Sunday, January 19th, 2020
@luminightfestival
#luminightexperience
#OneWorldAMillionLights
Monday, January 20, 2020
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Baking RV Style
Learning how to bake inside a camping oven has been an adventure all its own.
Hour long frozen pizzas and burnt yet raw cookies that went straight into the garbage started many of our first baking attempts.
After a bit of research, I read about the idea of using a pizza brick to to spread out the heat of the propane oven more evenly. Sorry, I don't recall where I read that, but thank you. I took weeks and weeks to find a square pizza stone that would actually fit inside our small 12" by 15" oven.
Searching for a new bbg grill after husband melted our other one. Have I mentioned that? Anyways, we found found the perfect solution at Home Depot. 10.5 in. x 10.4 in. Flame-Friendly Ceramic Griddle They carry the same type on Amazon for $30.00 but it is only $13.97 at Home Depot.
This ceramic pan is placed below the metal rack, right above the propane heating element. This then disperses the heat, creating a much more even baking environment.
With the use of this ceramic stone and by turning the baking half way through, success is achievable.
Baking time is much closer to the typical time recommended in most recipes.
We changed the baking time from 30 minutes to 16 minutes, flip pan 180 degrees, then another 16 minutes.
Of all the pans of bake rolls, we only kept one pan for ourselves. All the rest we brought in to work or given away to friends.
Hour long frozen pizzas and burnt yet raw cookies that went straight into the garbage started many of our first baking attempts.
After a bit of research, I read about the idea of using a pizza brick to to spread out the heat of the propane oven more evenly. Sorry, I don't recall where I read that, but thank you. I took weeks and weeks to find a square pizza stone that would actually fit inside our small 12" by 15" oven.
Searching for a new bbg grill after husband melted our other one. Have I mentioned that? Anyways, we found found the perfect solution at Home Depot. 10.5 in. x 10.4 in. Flame-Friendly Ceramic Griddle They carry the same type on Amazon for $30.00 but it is only $13.97 at Home Depot.This ceramic pan is placed below the metal rack, right above the propane heating element. This then disperses the heat, creating a much more even baking environment.
With the use of this ceramic stone and by turning the baking half way through, success is achievable.
Baking time is much closer to the typical time recommended in most recipes.
We ended up baking over ten pans of sweet rolls between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In addition, we baked cookies and Chex mix. A couple different recipes of the sweet cinnomon rolls we attempted, but we finally settled on this recipe from Allrecipes.
We changed the baking time from 30 minutes to 16 minutes, flip pan 180 degrees, then another 16 minutes.
Of all the pans of bake rolls, we only kept one pan for ourselves. All the rest we brought in to work or given away to friends.
Last minute Christmas wreaths were whipped up in the camper's microwave on Christmas Eve morning. We also discovered how to make Chex mix in our RV's micro wave. Melting all of the spices, butters and liquids is pretty obvious. But the idea of 'baking' the chex mixture in the microwave was a new idea.
We ended up pouring the liquid over the cereal mixture in a cake pan and cookie sheet. Then, we put it back into the glass bowl in 1/4 batches. I cooked it on high for 2 minutes and then stirred it. Another two minutes and stirred again and then thirty more seconds. And it was done!
It tastes exactly like it was done in the oven. FTW!
Three more times with the other batches, and we are done, in less than a half an hour! Who is ever going to bake Chex mix in an oven again? NOT ME!
Wreath cookies: Bag of marshmallow melted with 1/4 cup margarine, add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and green food dye (to color you like). Stir in 6 cups of corn flakes.Shape like wreaths and add red hots for decoration. I wrap in small squares of plastic wrap to keep from sticking together so you can have them on the Christmas cookie tray.
Thursday, January 2, 2020
A New Year
2020!!!
Christmas is down. Fresh and clean and new for a new decade.
Shelf in bathroom. Everything held onto shelf with gorilla tape to keep it from falling off when we move. Nothing has fallen, yet.
New year's resolutions: walking more, getting more exercise, discovering the area.
Love this area. Reminds me of my father's backyard.
Pleasanton’s $300,000 Cubby's dog park now open
Monday, December 30, 2019
We have fire
When we were choosing a 'home' to live in, there were many, many things on our have to have list. Bunk room, slides on two sides, outdoor kitchen, and wall space! to hang pictures, to put bookshelves, to make it feel like a home.
The one thing I had to give up in the end, was a fireplace.
I found the exact one they put in our trailer online. Putting the information up on my pinterest blog for future reference, I accepted my trailer fireplaceless.
My daughter ordered me the exact fireplace off of my pinterest information, and gave it to me for Christmas this year.
Furrion RV Electric Fireplace with Logs - 30" Wide - Recessed Mount - Black
We put this fireplace in, all by ourselves, the day after Christmas. Because we placed it where a fireplace was intended to go, there was already electric accessible inside the cabinet. We only hooked it up for electricity. It does have battery hook up, as well. We will have to look into that when we become more mobile in our RV life.
Husband has done a lot of electric wiring through the years, so this was an easy project for him to splice and dice it into place.
There is a remote control to turn this on and off and control the heat settings. You can also control the brightness of the flames. The glass front of the fireplace always stays cool. Heat comes out from the top left side of the unit. Everything else stays cool to the touch.
We had been using a small space heater to warm our living space during the cooler northern California days. This fireplace is much more efficient in warming the entire living room space. With the electricity included in the price of RV space rental. running the fireplace saves us money over using up our propane to heat this big beast both day and night.
With temperatures dropping down to freezing on many nights, you can definitely tell we are not is SoCal anymore. So, yes, this fireplace sill save us a lot of money through these winter months. Still, I really wanted the fireplace for the homeyness and ambiance. It definitely provides the peaceful calm I was hoping for.
Severus checking out the box
Day and night.
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Holiday Season 2019
Our first Christmas as fulltime RVers.
😊😊😊😊
The trailer all decked out for the Holidays.
Rainbow on Christmas Eve - Eve right outside our trailer park.
Looking at lights at Widmer World in Pleasanton, CA
Meet Luci, the newest member of our family. A Christmas present for Natalie, he fits right in.
The ride home from the adoption center. #adoptdontshop
Severus is unsure about this turn of events. Skittish for the first few days, Luci is finally coming out of hiding to visit. Severus basking in the glow of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.
Natalie still baking for Christmas. One day to Christmas Eve.
Christmas morning.
#homesweetrollinghome
Happy Christmas one and all.
