Yeah, all the recipes are in the crafting section of that wiki I posted. It's pretty interesting all the stuff you can make.
Powered minecarts really aren't that great, they get stuck really easily. The storage minecarts are amazing, and a really big help. If you get the powered carts to work with those, you're in business.
Right now I'm building a fortress out of the building materials I have mined. It is HUGE so far, and it's only one story as of right now. Working on the second level later today maybe.
I still haven't explored my entire cave system yet. What I plan to do is build mine tracks that all lead back to my exit. It's too easy to get lost in this game... Haha.
My system so far is this: mine tracks leading to a rock face, powered minecart, storage minecart and then if I'm too lazy to walk back on my own, a regular minecart. Once to the rock face, I just go all out mining. My biggest area so far is a 5 by 10 grid, so I yield 50 pieces of cobblestone with each pass, plus whatever other stuff I come across. I've found coal to be one of the most important resources in the game.
I've tried blast mining, but the TNT in the game is so unpredictable, I haven't messed with it that much.
Some interesting bits: furnaces and chests stack. Really helps if you're like me and have several of each, but not much room left in inventory. Unfortunately, minecarts and tools don't.