of effort. In other words, salmon bowls are on the menu all the time at our house.

To all my paid subscribers: This newsletter would not exist without your generous support. The CookStack Collective classes and the new Road Food series are exclusively available to you. They are two ways for me to say thank you.

Join me for the November CookStack Collective class where will show us how to make one of her favorite cozy fall dishes: Cabbage-Wrapped Chicken Parm Meatballs! Here’s where to get more information and register!

❤️ 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?

Whether you’re heading across the country, across the world, or simply across town, this series of recipes is made for life on the move. They’re easy to make, easy to pack, and taste just as good hours later as they do fresh from the kitchen. Perfect for road trips, picnics, hikes, airplanes, potlucks, packed lunches, busy weeknights, and anywhere else you need to go.

This series of recipes is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers).

If you were to suddenly show up at my home and invite yourself inside, and then start rummaging around in my freezer, there’s a high probability that you’d find the following items (also, that would be weird): Frozen chicken thighs, ground beef, and some kind of fish. Frozen strawberries, blueberries, and bananas. At least one package of frozen spinach or kale. Ice cream, always and forever. A couple of unbaked frozen dinner rolls and buttermilk biscuits. Balls of chocolate chip pecan cookie dough. And individually wrapped slices of ’s Maple Miso Loaf.

The recipe is in Baking with Dori, a book I got soon after it was published, and that Maple Miso Loaf was the first thing I baked from it. To be perfectly honest, I haven’t baked much else from the book because every time I flip through the pages, I just end up baking another Maple Miso Loaf.

Here’s what I love about it: It’s both sweet and savory, has a complex, nuanced flavor, is dense but not heavy, and exceptionally moist. It also freezes well and is one of the best things to take with us on road trips and sailing days. If you’ve been with me on either a road trip or a sailing day, there’s an excellent chance I’ve handed you a slice.

Dori’s cake was the first time I’d ever baked with miso, an oversight I have been working to correct ever since.

Exhibit A: Maple Miso Brown Butter Frosting.

Exhibit B: This Pumpkin Miso Chocolate Chip Cake

My freezer will always have room for slices of Dori’s cake. But, friends, from now on, there is also going to be room in there for this pumpkin miso chocolate chip cake. Possibly an entire shelf.

Why have I never thought to pair pumpkin and miso before? It’s a lavishly interesting combination. I’m picturing it in soup, pasta, and maybe gnocchi? Maybe some kind of roasted pumpkin salad?

Or maybe just more of this cake.

Just like Dori’s recipe and this recipe for Walnut Chocolate Chip Spice Cake, this is a cake that freezes well and is easy to take with you. If you’re going on a road trip, camping trip, to a BBQ, or a picnic, THIS is the cake you want to make for it. But also, pack it into lunches, for your afternoon commute, or maybe just for the walk from your door to the mailbox. Because, this is a recipe that travels well but I don’t want you to have to wait for a travel situation to make it.

Pumpkin Miso Chocolate Chip Cake

Road food notes: Stays soft and fresh for 3-4 days • Individually wrapped slices travel well • Not too sweet • Pumpkin and white miso create a sweet and savory combo with a layered, nuanced flavor • Freezes well

More road food recipes:

In this class, my pastry chef daughter Anne and I show you how to make it. We offer tips about what pie crust to use, how to cut the apples, and show you how to make a regular size pie or several 4-inch mini pies.

Here’s where you’ll find the recipe: German Apple Pie

If you want to make mini-pies, you have a couple of different options. This recipe will make two 6-inch pies. Or, cut the recipe in half to make one 6-inch pie. I have these 6.8-inch ceramic pie plates and I love them. Most pie recipes can be cut in half to bake one 6-inch pie, which is perfect for two people.

The other option is to make four 4-inch pies, which is what you see me holding up in the video. I have this set of 4-inch pie tins and a box of disposable 4-inch pie plates.

I’m experimenting with the disposable pie plates as a great option for the Road Food series. Because, I mean, who doesn’t want a little individually sized pie for a road trip, picnic, camping trip, or packed lunch???

About Rebecca Blackwell

Hello! I’m Rebecca Blackwell, writer, recipe developer, and food photographer. My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat.

While I have cooked professionally, I am a home cook and baker who writes recipes for other home cooks and bakers. My home happens to have wheels, and occasionally sails, which should tell you that if the recipes work in my tiny kitchen, they will certainly work in yours. Find out more about Rebecca and this newsletter.

About Anne Blackwell

Anne Blackwell is a chef who specializes in recipe testing, food photography, and video. After culinary school, Anne worked as the Sous Chef for the Keystone Conference Center in Colorado before moving to Denver to work on the pastry team at the Denver Convention Center.

In 2025, Anne joined her mom, Rebecca, as the recipe tester, videographer and photographer for the recipes published here and on Of Batter and Dough.

Perhaps it goes without saying, but Rebecca is bursting with pride and pleased as punch to be working with her.

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

Are you a fellow food writer or recipe developer? Here are three resources just for you!

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 or recipe developer? Here are three resources just for you!

What to pack for a two day road trip

After 5 months in Michigan, Steve and I packed up and left last weekend, traveling through Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa before parking ourselves in Nebraska, where we’ll stay for the next couple of weeks.

We are in a nearly empty campground next to water. The air is cool and crisp, the leaves are turning to gold, and it’s blissfully quiet.

We split the drive from Michigan to Nebraska into two days and spent Saturday night in the Cabela’s parking lot in Omaha.

We’ve been doing this whole traveling around the country thing for a while now, nearly seven years, and every time I don’t pack food for the journey, I regret it.

One time, as we tried to stop for lunch somewhere in Oregon, we got stuck, like actually stuck, in an on-ramp that was too small for our 43-foot 5th wheel. In our defense, the sign that said “No Trucks” was placed about halfway up the ramp, about 200 yards past where it would have been useful. We obviously got out eventually but let me tell you, it was an ordeal.

Anyhoo, most of the time, and especially after that experience in Oregon, we stop for lunch in truck stops when we’re pulling the trailer.

When my past self has been kind enough to pack us lunch, we pull it out and eat it in the truck and then get back on the road. When past Rebecca has been lazy and just not felt like going through the trouble of preparing and packing food for the drive, we eat whatever is available to us in whatever truck stop we happen to be in.

This is almost always a mistake and generally results in both of us feeling like shit a few hours later.

So, last week, I decided to do us both a favor and put some thought into what we were going to eat on the drive. Here’s what I packed:

• Meatball marinara wraps

• Slices of walnut chocolate chip spice cake

• Turkish Chicken Salad with Sumac Pickled Onions and Yogurt Dill Dressing

• Slices of blueberry loaf cake

• Also, a bag of roasted almonds, a couple of protein bars for breakfast, and a few apples.

Meatball Marinara Wraps

These start with one of my absolute favorite meals: homemade meatballs in marinara sauce. This is one of the most popular recipes I’ve ever published and possibly the one I’ve made the most over the years.

I made the meatballs and marinara on Thursday and put it all in the refrigerator. Well, not all of it. We had to eat a few, of course.

On Friday, I made a few homemade flour tortillas. We ate a few of those too. But, once the remaining tortillas were cool, I laid a couple of them out on large pieces of aluminum foil and placed four meatballs down the center of each one.

I spooned some marinara sauce over the top of the meatballs and then covered them with shredded mozzarella cheese. Then I folded the tortilla over all of it like a big, fat burrito, wrapped them tightly in the foil, and put them in the fridge.

I failed to take any photos of this process because I was too engrossed in the audiobook I was listening to, something I regret now, but also it was such a good book that I’m cutting myself some slack. (More about the book later.)

On Saturday morning, while we were getting ready to go, I put the wraps in a preheated 350°F oven for about 30 minutes, until they were hot and all the cheese was melted. Then I packed them into this insulated container and put it in the truck.

Somewhere down the road, we pulled out our meatball wraps and chowed down. I will say that I waited a bit too long to get them out for us. We didn’t eat them until 2:00pm, and they would have been warmer an hour or two before. But, they were still quite delicious and MUCH better than anything we could have gotten at the truck stop we were parked in.

Later that afternoon, I pulled out slices of walnut chocolate chip spice cake, individually wrapped and frozen weeks earlier.

A few hours in the truck gave our slices of cake plenty of time to thaw, and they were the essential sweet treat we needed to combat that mid-afternoon lull. Also, by that point we had been driving through corn fields for quite some time and, no offense to corn fields, the first few are lovely, but after a few hundred miles, you need something to break up the monotony. And by something, I mean cake.

Here’s a fun fact I learned as we drove through miles of corn fields: In Nebraska, cows outnumber people 3 to 1.

On Sunday morning, I got up and assembled these salads for our lunch, using chicken, sumac pickled onions, and yogurt dill dressing that I had also prepared on the previous Thursday. I packed the containers into a cooler along with slices of blueberry loaf cake from the freezer.

The recipes:

• Homemade Flour Tortillas

• Meatballs in Marinara

• Walnut Chocolate Chip Spice Cake

• Turkish Chicken Salad with Sumac Pickled Onions and Yogurt Dill Dressing

• Blueberry Loaf Cake (I froze individually wrapped slices without the glaze)

I will say that wrapping meatballs in a tortilla with some sauce is my new favorite thing. The first time I tried it was for these Middle Eastern Meatball Wraps, which are just as good warm as at room temperature, making them another excellent choice for road trips or any kind of packed lunch.

I foresee more meatball wraps in my future, starting with these sheet pan Greek meatballs, with tzatziki sauce for dipping, of course.

Also, having slices of frozen loaf cake in your freezer is a wonderful thing. Aside from the aforementioned blueberry loaf cake and walnut chocolate chip spice cake, these are my favorite recipes to make ahead, slice, wrap, and freeze for later:

• Chocolate Loaf Cake

• Lemon Olive Oil Loaf Cake

• Vanilla Loaf Cake

How to make a German Apple Pie

This is seriously one of the easiest and creamiest apple pies I’ve ever baked. The filling is simply cinnamon and sugar-coated apples covered in cream and sprinkled with sugar. And oh my, is it delicious!

In this class, my pastry chef daughter Anne and I show you how to make it. We offer tips about what pie crust to use, how to cut the apples, and show you how to make a regular size pie or several 4-inch mini pies.

Who Writes What

is a writer, cookbook author, and member of the Guild of Food Writers. She also writes FoodStak, a place to discover people who write about food. She just launched a brand new podcast, Who Writes What, and I was so honored to be her very first guest.

I’ve been on enough podcasts to know that not all hosts are created equal, and Lynn is one of the best. She was well prepared and made sure I had all the information I needed before we started. I was at ease from the start and able to relax and just enjoy the conversation. Talking with her was a genuine pleasure!

If you’d like to watch/ listen, here’s where you’ll find it.

