Let's just burn it to the ground

Or maybe just get our priorities straight. Also, Beef and Potato Stew, Homemade Bread, and Snack Cake Two Ways.

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.

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Every now and then I get the urge to quit everything and start over.

Some of you might feel slightly alarmed at the idea of ditching your life and starting from scratch but some of you are already nodding your head because you know exactly what I mean.

Regardless, remember that this is coming from someone who ditched their relatively normal suburban life in exchange for a nomadic one. I have changed careers more than once, stripped off a deeply imbedded religious identity, and upended almost all of my political ideas and opinions.

So I know I have it in me.

This does not mean I quit things easily. In fact, I can more easily point to things I maybe should have quit much earlier than I did. I can be incredibly stubborn and naïve about my ability to make something work even when it clearly isn’t. Sometimes not quitting pays off in a big way. Sometimes it doesn’t. Everything’s a gamble.

But most of the time, when I have the very dramatic urge to light a match and burn it all to the ground it’s a not so subtle signal that I need to step back and reassess some things.

Let me ask those of you who are not retired and working for a living a question:

If you were suddenly independently wealthy and no longer needed the paycheck, would you keep working the job you’re currently working?

There are exceptions to everything, but for the vast majority of us, the answer to that question is no. Even if you genuinely love your job, you probably wouldn’t keep doing it if you didn’t need the paycheck.

I am in the privileged category of people who actually, genuinely love their work. But would I keep doing it if I didn’t need the paycheck?

No. And also yes.

I would not continue to devote 40+ hours a week to writing and publishing my recipe websites. But I would keep writing here.

The irony with this situation is that, at the moment, my two recipe websites generate the bulk of my income. And they are what I’d be most willing to give up. They are my job. It’s a job I love, but it’s still a job.

Jobs can be set down, left, changed. Jobs are not who we are.

I am not the job.

Being a recipe developer in 2025 is a weird job to have. People need food. They need to eat. They do not need more recipes.

Not only can you find thousands of recipes online for everything you’d ever want to make (and a whole bunch of stuff you most definitely don’t) you can now just ask your favorite AI chatbot for a recipe and in about two seconds it will appear on the screen before you. No human required.

And still, some of us want to know there is an actual reliable human behind the recipe, testing it and perfecting it so when we spend our hard earned dollars, and even harder earned time, on making it, things will turn out well.

Because we are all so accustomed to getting recipes for free, the making a living part of real human recipe development often comes from ads. I don’t like the ads. You don’t like the ads. No one likes the ads. They are annoying and intrusive. And they are how I get a paycheck while keeping every single recipe on my websites free for everyone who wants it.

There must be a better way.

In some ways, Substack is a better way. Most publications here work basically the same way: A handful of paid subscribers support the writer’s work directly, thus allowing the vast majority of people to keep reading the newsletter for free. No advertising required.

This is also not without problems, but it’s a model I don’t feel as conflicted about.

The downside of a subscription model is that the writer has to sell it. This is not my favorite thing. I don’t actually want to sell you anything, especially now.

In my own life, it seems like every other day I receive a notice that the price is going up on something.

I’m guessing you are in the same boat. This is not a difficult guess.

While expenses are going up, income for a lot of us is going down.

Once again, I know I’m not alone. The circumstances may be different, but the experience is the same.

And so, when everyone is raising the cost of things, I’m going to lower it.

Starting today, a paid subscription to this newsletter will drop from $55 a year to $35 a year.

This is not a sale. It’s not a special offer. It’s not a “get this deal now before it’s over” kind of situation. It’s just a lower price.

Here’s my completely transparent goal: To generate more paid subscriptions by lowering the burden on each individual subscriber.

If you are a current member of the Lost Supper Club (paid subscriber) I hope you won’t perceive this as an insult. I tell you the truth when I say that this newsletter wouldn’t exist without you. Thank you. When your current subscription is up, it will renew at the lower price.

Paid subscribers become members of The Lost Supper Club.

And members of the Lost Supper Club get a whole bunch of really cool stuff! Way, way, way more than $35 worth!

THREE free digital cookbooks: The digital version of Let’s Get Lost Volume 1 and the No Recipe Required Cookbook are available as soon as you upgrade.

Let’s Get Lost Volume 2 will be released in late December and available for free to all members of The Lost Supper Club.

That’s three books, more than 300 recipes with full color photos, and more than 500 pages for $35.

You’ll also receive:

• Access to the complete recipe index + the downloadable recipe cards for every single recipe published here

• Exclusive recipes just for members of The Lost Supper Club, including the small batch baking series.

• The weekly recommendation list

• Access to the entire library of classes

• Access to the entire library of past issues

In addition, starting next year, paid subscribers will be able to attend interactive online classes held over zoom. I’ve had a great time teaching classes over Substack LIVE and will continue to do so. But, Substack LIVE does not allow for much interaction. I want to be able to talk with you and cook with you face to face. These classes will allow us to do that.

The monthly price is still the same - $6. If you want to download the cookbooks and as many pdf’s as your heart desires and then cancel, please do so with my blessing. ❤️

If you receive value from this newsletter and want to support it AND receive some cool stuff in exchange, I hope you’ll upgrade.

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Ok, whew. Sales pitch over. Putting the match away for another day.

On to the good stuff…. beef and potato stew, and cake!

