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STEPHEN’S LAST NIGHT IN TOWN (NOT)

June 24, 2020

I’m not doing a ‘Stephen’s Last Night In Town’,* promise ?. But just to say that on this OUTSIDER blog I’ve opened up all the additional paid-for content so that it’s free. In the right-hand column there’s a category ‘OUTSIDER Patreon Chapters’ click on that and you’ll find additional recipes, poetry, photography and some longer essays. My hope for this online project was to illustrate that living slowly with less doesn’t have to be purgatory, in fact it can be…

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Sitting with the ocean

November 28, 2019

When the Atlantic Ocean calls, you must listen. Take off your shoes and walk. Have your feet felt so numb and disconnected? Wrapped in rubber and plastic their energy retreats into the solemn musings of the abstract mind. When you were younger didn’t you cavort barefoot in the dirt? Laughed as delicious thick mud squirmed through wiggling toes? Didn’t you squeal with joy with no care for the cold or the heat as the dregs of the earth clotted to…

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food minimalism OUTSIDER Patreon chapters

Working towards zero food waste

November 28, 2019

Words & photos: Sophie McKeand I find the best way to avoid food waste in the kitchen is to always cook with whatever’s already there (eg leftovers) as well as checking to see if anything needs eating before it goes off. Building meals that roll along into the next day takes away the stress about what to make as half the meal’s already done, and means we never throw anything away.  I wanted to give an example here of how…

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food OUTSIDER Patreon chapters

November van treats

November 14, 2019

I’ve been on a cooking spree again recently as I focus on minimising dairy and wheat in the diet. This is difficult because I love them both dearly, so I have to work hard to find interesting and exciting foods to substitute them for, otherwise I feel like I’m missing out and then it gets miserable.  First up is a sweet/savoury snack that is so easy to make and tastes delicious. It’s got sugar in it so it’s not that…

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Sometimes heaven doesn’t look like heaven (even when it really is)

November 14, 2019

Life in the van is a dream. It allows the space to connect with nature, and myself, and to write. It’s all I want. It’s definitely not the life for everybody because there’s the less-luxurious, nomadic side to this minimalist lifestyle that wouldn’t suit a lot of people. But for me, this way of living is perfect, and yet still, sometimes accepting this is harder than it sounds. The ego wants to get in the way: now I have the…

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creating food OUTSIDER Patreon chapters

My best hummus recipe (and what to do with it)

October 27, 2019

I love hummus, and over the years I’ve made so many different versions: plain, extra lemony, with chilli or red pepper or sundried tomatoes, without garlic, but this month I’ve finally hit on, what I feel, is my absolute best recipe for hummus and it’s so delicious I’m sharing it here: Ingredients 1 cup dried chickpeas soaked overnight then boiled in a large pan of water until soft. I have a large plastic container with a watertight lid so that…

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journeying with wild mint (continued)

October 27, 2019

I wanted to keep you with me on this journeying with plants that’s occurring so organically it feels as if I have always worked this way. In September I shared words on the continued connection to wild mint and on this journey south I’m discovering an abundance of wild mint such as I’ve never found before. If you’ve been following OUTSIDER for a while, you’ll remember that Iris flower showed up throughout the first half of 2019, firstly on Crete, and…

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the art of beginnings

October 14, 2019

We’re learning to surf this winter as we slow travel westwards along the northern Spanish coast. Our first foray into the Atlantic waves was San Sebastián in the Basque Country where great barrelling waves thundered us into the shore either on or off the surfboard beneath the deepest of blue skies. I’m writing this today from Sopela a smaller town about two hours west where the waves are as bright (if not as bold), but the parking is easier. The…

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