Tips for baking better biscuits!

Earlier this week I was inspired by the incomparable , who spontaneously started a Substack LIVE while making a batch of scones. That afternoon, while making biscuits for dinner, I did the same thing and recorded this short six-minute tutorial about how to bake biscuits with a whole lot of tall, flakey layers.

Here’s where to get the recipe: The Ultimate Buttermilk Biscuits

And, here’s how the biscuits that I made in the video came out!

Who to follow according to Chelsea Cole

I was absolutely bursting with pride to be included in this list of Substack food writers. is a three times published cookbook author, recipe developer, and founder of The Cookbook Lab. When her cookbook writing students asked her for recommendations about who to follow on Substack, she gave them this list. And I’m on it.

I am going to print and frame it just to prove I was ever included in a list with these names.

Cookbook in Progress

Writing a cookbook? Here’s who I’d follow.

Yesterday, I asked the students in my Commissary program if they’d like a list of my favorite Substacks to follow when it comes to cookbook writing, and put together what I think is a pretty dang good list…

Read more

11 days ago · 12 likes · 11 comments · Chelsea Cole

By the way, if you’re a Fourth Wing fan, you MUST check out Chelsea’s most recent cookbook, A Guide to The Kitchen Quadrant: The Unofficial Fourth Wing Cookbook.

Recommended reading

I’ve read several really wonderful novels in the past couple of months and have been remiss in not mentioning them to you. If you’re looking for your next great read, these are two of my favorites:

• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Oh how I loved this book. I read it in early September while Steve and I were on a sailing trip. The book takes place in Michigan, much of it in Grand Traverse Bay, which just happened to be where we were sailing on our trip. I loved it so much that I also downloaded it in audio and Steve and I listened to it together during the drive from Michigan to Nebraska.

• The Calamity Club by Katheryn Stockett. Katheryn Stockett’s first book, The Help is one of my all time favorites, so when my friend mentioned that the audio version of The Calamity Club was wonderful, I downloaded it on the spot. I couldn’t stop listening. I listened at every chance I got, even when I only had 2 minutes to brush my teeth. The book will break your heart, make you laugh, piss you off, and fill you with delight.

New Cookbook from Anna Vocino!

My friend has a brand new cookbook out and it’s fabulous. How could it not be?

This is Anna’s FOURTH book and if that wasn’t impressive enough, she’s also a comedian, recipe developer, and food photographer with an extensive product line, a best selling Substack newsletter, AND is a professional voice talent. My oldest daughter got a little bit starstruck when I told her that Anna was the voice for Vicki Vale in Lego Batman.

But seriously, you should take a look at her IMDb page. It’s extraordinary, and there’s zero chance you haven’t watched a movie or a show that she’s worked on.

Anna’s recipes are always gluten free, and almost always keto, low carb, NSNG (No Sugars No Grains), Whole 30, and grain free. Get your hands on a copy of her latest book and thank me later.

Also, I had a great conversation with Anna a few weeks ago about how she juggles all those balls and makes it look so damn easy. You can watch/ listen to that here.

Coffee Break Chat with Anna Vocino

It’s pumpkin season, baby

I make this pumpkin chocolate chip bread once a year and then I wonder why I only make it once a year. I am generally not a pumpkin spice kind of girl, but I do love pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread and have spent a fair amount of time drooling over the pumpkin recipes that have begun to appear on my screen every time I open up my laptop.

and launched a new collaboration earlier this month where the two of them dive into one seasonal ingredient, examine its nutritional profile, and then tell you what to do with it. This month the featured ingredient is pumpkin and I can’t wait to make Kalee’s Shredded Pumpkin and Kale Salad and Rose’s Pumpkin Donuts!

A few more delicious ways to get your pumpkin fix this month:

• Pumpkin Oat Breakfast Bars from

• Pumpkin Black Sesame Rolls from

• Pumpkin Soft Pretzels from

To all my paid subscribers: This newsletter would not exist without your generous support. The CookStack Collective classes and the new Road Food series are exclusively available to you. They are two ways for me to say thank you.

Yesterday’s CookStack Collective Class with was absolutely delightful. Nicki showed us how to make two seasonal staples — a whipped ricotta dip and a grain-free pumpkin apple cake — alongside simple practices for cooking with more intention and joy.

For those of you who were able to join us, thank you for being there. It was fun to see some familiar faces on the screen. If you missed it, here’s where you’ll find the replay and the recipes, and where you can register for the November Class with !

The CookStack Collective

❤️ 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?

Quick Links:

• The CookStack Collective: I am honored to be one of 12 incredible food writers, bakers, cooks, and teachers in the CookStack Collective. Together, we’ve created a year-long series of live cooking classes that are all about cooking with and learning from one another. Also, we are a hoot! This is a party you’re going to want to attend.

• Discover New Recipes: You’ll find new recipes here every single week.

• The Archive: Where you can scroll through and read every issue of Let’s Get Lost.

• Classes: Here you’ll find information about upcoming classes and the replay links for past classes.

• People Watching: These are illustrated short stories based on people I’ve seen during our travels. While the inspiration comes from people watching, the stories themselves are works of fiction.

• The Lost Supper Club: Exclusive content for paid subscribers

• The Recipe Index: A complete index of every recipe published in Let’s Get Lost + downloadable recipe cards for every recipe. The index is a perk of membership in The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers).

• Notes: Notes is Substack’s internal social media platform and it’s where I share a lot about what I’m up to and what I’m reading

• Resources for Food Writers: Mastermind for Food Writers + The Food Writers Business Lab + 1:1 SEO Coaching and Consulting

• Where you’ll find my two recipe websites: A Little and A Lot and Of Batter and Dough

About Rebecca

Hi, 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. Or, you might not know me at all. Either way, let me tell you what’s happening here.

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.

While I have cooked professionally, I am a home cook and baker who writes recipes for other home cooks and bakers. My home happens to have wheels, and occasionally sails, which should tell you that if the recipes work in my tiny kitchen, they will certainly work in yours.

In addition to sharing recipes, I write about life on the road and on the water and what it means to navigate the conflicting desires for freedom and community, autonomy and connection, stability and adventure. The human experience is fraught with contradiction and life on the road has a way of laying that bare.

I write with as much honesty as I can muster. I am an optimist to the core even when life is unbearable. I am driven by freedom, new experiences, creativity, and words.

And I am glad that you’re here.

“Rebecca’s newsletter is filled with heart. In the stories she writes, the recipes she shares and the feelings she evokes. It’s one of my favorites.” - Sandra

What you’ll find here

Recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure. Served up by a full time nomad with a generous helping of humor and honesty, and a pinch of snark.

• The Let’s Get Lost Newsletter comes out every Saturday morning and is free all subscribers. Every issue includes stories and photos from the road and on the water plus a weekly menu of new recipes inspired by the places we visit and the people we meet.

• A VIP section for Lost Supper Club Members (paid subscribers). 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 (more about that below).

The Let’s Get Lost Newsletter is available to everyone, for free. This is only possible because of the generous support of paid subscribers.

As a thank you, Lost Supper Club Members have access to exclusive content and some cool free stuff:

• The CookStack Collective: Twelve chefs. Twelve classes. One very good reason to join The Lost Supper Club. I am honored to be one of 12 incredible food writers, bakers, cooks, and teachers in the CookStack Collective. Together, we’ve created a year-long series of live cooking classes designed to get us into our kitchens, cooking and learning from one another.

• FREE BOOKS! Members of The Lost Supper Club can download the digital versions of Let’s Get Lost, Vol 1 and The No Recipe Required Cookbook for FREE! Click here to find out more about these books.

• Access to the Road Food Series. Whether you’re heading across the country, across the world, or simply across town, this series of recipes is made for life on the move. They’re easy to make, easy to pack, and taste just as good hours later as they do fresh from the kitchen. Perfect for road trips, picnics, hikes, airplanes, potlucks, packed lunches, busy weeknights, and anywhere else you need to go.

FOUNDING MEMBERS are people who have chosen to support this publication with a donation that is truly above and beyond. Every founding member receives a signed, hard cover copy of Let’s Get Lost, The Cookbook, Vol 1, mailed to them personally by me. (Regular price: $87.49)

Upgrade to paid

"This is a delightful site with great stories, recipes from a fabulous lady!! So proud to subscribe." - Carol

The Let’s Get Lost Cookbooks

The Let’s Get Lost Cookbooks, Vol 1 and 2 are the culmination of many of the recipes and stories I published in this newsletter in 2024 and 2025. They include nearly 250 recipes with full color photos of every dish and, scattered amongst the recipes, a handful of the stories from our life on the road.

The Let's Get Lost Cookbooks

Twelve chefs. Twelve classes. One delicious reason to upgrade.

I am honored to be one of 12 incredible food writers, bakers, cooks, and teachers in the CookStack Collective. Together, we’ve created a year-long series of live cooking classes that are all about cooking with and learning from one another.

Also, we are a hoot! This is a party you’re going to want to attend.

Over the twelve months, paid subscribers get access to a monthly live Zoom class featuring a different host, fresh recipes, and the chance to cook along, ask questions, and learn directly from some very talented cooks.

Access to The CookStack Collective is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers). In addition to all the other perks, paid subscribers receive:

• 12 live Zoom cooking classes

• Recipes and class materials

• Access to every recording

• The opportunity to cook alongside some incredibly talented teachers

A paid subscription is just $35 a year. Paid subscribers also receive THREE free cookbooks and other exclusive content throughout the year. If you’ve been thinking about upgrading, this is a deliciously good reason.

Upgrade to paid

The Complete Class Calendar!

July: ME!!!

I was tickled pink to kick off the very first CookStack Collective class! I led the class from the galley of our sailboat where we made three fresh, easy summer meals that are exactly the kind of food I want to eat in the middle of summer and especially when we are on the boat: A colorful hummus platter, sesame chicken salad, and watermelon and feta salad.

August: Betty Williams

Friday, August 21, 2026, 3 pm EST: Join Betty Williams for a fermentation primer and learn to make 2 kinds of Korean kimchi: quick-pickled Cucumber Kimchi and fermented Cabbage Kimchi.

September: Anna Vocino

Sunday, September 20, 2026: Join Anna Vocino to cook through some of the best recipes from her new cookbook, Eat Happy Cocktail Hour! Anna will show us how to make some low-carb party food, including Low Carb GF Pigs In A Blanket, Caprese Martini, Dill Pickle Ranch Dip, and Pom Pom Mocktails.

October: Nicki Sizemore

Friday, October 16, 2026, 1 pm EST: Join Nicki Sizemore to make two seasonal staples — a whipped ricotta dip and a grain-free pumpkin apple cake — alongside simple practices for cooking with more intention and joy.

