Did you know you can make plastic using ingredients found in your own kitchen?

This is a type of PLA (polylactic acid) plastic and while it won't be as tolerant, to water, as what is commercially available it is fully biodegradable!

What you will need (small batch)

Or go all in with a large batch!

Coffee cake is a family tradition dating back several generations, an in the area of MN I live in this is a holiday staple for many families! I started with a recipe passed down from my Great Grandmother!

Photos of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) was visible tonight, and it is considered the brightest comet in 27 years, since Hale-Bopp in 1997.

Literally a bucket full of potatoes this year! Glad I plant them in old hay/old straw and hill with grass clippings because it sure makes it easy to harvest rather than having to dig with a shovel/fork and hope you don't stab one!

Definitely a sight to behold! The colors are not visible with the naked eye but the photos don't capture just how the light dance across the sky!

The 2024 squash harvest is in! Was quite the harvest this year, more than enough to feed myself, family, and to give away!

Still have a long ways to go to break the world's record but it does not stop me from trying! I still keep the seeds, from the largest three pumpkins, every year!

In addition to the stove/oven combo I travel with a Coleman stove found on Amazon. There are times when I need to cook more than two items at a time and there are other times when I just need a cooktop and rather than hauling the oven to a picnic table I can just grab this!

This cast iron waffle maker has seen a lot of use both camping and in the home (might as well bring it in during the winter months)!

As with all my cast iron I re-season it as soon as it arrives! I have also found that using butter rather than vegetable oil helps prevent the waffles from sticking!

Also, be sure to have a good pair of Cooking/BBQ Gloves as the waffle maker's handle gets quite hot!

For many years I traveled with a traditional cooler and was able to take week long trips without much of a problem. However, for longer trips or for when the weather was particularly hot, it became necessary to buy new ice and repack. When traveling I prefer to focus on seeing and enjoying the sights rather than spending time getting ice and repacking coolers!

After a bit of research I found the BougeRV 12V Portable Refrigerator 53 Quart Car Freezer Fridge on Amazon. I chose this unit for the following reasons:

The challenge with the type of DC cords the refrigerator/freezer came with is that they can jostle out of the socket when driving. Since I was going to connect these to external batteries I purchased cables that click together and its virtually impossible for them to disconnect on their own.

I use three of these large totes, in the van, when going on long trips, they can be found on Amazon and their strength allows me to put my two Car Freezer/Refrigerators on top of them!

Propane appliances have been exceedingly useful when camping and traveling especially when I am short on time and need to get food prepared quickly. Both wood and charcoal can take as much as 20 minutes before you can cook over them whereas propane provides immediate heat and we can be eating even before I could begin cooking over the former! Don't get me wrong I definitely enjoy my steaks, pork chops, etc. grilled over propane but for some foods it really does not matter.

If you have done any amount of camping or traveling with propane appliances, that use those one pound takes, it does not take long to realize those tanks don't last long!

This is especially true if you are heating or baking with it. Enter the 20 pound propane tank and an adpater for it. Also, 20 pound tanks a whole lot cheaper to refill or exchange!

This oven/stove combo, available via Amazon proved to be very useful when both camping and traveling! It allows us to prepare just about any meal at campsites, at a way side rest, or while visiting a National Park! Why eat at some greasy fast food joint when you can take in nature's beauty while cooking and eating your food!

Not a typo but turning popcorn into cornbread! Decided to give it a try after several successful popcorn harvest that we can not possibly eat it all as popped! Also have a lot of maple syrup so used that as a sweetener!

A long time family favorite that I obtained from my Grandama. I have added notes to her recipie based on what I have learned over the decades I have been making this pie. Only change I have made is that I use gluten free cookies.

16 graham crackers or chocolate wafers crushed (just over a cup of crushed crackers)

or

12 whole chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreos) crushed (I always leave the frosting on the cookies as it will help them stick together).

3 tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup sugar

Mix crackers/wafers/cookies with melted butter and sugar.

Camping Pie Iron a simple cooking tools but makes for some great pizza or pies. All you do is take two slices of bread add filling between them as you would a sandwich and then place it in the fire for a few minutes. Length of time varies depending on how hot the fire is!

Pro tip - since they unscrew from the handles I re-seasoned these in the oven. I have often found that cast iron, even if sold pre-seasoned, benefits from having another "treatment".

I spent the last few days concentrating really hard and end up with 3.75 gallons of Maple Syrup! Trees were tapped on March 13, 2022 and it took a few days before there was any flow, started out slowly but has been between 16-20 gallons per day the last few days!

Lots of popcorn for watching movies this winter!