Twas 4 Days before Christmas in an RV

Ok, I need to do some more baking...I'm just going to make some chocolate bark and more mini loaves of bread...I found little ceramic loaf pans 2 for $1 at Micheal's Crafts. All of my shopping is done! Some of the presents are delivered because if we didn't do that, we would be pushed outta this rv and into a tent in the yard. I have his Majesty, the husband, home for the next month. After that, we may be going to Texas...it's one of the possibilities and at least he's shut up about Afghanistan for now. We gave the dogs 2 of their new toys early and the little dog, Sasha, packs hers around like a baby...so cute! We got the prime rib chillin' away in the freezer! We invited the next door neighbor for dinner and cocktails. He and my husband get along famously...really nice guy! And I will never forget his name because it's Bob, too! We are trying to learn to adjust to each other in here. It's super hard when I have basically lived alone for the last year and a half while he's been on the road working. The dogs love it because they get super-spoiled by dad now! I think I may attempt one more batch of cookies because we absolutely love the chocolate crinkle cookies from AR. I made those last year while I was still living in my 3 bedroom house! We bought white and blue icicle lights and hung them up on the awning outside and they are so pretty! I just leave them on all the time! I made an orange baked chicken for his majesty the night before last and OMG it was soooo good. I made baked pork chops last night...they were ok...his Majesty loved them! I just don't care for pork unless it's sausage, bacon or ham. Tonight will be a small black forest ham with my special cherry glaze. The glaze is super simple...just a can of cherry pie filling...YUM! I'm trying to figure out the side dishes to go with that. I want to make him stuff that I know he hasn't had for a long time! I bought another bottle of champagne to finish off my Chambord. I also bought Kahlua for Christmas morning. While he's gone today, I would like to get my table organized as it's a catchall for everything! Paperwork, catfood (need to keep it up because the dogs will eat it), laptop, everything winds up on the table! It's nice to have him home because he is a bedmaker from he!!...he can't stand it if the bed isn't made just so, so I let him have at it and nobody can make my coffee just right except for Bob! But space is a precious commodity now...it's crowded. Hopefully he can get the window awning hung back up over the front window. Fridge space is limited now because I have to make room for his beer now. I usually keep it on the floor and stick a can in the freezer if I want one. I'm still recovering from the Washington Red Apple cocktails from the other night that we enjoyed with the neighbor...so good...so potent! I'll post pictures as I get stuff made...stay tuned!

Thanksgiving in an RV

Ok, I started that rv blog a while back and it was amazing that I had so many responses. I know several posters asked me to keep doing it, so I decided I would blog about the wonders of trying to get my portion of a Thanksgiving dinner done. Last week, my friend Sarah and I decided we would do Thanksgiving at her huge beautiful house and that she wanted to cook the majority of the dinner. I thought that sounded ok and asked her what she wanted me to do. She said to take care of the pies. So, I have whole pumpkins in storage in the front of the rv here and thought I would cook one down for a pie. Then I scratched that idea and didn't think about it until Monday. Then I posted for help to make my feeble mind up on the RE and got awesome suggestions and seriously considered some of them and came up with what I would do: Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie from this site, a classic apple pie, and my own recipe of Blueberry Pie with an Oatmeal Crunch Topping (no, it's not posted yet, sorry), and 2 no-bake cheesecakes. I also decided to do a hurkin' big bowl full of layers of jello. I'm not thinking this is going to make in my yearly list of must-have's on Thanksgiving ever again! And, of course, the Blue Cranberry Sauce recipe from this site and a sweet potato casserole of some type. I didn't even start any of this until around 3 pm yesterday! I'm a procrastinater, big time!! And also, more rv park drama...the Methhead meets Tommy Chong...I was sitting here looking out my window for once, the blinds were open, things have been pretty tame the last couple of weeks. The methhead was out in his car (big suprise) doing whatever it is that methheads do and this guy (FOR REAL) walks up and he looks like Tommy Chong from the Cheech & Chong movies. I thought...whoa! So I sat here for a few and then you could totally tell they were in a fight. So what did I do? I cracked open my window, of course...I don't have cable or satellite...and they were really getting into it. Then I heard the Chong-looking guy start talking to the methhead and HE SOUNDED LIKE CHONG, TOO!! I'm thinking "no way" but seriously. It was one of those times that I couldn't remember to grab the camera. Anyhow, I went out there and told them to knock it off or I was calling the cops, so they quit. So around 3, I started on the first layer of jello. An hour later the manager, who we have decided not to buy his truck but, rather, go look for another park to reside in, called me and asked me if I had seen the altercation. Altercation? Looked more like a p!ssing match to me, but, ok, altercation...and I told him yes, that the methhead was minding his own business and Chong wanted to pick a fight because he wouldn't leave. And then the manager told me it was his son...I know, I want to see his brother and see if it's Cheech, for real...and he wasn't in the wrong. That made me kinda mad. And I let him have it and told him not to try to involve me in the ongoing soap opera, I just wanted to observe. And I told him I was really getting uncomfortable with the whole push to buy his truck deal so we were going to back out of it all together.
After all that, I was ready to bake something. I made the apple pie first, then I baked off the sweet potatoes for the casserole (which one at this point, I still hadn't figured out) and made the Blue Cranberry Sauce. After waiting until 7 pm for the first layer of jello to set, I had also made the Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie. I was kinda furious. I think I also managed to post an off topic rant on the RE and want to send a big thank you out to all that helped me calm down. I think I finally went to bed around midnight waiting to add another layer to that dang jello thing. Then I woke to my husband calling at 5:30 am and getting into an arguement with him to dropping a whole bottle of coffee creamer in the dogs' water and getting some beautiful morning pictures to finally getting around to baking that blueberry pie for our friends at around 11 am and trying to watch the live webcast from AllRecipes and trying to win a prize, and then finally winning a prize...I don't know what yet...to dealing with dogs that want to throw up on the bed, my husband late in coming home, ohhhh...how about just looking at the pictures of what I did to relieve my stress.....and p.s. the sweet potato casserole is: 4 large roasted, peeled sweet potatoes, 1 can of drained crushed pineapple, reserve around 2 tablespoons, 1 airplane shot bottle of Jack Daniels, a handful of sweetened flaked coconut, I'm guessing around 1/4 cup honey, a couple of dashes each: coarse ground black pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg, and 1/3 cup chopped macadamia nuts. I drizzled extra honey on the top and a light sprinkle of cinnamon and baked at 350 for about 35 minutes in a propane oven. And, by the way, I think I finally got the oven figured out ;P