November: Kerry Faber

Tuesday, November 10, 2026, 4 pm EST: Join Kerry Faber to make a cozy fall favorite, Cabbage-Wrapped Chicken Parm Meatballs!

December: Stephanie Hansen

Friday, December 4, 2026, 6pm EST: Join Stephanie Hansen to make three holiday recipes including Baked Brie with Sun Dried Tomatoes, Cranberry Jalapeño Salsa, and Roasted Shrimp!

January: Rachel Ciordas

Sunday, January 24, 2027, 4 pm Eastern: Join Rachel Ciordas to make Focaccia Pizza, Ice Water Salad, and a Champagne Cocktail, all Gluten Free!

February: Emma Frisch

Tuesday, February 27, 2027, 12 pm EST: Join Emma Frisch to make a Classic Italian Bolognese Pasta with a Frisch Twist + batch-cooking for families, tips for picky eaters, and dietary restrictions

March: Kate McDermott

Tuesday, March 16, 2027, 7 PM Eastern: Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, join Kate McDermott and learn to make a Classic Irish Apple Tart in this virtual session live from her Pie Cottage kitchen. You will receive a bonus recipe for a delicious custard sauce to serve with the tart, too!

April: Lolly Martyn

Sunday, April 18, 2027, 1 pm EST/7 pm Italy time CET: Join Lolly Martyn to meal prep like an Italian nonna: We’ll make the simply delicious family favorite pasta e ceci (chickpeas) and effortlessly whip up some veggie broth and sugo (red sauce) for your freezer or fridge at the same time!

May: Steve Sabicer

Friday, May 7, 2027, 3 PM EST: Buying the Best Meat. Join butcher and sustainable food advocate, Steve Sabicer, for a practical one-hour workshop on navigating today’s confusing meat landscape. Learn what meat labels actually mean, how to buy on a budget, and the questions you should ask your butcher, meat counter, or online vendor. You’ll also learn a few simple at-home butchery techniques to help stretch your dollars with minimal effort.

June: Sheryl O’Connell

Thursday, June 3, 2027, 1 pm EST: Join Sheryl O’Connell for a fresh, summer-themed class featuring legume-based, portable salads.

Whether you’re heading across the country, across the world, or simply across town, this series of recipes is made for life on the move. They’re easy to make, easy to pack, and taste just as good hours later as they do fresh from the kitchen. Perfect for road trips, picnics, hikes, airplanes, potlucks, packed lunches, busy weeknights, and anywhere else you need to go.

This series of recipes is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers).

After 5 months in Michigan, Steve and I packed up and left last weekend, traveling through Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa before parking ourselves in Nebraska, where we’ll stay for the next couple of weeks.

We split the drive from Michigan to Nebraska into 2 days and spent Saturday night in the Cabela’s parking lot in Omaha. On Sunday morning, I got up and assembled these salads for our lunch, using chicken, pickled sumac onions, and yogurt dill dressing that I had prepared a couple of days prior. I packed the containers into a cooler along with slices of walnut chocolate chip spice cake from the freezer.

This is how I save us from truck stop food on long travel days. We ate our lunch in the truck while parked at a rest stop somewhere along I-80, and it was honestly so much better than anything we could have picked up on the way.

Every part of this salad is quick and easy to prepare in advance. I made the Turkish chicken, pickled sumac onions, and yogurt dill dressing on Thursday, packing them in the refrigerator along with a container of greens and a cucumber.

Sunday morning, it only took me about 5 minutes to fill two containers with greens, a chopped cucumber, cold pieces of chicken, and some pickled onions. I packed our salads into a cooler along with the jar of dressing, which we poured onto our salads right before eating.

The chicken is inspired by Turkish kebabs. Chunks of boneless, skinless chicken thighs marinate for a few hours in a garlicky pepper and paprika yogurt mixture before baking in the oven. Once cool, the pieces of chicken will keep well in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and are delicious eaten cold.

The pickled sumac onions take less than 10 minutes to prepare and keep well in the refrigerator for at least two weeks.

The yogurt dill dressing requires nothing more than adding all the ingredients to a blender or a food processor and blending everything until smooth. It will also keep well in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

And that’s it. Add some greens and a chopped cucumber and you’re set.

You, of course, do not have to relegate this salad to road trips or packed lunches. This is the kind of salad that travels well, but traveling is not required. It does lend itself to advance preparation, however, which is something that I think we all can appreciate.

If you have some time to cook the chicken, pickle the onions, and mix up the dressing on Sunday afternoon, for example, you have a nearly ready-to-eat meal waiting for you. And that is always a good thing.

Recipe notes:

• If you can’t find Aleppo pepper in your local supermarket, it’s easy to find online. This is the brand I almost always have on hand: The Spice Way Ground Aleppo Pepper (When I clicked over to Amazon to find the Aleppo pepper link, it informed me that I’ve purchased it 15 times already this year and it’s barely October. I might be obsessed.)

More road food recipes

My favorite recipe: The Ultimate Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

For all of you who love biscuits as much as I do, here’s a blueberry biscuit recipe that’s absolutely loaded with blueberries and cinnamon sugar biscuits!

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 or recipe developer? Here are three resources just for you!

Questions and Answers about life on the road

Steve and I have been living in an RV and traveling around the country with no home base since early 2020. I received several questions this week about the logistics of how we manage a nomadic life and realized it’s been a while since I’ve talked about the nuts and bolts of life on the road. So, I’m answering some of those questions in this issue.

Do you have questions I haven’t covered here? Ask them in the comments!

Q: How do you get your mail?

A: This is one of the first questions everyone asks us, so it seems a good place to start. We are from Colorado, but changed our residency to South Dakota when we moved into the RV because it’s one of the only states that will let you use a mailbox as your permanent address.

There’s a company there called Dakota Post that opened a mailbox for us. Our address is their building plus our box number. They scan all our mail and upload the photos for us so we can see when anyone sends us something. Periodically, when there’s something in there that we want, we have them forward it to us. They also help with things like getting a new vehicle registered.

Q: What about packages?

A: We have a couple of options when ordering packages… Amazon delivery boxes are useful sometimes. You can also have most things delivered to a local post office with your name and “general delivery” on the package.

When we are going to be in a place for a little while, like we were this summer, we open a UPS box. Most UPS stores allow 3 or 6 month mailbox rentals and if you have a mailbox, you can have any package delivered there. We have also had things delivered to friends’ homes in situations where we didn’t have a UPS box and we didn’t think the local post office was an option.

Q: Why did you decide to live in an RV?

A: I suppose it’s no surprise that we really love to travel. We traveled with the kids as much as possible when they were younger. And we took a long motorcycle trip every summer from 2015 - 2019 and managed to ride through every single state in the US.

Along the way, we realized that we really wanted to “live” in different places for stretches of time so we could immerse ourselves more fully in the experience of life in that part of the world.

We weren’t sure how we were going to do that until we met up with some old high school friends who lived in their RV. Buying an RV had not crossed our minds, but the the moment we realized it was an option, we knew it was the answer. Six months later, we had sold our house and moved into a 5th wheel.

It’s also important to say that we knew we wanted to travel as a lifestyle for many years before we actually managed to make it happen. When our children were still quite young, we set the goal for both of us to be able to work remotely by the time we were empty nesters.

By the time our youngest graduated from high school, we were both fully remote. I’m very grateful to our younger selves for setting that plan in motion before we even knew how we would manage it.

It’s also worth mentioning that the first night we ever spent in a camper was after we had already sold our house and purchased our 5th wheel. So, it’s a good thing we like it so much!

Q: How did you choose your RV?

A: Immediately after deciding that we wanted to move into an RV, we started researching our options. We spent hours online, watching videos, reading about RV life, learning about manufacturers, and looking through photos and floor plans of every model we came across.

We also started visiting RV dealerships and walking through every model that was open to us. In the process, we discovered the floor plans and features that were important to us. But it wasn’t until we went to an RV show in Denver that we found our particular model.

It was the first floor plan we looked at that met all of our requirements:

• An open kitchen large enough for my camera tripod and flash.

• A large oven and cooktop.

• Washer and dryer hookups in the bedroom.

• It’s a toy hauler - meaning, we are able to store our motorcycle inside the RV when traveling. This space is called the “garage” and also serves as Steve’s office during the week and a guest room when people come to visit us.

While the floor plan in our RV is what we wanted, we didn’t want it to look like an RV, so we’ve done a lot of renovations.

Q: How do you decide where you’re going next?

A: In the first year of living in our RV full time, I learned that I needed to plan our entire year in advance to ensure that we get to visit the places we want to see at the time of year we want to go there. All that planning takes quite a bit of time, but it’s such a relief to know that we have a plan and that all the necessary reservations have been made.

Understanding what our main priorities are for the year is probably the most important consideration for me when planning our itinerary.

For example, after moving around a lot in 2021, we decided that moving less often was a priority for 2022. I chose locations central to many places we might want to visit and RV parks where we could stay for 3-7 weeks at a time. This eliminated most State Campgrounds, which we love, but which also generally have a 14-day limit.

In 2023, we went back to moving around every couple of weeks, spending most of the year boondocking and in State Parks. That decision was based in large part on wanting to control our budget, which is one of the main considerations in the planning process. Some years we choose to spend more on campground reservations, and other years we decide to spend less.

Other concerns when deciding on a location are:

1. Will there be enough space for our 43-foot toy hauler and truck?
2. Will we be able to connect to the internet so we can work while we’re there?

I also do a lot of research to determine road conditions in and out of a spot, especially in remote areas. I rely heavily on Campendium, a user-reviewed website with information about thousands of campgrounds and RV parks.

Q: What is boondocking?

A: Most of the time, boondocking describes the experience of dispersed camping on public land. Dispersed camping refers to camping outside of a designated campground.

Camp spots are primitive, meaning there are no connections to running water, electricity, or sewer. The land is generally undeveloped with no bathrooms or outhouses, water pumps, or picnic tables. Many boondocking locations do not have paved roads.

While occasionally a permit is required, boondocking is usually free. There are no reservations or assigned camping spots. You simply show up and find a place to park.

Most boondocking locations are on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land, which is public land that can be used for a variety of uses, including camping. In general, camping on BLM land involves parking in a space where it's obvious that someone else has camped before.

BLM land can be found across the United States, but the vast majority is in the west.

Q: How do you manage without water, sewer, or electric hook-ups?

A: Our 5th wheel has a 100 gallon fresh water tank plus several waste tanks. This will last us a week if we aren’t really trying, and 2 weeks if we make a concerted effort.

We keep a collapsable 100 gallon fresh water bladder in the truck, so when we run out of fresh water, we don’t have to drive the entire RV to a fresh water source. We also keep a portable waste tank in the bed of the truck for the same reason. When our waste tanks are full, Steve pumps the waste into the portable tank and drives it to a dump station.