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This week’s menu

From now through the end of the year, each week’s menu includes a new recipe that’s easy to make and won’t break the bank.

→ Find more cheap and easy recipes here.

Beef and Potato Stew

Many years ago, my mom gave me a set of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking as a Christmas gift. Julia’s Beef Bourguignon was one of the first things I made and my family went wild for it. After that, it became a Christmas Day tradition in our home. After opening gifts and having breakfast with our extended family, we’d go home to play games or watch movies and I’d make Beef Bourguignon.

This Beef and Potato Stew is essentially a simpler, easier, less expensive form of Beef Bourguignon.

I debated for a long time about whether I was going to include this recipe in the Cheap and Easy Series. Stew meat must cook low and slow for quite a while to get that fall-apart-tender consistency. But this isn’t the cheap and quick series, and it actually is quite easy to put the pot in the oven and let it do it’s thing.

The cheap part comes into question with the quality of beef you choose and the bottle of red wine. I always do my best to select beef that’s from a source for which I have a reasonable assumption that the animals were treated well and fed well. That usually means spending a little bit more money. To me, it’s worth it. We don’t eat a lot of red meat and I’d rather buy a smaller cut of something responsibly raised and high quality than a larger cut of something questionable.

But, I know spending more money on good quality beef is not always an option. I get it. If beef isn’t in your budget right now, you’ll find lots and lots of other options in the cheap and easy series, some for under $2 a serving.

Having said that, stew meat is less expensive than many other cuts and you don’t need a lot of it per person to make a hearty, filling meal.

As for the wine, my advice is to always cook with something you’d also happily drink. If the wine tastes bad before you add it to the dish, it will make the entire dish taste bad. Happily, you can find some really good options these days in the $10 or $12 a bottle range.

OR, save even more money by replacing the red wine with beef broth.

The bottom line is this: This stew is a bit more expensive and time consuming than some of the other options in the cheap and easy series, but still much less expensive and easier than a stew like Beef Bourguignon. And every bit as delicious.

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Honey Wheat Bread with Oats

Homemade bread is always a treat no matter how often I bake it.

I’ve been baking bread for many, many years. And yet, every single time a warm, fresh loaf comes out of the oven, we hover over it, impatiently waiting for it to cool enough to slice.

Simple sandwich loaves like this whole wheat recipe (and this white bread recipe) require a minimal amount of time when weighted against the immensely satisfying reward of baking - and eating! - homemade bread.

Two loaves of this simple Honey Wheat Bread will be ready to eat in about 3 hours, with only about 20-minutes of hands-on effort.

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Banana Snack Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

This banana snack cake is exceptionally soft, with a crumb so tender it’s almost creamy. It’s not overly sweet, packed with rich banana flavor, and the warm comforting hint of nutmeg and cloves.

As all snack cakes should be, this one is quick and easy to make and will stay fresh and moist for several days. It’s delicious on it’s own, but spread with a thick layer of peanut butter frosting and it goes from good to can’t-stop-thinking-about-it good.

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Chocolate Snack Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

This fudgy little chocolate cake is super easy to make and unapologetically snackable. It’s the kind of cake that begs to be eaten in the middle of the afternoon, with peanut butter frosting on your fingers, and cake crumbs all over your big happy smile.

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This and that

We’ve spent the past three weeks at a campground next to Lake McConaughy in Nebraska. This place is packed during the summer, but this time of the year, it’s blissfully quiet and peaceful.

Steve captured some drone footage of the sunset the other night and I wanted to share it with you! There’s a reason they call it golden hour.

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I’ve been making what I call “foolproof pie crust” for 30 years. In three decades of pie baking, I’ve tweaked the recipe a bit and learned a thing or two. In this fun pie crust class, I show you how to make foolproof pie crust AND Betty shares her favorite pie crust recipe which (spoiler alert) includes a lot of vodka. 🍸

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Check out this delicious idea from Elizabeth Pizzinato for a decadently delicious but so simple appetizer idea! I am definitely trying this.

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“You’re cooking already… you may as well cook more than one thing.” Yes!!! This is how I cook! Sometimes, at least. Not as often as I used to when we had kids at home. But, it’s still such a valuable concept to spoiling yourself with more home cooked food with very little extra effort. I loved this post from Lolly Martyn. Who doesn’t want to cook like a Nona?

Meal Prep Like Nonna: Easy, Cheap, Plant-based, No Waste

And, on that same theme, my friend Betty Williams recently did a series featuring a large-batch protein recipe and three different recipes to use throughout the week that use the already cooked protein. This post with a series of recipes made with braised beef short ribs recipes made my mouth water.

Braised Beef Short Ribs = Three Meals

Need a recipe for an old fashioned that’s truly old fashioned? Kelsey Erin Shipman has got you covered.

“A cocktail for men nostalgic for the good old days when wars were fought on horseback, women were secretaries, and classified attack plans were shared in group chats.”

The Old Fashioned (Department of Defense)

And a book recommendation. Rough Diamonds by Kurt Johnson is fantastic. Kurt is clearly a curiosity driven observer of the world and has a remarkable ability to be honest about how fucked up the human experience is while remaining hopeful.

I was drawn into the story almost immediately and genuinely sad when it was over. This was the first of Kurt’s books I’ve read and I can’t wait to get my hands on the others.

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