Cooking over an open fire is one of the joys of camping. Many people think the food tastes better when cooked over an open fire. But cleaning the smoke stains off the cookware afterward can be a chore, and can also lead to excess use of the limited water supply in a small RV.
One of the easiest ways to prepare pans for cooking over an open fire is simply to soap them first! Not the inside, of course...just the outside. Simply add about a teaspoon of liquid dish soap to a 1/2 cup of water (thick enough that it stays on and leaves a thin film, without being so thin that it all runs off), and use a rag or paper towel to coat the outside of the pan with the mixture. You can even make this up ahead of time and store it in a jar for future use for your whole camping trip, or even longer.
The water will evaporate, leaving the soap film. The soap won't burn, but will add enough of a coating to the pans that the smoke will wash right off as soon as you add water...no scrubbing needed.
If you can share other tips you've learned on how to keep pans clean, please post them in the comments. And if you like what you see here, please...use one of the four methods to subscribe to new posts so you don't miss a one of them.
Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Boiling Bags...the Camper's Friend!
Although I was going to write my second post about something else, a timely visit with some friends yesterday reminded me of this very appropriate technique that I had long put away in my mental attic and forgotten.
The friend suggested a technique for making an omelet, and with very little cleanup. A pan full of boiling water can usually just be dumped out and dried. A boiling bag can be torn open and thrown away. If you use disposable dinnerware, there is very little to clean up except the knife used to cut up the ingredients. And the bonus is that it's next to impossible to burn the food or have it turn out wrong.
If you are concerned about cooking things in plastic, then avoid regular freezer bags. Cold plastic may not give off the same gasses that hot plastic does, so what may be safe in a freezer, may not be safe when heated. Buy the ones that are designed for hot temperatures, such as Ziploc "Zip 'n Steam" cooking bags. They contain no BPA. You can find out more about them on their web site at http://ziploc.com/steamerbags/.
Although the package directions show them being used in a microwave, keep in mind that the results are not going to be the same as when dipping the bag in boiling water. If there are "thin" areas (such as at the bottom of the bag) those areas will still cook quicker in a microwave, and could end up being "tough". You won't have the problem of overcooking those "thin" areas when doing it in boiling water.
You can make any kind of omelet in a boiling bag. Simple chop up the vegetables, mushrooms, cheese or meat that you wish to add, and combine all of that with an appropriate number of eggs to suit your appetite, season as desired, seal up the bag and dunk it in a pan of boiling water until done to suit, or until things like onions start to lose their whiteness and turn clear...usually about 15 minutes, give or take. After you do it a few times you will know exactly how long it takes for your favorite recipe. This is also great for steamed vegetables as a side dish for a meal, also, or you can add other things to make it a complete meal.
Not only is it impossible to burn the food, but you won't have any of those little paper-thin crispy edges that chew like leather on eggs like you usually do when pan frying them. Everything cooks evenly when cooked in boiling water.
To serve, simply tear open the bag and the food will slide out onto your plate. Throw the bag away. No muss, no fuss. No pan to clean. But remember, the hot water left in the pan is still clean water, and can also be used for other things, such as washing the knife you used to cut up the vegetables, or any other dinnerware you used. So don't just throw it out. You used some form of fuel to get it hot, so why use even more to heat dishwater? THINK! Pour it in the sink, and get more use out of that water. It's all a part of conserving limited resources and making the best and most efficient use out of what is available!
Many other things can be made this way, and as we find other ideas and recipes, we will present them, but feel free to experiment, and then share it with our readers in the comments.
In some cases, depending on the water available, it may leave a lime deposit in the bottom of the pan. In reality, it doesn't hurt anything but looks, but if you are particular about your pots and pans, you can still conserve water by leaving a little in the pan until it cools slightly, and then use scratch pads to remove the lime. We use stainless steel pots and pans, and the best thing we have found for cleaning them is a product called Scrub Buds, from Amway, which are similar to steel wool, but made from stainless steel, so they never rust. You can also use SOS pads, but they tend to be more messy since they also contain soap, and since they are made from ordinary steel, they tend to rust. Also, since they have soap in them, it takes more water to rinse the soap out of the pan. Aluminum pans are harder to clean lime out of because they are a softer metal, and abrasive scratch pads can damage the finish. We don't recommend ANY aluminum cookware for that reason, but also, because of health issues from the aluminum itself.