Steve has also installed a renewable power system on our 5th wheel which includes solar panels and lithium-ion batteries. If we have several hours of sun every day, this system gives us all the power we need to live normally. If we have a couple of days of cloud cover, we can turn on a generator to power up the batteries.

Living in a rig that's so self-contained means we have the freedom to let other priorities, like budget and location, dictate our choices. Our travel decisions are dictated by where we want to stay more than where we have to stay.

Q: How do you connect to the internet?

A: Our primary internet source is Starlink, but we also have an unlimited data plan with AT&T. We use Starlink most of the time, but if we are parked in an area with a lot of tall trees, they can sometimes block the signal. In those cases, we rely on AT&T.

As you can imagine, these considerations are part of the planning process. If it looks like trees might be a problem, I make sure there is a good AT&T signal in the area before adding the location to our itinerary.

Q: Do you have a storage unit?

A: Not anymore! We maintained a storage unit for the first few years after selling our home. It wasn’t a large unit, but there were things we wanted to keep and couldn’t bring with us. Also, our daughter kept a lot of her things in there while she was in college. It was always our goal to get rid of the unit eventually, and it felt great when we finally made that happen. Our daughters are now the caretakers of the family keepsakes, and we’ve learned to live without everything else.

Q: What happens when your RV breaks down or needs repairs?

A: One word: Steve.

My husband has been able to fix every single thing that’s broken on our rig in the nearly 7 years we’ve been traveling. This includes minor inconveniences and major problems.

We would not be able to live this way if Steve wasn’t so incredibly capable of fixing all the things that break. Because everything breaks. Traveling is like taking your home through a 12-hour earthquake. Also, RVs are built to be lightweight and therefore not particularly durable. Not to mention the fact that quality control in the industry is basically nonexistent.

When we meet people who say, “We’ve always wanted to live in an RV!” the first thing we ask them is if one of them is mechanically inclined.

The alternative to fixing everything yourself is finding a dealership or repair shop that can do the work. Depending on where you are, this may be difficult to find. Also, RV dealerships are notorious for taking a ridiculously long time to complete repairs (we’re talking months) and are not known for quality workmanship.

When your RV is your home, handing it over to a dealership for an indefinite period of time is not a great option.

Q: How long does it take you to pack up and get on the road?

A: Packing up and getting on the road generally takes us 2 hours - we can do it faster if we need to, but on a normal moving day, that’s the right amount of time. Many RVers try to minimize the amount of packing and unpacking they do so they can get on the road faster.

For us, we enjoy being fully settled and at home wherever we are. I love having books on my bookshelf, candles on the table, and pictures on the wall. We live here, and we both like being in a space that feels comfortable and homey.

Q: Do you think you’ll ever settle down and buy another house?

A: I honestly don’t know. I suppose at some point age will prevent us from living like nomads, but we are (hopefully) a long way away from that day. At the moment, we don’t have any plans to settle down in one place. But we both feel comfortable taking it year by year.

Road Food: Good food that travels well

Whether you’re heading across the country, across the world, or simply across town, this series of recipes is made for life on the move. They’re easy to make, easy to pack, and taste just as good hours later as they do fresh from the kitchen. Perfect for road trips, picnics, hikes, airplanes, potlucks, packed lunches, busy weeknights, and anywhere else you need to go.

This series of recipes is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers).

Walnut Chocolate Chip Spice Cake

Road food notes: Stays soft and fresh for 3-4 days • Individually wrapped slices travel well • No mixer required • Not too sweet • Soft and hearty crumb with nibbles of walnuts and chocolate in every bite

We had two solid days of rain last week, which is honestly one of my favorite things in the whole world. I love rainy days. They are all the excuse I need to get a pot of soup going and bake something sweet. And is there anything better than tucking into bed with a good book and the gentle patter of rain on the roof? Especially with a belly full of soup and cake?

I had started working on this recipe a few weeks earlier and decided the rainy weather was the perfect excuse to fine-tune its rough edges. I wanted a soft, tender cake with tiny pieces of walnuts scattered evenly throughout.

As a general rule, I am not a fan of large pieces of nuts in my baked goods. I’d rather keep my banana bread, brownies, and carrot cake nut-free, and if nuts are to be involved, I don’t want them to interfere with a soft crumb or creamy texture.

That said, I love nuts of all kinds. I’m just picky about using them in baked goods. So for this cake, I ground the walnuts in the food processor with a bit of sugar to help break them into small pieces without turning them into a paste.

The ground walnuts are scattered evenly throughout the loaf, their delicate little crunch adding some contrast to the soft cake.

After cutting the cake and wrapping the slices individually, I brought one to a friend who lifted it to her nose and took a deep breath. Mmmmm, it smells like fall, she said.

And that is what we want from any kind of spice cake, isn’t it? There is something about the smell of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves that announces the arrival of fall. Add to that the smell of butter, vanilla, walnuts, and chocolate, and you can practically hear the leaves crunching under your feet.

Recipe: Walnut Chocolate Chip Spice Cake

This week’s menu

Oven Braised Chicken Stew with Potatoes and Carrots

Browned chicken thighs, buttery Yukon Gold potatoes, and sweet carrots cook in a savory sauce with garlic, thyme, and a splash of white wine. This hearty chicken stew finishes in the oven, giving you tender chicken and rich flavor with mostly hands-off cooking after browning.

This recipe does not skimp on the chicken or the flavor. And the rich and creamy sauce does not even require the addition of cream.

Recipe: Chicken Stew

Homemade Dinner Rolls

One of the best things about these rolls is that they can be adjusted to your schedule. Slow down the development of the dough by simply putting the dough in the refrigerator. Cold temperatures will not kill yeast - it will just slow down its activity.

So, for example, you can mix the dough in the morning and then put it in the refrigerator to let it rise slowly all day. Or mix up the dough in the evening and let it rise slowly in the refrigerator overnight.

If you want dough to rise quickly, put it in a warm environment, such as inside your oven with the pilot light on, or in a bread proofer. I have this Broad & Taylor Bread Proofer and I use it often in the winter when the inside of the RV is cold enough to slow the process down to a crawl. It also collapses into a flat, thin rectangle that’s easy to store, another bonus when you live in a small space.

Regardless, these rolls are soft, pillowy, and so very buttery. I’ve been making them for nearly 30 years and they are still one of our favorite things.

Recipe: Homemade Dinner rolls

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

This cake has that buttery, soft, moist texture that we all want from a classic yellow cake. Unlike many yellow cake recipes that can bake up heavy or dry, this recipe uses one simple technique that makes a huge difference: the egg whites are whipped separately before being folded into the batter right before baking.

This simple method creates a light and tender texture that’s rich without being heavy, and a soft, buttery crumb that melts in your mouth. It also helps prevent the cake layers from sinking in the middle while they bake. It’s a technique I’ve relied on for years, not just in this recipe, but also in Homemade Vanilla Cake and its more glamorous cousin, Champagne Cake.

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

To all my paid subscribers: This newsletter would not exist without your generous support. The CookStack Collective classes and the new Road Food series are exclusively available to you. They are two ways for me to say thank you.

Join me this week for the October CookStack Collective Class with Nicki Sizemore!

Join Nicki Sizemore and me on Friday, October 16, when she’ll show us how to make two seasonal staples — a whipped ricotta dip and a grain-free pumpkin apple cake — alongside simple practices for cooking with more intention and joy.

Access to The CookStack Collective is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers). This will be the fourth class in this 12-class series. If you’ve missed the previous classes, here’s where you’ll find the replays and the calendar of upcoming classes.

Join us live on October 16th, at 1:00pm Eastern Time.

The October CookStack Collective Class

❤️ 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 or recipe developer? Here are three resources just for you!

In August of last year I went to Mexico with a friend. We had a marvelous time and I brought home three souvenirs: a bottle of top-shelf tequila, a beautiful blue sundress, and COVID. The dress was all mine, but I generously shared the tequila and COVID with Steve.

Within a few days of my return, we were both sick as dogs. At the time, we had been living on our newly purchased sailboat for 6 weeks or so and, honestly, struggling to coexist within 100 square feet of living space. Being sick did us in, and one week after contracting the virus, we pulled our RV out of storage and parked it at Fisherman’s Landing, a campground we had just discovered.

That first night of being back in a normal-size bed was heaven. I mean, we felt like shit. But, our queen-size bed seemed massive and so comfortable I thought I might stay there forever.

Being sick with COVID was an unfortunate experience that I do not care to repeat. But, the bright silver lining was finding Fisherman’s Landing Campground.

In my previous research to find campgrounds somewhere relatively close to the marina that held our sailboat, Fisherman’s Landing had not come up. I don’t know why. But, one day in August I noticed a sign on the bulletin board in the women’s bathrooms of our marina that said, “Save Fisherman’s Landing!” Curious, I did some googling and discovered it was a campground right on Muskegon Lake, the same lake where our marina was located.

So, when we decided that we absolutely had to move off the boat and back into our RV, I called the campground office and practically begged them for a space. It was Labor Day weekend, so I was not optimistic, but to my delight, they had a site opening up on Sunday morning. We took it.

If you are not well versed in RV camping, you may not know that most campgrounds will not let you stay for long stretches of time. Many have two-week limits, and the ones that allow for longer stays often still cap it off at 90 days. This was never an issue for us before we owned a sailboat on Lake Michigan.

Fisherman’s Landing allows full-season space rentals, so before we left Michigan last year, I made our 2026 reservation, securing a lakeside spot from early May until mid-October.

The arrangement has worked out beautifully. Not only do we have a space right on the water, but our marina is just down the road. This allows us to live our normal lives from the RV and treat our sailboat as a fun toy and vacation home.

As you read this, we are very likely on the boat, taking down the sails and getting it ready for winter storage. But earlier this week, we took it out for one final sunset sail, and Steve took this drone footage that captures both the campground that’s been our home for the past 5 months and our sailboat.

For the first few years of RV life, we moved around a lot. So, it’s a little bit strange to stay in one place for such a long time. I feel some ownership over this town.

And also, the roots we’ve put down are shallow, easy to pull up and relocate. I wonder if we’ll ever find a place where we want to just stay? Perhaps a better way to phrase the question is: I wonder if we’ll ever want to find a place to stay?

When people ask us where our favorite places are, we struggle to narrow down the list. But, no matter how much we love a place, we are generally also happy to leave, our restless hearts already looking forward to whatever is around the next corner. It always feels so good to be back on the road.

I suppose it’s possible that one day we’ll wake up to find that our restless nature has retired and all we want to do is stay put. But I wouldn’t place any bets on that day happening any time soon, if ever.

Small luxuries

Some of my favorite things.

On our last long sailing trip, I decided I was sick of coloring the roots of my hair and was ready to just let it all grow in grey. To make the transition easier, or at least shorter, I made an appointment at a local salon and had it all chopped off. It had been a while since I’d gone in for a haircut and my hair was all the way down to my lower back, so the change felt dramatic.

