Cooking in the Caboose Part 2 - HOW and WHAT to Cook?

Finally - the sequel to Cooking in the Caboose Part 1 - Organization.

As we talked with those who had lived full-time in an RV, a common theme emerged.  Many found themselves eating "junk"  or fast food more than normal when they first moved into their RV. I was determined this would not happen to us.  I'm sure I'll learn  more as we go along. This is what I've learned and experienced in the past month.  If you took a more organized approach to cooking in a SB, I would think the learning curve will be smaller.

Below is a photo of my kitchen. You'll see I'm not exaggerating about counter space or kitchen size.  I have a few light things hung on the wall - our walls are thin paneling that is already pulling away from the frame of our Keystone Outback trailer - so I'm careful about that. I do have a cover for one side of the sink that doubles as a cutting board and sits over the stove when the stove isn't in use. On a side note - we've started turning off the pilot light for the oven as it heats the top - and I like to use that space for storage.

My entire 1.5 butt kitchen

Be flexible! Though I have three burners on my stove, I can only fit one pan on the stove at a time. ::grin:: I've learned to make the Instant Pot work for me. If something isn't working "well," consider other ways to accomplish the same thing. Beware of blowing circuits this is easy to fix, but I'd hate to blow a circuit while slow cooking a meal on a rainy day when we're out exploring - not that has ever happened. LOL

Smells are magnified in the Caboose. I love fresh garlic - open the trailer after a hot day of travel, with a basket of fresh garlic and WHOEEE - new levels of aroma. I'll do fish outside as none of us want to smell it all week.  If one happens to incinerate a veggie burger in the dreaded microwave the smoke will fill the trailer quickly. To take care of smells I run the exhaust fan on the range hood while cooking, open  side windows and roof vents. The normal cooking smells haven't been a big problem. The smoke and garlic were - though one member of our family commented he LOVED the smell of a garlic infused home.

Nadine, a friend who goes on the road for months at a time, suggested making a weekly menu and sticking to it! I've found I still can't fit a full week's worth of produce and meat in our trailer sized freezer and fridge. We had some things we brought with us that we are eating down and then this will get better. Yes, it's important to have a plan to make meals work in the trailer. I no longer have 21 cubic feet of back up - or a huge pantry - and the nearest store may be down a mountain and over a river.

Accompanying my new menu planning habit, was the need to teach my family there are plans for the ingredients they see. I do buy a few free foods (grated cheese is for the enchiladas, but I bought a pack of cheese sticks for you).

Do not solicit too much extra help.This is counter-intuitive to the way we've raised children. However, the space is small. This is not even a 2 butt kitchen.  I'd say 1.5.....so I welcome help - but I'm getting creative about how to use the help AND I only welcome help from one at a time.

Get out ALL ingredients before you begin cooking. Again, this is a good trick to practice in a SB home I suppose - but I didn't. This is ESSENTIAL to stress-free trailer cooking. It's a sure bet that one or two or five ingredients will not be easily accessible.....and if your portable pantry is in the van - the food may be miles away when you need to fix the enchiladas. Plan ahead. Hmmmm....planning....that seems to be my recurring lesson.

Do as much prep work as possible up front. I do as much chopping, peeling etc as possible at the start. This is new for me.

Clean as you go. I tended to do this in my SB kitchen, but it's essential now.  After everything is chopped,  I clean up so nothing but pans and ingredients are out. After I assemble, I clean up so there is room to set out plates for serving. AND so that it's appetizing if we eat in the trailer - it's not conducive to eating to have 1/2 the trailer full of dirty pans and such.

Eat outside as often as possible...this allows me to stage food on the table in the trailer, rather than on the tiny counter.....I don't haul all the food outside, we dish up inside and take it out - this  saves me prep time and the kids clean up time.

What have I cooked?  We've grilled veggies on skewers, chicken and beef kebabs. We've had Burgers, Chicken Enchiladas, Beef Stroganoff, Meatloaf, Rice Bowls, Pizza, Veggie Pot Pie, One Pot Chicken Divan, Chicken Divan, Burritos, Meatballs,  Cupcakes and Oatmeal....I believe I can fix  whatever I cooked BEFORE I moved into the trailer...I just have to be flexible with the "how."

On travel days, I've learned to take meat out in the a.m. and it will be ready to prepare after we set up. I'm still discovering the best "go-to," quick travel day meals. What are your go-to easy meals?

*Note - SB equals Sticks and Bricks home. For more help with acronyms check out  the acronym tab. 

**I thought it was a great idea to put our favorite recipes on the blog so it would "always be with me" and I didn't have to bring cookbooks.  The internet provides zillions of recipes at one's fingertips. Of course, if one does not have reliable WiFi - this plan is flawed. More on wifi at a later date.