If you have any other tips or tricks, please...speak up in the comments so the rest of us can learn.
And if you like what you see so far, please use one of the four methods to subscribe to future posts!
Thanks for reading!
The friend suggested a technique for making an omelet, and with very little cleanup. A pan full of boiling water can usually just be dumped out and dried. A boiling bag can be torn open and thrown away. If you use disposable dinnerware, there is very little to clean up except the knife used to cut up the ingredients. And the bonus is that it's next to impossible to burn the food or have it turn out wrong.
If you are concerned about cooking things in plastic, then avoid regular freezer bags. Cold plastic may not give off the same gasses that hot plastic does, so what may be safe in a freezer, may not be safe when heated. Buy the ones that are designed for hot temperatures, such as Ziploc "Zip 'n Steam" cooking bags. They contain no BPA. You can find out more about them on their web site at http://ziploc.com/steamerbags/.
Although the package directions show them being used in a microwave, keep in mind that the results are not going to be the same as when dipping the bag in boiling water. If there are "thin" areas (such as at the bottom of the bag) those areas will still cook quicker in a microwave, and could end up being "tough". You won't have the problem of overcooking those "thin" areas when doing it in boiling water.
You can make any kind of omelet in a boiling bag. Simple chop up the vegetables, mushrooms, cheese or meat that you wish to add, and combine all of that with an appropriate number of eggs to suit your appetite, season as desired, seal up the bag and dunk it in a pan of boiling water until done to suit, or until things like onions start to lose their whiteness and turn clear...usually about 15 minutes, give or take. After you do it a few times you will know exactly how long it takes for your favorite recipe. This is also great for steamed vegetables as a side dish for a meal, also, or you can add other things to make it a complete meal.
Not only is it impossible to burn the food, but you won't have any of those little paper-thin crispy edges that chew like leather on eggs like you usually do when pan frying them. Everything cooks evenly when cooked in boiling water.
To serve, simply tear open the bag and the food will slide out onto your plate. Throw the bag away. No muss, no fuss. No pan to clean. But remember, the hot water left in the pan is still clean water, and can also be used for other things, such as washing the knife you used to cut up the vegetables, or any other dinnerware you used. So don't just throw it out. You used some form of fuel to get it hot, so why use even more to heat dishwater? THINK! Pour it in the sink, and get more use out of that water. It's all a part of conserving limited resources and making the best and most efficient use out of what is available!
Many other things can be made this way, and as we find other ideas and recipes, we will present them, but feel free to experiment, and then share it with our readers in the comments.
In some cases, depending on the water available, it may leave a lime deposit in the bottom of the pan. In reality, it doesn't hurt anything but looks, but if you are particular about your pots and pans, you can still conserve water by leaving a little in the pan until it cools slightly, and then use scratch pads to remove the lime. We use stainless steel pots and pans, and the best thing we have found for cleaning them is a product called Scrub Buds, from Amway, which are similar to steel wool, but made from stainless steel, so they never rust. You can also use SOS pads, but they tend to be more messy since they also contain soap, and since they are made from ordinary steel, they tend to rust. Also, since they have soap in them, it takes more water to rinse the soap out of the pan. Aluminum pans are harder to clean lime out of because they are a softer metal, and abrasive scratch pads can damage the finish. We don't recommend ANY aluminum cookware for that reason, but also, because of health issues from the aluminum itself.
If you have any other tips or tricks, please...speak up in the comments so the rest of us can learn.
And if you like what you see so far, please use one of the four methods to subscribe to future posts!
Thanks for reading!
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Common Sense Food Preservation Techniques in an RV
People will be people, and will do what they they think is best for them regardless of what other, more experienced people have already found out the hard way. But trends don't lie, and the truth is that fewer and fewer large RV's are being sold, while more and more smaller, fuel efficient RV's are coming on the market. Even when faced with such facts, there will always be people with a lot more money than others and will spend it foolishly, and no one is going to change their minds. Everyone is different, and travels or camps in different ways for different reasons. The same goes for cooking.
No two appetites are the same, nor are the cooking styles of those people the same. Just as in music, some people have to have a book in front of them, and yet others know what the finished product is supposed to sound like or taste like and can "improvise" based on the mood at the time.
In a small RV, a person is going to find more "improvisation" in their cooking style, simply because they aren't going to have a full kitchen to work in, nor are they likely to have all the ingredients that some recipes call for. But before they can start cooking, they have to have a place to store the ingredients.
