Issue #1: The Cave

Let's Get Lost, February 3, 2024

Welcome to the very first issue of Let’s Get Lost. I’m so glad you’re here.

In this issue

+ What this newsletter is all about: The cave

+ Two New Recipes! 30 minute white bean, kale, and bacon soup and banana oat cake with chocolate frosting

+ No Recipe Required: Creamy chicken and potato soup with chilies and cheese

+ One Useful Thing: A super easy method for cooking chicken

+ New On The Blogs: Aleppo pepper oil and stovetop Dutch oven chocolate cake

+ Featured Cookbook: Mushroom sandwiches from How to Dress an Egg

+ February Bake Club Challenge: Oatmeal raisin cookies

+ Reading, Watching, and Listening Recommendations

A quick note before we get to it, the length of this post means it might be truncated in your inbox – just click to expand and read the whole thing or read it directly on rebeccablackwell.com.

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” - Joseph Campbell 

I LOVE to start new things. Thankfully, I have learned a few things in my 48 years and one of them is that, for me, starting is the easy part and should therefore be approached with some caution. My brain is a never ending stream of ideas about new things I want to do, learn, and experience. Many of these ideas come with quite a lot of responsibility for follow through and consistency, and this is where things get tricky.

Over the past several years I have created a blissfully unstructured life. I work for myself and by myself. My husband and I live in an RV and spend the year traveling to new places. I decide for myself what I will do with every hour of every day. There is no one to report to and every week looks different from the last.

I love it.

So I approach this newsletter with a healthy amount of fear and trepidation. I have been thinking about and planning for its launch for nearly a year. This is in direct contradiction to my usual tendency to jump into the next idea with both feet forward and just figure it out as I go along.

I want to do this with my whole heart. But, that same heart wants to rebel against the responsibility and structure that this newsletter will require of me.

This is my cave and I am walking in.

Hopefully your experience of reading it will not be nearly so dramatic. If you choose to join me on this journey, here’s what you can expect:

• Two options for your subscription: free or paid. Free subscribers will receive 2 issues a month (24 a year). If you opt to subscribe for $5 a month or $50 a year (thank you!), you will receive 3 issues a month (36 a year). There is no difference between the free and paid subscriptions except in how many issues a month you receive.

• Every issue will include stories from the road (my husband and I are full time travelers) + several new recipes that you won’t find on either of my recipe websites + useful (I hope!) tips and tricks + a monthly bake club challenge + recommendations for cookbooks, books, podcasts, and other things that I hope will be of interest to you.

Enough of the blah, blah, blah. 🙂 Instead of my rambling on to describe this newsletter, just scroll down to see for yourself. Thank you for reading, friends.

→ Read more about me what this newsletter is all about

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Since moving into an RV in 2020, we’ve spent every November and December in Colorado because it’s where our daughters and the rest of our family lives. December 2022 included a lot of snow and an entire week of sub zero temperatures that dropped all the way down to -17.

Can you live in a 5th wheel trailer when it’s -17 outside? Yes, you can, but I wouldn’t recommend it. (I did write out some tips for winter RV living after that experience should you ever find yourself in an RV in the middle of a cold and snowy winter.)

So, last year we decided to opt out of that super fun snow-and-freezing-temps-in-an-RV experience, and left our home in Seattle for the holidays. We stayed with friends and family and enjoyed a snow-free mild temperature Colorado Christmas because the weather gods have a twisted sense of humor.

Anyhoo, after all the holiday decadence and waaaaay too much restaurant food, I made this soup on January 2nd, the day after we returned home. It took very little time and energy to prepare and was exactly what we needed. I’ve made it twice since then, always making sure there’s enough for dinner plus enough leftover to reheat for lunch later in the week.

Here’s how to make it.

White bean, kale, and bacon soup in 30 minutes or less

Ingredients:

Yes, I know there are no exact amounts here because this is a throw-it-together kind of meal. Eyeball the amounts, using more or less of what you like and for the number of people you are cooking for. Whatever you do, it’s going to be delicious.