Spectacular Sunday

Here are some glimpses from this Spectacular Sunday

Chicken Divan outside the Caboose - spending the day with Josiah was perfect

Little field and playground directly between our space

The above photo resulted in this - we'll watch it all closely

Frisby behind the Caboose - which looks TINY next to that 5er on the Left

Fall colors on a beautiful lake

Gift cards spent, wonderful friends remembered - Sunday ice cream - check

Michael dug out the telescope to watch the lunar eclipse

Photos taken with my new lens - Michael took a boatload of photos which he'll sort through tomorrow.  This was a great spot to watch - lots of stars out.

Our First Unexpected Repair

We  made it to Washington! Shew - stop and go traffic pulling a 31 foot trailer, with rude, zippy drivers is adrenaline enhancing. It also added quite a bit of time to our trip.  We were told we can take the back roads to Lynnwood rather than 405 (which they are RESTRIPING this week) - so we'll try that tomorrow.

Josiah is working tonight so we thought we'd set up, take showers, grab dinner and maybe catch up with him.

We hit a snag. We have a couple of doors that sometimes fly open while driving. One of the kids went to put the slide out and didn't check the cupboards.....and the Vitamix container and tamper had fallen out.  The tamper got lodged UNDER the slide.....the noise was awful. The tamper withstood the pressure. The slide out, however,  no longer sealed.  We are blessed Michael is handy with tools - and those tools are proving essential.  This is what our trailer looks like when traveling - do you spot Michael?

I'm not sure if you can tell what you are seeing in the photo below. The white part totally pulled away and was held with ONE SCREW. The upholstered parts were buckling anyway and now we know why. Michael plans to fix them too. Keystone trailers look great, but the workmanship is really shocking when you begin to look below the surface. That'll preach.

While Michael fixed the slide so we could put the slide out - I prepared Shepherd's Pie in a drastically tiny kitchen. ::snort:: When he got the slide out the trailer felt incredibly SPACIOUS. We weathered the unexpected repair with great success.
Josiah is working - and we're too tired to attempt another drive. We opted to watch the Duck's get slaughtered and take showers.

The BESST thing about our new lifestyle? We can travel and NEVER have to pack! It's amazing.

#WYFF - Relocating to Washington State - Day 1

Day one of relocating found us packing up and driving to Oregon.

Our two week stay in Hiouchi was fantastic. It was wonderful for many reasons - first and foremost spending time with Mom G, unseasonably warm weather, reconnecting with Dave and Hope, amazing excursions, and all that we accomplished to make our new lifestyle more comfortable. We finished hanging pictures, continued to organize our tiny space, ordered a few things we found we wanted, and started school.  We still have repairs we need to finish in the trailer - but it really is feeling like home.

Yes, I was sad to pull away....but happy to know we'd see the kids shortly.

We spent the night in Will and Sherri's driveway. This is the closest we've come to boondocking. We love Mrs. McCoy - their neighbor. She remembered us from last time and always comes out and stops traffic for us so we can back into the driveway. This time she brought over a watermelon too.

We were able to see my parents, my brother and his wife (Will & Sherri), BreZaak, Krista and Lori.

Mom and Dad were having a garage sale and I even put an inflatable inner tube in it that we knew we didn't want - it sold. We did a couple loads of laundry and visited. Nadine was participating in the garage sale so it was fun to visit with her again.  John came over and chatted with Michael. He is still officially Michael's chaplain endorser.

Krista came over when she got off work.  We had  a quick girls outing to the trailer. Stacia had forgotten a gift she'd made....we may have taken a detour.

 

When we arrived, we texted family in the area the name of a restaurant and a time....I think 13 were able to make it - our waiter was racing. The only ones who couldn't make it at the last minute were Arielle (working), Mikhail and Elizabeth (nephew and niece). We'll try to catch them another time.

Arielle was working all afternoon/evening - so after dinner we trooped over to line up in her checkout lane.  We sure miss her.

The kids came over to the Caboose for a bit of a visit...and the day was over. It was a quick visit - but it was a great way to end a travel day.

 

 

Routine?

We've established a routine which is working well for us. School in the early hours; explore or visit with Mom G in the afternoon/evening. We end many nights visiting around the campfire late into the night.

I've noted how productive we seem to be this year. A friend pointed out, and I wholeheartedly agree, it's not so much the location (trailer) as it is the season. We are focused on family right now - that's  our sole focus until told to do other.  The wifi is often down here. There is no cell reception - so no calls or texts. When we're schooling - we're schooling. I'm not distracted so the kids aren't distracted. I'm not trying to work on board agendas, answer calls, respond to emails, plan Bible studies etc  between lessons.  

This is also a season which is calling forth the MAXIMUM need to flex! Semper Gumby. Just when we have a routine which rocks - we're hitting the road again. It makes me sad to think our time here is coming to an end, for now. BUT it makes me happy to think of spending some days with Josiah in Washington!  I'm not sure what school will look like - but I continue to be amazed we are doing just fine and getting EVERYTHING done.