I’m still figuring out the best way to wear it, but it feels kind of awesome to not have all that hair in my way all the time.

The salon I chose is quite large and a section of the lobby is reserved for a cute little boutique. Before leaving, I perused the racks and found a pair of jeans that I was completely in love with. I asked to try them on, knowing full well that it was extremely unlikely that they would fit my 5-foot-nothing frame.

Jeans never fit me. What were the chances that the one pair hanging on the rack would be the right size?

Imagine my delight when they fit. Perfectly. THEY REQUIRE NO HEMMING. This is a real-life miracle.

Also, they are the softest, most comfortable pair of jeans I’ve ever owned. Jeans, in my opinion, are never comfortable. Except these actually are.

I don’t know how they do it, but the material is super stretchy but doesn’t stretch out. I know you know what I’m talking about… you pull on that stretchy pair of jeans in the morning and by 2pm, the butt is sagging down to your knees.

These don’t do that. I wore them all weekend and they stayed as snug as the first moment I pulled them on. I absolutely love them.

If I was a proper influencer, this is where I’d share a series of photos and a reel of me living my absolute best life now that I have the perfect pair of jeans. Instead you get this one. You can’t really see the jeans and my newly cut hair looks a bit of a mess, but I am having a wonderful time. And that’s all that matters, right?

And here’s the punchline, folks. As I was looking up my specific style so I could share it with you, that’s when I realized why that one pair on the rack magically fit my short legs so well. They are cropped, ankle-length jeans.

Of course they are.

I couldn’t find anywhere online that’s selling my exact pair. But the brand is Bayeas and this pair is quite similar, except mine have a button fly.

If you love a button fly, here are two other pairs I have my eye on …

11 Recipes To Welcome Apple Season

1. Apple Upside Down Cake: This apple upside down cake includes a thick layer of apples drenched in an excessive amount of buttery caramel sauce, because, in my opinion, that gooey baked-on-the-bottom sauce is the best part of an upside down cake.

2. Apple Streusel Cake: This is a simple butter cake that I’ve flavored with plenty of vanilla plus a touch of almond extract and cloves for a little bit of extra warmth. Thick slices of apples are baked in between the cake and a generous layer of brown sugar cinnamon streusel so that every single bite contains soft cake, roasted apples, and buttery streusel.

3. Apple Cobbler: There are many ways to make apple cobbler, but this recipe is my favorite… saucy apples spiced with cinnamon and cloves and baked under a chewy cookie topping. The gooey brown sugar topping takes about 5 minutes to make and tastes like a soft, buttery sugar cookie.

4. German Apple Pie: German Apple Pie is one of the easiest and creamiest apple pies I’ve ever baked. The filling is simply cinnamon and sugar-coated apples covered in cream and sprinkled with sugar.

5. French Apple Crumb Cake: The traditional French Apple Cake is a simple one-layer cake with an exceptionally high proportion of fruit to cake. It’s typically flavored with rum and has a texture that’s more custardy than cake-like. Like all things French, it contains a lot of butter and is all the more delicious for its elegance. This cake is a loose variation on that simple cake.

6. Salted Caramel Apple Pie: This is a decadent combination of flavors and textures. From the flaky bottom crust to the saucy caramel apple filling and buttery crumb topping, this pie is impressive and indulgent.

7. Apple Fritters with Maple Glaze: These are the kind of apple fritters you'd get at the very best kind of doughnut shop. They are made from soft yeast-raised dough, flavored with a hint of nutmeg and orange, filled with buttery cinnamon-coated apples, and covered in a crackly maple glaze.

8. Apple Cider Cake with Apple Cider Buttercream: This 3-layer cake is bursting with the sweet-tart flavor of crisp apples. The cake includes concentrated apple cider syrup and shredded sour apples for a double hit of apple flavor and enough cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice to make you feel all warm and cozy. Fill and frost the layers of apple cake with apple cider buttercream and then cover the whole thing with a drippy, bittersweet blanket of dark chocolate ganache.

9. Almond and Apple Turnovers: These delicious pastries are filled with easy homemade almond paste and apples cooked in butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon until soft and saucy. After the pastries bake until puffed and golden, a generous drizzle of brown sugar glaze makes a good thing even better. Frozen puff pastry is the secret to keeping the prep time to around 30 minutes.

10. Chicken and Apples with Mushrooms in Cider Cream Sauce: Tender pieces of chicken swimming in a sweet and savory apple cider cream sauce with caramelized mushrooms and golden, buttery apples. This dish will blanket your whole home with the warm, rich smells and flavors of fall.

11. Spanish Seared Pork Bites with Fried Apples: This is a weeknight staple in our home from October through March. Bite-size pieces of pork tenderloin are coated in a Spanish-inspired dry rub, sautéed quickly in oil until tender and juicy, then tossed with lemon juice, honey, olive oil, and fresh oregano. Pork Bites are delicious all on their own, served as a quick, light supper or tapas-style dish. But, they are positively mouthwatering when eaten with green apples that have been sautéed in butter and brown sugar.

Join me for the October CookStack Collective Class with Nicki Sizemore!

Join Nicki Sizemore and me and on Friday, October 16, when she’ll show us how to make two seasonal staples — a whipped ricotta dip and a grain-free pumpkin apple cake — alongside simple practices for cooking with more intention and joy.

Access to The CookStack Collective is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers). This will be the fourth class in this 12-class series. If you’ve missed the previous classes, here’s where you’ll find the replays and the calendar of upcoming classes.

Join us live on October 16th, at 1:00pm EST.

The October CookStack Collective Class

New Recipe in the Road Food Series: Middle Eastern Meatball Wraps

Road food notes: Packs easily • Stays warm for hours in an insulated container • Delicious hot or at room temperature • Delivers that well-fed feeling you get from a home-cooked meal even when eaten from your car

These meatballs are spiced with cumin, coriander, paprika, cinnamon, and garlic, fried until crispy on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside, then smothered with a garlicky lemon yogurt sauce and wrapped up in a warm flour tortilla. This is the kind of simple, no-fuss, handheld meal that you can wrap up and take with you anywhere.

Middle Eastern Meatball Wraps

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Whether you’re heading across the country, across the world, or simply across town, this series of recipes is made for life on the move. They’re easy to make, easy to pack, and taste just as good hours later as they do fresh from the kitchen. Perfect for road trips, picnics, hikes, airplanes, potlucks, packed lunches, busy weeknights, and anywhere else you need to go.

This series of recipes is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers).

Walnut Chocolate Chip Spice Cake

Road food notes: Stays soft and fresh for 3-4 days • Individually wrapped slices travel well • No mixer required • Not too sweet • Soft and hearty crumb with nibbles of walnuts and chocolate in every bite

We had two solid days of rain last week, which is honestly one of my favorite things in the whole world. I love rainy days. They are all the excuse I need to get a pot of soup going and bake something sweet. And is there anything better than tucking into bed with a good book and the gentle patter of rain on the roof? Especially with a belly full of soup and cake?

I had started working on this recipe a few weeks earlier and decided the rainy weather was the perfect excuse to fine-tune its rough edges. I wanted a soft, tender cake with tiny pieces of walnuts scattered evenly throughout.

As a general rule, I am not a fan of large pieces of nuts in my baked goods. I’d rather keep my banana bread, brownies, and carrot cake nut-free, and if nuts are to be involved, I don’t want them to interfere with a soft crumb or creamy texture.

That said, I love nuts of all kinds. I’m just picky about using them in baked goods. So for this cake, I ground the walnuts in the food processor with a bit of sugar to help break them into small pieces without turning them into a paste.

The ground walnuts are scattered evenly throughout the loaf, their delicate little crunch adding some contrast to the soft cake.

After cutting the cake and wrapping the slices individually, I brought one to a friend who lifted it to her nose and took a deep breath. Mmmmm, it smells like fall, she said.

And that is what we want from any kind of spice cake, isn’t it? There is something about the smell of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves that announces the arrival of fall. Add to that the smell of butter, vanilla, walnuts, and chocolate, and you can practically hear the leaves crunching under your feet.

Ingredient notes

This cake uses a combination of cake flour and whole wheat flour. The whole wheat flour gives it a sturdy, hearty texture and intensifies the nutty flavor of the ground walnuts. The cake flour keeps it soft and tender.

Grinding up the walnuts and using mini chocolate chips give each bite a nutty, chocolaty crunch. So what we have here is a buttery spice cake that’s soft, tender, hearty, chocolaty, and nutty all at the same time.

A little bit of everything, that’s what this cake is. It feels good to have it all sometimes, doesn’t it?

Packing and serving tips

I like to cut the loaf into 6 to 8 slices and wrap each one individually in plastic wrap. The slices will keep well at room temperature for 3 or 4 days. They can also be frozen for up to 3 months. Pack individually wrapped slices into a ziptop bag or other airtight container before freezing. Remove the number of slices you need about four hours before you want to eat them to give the cake time to thaw.

By the way, having a few individually wrapped slices of loaf cake in the freezer is a very good thing. They are perfect for packing into sack lunches, picnic baskets, backpacks, or grabbing a slice you rush out the door.

This vanilla loaf cake is one of my favorite things to bake, slice, wrap, and freeze. The recipe includes several variations on the basic vanilla cake; choose from blueberry, chocolate chip, raspberry, or cinnamon swirl.

Another favorite is this lemon olive oil loaf cake .

More Road Food Recipes

Road Food: Good food that travels well

Whether you’re heading across the country, across the world, or simply across town, this series of recipes is made for life on the move. They’re easy to make, easy to pack, and taste just as good hours later as they do fresh from the kitchen. Perfect for road trips, picnics, hikes, airplanes, potlucks, packed lunches, busy weeknights, and anywhere else you need to go.

This series of recipes is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers).

Middle Eastern Meatball Wraps

Road food notes: Packs easily • Stays warm for hours in an insulated container • Delicious hot or at room temperature • Delivers that well-fed feeling you get from a home cooked meal even when eaten from your car

These meatballs are spiced with cumin, coriander, paprika, cinnamon, and garlic, fried until crispy on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside, then smothered with a garlicky lemon yogurt sauce and wrapped up in a warm flour tortilla. This is the kind of simple, no-fuss, handheld meal that you can wrap up and take with you anywhere.

I’ve been sitting here trying to describe the kind of food that gives me that visceral, grounding feeling of being well fed.

This is not the same feeling as being full. Being full can be pleasant or very unpleasant, depending on the situation. This is also not the same feeling as just not being hungry. A bag of chips, while delicious, might curb my hunger but it does not make me feel well fed.