• bacon (I like thick cut)

• a shallot or two (or a small yellow onion), chopped

• a few cloves of garlic, chopped

• dried sage and thyme

• crushed red pepper

• about a cup of dry white wine (optional)

• Better than Bouillon Vegetable Base mixed with water or any kind of vegetable or chicken stock (I like chunky soup with minimal broth, so only added a couple of cups to make 3 or 4 servings. Add as much or as little as you like.)

• canned diced tomatoes (I like to use the ones that say “fire roasted”)

• a bag of chopped kale - it cooks down so you’ll need more than you think you do. I used a 10 ounce bag to make enough soup for 3 or 4 servings

• canned white beans (Or, if you want to cook dried beans here’s how to cook beans in an instant pot or how to cook beans in a slow cooker.)

• lemon juice

• salt and pepper

• Shredded parmesan for serving (optional)

Instructions:

1. Chop the bacon into bite size chunks and add it to a stock pot or large sauce pan. Set the pan over medium heat and cook the bacon, stirring every now and then, until it’s getting crispy but not so crispy that it’s starting to crumble. Use a slotted spoon to remove the bacon from the pan onto a plate that’s lined with paper towels. Pour all but about a tablespoon of bacon fat out of the the saucepan.

2. Add the chopped shallots and garlic to the pan and stir it around in the bacon fat. Set the pan back over medium heat and cook, stirring, until the garlic is starting to brown. Sprinkle in the dried herbs and crushed red pepper and cook, stirring, for about a minute to open up the flavor of the spices.

3. Pour in the white wine and use a spoon to scrape up all the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. (You can also skip the wine and just use broth/ stock or water.) Crank the heat up to high and cook until at least half of the liquid has evaporated. Add the vegetable stock and canned tomatoes and bring back to a boil.

4. Stir in the kale - as you add it, it will cook down and you can add more. Stir in the white beans. Let the whole thing cook for 5 minutes or so then add a splash of lemon juice. Taste the broth and as much or as little salt and pepper and more lemon juice if you like. (Tip: if you’re trying to reduce the amount of salt in your cooking, add more lemon juice. Adding acid to food reduces the amount of salt necessary for well-seasoned food.)

5. To serve: ladle the soup into bowls and top with a handful of bacon plus some shredded parmesan if you like. I like to eat this soup with a slice or two of toasted buttered sourdough.

Variations and serving suggestions

As with most kinds of soup, most of the ingredients can be swapped out for something else.

• Use any kind of beans in addition to or instead of white beans

• Use any kind of broth - any flavor of Better than Bouillon, prepared broth or stock, or homemade

• Swap out the kale for spinach, chard, mustard greens, or any kind of dark leafy greens

• Boost the protein by adding some cooked shredded chicken

• Make it vegetarian or vegan by omitting the bacon and parmesan or using a vegan substitute

• Make it more filling by adding some rice, noodles, or any other starch or grain - or add some crispy fried potatoes which is honestly one of my favorite things to add to soup (see this recipe for split pea soup with truffle fried potatoes)

• Add a little spicy chili flavor with a drizzle of Aleppo pepper oil

For a soup and salad meal, serve this soup with Israeli Salad or pearl couscous salad. To double up on the bacon, serve bowls of this soup with BLT sandwiches.

I love having crusty bread to dip in my soup but possibly even more delicious is a basket filled with warm, flaky, homemade buttermilk biscuits.

For those of us with a sweet tooth, ending this cozy simple meal with a giant oatmeal raisin cookie is just about the best thing ever.

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Banana Oat Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Makes one 9x13-inch cake; about 8 slices, depending on how large you cut your slices. And, I’ll just tell you right now, you’re going to want large slices. 😋

This cake is all things simple, warm, uncomplicated, and comforting. And, if you’re a chocolate and banana fan, it’s a slam dunk.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (89 grams) old fashioned oats

• 1 cup (120 grams)all purpose flour

• 1/2 cup (57 grams) whole wheat flour

• 1/2 teaspoon allspice

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 cup (213 grams) brown sugar, light or dark

• 1/2 cup (99 grams) vegetable oil

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract OR vanilla bean paste

• 2 teaspoons almond extract (optional)

• 3 large eggs (150 grams) + 1 egg yolk (14 grams)

• 1/2 cup (113 grams) buttermilk (here’s how to make buttermilk if you don’t have any)

• 4 very ripe medium size bananas

• 1/2 cup (113 grams) heavy whipping cream

Instructions:

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13-inch rectangle baking pan. (Here’s how to grease and flour a pan so your cake will not stick.)

