Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, and nomad without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.
Every Saturday morning, I send out a new issue of this newsletter, usually filled with recipes and stories from our life on the road.
Find out more: rebeccablackwell.com.
And if you’re a fellow food writer, join me over on Mastermind For Food Writers.
The Pie Issue
We are not particularly traditional about Thanksgiving around here. Over the years, our holiday dinners have included things like carnitas, lasagna, and leg of lamb.
But there’s one tradition I refuse to mess with: pie. There may not be turkey on our Thanksgiving menu, but there is always pie.
Whether you’re a traditionalist or someone who likes to shake things up a bit, the ten recipes below are some of my family’s favorites. I hope one or two of them find their way onto your holiday table and become your favorites too.
German Apple Pie
German Apple Pie is one of the easiest and creamiest apple pies I’ve ever baked. The filling is simply apples coated in cinnamon and sugar and covered in cream. It’s gorgeously rich, flavorful, and so easy to make that it’s become one of my favorite go-to recipes.
In October, Anne and I showed you how to make this pie in a Substack Live. She made a regular size pie and I made four mini pies. Here’s where you’ll find the replay of that class:
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???
Lemon Meringue Pie: This is my idea of the perfect lemon meringue pie. The sweet-tart lemon custard filling is bursting with bright lemon flavor, and the marshmallow meringue is so light and pillowy it practically melts in your mouth.
Cast Iron Skillet Maple Pecan Pie: This Cast Iron Skillet Pecan Pie is rich, creamy, and packed with the flavor of toasted pecans and maple syrup.
Although corn syrup is traditionally used to make pecan pie, this recipe uses maple syrup instead. A touch of sour cream creates a silky smooth texture, and plenty of toasted pecans add a nutty crunch to every bite.
No Bake Chocolate Pie: This dreamy No-Bake Chocolate Pie is impossibly light, delicate, and everything we love about a really, really good chocolate mousse. It's NOT stodgy, heavy, or cloying at all. And it's so easy to make, it borders on ridiculous.
Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie: This pie includes layers of chocolate pastry cream, vanilla rum custard, bananas, and whipped cream in a buttery vanilla wafer crust. It’s incredibly rich, creamy, and indulgent without being overly sweet, and has been a favorite recipe in our family for years and years.
Coconut Cream Pie: This is the ultimate in rich, creamy, coconut deliciousness and you might be tempted to just have a "small slice", but should give it up right now because there is no such thing.
Chocolate Cream Pie: This is what happens when you take really good pastry cream, add copious amounts of bittersweet chocolate, spread all that rich, chocolate dreaminess into a crispy Toasted Almond Crust, and then top it with a mile-high layer of whipped cream.
Salted Caramel Apple Pie: This salted caramel apple pie 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.
Chocolate Almond Pie: This creamy, fudgy, intensely chocolate pie studded with roasted almonds and a hint of bourbon is for serious chocolate lovers only. You chocolate-is-ok-sometimes kind of people need to find yourselves another pie because this one is pure, unadulterated chocolate and extremely unapologetic and in your face about it.
Maple Pumpkin Pie: This pie is bursting with the warm flavors of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and maple syrup. But the BEST thing about this pie is the texture. The rich custard filling is ultra creamy, light, silky smooth, and does not contain any kind of canned milk.
A few things from my week
If you missed last week’s issue:
Tiny castles made of cotton and leaves
Even though I knew this wasn’t our RV, we both knew it, I wanted to stay. I wanted to pull down the shades, tuck myself onto the sofa with a blanket and turn on the TV. I could picture making snacks in the tiny kitchen and turning in for the night, comfortably at home in an RV dealership parking lot. It was that same delicious feeling of childhood blanket forts, of setting up my dolls and my books inside a tiny castle made of cotton, and wallowing in the cozy solitude of my own little space. The whole world, with all of its expectations and shoulds, and musts, and dos and don’ts, was out there. But I was tucked safely, contentedly, in here.
Knife Skills with Chef Anne
It was an absolute delight to have my daughter, Anne Blackwell, join me in my tiny kitchen last Sunday to teach us all some chefy knife skills. To all of you who were able to join us LIVE, thank you! We loved having you there!
In this class, Anne teaches us how to chop onions, garlic, potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, and fennel, and how to cut up a whole chicken.
For the fellow food writers in the room
In addition to my work as a recipe writer, I also run a group here on Substack for fellow food writers - Mastermind For Food Writers.
On Wednesday, I hosted our monthly Mastermind meeting. At the meeting, we talked about how people are discovering information online in new ways and how AI-powered search and AI agents are creating new opportunities and challenges for independent writers.
If that’s of interest to you, here’s where you’ll find the replay.
I compiled much of what I taught in the meeting into an article, so if you’d rather read than watch, here’s where you’ll find that:
What Are The Questions for Which Your Work Is The Answer? How AI is changing discoverability, and what independent writers can do about it.
![grascale photo of people standing on ground\](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1506755594592-349d12a7c52a?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wzMDAzMzh8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwxfHxjcm93ZGVkfGVufDB8fHx8MTc5NDQyNDYyOHww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080 "grascale photo of people standing on ground\")
High Tea at The Brown Palace
On Wednesday, I took my daughters to high tea at The Brown Palace in Denver. While eating scones and finger sandwiches, I looked up the history of the building and learned that it was built in 1892 by Henry C. Brown, a carpenter, architect, and real estate developer in Denver’s early days.