Many years ago, when I was pregnant with one of our children, I had a few weeks of particularly bad morning sickness coupled with the actual flu. One morning, I woke up feeling better, and Steve suggested we go out to eat. We went to a restaurant where I ordered roast chicken and mashed potatoes and it was, I am not exaggerating here, the best thing I’d ever eaten in my whole life.

Was it actually the world’s best roast chicken? Certainly not. But for me at that particular moment in my life, it was life itself. Nothing had ever tasted better or made me feel so completely nourished, from the tips of my toes to the satisfied smile on my face.

That’s the feeling I’m talking about here. The feeling of deep satisfaction that comes from a meal that really feeds you. It doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, in my experience, the food that makes me feel the most nourished is quite simple and down-to-earth.

I still don’t feel like I know exactly how to describe it, but I know you know what I’m talking about.

That’s what these meatball wraps do for me. And honestly, that’s kind of the entire point of the Road Food series. Most of us live a significant amount of our lives on the go, whether we are traveling, or commuting, or driving kids to sports practice. We get hungry, and our modern world offers about a million ways to curb that hunger.

But how many of those options leave us feeling well fed?

These delicious meatball wraps will. The meatballs and the yogurt sauce are quick and easy to make. Warm up a few flour tortillas and fill each one with meatballs, piping hot straight from the pan. Roll the wrap in a double layer of aluminum foil and tuck it into an insulated container, if you have one. The wraps will stay warm for several hours.

Even if you don’t have an insulated container, the wraps will still stay warm for at least an hour. And, the meatballs do not have to be hot. They are just as delicious at room temperature.

If you’re packing these to go, I’d recommend packing the yogurt sauce separately. Open up your wrap and spoon some sauce over the meatballs or just dip the wrap in the sauce, bite by bite.

If you’re not taking these wraps to go, spoon the yogurt sauce over the top of the meatballs before wrapping them up.

One final word about the tortillas. I almost always make these homemade tortillas because they are superior in every way from the packaged variety, and the payoff far outweighs the minimal effort required to make them. So that’s what you see in these photos. But packaged flour tortillas, or any other kind or wrap, work perfectly well.

Packing and serving tips

To keep the wraps hot for a few hours, pack them in an insulated container. I have this one and I like it because it has two separate containers. This allows me to pack hot food in one container and cold food in the other. For these wraps, that means I can pack the wraps in one section and the yogurt sauce in the other.

I like to serve these with a simple salad made from diced tomatoes, cucumber, and onion tossed in nothing more than lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. I pile the salad into a container with a lid and tuck it into the “cold” compartment of my insulated container along with the yogurt sauce.

Three more great salad options: White Bean Pasta Salad, Israeli Salad, and Veggie and Couscous Salad. All three of these salads can be packed into single-serving size jars for easy serving.

And, if you’re the kind of person who likes something sweet at the end of a meal, you simply can’t go wrong with these Bourbon Vanilla Caramel Bars.

Food safety tips

For longer trips, keep the wraps hot in an insulated container that maintains a temperature of at least 140°F. Pack the yogurt sauce separately and keep it cold. The meatballs are also delicious at room temperature; just eat them within two hours without temperature control, or within one hour if it’s above 90°F.

More Road Food Recipes

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 or recipe developer? Here are three resources just for you!

Welcome to fall

If you missed last week’s recap of our most recent sailing trip, you’ll find it here: Ghost Waves

Tuesday marked the first day of fall and here in Michigan it felt like it. I had received my seasonal supply of candles the day before, just in time to greet the first early morning of the season by candlelight.

I know it’s a small thing, but candles are one of my favorite things about the months of the year when the days are short. Rather than bemoaning the fact that the sun is setting earlier and earlier, I luxuriate in early mornings and evenings spent by candlelight. (Ok. There is still some bemoaning, but the candles lessen the severity.)

I scatter candles around our main living area and often go days without flipping on a light switch.

On Tuesday morning, as I lit enough candles to make a cup of coffee, I thought of how strange this might seem to my ancestors who never knew the magic of electricity. But I think we are all feeling a pull towards a more analogue life, aren’t we?

Is it just me?

I’ve been obsessed lately with 80s and 90s sitcom reruns and on a recent episode of a show I will not name, one of the characters refused to wear a beeper, saying that they had no desire to be connected to everyone electronically all the time.

Oh honey, I thought. Good luck.

So maybe that’s part of my candle obsession. I might be typing away at my computer and checking my phone, but I’m doing so by candlelight.

The other thing I’m relishing about this time of year is apples, and we welcomed the first day of fall with a buttery Apple Dutch Baby, eaten warm with plenty of maple syrup.

I also still have some fresh summer produce in my vegetable drawer—a few zucchini and peppers given to me by a friend from her garden, and the last of the blueberries and peaches from a recent trip to the farmer’s market. My refrigerator reflects the truth of the moment: the late-summer harvest blending right in with the first signs of fall. The best of both worlds.

Last Sunday, despite drizzly weather, we went sailing with good friends who were visiting from California.

And this weekend, one of our favorite people from Denver is flying in to sail with us and I’ve been crossing my fingers all week hoping for sun and wind. I watched The Odyssey and I’m only willing to go so far to appease the weather gods, so we’ll see.

Then it will be time to start getting the boat ready for winter storage and the season will be over. Just like that. I am preparing myself for the onslaught of holiday-themed everything that shows up earlier and earlier every year.

Does anyone else feel like we go from summer to Christmas overnight?

What I want from this time of the year is a small pause. A few moments to take a breath, watch the changing leaves, and light some candles. I want something apple scented baking in my oven and an early bedtime with a good book.

And if you are nodding along as you read this, I want it for you too. May these first weeks of fall come with moments of peace. And may we have the presence of mind to savor them.

Bourbon Vanilla Caramel Bars

You’ll find nine of my favorite late harvest recipes below but before we get there, let me introduce to you to these sexy beasts. They are the latest addition to the Road Food series and they are crazy good.

This recipe is exclusively for paid subscribers and, my friends, if it’s all you get for your $35, it alone would be worth the price of admission.

Bold statement, I know. But I stand by it.

Here’s what we’ve got going on here: Salty, sweet, bourbon and vanilla flavored shortbread bars, dripping with caramel and covered in bourbon glazed pecans, toasted coconut, and chocolate chips.

They are seriously seductive, so you might want to be careful who you share them with. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

If you’re a paid subscriber, this recipe and every road food recipe is a part of your subscription. It’s just one small way to say thank you for supporting my work here.

If you’re not a paid subscriber, these bars are worth the price of admission. Just saying.

Recipe: Bourbon Vanilla Caramel Bars

Late summer harvest recipes

1. Chicken and Zucchini Casserole with Creamy Polenta: Tender chicken, zucchini, and spinach are coated in a creamy basil pesto sauce, layered over soft polenta, and buried under a generous blanket of melted cheese. Garlic, Italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper add layers of flavor, while smoked Gouda gives it a smoky finish. This is the kind of warm, cheesy, veggie-packed dinner that takes full advantage of the late-summer zucchini harvest while welcoming fall with open arms.

2. Cheesy Stuffed Tomatoes: If you’re lucky enough to still have some ripe summer tomatoes, this is one of the most delicious ways to use them. Filled with a mixture of rice, garlic, onions, herbs and chunks of fresh mozzarella, these stuffed tomatoes are topped off with a crispy layer of parmesan and panko bread crumbs.

3. Fresh Corn Salad With Creamy Honey Dijon Vinaigrette: This is a no-cook dish that’s perfect for the middle of summer when the days are hot and no one wants to turn on the oven. But, it’s also a delicious way to take advantage of those last ears of fresh summer corn. The whole salad comes together in under 20 minutes and puts the bright, fresh flavors of sweet corn, tomatoes, arugula, and fresh basil on center stage.

4. Saucy Salmon and Rice Bowls: These are on the menu all year long, but especially when I have a handful of fresh herbs and a smattering of fresh summer produce that are rolling around in the veggie drawer begging to be put to good use.

5. Peach Cobbler with a Chewy Cookie Topping: This cobbler is just as delicious made with frozen peaches as it is with fresh peaches, so there’s no need to restrict it to certain months of the year. But, of course, it is better when peaches are at their peak and if you are one of the lucky ones with some summer peaches hanging around, you’d be hard pressed for a better way to use them.

6. Almond Plum Cake: This caje tastes like a cross between cake and fruit cobbler. Thanks to soft roasted plums, almond paste, and a generous amount of Amaretto liquor, the texture of this cake is so moist it's almost a fruit cobbler.

7. Zucchini Blueberry Muffins with Oat and Almond Streusel: These incredibly moist and tender zucchini muffins are packed with blueberries, flavored with a hint of cinnamon and vanilla, and piled with almond and oatmeal streusel. Is there a more delicious way to use up that extra zucchini in your garden or refrigerator?

8. Loaded Blueberry Biscuits: How many times have I made these blueberry biscuits this year? I don’t know. I’ve lost count. What I do know is that they are happening again this week and possibly next if the blueberries hold out that long.

9. Apple Dutch Baby: Not a late summer recipe, but deserves a place on this list because I can think of no better way to bridge the gap between summer and fall.

The Lost Supper Club

To all my paid subscribers: This newsletter would not exist without your generous support. The CookStack Collective classes and the new Road Food series are exclusively available to you. They are two ways for me to say thank you.

The September CookStack Collective Class Replay is now available!

Last week’s class was so much fun and if you missed it, the replay is now available!

Join Anna Vocino as she celebrates the upcoming release of her fourth gluten-free, low-carb cookbook Eat Happy Cocktail Hour with a class dedicated to feeding people ridiculously good food and drinks that just happen to be low in sugar.

❤️ 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?

Whether you’re heading across the country, across the world, or simply across town, this series of recipes is made for life on the move. They’re easy to make, easy to pack, and taste just as good hours later as they do fresh from the kitchen. Perfect for road trips, picnics, hikes, airplanes, potlucks, packed lunches, busy weeknights, and anywhere else you need to go.

This series of recipes is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers).

Bourbon Vanilla Caramel Bars

Road food notes: Packs easily • Travels well when wrapped individually • Stays fresh for several days • Includes plenty of options for substitutions and additions

We are going to start this discussion with a bold statement: This recipe is exclusively for paid subscribers and, my friends, if it’s all you get for your $35, it alone would be worth the price of admission.

Like I said, bold statement. But I stand by it.

Here’s what we’ve got going on here: Salty, sweet, bourbon and vanilla flavored shortbread bars, dripping with caramel and covered in bourbon glazed pecans, toasted coconut, and chocolate chips.

They are seriously seductive, so you might want to be careful who you share them with. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This series is about food that travels well, and whether we’re talking road trips or packed lunches, I think there’s value in a bit of decadence interspersed among the healthier options. You might have packed white bean pasta salad or paprika chicken for lunch, but you’ve got bourbon vanilla caramel bars for dessert.