2. Add 1/4 cup of the oats to a food processor and grind to a powder. Dump the ground oats and the rest of the whole oats into a large bowl. Add both kinds of flour, the allspice, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and brown sugar. Use a wire whisk to mix the dry ingredients.

3. Add the oil, vanilla, eggs and egg yolk, buttermilk, and bananas to a food processor or a blender and puree until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Use a spoon to stir, mixing just until everything is blended together.

4. Use an electric mixer to beat the heavy cream until it’s thick enough to hold a shape. (If you lift the beater from the cream it will form a peak that will hold it's shape.) Gently fold the whipped cream into the batter, mixing just until blended - a few visible streaks of cream in the batter is ok.

5. Spread the batter in the prepared baking dish and bake in the center of the oven for 55-65 minutes. To test that the cake is done, insert a toothpick in the center of the cake and remove it. If you don’t see any raw batter on the toothpick, the cake is ready to be removed from the oven.

6. Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan then spread with the frosting of your choice. In the photos here the cake is frosted with a half recipe of classic chocolate buttercream.

Chocolate frosting options: You’ll need about 2 cups of frosting for this cake. Milk chocolate buttercream, chocolate ganache (pour warm ganache over the cooled cake or allow it to cool then whip it for a consistency similar to buttercream), chocolate orange buttercream, or classic chocolate buttercream.

Non-chocolate frosting options: Mascarpone frosting, cream cheese buttercream, classic American buttercream, or white chocolate ganache buttercream. And the coconut cream cheese buttercream on these hummingbird cupcakes would add a tropical touch.

Not sure what to do with the leftover buttermilk? Here are 24 recipes that use buttermilk.

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No Recipe Required is a collection of quick and easy dishes that are more of an idea than a recipe. Each dish in this series is meant to inspire delicious, quick, and easy meals that can be adapted to what you like, what you have on hand, and how many people you're cooking for.

Creamy Chicken and Potato Soup with Chilies and Cheese

My favorite time to make this soup is on a Friday night when we are both worn out from the week and want nothing more than to snuggle up on the couch with a bowl of something warm and delicious to watch movies.

If you have some cooked chicken, the soup takes very little time to throw together. And, if you don’t have any pre-cooked chicken, you’ll find a super easy method for cooking chicken right below this recipe.

Ingredients:

• Onion - yellow, red, or white OR a couple of shallots

• Vegetable oil

• Garlic

• 2 or 3 red bell peppers, chopped

• Potatoes (I like to use Yukon gold/ yellow potatoes)

• A can or two of diced green chilies

• Any kind of broth or stock or Better than Bouillon mixed with water

• Sour cream

• Diced or shredded cooked chicken (see the “one useful thing” section below for a super easy way to cook chicken)

• Fresh oregano

• Grated cheddar cheese (or any kind of cheese)

• Aleppo pepper oil or your favorite hot sauce (optional)

Chop the onions and add them to a large saucepan along with a couple tablespoons of oil. Cook over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent then add the garlic and bell pepper. Cook for another couple of minutes then add the potatoes, green chilies, and enough broth to cover the potatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender. Use a ladle or a measuring cup to remove about a cup of the broth and pour it into a bowl. Stir in about a cup of sour cream then pour the mixture back into the soup. Stir in the cooked chicken and oregano, then the grated cheddar and Aleppo pepper oil or hot sauce. Taste and add as much salt as you like.

We like to eat this with a slice or two of crusty bread, homemade flour tortillas, or homemade buttermilk biscuits.

