pumpkin cheesecake

Our contribution to this year's Thanksgiving dinner: Paula Deen's pumpkin cheesecake. It was delicious.

edc

People talk about their EDC - every day carry. The stuff you always have on you. It's a huge topic of conversation among certain people, and there are whole blogs devoted to EDC. Anyway, here's mine:

• A Coach wallet, a gift many years ago. Contains what you would expect.
• Knife. This one is a Spyderco Ladybug (now called the ManBug, which is goofy). My daughter calls this my "noisy cricket".
• Flashlight. This one is a Fenix E05. Friends rib me for carrying a flashlight all the time, but I use it often - probably more often than the blade.
• Fisher Space Pen.
• A few index cards.
• Wristwatch is a Timex Expedition. It's at least 15 years old. They don't make this exact one any more, but this one is basically the same. It's one of the few purely analog watches with an alarm. The leather band that came with it wore out many years ago (I wear it in water a lot), and I replaced it with the excellent Maratac Zulu. What I like about that band, besides being really durable and one piece, is that it has no prickly parts on the inside of the band, so nothing pokes me when I'm resting my wrist on something.

I didn't include my cellphone, partly because I just didn't think about it, but also because if all of my family members are accounted for I often don't carry it.

firestarters

Belle and I made a batch of firestarters this weekend. Take a paper egg carton (or in our case, several of them). Put a wad of dryer lint in each cup, and drip melted candle wax over the lint until it's well covered with wax. Then cut the cups apart, and use them to light fires; they catch easily and burn for several minutes.

Some people protest the use of dryer lint, since synthetic fibers can produce toxic fumes when burnt. However, almost all of our clothes are cotton, so this doesn't really concern me. Many people use sawdust instead or in addition to dryer lint.

shepherd's pie

Ina Garten's beef bourguignon, topped with mashed potatoes and put under the broiler for a few minutes. Unbelievably delicious, and made with inexpensive stew beef.

single-speed

Over the past several months I built this single-speed from an old early-80's Motobecane 12-speed that I got from freecycle. It was all siezed up and rusty, and I took it all the way apart, rebuilt and cleaned and lubed everything, stripped the frame down the metal and repainted it, and built it back into this bike. I knew very little about bike repair before I started. In total I spent less than $100, plus maybe $100 more in tools that I'll use forever.

Anyway, today I took for its first real ride, into town to buy bacon - about 15 miles round trip. You definitely get a harder workout on a single-speed.

waffles

For the past several years, most every weekend I've made waffles for the kids and myself. I've tried about 30 different waffle recipes, plus numerous variations on many of them. The staple recipe we've settled on for most days is these whole grain waffles. Despite the whole-grain ingredients (whole wheat flour, flax, wheat germ) they're soft and delicious. They're also very filling. We find the recipe's half-cup of flax a little too much, so instead I use a quarter-cup of flax and add a quarter-cup of rolled oats. I also sprinkle a big pinch of raw sugar over the batter right after I pour it, before I close and flip the waffle iron; without it we think they're not quite sweet enough, and it also adds a little bit of texture.

Occasionally for a change of pace I make these crispy seltzer waffles. They're really delicious. We don't make them very often because they're a lot less healthy than the whole grain waffles, and because they don't keep as leftovers very well; the delicious crispy texture disappears after they sit for a few minutes. I often make these when one or more kids has sleepover guests.

A couple of the other recipes we've liked well over the years are Martha Stewart's buttermilk waffles and Emeril Lagasse's classic Belgian waffles.

One kid likes her waffles with maple syrup, one with honey, and one with just a little butter. I like mine topped with a banana sliced and sauteed in a little coconut oil.

bedtime

This afternoon I finished getting the garden cleaned up and ready for winter.

l. l. bean discovery project

I'm very excited to be one of 18 chosen to take part in L. L. Bean's Discovery Project. The way this works, as I understand it, is that four times over the next year they will send me a kit of gear and instructions for an outdoor adventure of one kind or another. I will take that gear and go do my thing, and then social-media (can I make that a verb?) about it. Naturally, this will be one of the places I'll do it, so stay tuned!

sunday kitchen

I spent all afternoon in the kitchen today. First I made bacon jam from Tasty Kitchen. It's really amazingly good. Then I made Chex mix, which is probably my favorite snack, while the bacon jam was simmering. I use the classic Chex mix recipe, except I omit the season salt and use about ten times as much Worcestershire as they prescribe. Then I made the oat bran muffins from Simplify Your Life. They're not as flavorful as I would like, but I think they'll go well with the bacon jam (the healthiness of the muffins cancels out the unhealthiness of the bacon jam, right?). Finally, I made red beans and rice for dinner. Now Belle and a friend are making chocolate chip cookies. Just imagine how amazing my kitchen smells.

blogroll

Just to give you an idea of what I expect this blog to be about, here are some other blogs and assorted sites that I like and expect this to be similar to, more or less. In no particular order.

Small Notebook
The Art of Doing Stuff
Root Simple
Summer Harms
Becoming Minimalist
Not Martha
The Little Red House
New Life on a Homestead
Minimalist Baker
Simple Mom
Backpacker
Make:
Outside
More Than Money