Everything in moderation, including moderation.

These cookie bars were inspired by a bag of bourbon vanilla trail mix I purchased for a recent sailing trip. The flavor combo was delightful and I immediately typed out a few notes on my phone for how I might replicate the idea in some kind of cookie. This recipe is the result.

At first glance, these cookie bars might strike you as unnecessarily complicated when you could satisfy your sweet tooth with a candy bar from the gas station.

But I have two very good responses to that objection: These cookie bars will be done and cooling on your counter within about an hour. And, once you make them, you’ll never think of a candy bar as a reasonable alternative again.

And look, I love myself a Twix from time to time. But, if I have the option, I’ll take one of these cookie bars every single time.

Recipe notes:

• These bars rely on a very simple shortbread base. Simply stir the ingredients together in a bowl, press the dough into a square baking dish, and pop it in the oven to bake.

• While the shortbread bakes, make the caramel. Making this bourbon and vanilla flavored caramel requires nothing more than dumping ingredients into a saucepan and heating it to 250°F (121°C). The process is super easy, but it is important to have a candy thermometer so you know when it’s reached the right temperature.

• Pour the caramel over the shortbread and top it with bourbon glazed pecans, toasted coconut, and mini chocolate chips.

• To take them with you: Cut the bars into squares and wrap each square individually. Well wrapped, the bars will keep for at least 5 days. You can also freeze these bars for up to 3 months.

Easy packing tips

Lining the pan with foil keeps the caramel from sticking to the pan and if you cut a large enough strip to overhang two of the pan’s edges, it makes removing the entire slab a piece of cake. :-)

Make three evenly spaced cuts in one direction, then three evenly spaced cuts perpendicular to them to make 16 bars.

Wrapped individually, these bars will keep well for at least 5 days at room temperature. Or, freeze for up to 3 months.

Additions and Substitutions

All of the topping ingredients for these bars can be swapped out with something different if you prefer.

• Use almonds, walnuts, or peanuts instead of or in addition to the pecans. You could even swap the nuts with pumpkin seeds.

• Lean in hard to the trail-mix vibe these bars were based on and add some dried cherries or dried cranberries to the topping ingredients.

• Omit any of the topping ingredients: Leave out the bourbon glazed pecans for a nut-free version. Leave out the coconut if it’s not to your liking. Same with the chocolate. If you want more nuts, or chocolate, or coconut, add as much as you like.

• If you’re not a fan of bourbon, a great substitution is rum. Or, leave the liquor out entirely. The glazed pecans and the caramel can be made as instructed with or without the bourbon.

Other Road Food Recipes

The thing about Michigan that still fills me with awe is the trees. It’s not that there aren’t trees in Colorado, of course. But you really can’t compare the trees in our home state with the trees in Michigan.

Many years ago, we packed our family of five into our Honda Pilot and drove from Colorado to Virginia. It was our first trip East and I couldn’t get over the trees. I was astounded at how you could be driving down a major highway next to a large city and not even know the city was there because it’s completely hidden by trees.

We would look at our map while passing by and exclaim with wonder that there’s a whole city right there! We’d watch the tops of the trees for ridiculously tall fast food, hotel, and big box store signs as evidence that a whole population of people really did live right there!

If you’ve never been to Colorado, you might be picturing forests of pine trees and aspen, which it does have. But nearly 90% of Coloradans live on the Front Range and the Eastern Plains, a combined flat expanse of land that makes up nearly half of the state, sits a mile above sea level, and gets very little rain.

It’s not the kind of land that grows forests of trees so dense they hide entire cities. In fact, nothing is hidden on the plains of Colorado. You can see for miles and miles in every direction.

In Colorado, we work very hard to get things growing and keep them growing. Our first experience in parts of the country where everyone works hard to keep the growth from taking over everything was striking.

So it’s not very surprising that as we sailed from Northern Michigan all the way to the Upper Peninsula earlier this month, I kept commenting on all the trees.

The shore of Lake Michigan is marked by thousands of homes with one side in the forest and the other side on the beach. This is, to me, the best of everything. A perfect example of how, sometimes, you actually can have your cake and eat it too.

As we bobbed along in the water, I kept zooming in on one house or another and imagining what it’s like to move from a dense forest to the open water just by walking from the front door to the back patio. Incredible.

The other thing, of course, that amazes this Colorado girl is the water. So much water.

There is no such thing as low water pressure in Michigan. It pours from hoses, spigots, and showerheads with a criminal abundance that feels so decadent as to be alarming to those of us who are used to monitoring and measuring every drop. In Colorado, a leaky water spout is a pressing concern in need of immediate attention. All that wasted water! We fret about the brown spots on our lawn and mark the calendar with the days we are allowed to water it. We xeriscape our yards, using drought-tolerant plants and efficient irrigation, and calculate how much water it will take to maintain the small patch of grass in the middle of it.

In Michigan, every water spout leaks and no one even notices.

The people here live next to 1.3 quadrillion gallons of fresh water. Did you know quadrillion is an actual word? I didn’t.

And that’s just Lake Michigan. Lake Superior dwarfs the entire system, containing more water than Lake Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario combined. Four out of the five Great Lakes border Michigan. It has 3,200 miles of coastline. Coastline covered in trees.

Water and trees. Michigan has more than its fair share and we’ve luxuriated in it. We’ve been here since early May, and the abundance of so much water and so many trees still feels decadent. It is impressive how quickly we humans learn to take things for granted, but 5 months a year isn’t quick enough when you spent the first 45 years of your life in Colorado.

This is the thing that’s hard to explain to people who’ve lived here all of their lives. The water and the trees are normal, a nuisance even. They are things to manage. Which is not to say that Michiganders do not enjoy them. They do.

But it’s difficult when you are, for example, talking to the 80-year-old on the boat next to you who has lived here his whole life and spent more years boating than you’ve been alive, about why you are so nervous and uncertain about things that, for him, are as normal as brushing his teeth.

How to explain that so much water and no direct line of sight to anything is, at times, so very disorienting? How it feels like my brain can’t quite get a foothold on where exactly I am in the world? I’ve never been good with direction, but in Colorado I can be a hundred miles from the Rocky Mountains and still keep them in sight. They are an anchor that says, this is west.

And also, mygod, I love it here.

On Sunday night, after returning home to our RV after 16 days on a sailboat, I could still see the waves when I closed my eyes. Ghost waves, rolling past my closed eyelids, my mind not ready to make the transition from water to land. On Monday morning, as I walked to the kitchen to start the coffee, I felt the solid ground beneath me gently rock and sway. I reached to grip the edge of the countertop and smiled at how easily the movement of the water embedded itself in my bones.

Still relatively inexperienced sailors, we gained a substantial amount of experience over our two-week journey. One day brought eight-foot waves; the next, water so calm and glassy it perfectly reflected the sky. We sweltered in the heat and bundled up in our winter jackets. We wished for wind, then worked hard to manage our sails in gusts approaching 30 knots. We got sunburned and rained on. We found our slip in an unfamiliar marina in the dark and became very, very good at docking our boat in unfamiliar places. We even learned to tolerate sleeping in very tight quarters. Well… almost.

Somewhere along the way, since our first sailing class last summer, the unfamiliar has begun to feel less frightening and more like home.

At one point I joked that we were doing more camping on this trip than we’d done in 6 1/2 years of living in campgrounds. It’s funny because it’s true. We may live in campgrounds, but our RV is more of a tiny home than a camper. We do not camp in the campgrounds we visit.

But, on the boat we tuck ourselves into a tiny bed, cook simple meals made mostly from nonperishable ingredients, rely on public facilities, and spend almost all of our time outside. We’ve always said that we’re not into roughing it, but apparently, in some circumstances, we are. Even more remarkable - we love it.

In some ways, Michigan has begun to feel as much like home as Colorado ever did. But not so much that I’ve lost my sense of wonder at all those trees, all that water, and the ghost waves that still dance behind my closed eyelids as I drift off to sleep.

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.

The easiest way to read this and every issue is directly on rebeccablackwell.com.

Are you a fellow food writer or recipe developer? Here are three resources just for you!

9 ways to say goodbye to summer and hello to fall

Here’s the other thing I want to tell you about our 2 week sailing trip before I share some photos: I had every intention of working a little bit from the boat. On day one, I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I checked out so completely that I feel actually stunned to find myself in the middle of September.

And yet, here we are. The days are cooler, the leaves are just starting to change, and summer is almost over.

So, in lieu of this week’s menu, I have 9 ways to say goodbye to summer and hello to fall. Maybe you’re ready, maybe you’re not. Either way, I hope there’s a meal or two in this list that will ease the transition.

1. Chicken and Apples with Mushrooms in Cider Cream Sauce. Tender pieces of chicken swimming in a sweet and savory apple cider cream sauce with caramelized mushrooms and golden, buttery apples. This dish will blanket your whole home with the warm, rich smells and flavors of fall.

2. Fried Summer Squash with Chimichurri Sauce. This is the time of year when I can pick up some fresh summer squash and a winter squash in the same supermarket trip. So why not enjoy them both? This super simple technique for crispy fried summer squash produces a light, lacy golden fry that makes the perfect side dish or appetizer.

3. Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash. The recipe just happens to be vegan and therefore dairy free but makes exactly zero sacrifices on flavor or that hearty stick-to-your-ribs feeling we all start to crave when the temperature drops and the days are short.

4. Spanish Seared Pork Bites with Fried Apples. Bite size pieces of pork tenderloin are coated in a Spanish inspired dry rub, sautéed quickly in oil until tender and juicy, tossed with lemon juice, honey, olive oil, and fresh oregano, and served with green apples that have been sautéed in butter and brown sugar.

5. Smoky Poblano Corn Chowder with Potatoes, Bacon, and Cream Cheese. This is an exceptionally thick, smoky, poblano-forward corn chowder that's loaded with roasted peppers, potatoes and bacon, with cream cheese for richness and smoked Gouda that doubles down on the smoky flavor.

6. Creamy Navy Bean Soup with Ham. Oh, but this creamy navy bean soup is so, so good. It’s hearty, meaty, and more flavorful than bean soup has any business being. Do you know the kind of person who thinks soup isn’t a meal? Make this for them and they will change their mind. Guaranteed.

7. Apple Streusel Cake. This is the kind of simple, satisfying cake that you can make anytime for anything and it will be exactly the right thing.

8. Apple Upside Down Cake. This apple upside down cake includes a thick layer of apples drenched in an excessive amount of buttery caramel sauce, because in my opinion that gooey baked-on-the-bottom sauce is the best part of an upside down cake.

9. Peach Crumble with Coconut and Almonds. If you are lucky enough to still have some summer peaches hanging around, this is what to do with them. Juicy peaches at the peak of sweetness baked into a saucy base under a crispy, crumbly coconut and almond topping for just the right amount of nutty, sugary crunch.