Soup take 2: Quesadillas

The last time I made this soup, we ate it with homemade flour tortillas. The next day, I repurposed the leftover tortillas and soup into quesadillas and they did not suck. 😋

To make, follow this method for making crispy corn tortilla quesadillas adding pieces of chicken and potatoes from the soup into the center of the quesadilla. Steve prefers to eat his with some Herdez salsa verde while I topped mine with some Aleppo pepper oil. So good!

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A super easy method for cooking chicken

Having some cooked chicken in the refrigerator is an easy way to add protein to soup, salad, sandwiches, or other quick meals. And, I know that you can pick up a rotisserie chicken or a package of pre-cooked shredded chicken at nearly every supermarket. But honestly, this super simple method only takes a few minutes and will give you perfectly cooked, flavorful chicken without any of the additives that are often included in grocery store chicken.

1. Add some boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs to a saucepan.

2. Pour in about a cup of soy sauce plus enough water to cover the chicken. If you're gluten intolerant, coconut aminos will work just as well. Or, use broth, stock, or Better than Bouillon mixed with water. The important thing is to submerge the chicken in a flavorful, salty liquid. If the liquid you are using isn’t salty, add enough salt to make it taste as salty as sea water. The chicken will not absorb all of the salt - but using salty liquid is essential to flavoring the meat from the inside out.

3. Add more flavoring if you like. I usually peel a knob of ginger that's roughly 3 inches long and dump it into the pan along with 5 or 6 cloves of peeled garlic that I’ve chopped in half. You can also add fresh or dried herbs and/or a few strips of lemon peel. Or, add nothing at all and just let the salty liquid flavor the chicken.

4. Set the pan over medium high heat. When it begins to boil, remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let it sit for at least 20 minutes and up to an hour.

5. Remove the chicken from the liquid, chop or shred, and store it in a covered container in the refrigerator.

That’s it. I usually cook some chicken this way after returning from a grocery store run. It takes about 5 minutes to get the chicken cooking. By the time I’ve unpacked the rest of the groceries the chicken is done cooking and ready to be refrigerated.

A few of my favorite ways to use pre-cooked chicken:

• Double crust chicken pot pie

• 30-minute chicken soup

• Chicken enchiladas verdes

• Chicken lettuce wraps

• Chicken tortilla soup

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New on the blogs

❤️ February is for chocolate lovers. ❤️

I'll be honest. I have a little bit of a ba-humbug attitude towards Valentines day not because I'm against romance, but because the whole thing feels so forced and artificial. But that's never stopped me from using Valentines day as the perfect excuse to eat chocolate all month long. You celebrate your way, and I'll celebrate mine. 😁

If you're also on team chocolate, I hope you'll find something delicious to make this month from this collection of recipes. From fancy chocolate cakes, to the fudgiest brownies, to rich chocolate pies, these recipes are all dressed up and ready to make you swoon.

Aleppo pepper oil is one of the easiest and most delicious ways to add a touch of heat and rich chili flavor to everything from soup and sandwiches to meat, veggies, and eggs. When prepared with some crispy garlic it becomes an excellent substitute for chili crisp and an addictive dip for bread and tortillas.

You’ll find a little jar of Aleppo pepper oil on my countertop pretty much all the time. It lasts for weeks and I use it so frequently that I keep it right next to the stovetop.

Dutch Oven Chocolate Cake. This cake is baked in a round cake pan set inside a Dutch oven with a bit of water in the bottom of the Dutch oven. The cake is gently steamed rather than baked, and the result is a soft, light and springy texture that's creamy, buttery and deeply chocolate. My husband and I couldn't stop eating it and I just can't wait for you to try it.

I know we are a long way away from camping season, but I do want to point out that this is a fantastic camping recipe, no oven required. 😁

And, if you’re a fellow soup lover, check out this list of 14 favorite winter soup recipes.

These are the kind of soup recipes that are a complete answer to the question about what’s for dinner. You’ll find nothing “watery” on this list and every single recipe is an entire meal unto itself.

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Every month, I’ll showcase several recipes from a cookbook I’m loving to cook from right now. This month’s cookbook is How to Dress an Egg by Ned Baldwin and Peter Kaminsky.