Bike rides along the Redwood Highway and in Jedediah Smith State Park are very motivating extra-curricular activities when reading a biography on Jed Smith. It was fun to watch the light-bulb come on for Stacia. 

"Hey Mom, Jed Smith, that's the same as the Smith River we've been swimming in."

 

Pretty proud of taking these while riding a bike and they are focused....and I don't have a point and click. LOL

 

I'll admit when the motorhome went by throwing rocks and creating a sucking feel - I nearly wet my pants.  No one else is admitting to this scenario.

 

Before we left on our ride, I'd sliced the veggies, made a fruit salad and formed patties. We were ready to take all the fixins and our grill across the river to Mom G's. Another fun night of hearing stories and connecting the generations.

Dinner at Mom G's

Result of someone grabbing the camera and catching me in a yawn!

Viva la Kindle

 

No Plan B

We flew through school and laundry and left for town at 3:30. We decided to explore the harbor area and catch dinner at Good Harvest before we met Mom G, who had her own errands to run today. We had tickets for Carman's "No Plan B" concert....as in Jesus is Plan A and there's NO PLAN B.

They climbed to the top of the rocks

Perfect rock climbing shoes

 

Eventually, we all ended up at Cornerstone Assembly for the  concert.

 

If it looks like we were sitting up close and personal - it's because we were. The VIP seats weren't filled and we fit the bill to fill the seats.

Tear Down that Wall

Keeping it real. I'm having a BLAST and we are loving our time together - but there's a lot about life I'm having a hard time surrendering right now.

We ran our Air Force race hard. We crossed the finish  line. We're in the part where you collapse at the end, enjoy the joy of knowing you left it all on the course, collect a few high fives and regain energy to run again - on a NEW course.....to hear at this point there's another Air force lap to run ....no matter how fun the course has been, it's not a happy place.

We've TASTED retirement and we love it. We love having Michael more present. We love being able to rest and relax without either of us worrying about our ministry to do lists, Michael's short notice supsenses or Air Force "stuff." We love asking God where and what He'd have us do and KNOWING we CAN do just that immediately....without Air Force approval, career consequences, leave approval et al.

In June we were told Michael did not have Parkinson's Disease. Japan was back on course - with a bit of a detour as we went through the typical end of tour VA claim. We'd hit Japan - rested and ready. We'd spend the time waiting for the VA to process the claim learning Japanese.

31 Aug, the day we turned our key over to our landlord, we heard a diagnosis of Parkinsonism with the understanding it seems to be Parkinson's Disease,  but we won't know until he weans from current meds and tries Levodopa. Staggering news....and in the process of figuring out what it means for our plans to minister in Japan......

11 Sept, base doc explains he thinks it best in the long run if he submits Michael's retirement for a medical hold and a medical evaluation board. I love this man's heart to be sure the Air Force does the very best for us....but ....

We ran that course. We're in the high-five stage. We don't want to have to run another lap. We like the now.

But now...we're in limbo. We may be called back to Beale, or we may not be called back to Beale. We may have to fight the VA to have Parkinsonism/Parkinson's listed as service connected, or we may be another year active duty while the DoD takes care of the classification and sets up the course of treatment.

What happened to the great faith I had in May and June? It's still there. I know God is in control....but I've been angry. I don't understand WHY we were told "all's well" in June....it seems, TO ME,  God could have orchestrated this lap better. An MEB would have been better to start in May/June - before we moved out of our home, before Michael's ministry was replaced, before we assumed we were going back to Japan again.... God HAS been speaking to me.

I know He is good.

I know I can trust Him.

I know my anger has built a wall - which He delighted in smashing through.

Finally - it comes down to surrender - again.

I surrender and together we tear down the wall.

It comes down to the prayer that never fails, "Yet, not my will, but Yours be done."

I have no idea which plan to pray for - a call back or a call saying to continue on....but God knows. There HAS been good in this interlude - we have tasted life after the Air Force - and we like it. We've enjoyed 6 weeks of enhanced family life - and it's good. We're resting - and it's very good.

If we get called back - it won't be pretty - but we'll find the reserves and gut it out - we'll run another lap as faithfully as we can - trusting in what we know of God.

He is gracious.

He is faithful.

His mercy is new every morning.

He loves us.

He is working to give us the delights of our hearts - not necessarily the NOW pleas which don't always accurately reflect the desires of our hearts. He loves us too much to be side-tracked by my emotions.

The wall is down.

Even here - His hand upholds me - "Not my will, but Yours be done."

*Note on 11 Sept we were told we should hear within 2 months if they are putting Michael on hold.  The MEB process would mean he goes back to work for 12 - 18 months while they get him on meds, work through the DoD/VA paperwork and let us retire - with regular retirement and VA disability/care  ready to start.