Road Food: Good food that travels well

Whether you’re heading across the country, across the world, or simply across town, this series of recipes is made for life on the move. They’re easy to make, easy to pack, and taste just as good hours later as they do fresh from the kitchen. Perfect for road trips, boat days, beach days, picnics, hikes, airplanes, potlucks, packed lunches, busy weeknights, and anywhere else you need to go.

This series of recipes is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers).

Previous Road Food Recipes:

• White Bean Tuna Salad

• Paprika Chicken Bites

• Spicy White Bean Harissa Dip

• Roasted Eggplant Dip

• Blueberry Pie Bars

Mediterranean White Bean Pasta Salad

One of the things I’ve been doing for years on travel days, when we are moving from one campground to another, is packing hearty salads into jars and tucking them into the cooler. This allows us to eat lunch inside the truck, usually at a truck stop, with everything contained neatly within our individual jars.

Since adding a sailboat to our modes of transportation, I’ve learned that lunch in a jar is also the perfect meal while sailing. But honestly, this is the kind of salad that travels well in almost any situation—packed lunches, hikes, picnics, beach days… you get the picture.

It doesn’t, of course, have to be packed into jars. A few weeks ago, I brought a bowl of this salad to a potluck with friends. It’s the kind of easy salad that can be prepared in advance, tossed together quickly, and goes well with anything.

This is also the kind of recipe in which every single ingredient should be taken as a suggestion, not a rule. Add anything you like—additional vegetables, herbs, or pickled things like banana peppers. Swap anything you don’t particularly like for something you do. And add more or less of anything to your heart’s content.

When Steve and I eat this for lunch as a main dish, I usually add some protein. Tuna, rotisserie chicken, and hard-boiled eggs are my go-to choices. But if you want to keep it plant-based, add some nuts and seeds or simply increase the ratio of beans to pasta.

White Bean Pasta Salad

The Lost Supper Club

To all my paid subscribers: This newsletter would not exist without your generous support. The CookStack Collective classes and the new Road Food series are exclusively available to you. They are two ways for me to say thank you.

❤️ 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?

Whether you’re heading across the country, across the world, or simply across town, this series of recipes is made for life on the move. They’re easy to make, easy to pack, and taste just as good hours later as they do fresh from the kitchen. Perfect for road trips, picnics, hikes, airplanes, potlucks, packed lunches, busy weeknights, and anywhere else you need to go.

This series of recipes is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers).

One of the things I’ve been doing for years on travel days, when we are moving from one campground to another, is packing hearty salads into jars and tucking them into the cooler. This allows us to eat lunch inside the truck, usually at a truck stop, with everything contained neatly within our individual jars.

Since adding a sailboat to our modes of transportation, I’ve learned that lunch in a jar is also the perfect meal while sailing. But honestly, this is the kind of salad that travels well in almost any situation—packed lunches, hikes, picnics, beach days… you get the picture.

It doesn’t, of course, have to be packed into jars. A few weeks ago, I brought a bowl of this salad to a potluck with friends. It’s the kind of easy salad that can be prepared in advance, tossed together quickly, and goes well with anything.

This is also the kind of recipe in which every single ingredient should be taken as a suggestion, not a rule. Add anything you like—additional vegetables, herbs, or pickled things like banana peppers. Swap anything you don’t particularly like for something you do. And add more or less of anything to your heart’s content.

When Steve and I eat this for lunch as a main dish, I usually add some protein. Tuna, rotisserie chicken, and hard-boiled eggs are my go-to choices. But if you want to keep it plant-based, add some nuts and seeds or simply increase the ratio of beans to pasta.

One final note about the pasta: For the photos you see here, I used trafilata al bronzo, a type of small pasta that was gifted to me by a friend who lives in Italy. It was delicious, but any kind of small pasta will do, such as orzo, farfalline, ditali, or macaroni. You could also use rotini or small pasta shells.

Four more salads that travel well

1. Pearl Couscous Salad: 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. Kale and Broccoli Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette: This salad is crunchy, chewy, salty, sweet, and loaded with flavor and texture in every bite.

   Tossed with farro, parmesan, dried figs, peanuts, and cherries, it’s a hearty salad that manages to feels both wholesome and indulgent. Make it for lunch, pack it for a picnic, or serve it with any kind of grilled or roasted meat, poultry, or seafood. This is the kind of salad that plays nice with everything.

3. Israeli Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette: This Middle Eastern salad recipe 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.

4. Sesame Chicken Salad with Tahini Dressing: This sesame chicken salad is one of our favorite travel-day and lake-day meals. I pack it into mason jars that I place inside a small cooler and it makes a delicious high-protein lunch on days when we’re driving around the country from one campground to the next and want to save ourselves from truck stop food.

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 or recipe developer? Here are three resources just for you!

*Steve and I are on a sailing trip, so this issue is a reheat. It was originally published on March 14 of this year.

The impossible contradictions we live with every day

Friends of ours from the Palm Springs area came to San Diego this week to celebrate my birthday with us. The morning after a delightful birthday dinner on Coronado Island, my friend Judy and I drove to an area of San Diego with a high Korean population to visit Aqua Day Spa, a traditional Korean bathhouse.

Judy had been there before and knew the ropes, which was excellent because I think I would have made a half dozen social errors in the first few minutes had she not been there to guide me.

Traditional Korean bathhouses (Jjimjilbang) include hot tubs, saunas, and salt rooms and the option to get scrubbed down like you’ve never been scrubbed before.

After checking in, we were given baskets with a towel, robe, and a key to a locker. The protocol is to strip down (all the way, no exceptions, naked as the day you were born), put your stuff in your locker, and then head into a room with a couple of saunas, a hot tub, a cold plunge and massage tables with surprisingly strong and energetic middle-aged Korean women diligently scrubbing away on their completely nude clients.

The key, if you’re a stereotypical American white woman with all the hang-ups and baggage you’d expect from a stereotypical American white woman, is to leave all that bullshit at the door and get comfortable fast. And also, do what the strong and energetic middle-aged Korean women tell you to do.

I learned later that the colloquial term for these no-nonsense women who spend their days scrubbing, polishing, washing, and massaging client after client is ajumma, which can be translated as auntie.

When it was my turn, my ajumma took my hand and led me to her table, and for the next 60 minutes I obeyed her every command. She scrubbed me down from head to toe, moving me this way and that, absurd amounts of dead skin sloughing from my body like I was a reptile slithering out of my skin. I turned when she told me to turn, showered when she told me to shower, and allowed her to polish and oil my skin to a level of softness I doubt I’ve experienced since I was an infant.

At one point, as I lay on the table, buffed and polished, a cucumber mask on my face, while she washed my hair, I was overcome with the tenderness of it all… these women spending their days caring for other women.

It was breathtakingly beautiful.

I returned home and listened to news reports of an American bomb dropped on an elementary school full of children while I prepared dinner for friends.

We humans are violent animals. We are intent on inflicting harm on others, on ourselves, on our environment, on everything we touch. We’ve had many years of practice and we are exceptionally good at it.

And also there are aunties. There are mothers and fathers, nurses, child care providers, hospice workers, social workers, and therapists. There is me in my kitchen, preparing a meal for friends.

The gift of caring for others is offered in a thousand different ways, in every location on the globe, imperfect people taking care of imperfect people. We are violent and we are kind. We are terrible and we are wonderful. We harm and we heal. We destroy and we repair.

All these things are true.

I do not know the name of my ajumma. She did not offer it. She did not ask my name. No attempt was made at small talk, no energy given to pointless social niceties. She was all-business, completely focused on the task at hand, and the task at hand was to care for the person on her table. To care for me.

And this is the part in the story where I offer some little nugget of insight that helps us make sense of a world that includes bombs and school children and kind aunties, tucked into a neat little package, a pretty bow covering the strain of the string that’s fighting to contain the impossible contradictions stuffed inside. But the string will break. The bow is a mirage.

Because as I type this word and as you read it, there are terrible, unspeakable things happening everywhere. And also, there is a no-nonsense middle age Korean woman diligently caring for the person on their table.

I cannot explain it, let alone contain it. I just know that both things are true.

This is the world, beautiful and terrible. May the side of us that cares overcome the side that destroys.

This week’s menu

I’m going all in on the comfort level with this week’s menu of Smoky braised beef brisket with onions, Brown butter carrots, Buttermilk whipped potatoes, and Oatmeal raisin cookies

Smoky Braised Beef Brisket with Onions

Brisket has a reputation for being dry and honestly, its earned that reputation fair and square. The problem is that brisket is a tough cut of beef that needs to be cooked low and slow for a long time to soften the muscle fibers and render them tender. This long, slow cooking often results in dry, chewy meat that even a generous spoonful of gravy or BBQ sauce won’t cover up.

The solution was inspired by a recipe I found in an issue of Cook’s Illustrated and it’s genius. Oven-braise the brisket in a sauce made from wine, broth, and caramelized onions until it’s very tender. Then, let the cooked brisket rest overnight in the sauce.

While the meat chills out in it’s saucy bath, it reabsorbs some of the juice it lost while cooking, resulting in plump, juicy slices that are far from dry.

Another benefit to this cooking method is that most of the work is done in advance. This makes it a fantastic dish to serve when you’re having guests for dinner, or on busy weeknights when you’ve had a chance to do some meal prep the weekend before.

Growing up, one of my favorite meals at my grandma’s house was brisket. And (sorry grandma), it was pretty dry. But, I still loved it. It was full of smoky flavor and later I learned that was because she added some liquid smoke.

I’ve done the same thing in this recipe, adding a couple of teaspoons of liquid smoke to the sauce along with smoked paprika and some tomato paste. The combination gives the sauce a gorgeous rich, smokey flavor that I’m certain she would approve of.

Braised Beef Brisket

Brown Buttered Carrots

Slowly cooking carrots in brown butter creates a rich, indulgent side dish that’s the perfect compliment to a wide variety of main dishes. This simple recipe requires just 5 ingredients and is the perfect match for nostalgic, comforting dishes like braised brisket and meatloaf.

Brown Buttered Carrots

Buttermilk Whipped Potatoes

Buttermilk and plenty of butter gives these whipped potatoes a creamy, light, and fluffy texture and tangy flavor that is out of this world delicious. This recipe uses Russet potatoes and includes instructions for additions and substitutions.

Buttermilk Whipped Potatoes

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I find that oatmeal cookies most often fall into two categories - thick, soft, and chewy or thin and crispy. This recipe is unusual because it produces oatmeal cookies that are thin, soft, and chewy.

You can make them whatever size you like, but I prefer to bake them into huge two-handed cookies because they are the kind of thing I crave when I need an excess of all things warm and cozy.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

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September CookStack Collective Class

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