How to make chicken with mole sauce, Fidel style.

   Friends, I am reposting this chicken mole recipe from several years ago — well, recipe is not quite the right word. “Procedure” is more like it because this is fairly in-exact. But here are the ingredients you need. This is inspired by a good friend, Fidel, who has lived out here in Santa Cruz for many years. If nothing else, reposting and slightly clarifying this procedure will help me make this dish for my family. Enjoy. And feel free to send in your own recommendations for tweaks and additions if you wish. INGREDIENTS seven or eight garlic gloves two pounds Yukon gold potatoes, cubed three pounds chicken (drumstick/breast combination works really well, though i often go with just drumsticks) two or three packets of soft corn tortillas one puck of Abuelita Mexican-style chocolate 10 or so whole cloves. (as in, the spice called cloves. Not be confused with garlic…

The great Horace Kephart, “Dean of American Camping,” died on this day in 1931

  The “Dean of American Camping,” Horace Kephart,” died in a car wreck on this day in 1931. Though he was brought up in rural Iowa, he found his life’s calling in the wilds of North Carolina. After leaving behind a promising career as a librarian, he moved out to the woods and completed his masterwork, Camping And Woodcraft, which is still in print today (and very popular. To this day, Kephart’s recipe for cooker building continues to save me from humiliation and abject hunger in campgrounds from coast to coast.) My favorite edition of the book is available through the Great Smoky Mountains Association, with a useful and thought-provoking introduction that serves as a mini-biography of Kephart, with special emphasis on his life, his philosophy and impact. More than just a masterful camper, Kephart was a wonderful prose stylist; his book is written in an informal, knowing, chatty tone…