Having The Husband Home Full Time

I learned late last night that today will be the end of our self imposed exile. My husband is getting laid-off until mid-January. It's all good. It just makes it a little more cramped in here is all, but we will survive! Now I have someone to cook for and I'm all excited about that!

Weather

Why is it that whenever I start to formulate a plan to tackle the Christmas baking, the weather here decides to go wacky? I have been up for about 4 hours, drinking coffee, and finally get up the gumption to make something when the wind starts to blow and flap the awning outside. This, in turn, sets the big ol' baby boy dog, Puppa, on edge and he just wants to climb up me. I think when we had that major windstorm last month, it scarred him for life. There we were, all 4 of us, huddled up on the bed, power out, trailer rocking back and forth with every gust of wind. When the little Sasha girl dog started shaking, I knew it was time to get out! So at 6:30 am, I put the dogs in the truck, went back in to get my purse, flashlight and Super Dave wrapped in a towel, only to go back outside to find my awning had halfway collapsed (check out the pictures). I almost couldn't get the door opened up. In my rush to evacuate, I forgot to put on my glasses and could not, for the life of me, figure out why I couldn't see! Duh! All's well that ends well! I guess we are in for a good amount of rain today! It sure is coming down. I'm so glad that my husband finally got the tarp over this thing, but it does tend to whip in the wind. But I can leave my vents open for fresh air and not worry about getting wet. The main vent sits directly over our bed!

Baking in an RV

Yesterday, my 4th anniversary, after 3 days of personal family drama, I finally decided I needed to pull outta my funk and get to baking...time's a wastin'! I started off wanting to make a pomegranate bread. I posted on the RE and someone had given me a link to a great sounding recipe and I wrote it down but couldn't find it. I decided to wing it! I looked at a couple of different fruit bread recipes and decided to come up with my own. You can view recipe and pictures at http://allrecipes.com/PersonalRecipe/62216972/Pomegranate-Bread/Detail.aspx< . Then I decided to tackle the batch of cookies I had been so excited to bake~~Spumoni Chocolate Chip Cookies from AR. This was a learning experience in patience if I ever had one. The oven in here is super small, so a standard size cookie sheet will not work. It simply won't fit, so my beautiful air-bake sheets and such now live in a storage unit. I had to buy a 3 pack of different sizes at Wal-Mart and only the smallest one fit in the oven. So, I mixed up the cookie dough and cut out the parchment paper to fit and proceeded to scoop cookies out only to find that only 6 cookies at a time would fit on this sheet. Nice! This is gonna take forfreakingever...this is why I hate baking cookies!! With cakes or breads or even a stinking pie, you put it in the oven and leave it alone for a while...not cookies! Just when you get started on something else, it's time to take them out and start scooping all over again! So what should have taken 30 minutes at the most, in a regular size oven, took me an hour and a half. But I am happy to report that I did persevere and trudge through and got them completed and they are one of the best tasting cookies I have ever had. That wasn't enough! I wanted to make more mini loaves of bread. I used the Banana Banana Bread recipe from this site and modified it. I added: nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, rum extract and fresh blueberries. Super yummy! And to top it all off, I made a Green Chile Mac & Cheese! I was hungry after all that baking! I wrapped it all up around 6:30 pm and went to bed...I tired myself out! Today's a new day and I have to get a move on my chocolate covered cherries...I'm scared! I have never really attempted to make candy before. I also bought chow mein noodle to make haystacks and almond bark and big peppermint sticks to make a bark of some type. I don't know how this venture will turn out, but I'll trudge through and get it done...wait for the pictures to be posted!