Most RV's are not designed for fresh food storage. You aren't going to find a cool root cellar or basement like you might have at home. The truth is, that most RV's are designed for "convenience foods"...mostly canned goods and packaged foods. Very few are even going to have bins for root vegetables and hardy fruits, so you have to "make do" with your own common sense food preservation techniques in an RV.
First of all, you really do need a cool dry place to store certain vegetables, fruits and other foods, so the last thing you want to do is turn your RV into an oven. If traveling in warmer temperatures, you want to make sure your RV has good ventilation, and is not subject to any more heat buildup than necessary. And if that is unavoidable, then don't buy fresh fruits and veggies that are going to be ruined by the heat!
Having lived in Mesa for ten years, I saw a lot of people foolishly close up their RV's tight as a drum before they left for the summer. They would put Reflectix in the windows, seal everything up, and think they were accomplishing something by "keeping the heat out". They weren't. Closing an RV up tight in 115 degree heat, with no ventilation, is like wrapping a baked potato with aluminum foil. Yes, the Reflectix might help to keep UV rays and the sun's radiant heat out, but sealing it up is only going to hold the heat in! The RV still needs ventilation! Without ventilation it is going to get up to 160 degrees inside at the peak of the day, and cook everything in there.
But many RV'ers that are on the move, will go away from their RV for a few hours each day and leave it setting in the hot sun, unless they are in a place where they have power available. If they are out boondocking, they aren't going to have air conditioning to keep it cool unless they run the generator whenever they stop. And many people in small RV's don't even have air conditioners to keep them cool. So what do you do?
The first thing is to realize that heat rises. The worst place you can put fresh food is up high, like in a top compartment or cabinet. You want to keep that food as cool as possible, so that means keeping it as close to the floor (or even under it, like a "basement" compartment, if your RV has such capabilities). Storing it near the fresh water tank is good, because the tank will help to even out the changes in air temperature and help to keep that compartment cool.
Also, keep the RV ventilated! Most small RV's (and even large ones) are going to have roof vents. But having a roof vent without a means to keep rain out is a waste! They make some fans and vents with rain sensors on them, but if you are home on a hot day, and it suddenly starts raining, who wants to be inside with no ventilation? For that reason I recommend using vent covers similar to the Maxx-Aire hoods that allow the roof vent to be open while providing rain protection. Even if you can't leave windows open to let air in, having a vent at the roof level will allow the hot air near the ceiling of an RV to escape, and can keep the RV as much as 20 degrees cooler. That is important whether you are living in it or it is setting in a storage yard. RV's need ventilation!
We will present some types of foods that don't need refrigeration in the coming posts, but for now, just know that you need to keep fresh foods as low as possible in your RV. Besides that, is the weight of them. Always keep heavier stuff toward the floor so your RV doesn't get top heavy.
Typically, it is always a good idea to park your RV so that the sun does not shine on the side the refrigerator is on, as that avoids over-taxing the refrigerator trying to compensate for radiant heat from the sun. If you can do that, and then store your fresh food down low on that same side of the RV, that will also help to avoid overheating the fresh food.
On mobile RV's like small trailers, vans and small motorhomes, keeping the refrigerator side out of the sun may not always be easy, as we may have to go in a direction which puts the sun on that side, or we may have to take what parking places we can get when out and about. But it should be something that remains in the back of our minds to always "try" to keep the refrigerator side out of the sun whenever possible.
For small RV's that rely on coolers of various types, whether they be ice chests or powered coolers, simply laying a wet towel across the top can help the cooler work more efficiently by the process of evaporation. The cooler you keep the lid, the cooler it will be on the inside. And always keep it out of direct sunlight.
You should always try to keep as much radiant heat out of your vehicle as possible, so always use reflective window coverings when you park it in the sun. The less the sun can shine on anything in the interior, the less the heat will build up, and the less damage the suns UV rays will do to the interior.
In the next posts we will publish a list of foods that do not need refrigeration. Some of those foods will be dry foods. When on the move, it is difficult to get involved with the process of dehydrating fresh foods that you might buy at a store or farmer's market, but it isn't impossible, either. Still, it may be more practical to buy certain foods already dehydrated, and storing such things requires the same common sense that you would apply to potatoes or onions, as far as keeping them in a cool dry place. Sometimes the fancy backpacking foods that are dehydrated cost a lot more than their similar counterparts available at most supermarkets, too, so we will also keep that fact in mind.