I purchased this book a couple of years ago after hearing one of the authors on a podcast and it’s really the perfect book for the beginning of the year. The recipes are simple and accessible and focus on techniques that showcase wholesome ingredients without a lot of fuss or fanfare. The book has influenced several of my published recipes including this simple recipe for roasted beets.

This week I made Mushroom Sandwiches with Rosemary Aioli.

If you’re a mushroom lover, the mushroom sandwich is a hearty meatless meal you’ll find yourself making again and again. At least, that’s our experience. The mushrooms are roasted to perfection before being layered into a warm baguette with seared broccoli rabe and a thick schmear of rosemary garlic aioli and chopped Kalamata olives. So good.

In the photo below, I used sautéed Swiss chard instead of broccoli rabe because that’s what was available at my local market and it was just as delicious.

Use your leftovers

We had some aioli, mushrooms and chard left over so the next day I added the veggies to some scrambled eggs, smeared a couple pieces of toast with aioli, and topped them with the scrambled eggs and veggies and it made a very satisfying lunch.

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The bake club is a monthly baking challenge with a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card. There is no need to sign-up for the bake club, simply bake the challenge recipe and then leave a comment on the recipe telling me what you thought of it. By commenting on the recipe, you'll be automatically entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card.

Important: When you comment on the recipe, use the same email address that you use to subscribe to this newsletter. This is how I’ll contact you if you win.

The February challenge is these classic oatmeal raisin cookies.

These cookies are classic comfort food. They are huge, sweet, and buttery, with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg, and just the right amount of raisins and almonds. They are soft and chewy in the center and slightly crispy around the edges.

And, like a warm bowl of soup or a thick slice of homemade bread, they are the kind of classic cookie that makes me feel grounded, cozy, and a little bit better about the world.

To participate in the Bake Club Challenge: bake this month's challenge recipe and then leave a comment on the recipe telling me what you thought of it! By commenting on the recipe, you'll be automatically entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card. Bake the challenge recipe and leave your comment before March 1st, 2024.

(By the way, the The January Bake Club Winner was Pam Harper. Congratulations Pam!)

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What I’m reading, watching, and listening to

Steve and I just recently discovered Julia on HBO Max and sped through both seasons in just a few days (we absolutely spent a Friday night watching this show while eating bowls of the creamy chicken and potato soup above).

It’s an exceptionally well done show that will appeal to everyone who loves a good series, not just those of us interested in cooking and the life of Julia Child. One warning: do NOT watch this show hungry. 😋

I recently read Let us Descend by Jesmyn Ward and, honestly, am still recovering from this beautiful book that rakes you over the coals with the truth of slavery in America. The book is merciless in its depiction of the experience of slavery from the enslaved point of view and somehow Jesmyn Wards manages to do this with writing that is nothing short of poetic. This was an important book for me to read and one I will need to process for quite some time.

I also just finished Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison, a book that many of you have probably already read, but was new to me. (The book has also been made into a film, which I haven’t yet seen.) The primary character is a young girl growing up in a poor white family in South Carolina in the 1950’s and dives deep into how our behavior, perceptions, and motivations are deeply rooted in the culture in which we are raised. This is a very glossy way of saying that this is a book about people living exceptionally hard, chaotic, and violent lives. They love and care for each other as best they can in the midst of family and cultural cycles that are destructive and overwhelming. They are doing their best and their best includes constant wreckage. It wrecked me.

So, now I could use a novel that doesn’t paint life quite so realistically. I’m craving a well written story with soft edges, glossy characters, and an ending that gets tied up with a pretty bow at the end. Know any of those? Please recommend them to me.

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Thanks for reading! Next week’s issue will include recipes for healthy-ish cookies, quick Spanish shrimp, and cheesy stuffed flatbread, amongst other things. See you next Saturday!

If you make something from this issue, snap a photo and send it to me at rebecca@rebeccablackwell.com! I’ll publish your photo in next week’s issue!

And, if you like what you see here, please tell your friends!