Brown homesteaded 160 acres in Denver, farming some of his property while developing the rest. At the time, the state was struggling to determine where its capital would be. Brown donated 10 acres of his land for a state capitol building, a gift that helped Denver become the state capital.
The Brown Palace has a distinctive triangular shape because, after developing the rest of his land, Brown looked at a triangular parcel where his cows were grazing and decided it was a great spot for a hotel.
Nearly every US president since the hotel opened has stayed at The Brown Palace. It became known as the Western White House after several presidents used it as their campaign headquarters. You can’t see it in the photo above, but there is a building across the street, near the sky bridge, that was a gambling hall and brothel back in the day. A now sealed tunnel runs underground from the hotel to the former brothel (now a museum), and you don’t need much of an imagination to understand its use.
Small luxuries and interesting finds
A few weeks ago I wrote about how I’d found the perfect pair of jeans. They are soft and stretchy but don’t get all loose and stretched out from wearing them. I was also amazed that they were the perfect length for my short legs until I realized they are cropped. Of course they are. 🤦🏻♀️
The brand is Bayeas, which I had not heard of until I bought the aforementioned jeans. After writing about my new jeans in this newsletter, the folks at Bayeas reached out to ask if they could send me a couple of samples.
Well, sure.
This week, I received this super cute denim shirt, no strings attached, and I really, genuinely love it.
I love the slightly distressed, worn-in look of the shirt. I requested a size medium, and aside from the sleeves being a bit long (sleeves are always too long for me), it fits great. Plenty of room to move without feeling constricted.
When I was searching for the product link to share with you, I noticed that the shirt is, as of Friday morning, 35% off. And that’s nice too.
Some of you may recall that last Thanksgiving, we went to see Wicked Part 2 with friends and got fully into the spirit of things. My witty, good-humored husband agreed to play the part of Dorothy, complete with a little dog in a basket and red Converse Chucks for his ruby slippers.
The little stuffed dog and bow tie were vanquished by the end of the day, but the red Converse have gotten plenty of use since last Thanksgiving. So much so that he was in need of a new pair. While he was trying them on to make sure he had the correct size, I decided I would like a matching pair. So, now I guess we are that couple.
This may be as festive as I get this year, people. :-)
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.
Last year, I shared a series of Pie for 2 recipes. The series was sparked by messages from a few of you who reached out to tell me that you were sometimes frustrated with the yield of most recipes. Someone said, “I’d sometimes like to make 8 cookies, not 48.”
So, instead of a new Road Food recipe, this week I’m sharing the Pie for Two series. Each of these recipes is exclusively for paid subscribers. Thank you, my friends, for your continued support.
Mini Coconut Cream Pie for 2!
Honestly this pie can easily serve 4, but I’m saying it serves two so that you have some leftovers. If I go to the effort of making a pie, I’d like to eat it today and tomorrow. But, of course, you can also share your pie with two other people you love. Which is exactly what most of you are prone to do, because I’ve met quite a few of you and you are generous like that.
Apple Crumb Pie for Two
Apple pie is also one of Steve’s favorite desserts. So, I always bake at least one every fall, during those months when I become obsessed with apple everything. And, if I’m making pies for Thanksgiving, one of them will almost always be apple. But, if you want to bake an apple pie that only takes about an hour and a half, start to finish, and delivers 4 cute little slices, this is your recipe.
Pumpkin and Pecan Pie for Two
Both of these pies are sweetened with maple syrup and deviate from tradition a bit. Pumpkin pie often contains evaporated milk, but half and half actually gives it the creamiest texture, so that’s what I’ve used here. My biggest complaint about pecan pie is that it’s almost always too sweet for my liking. To add more flavor and tone down the cloying aspect of this pie, I swapped out corn syrup for maple syrup and added a touch of sour cream and apple cider vinegar. The result is a smooth, ultra creamy filling with a balanced level of sweetness.
For those of you who would rather have cobbler than pie…
Cobbler for Two
There are many ways to make cobbler, but my favorite is with a chewy topping that’s reminiscent of a sugar cookie. Lucky for me, this kind of cobbler topping only takes a few minutes to make and is fantastic over pretty much any kind of fruit filling using fresh or frozen fruit.
And, for all of us who feel that pie is also for dinner, not just dessert…
Chicken Pot Pie for Two + Foolproof Pie Crust
The recipe below for Foolproof pie crust and Chicken pot pie will make enough for two 6-inch double crust chicken pot pies. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether one 6-inch pie is one serving or two. Steve and I typically share one pie and save the second one for the next day. But you’ll find no judgement here if you decide to keep an entire pie to yourself.
The CookStack Collective
On Tuesday, Kerry Faber showed us how to make her cabbage wrapped meatballs. I cooked right along with her and that was the right call, let me tell you. These meatballs are cheesy, saucy, cabbage-wrapped pockets of deliciousness. Even though it took us a few days, Steve and I devoured every single one.
Access to The CookStack Collective is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club - YOU! Here’s where you can watch the replay, get the recipe, and register for the December Class with Stephanie Hansen:
❤️ 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?
So much pie deliciousness in this post!! I really want to make the black bottom banana cream pie or chocolate almond pie for Thanksgiving now—the most non-traditional options, of course!
Also, I’m sooo happy you cooked with me last week—such a blast!—and that you and Steve liked the meatballs!
Obviously I am a big fan of this post! Not even sure which pie to start with, I am very intrigued by the black bottom banana cream pie. I haven't made that before…