And the other common sense thing is to never over-buy if you don't have room to store it or aren't going to eat it within a week. Those foods aren't going to keep as long in an RV as they would in your nice air conditioned house! Sure, it's probably cheaper to buy ten pounds of potatoes than it is to buy five pounds, but unless you plan on eating them at every meal, and for snacks in between, you will likely throw out the last half, and then you won't have saved anything! The same goes for onions, or any other fruit or vegetable. Buy only what you need to get you by for about a week.
Don't hoard food, just because it's on sale! We knew one retired couple that lived in a park model in our park. She had the inside refrigerator stuffed with food, plus TWO refrigerators setting in the carport, where they also had to work harder to compensate for the summer heat, and they were stuffed like sardine cans! What is the point? The cost of the extra refrigerators and the electricity to keep them cool (especially in up to 118 degree heat) was more than the little bit of savings she was able to gain...considering that there was an Albertson's right across the street within walking distance! That kind of foolish hoarding of food is a total waste!
Unless you are going out boondocking for more than a week at a time, and avoid civilization totally, you are likely going to be near a store within a week, so don't waste money buying in quantity if you are going to end up with half of it going bad before you can use it! Something will ALWAYS be on sale somewhere. You can't buy all of it. THINK and be practical!
One of my wife's concerns was that full-timing in a small RV is going to cost us more for food "because" we won't be able to buy in the quantities that we have been used to. (We had one 14 cubic foot refrigerator at our real estate home, and that is more than enough for two people! Anything larger would have been a waste of purchase price, space and money!) Nor will we always be near a store that has good prices. So yes, her point is true.
But I look at it this way...it's a small price to pay for the freedom that being without real estate brings! What we save in NOT owning real estate and all the costs associated with it, is WAY MORE than enough to pay for a 10-20% increase in the food bill. And that doesn't even count eating out, which we do a lot more of now that we are back out there traveling again. It's a part of getting out and having fun, and as with many things would be considered a part of entertainment expense in any other lifestyle!
As we develop this blog, we will be presenting a lot of information on how to deal with food in a small RV, including recipes. I, for one, hate recipes that have a list of ingredients a mile long. Having to read through all that stuff, make sure we have all the ingredients, and go through all of the steps, just takes the fun out of cooking for me. I like things simple...six ingredients or less and I can deal with it. I don't cook because I love cooking. I cook because it's a necessity of eating! But I have better things to do than spend all of my time in a kitchen. So that's where this blog is headed...simple solutions to simple problems.
Make sure you subscribe by one of the four methods (simple email, RSS feed, Google Followers or Google+, and if you like what you see click on one of the social buttons to add it to your Facebook, Twitter or other social page so others can see it. We don't share your email address with anyone, and unless we dig really deep into the program that Blogger uses to manage it, we don't even see it ourselves unless we have a need to go look for it. We don't maintain the list. Blogger and Feedburner does.
We use Skimlinks and other affiliate vendors to monetize the blog, from which we might make a little money from clicks as well as purchases. If we have a product to recommend, we will do so on the blog...NOT by email blasts! And in some instances, we may recommend products which you can buy directly from our own payment buttons, but we will send you to one of our other sites for that.
As far as frequency of posting, I would like to say about once a week, but it might be sporadic. After all, I am retired, and have had my fill of meeting schedules. This is a hobby for me. I'm not out here to soak every last dime out of everybody I can. I will post when I have something to post about and have the time to do so.
How long do you usually keep fresh food in your RV? How do you keep it fresh? Please... join in the conversation! After all, that's what blogs are for!
As always, if you have any questions or comments, I will respond ASAP.
No two appetites are the same, nor are the cooking styles of those people the same. Just as in music, some people have to have a book in front of them, and yet others know what the finished product is supposed to sound like or taste like and can "improvise" based on the mood at the time.
In a small RV, a person is going to find more "improvisation" in their cooking style, simply because they aren't going to have a full kitchen to work in, nor are they likely to have all the ingredients that some recipes call for. But before they can start cooking, they have to have a place to store the ingredients.
Most RV's are not designed for fresh food storage. You aren't going to find a cool root cellar or basement like you might have at home. The truth is, that most RV's are designed for "convenience foods"...mostly canned goods and packaged foods. Very few are even going to have bins for root vegetables and hardy fruits, so you have to "make do" with your own common sense food preservation techniques in an RV.