Christmas Baking

I am working on my homemade gifts. I usually make about 30-35 types of cookies, but this year in a 21 foot fifth wheel, my space is very limited! I made Spumoni Chocolate Chip Cookies yesterday and Pomegranate Bread and Blueberry Banana Bread. I have made Sugar Coated Pecans and Cracker Candy. I need to tackle the chocolate covered cherries and I need to get those going today!

This is my first attempt at a blog, so I hope I do this right and it's not boring! Last March I decided that I would purchase an rv and live in it as my husband is an electrician and is on the road most of the time. The thought behind the plan was that with our house expenses here and his expenses on the road, we were just falling further and further behind, and also that when he finally found somewhere that he would have a sense of permanancy at, I would pull the trailer up there and we could eventually find the right house. It's hard to just pick up and move and find somewhere that will rent to you when you have 2 big dogs. So, henceforth the "RV Plan" was born. My brother had a 1969 17 foot trailer that he sold me for $500...what a deal, I thought. I could do this! We moved it out to an rv park and got it set up. I think my husband missed two days work with that venture. We wound up with a busted water line and we couldn't get the pilots in the oven or the furnace lit. Finally, we got a small space heater out of storage and put that in and the oven never did work. But I discovered that I absolutely love to cook on a gas stove...it's fantastic! I do not like to admit defeat but after living in this thing for a month with 2 big dogs and a cat that I won't let go outside...I was going stir crazy. Then the unimaginable happened. My husband got laid off. NOW WHAT??? There are 2 adults, 2 big dogs and one cat in 17 feet of space! OMG! He was only off work for a month and found work in Eastern Washington. Whew! A little breathing room! Things went ok until mid July when the temperatures soared into the 100's...in 1969, apparently air conditioning was not thought of when they thought of rv's. So when it was 100 outside, living in a tin can, it was 120-130 inside! I had to put animals with friends and seek relief at my place of employment during the day, which luckily is a lounge! I put my foot down with my husband and insisted he get the air conditioner out of storage and install it. That made it bearable. But soon I was at odds because I found myself going through baking withdrawls...remember, my oven's pilot light would not light. So I started reading different posts on here and someone suggested a website where a lady made EVERYTHING in a crockpot. So off to the store I went and bought a big one. I have a couple of smaller ones in storage, but I'm not sure where. I made everything in that crockpot: pineapple upside down cake, brownies in a coffee cup, banana bread, everything. About a month ago, after despairing that I would ever meet any normal people in an rv park, I did meet a couple, down on their luck who had a fifth wheel for sale. We bought it for a song and now with the extra 4 feet of space and an actual bedroom area up in the fifth wheel part and an oven that works and room for 2 big dogs, a husband and a cat...we will be seeing how I manange through Thanksgiving. I'm wondering about that! I know I won't be doing a whole turkey this year, just a turkey breast, but this is the time of year when I actually do feel like baking some stuff and the trepidation sets in as to how I will manage my cookie platters at Christmas, etc. when yesterday I just went through 24 hours of diligent watching of the littler dog eating 10 or 11 cranberry muffins (I thought they were outta reach, my bad) and getting super sick! And now we are going to buy another bigger truck to pull this fifth wheel and move to an rv park that is minus the methheads, thieves and just about anything else illegal you can think of. But that is another blog in itself! Oh, and as for the smaller trailer...it was gifted to a couple who lost their home and were thankful to have it and I was thankful to give it to them! When it left, I had no propane furnace, no oven and the hot water thermostat had went out leaving me to heat water ont he stove to do dishes...UGH!