First of all, you really do need a cool dry place to store certain vegetables, fruits and other foods, so the last thing you want to do is turn your RV into an oven. If traveling in warmer temperatures, you want to make sure your RV has good ventilation, and is not subject to any more heat buildup than necessary. And if that is unavoidable, then don't buy fresh fruits and veggies that are going to be ruined by the heat!
Having lived in Mesa for ten years, I saw a lot of people foolishly close up their RV's tight as a drum before they left for the summer. They would put Reflectix in the windows, seal everything up, and think they were accomplishing something by "keeping the heat out". They weren't. Closing an RV up tight in 115 degree heat, with no ventilation, is like wrapping a baked potato with aluminum foil. Yes, the Reflectix might help to keep UV rays and the sun's radiant heat out, but sealing it up is only going to hold the heat in! The RV still needs ventilation! Without ventilation it is going to get up to 160 degrees inside at the peak of the day, and cook everything in there.
But many RV'ers that are on the move, will go away from their RV for a few hours each day and leave it setting in the hot sun, unless they are in a place where they have power available. If they are out boondocking, they aren't going to have air conditioning to keep it cool unless they run the generator whenever they stop. And many people in small RV's don't even have air conditioners to keep them cool. So what do you do?
The first thing is to realize that heat rises. The worst place you can put fresh food is up high, like in a top compartment or cabinet. You want to keep that food as cool as possible, so that means keeping it as close to the floor (or even under it, like a "basement" compartment, if your RV has such capabilities). Storing it near the fresh water tank is good, because the tank will help to even out the changes in air temperature and help to keep that compartment cool.
Also, keep the RV ventilated! Most small RV's (and even large ones) are going to have roof vents. But having a roof vent without a means to keep rain out is a waste! They make some fans and vents with rain sensors on them, but if you are home on a hot day, and it suddenly starts raining, who wants to be inside with no ventilation? For that reason I recommend using vent covers similar to the Maxx-Aire hoods that allow the roof vent to be open while providing rain protection. Even if you can't leave windows open to let air in, having a vent at the roof level will allow the hot air near the ceiling of an RV to escape, and can keep the RV as much as 20 degrees cooler. That is important whether you are living in it or it is setting in a storage yard. RV's need ventilation!
We will present some types of foods that don't need refrigeration in the coming posts, but for now, just know that you need to keep fresh foods as low as possible in your RV. Besides that, is the weight of them. Always keep heavier stuff toward the floor so your RV doesn't get top heavy.
Typically, it is always a good idea to park your RV so that the sun does not shine on the side the refrigerator is on, as that avoids over-taxing the refrigerator trying to compensate for radiant heat from the sun. If you can do that, and then store your fresh food down low on that same side of the RV, that will also help to avoid overheating the fresh food.
On mobile RV's like small trailers, vans and small motorhomes, keeping the refrigerator side out of the sun may not always be easy, as we may have to go in a direction which puts the sun on that side, or we may have to take what parking places we can get when out and about. But it should be something that remains in the back of our minds to always "try" to keep the refrigerator side out of the sun whenever possible.
For small RV's that rely on coolers of various types, whether they be ice chests or powered coolers, simply laying a wet towel across the top can help the cooler work more efficiently by the process of evaporation. The cooler you keep the lid, the cooler it will be on the inside. And always keep it out of direct sunlight.
You should always try to keep as much radiant heat out of your vehicle as possible, so always use reflective window coverings when you park it in the sun. The less the sun can shine on anything in the interior, the less the heat will build up, and the less damage the suns UV rays will do to the interior.
In the next posts we will publish a list of foods that do not need refrigeration. Some of those foods will be dry foods. When on the move, it is difficult to get involved with the process of dehydrating fresh foods that you might buy at a store or farmer's market, but it isn't impossible, either. Still, it may be more practical to buy certain foods already dehydrated, and storing such things requires the same common sense that you would apply to potatoes or onions, as far as keeping them in a cool dry place. Sometimes the fancy backpacking foods that are dehydrated cost a lot more than their similar counterparts available at most supermarkets, too, so we will also keep that fact in mind.
And the other common sense thing is to never over-buy if you don't have room to store it or aren't going to eat it within a week. Those foods aren't going to keep as long in an RV as they would in your nice air conditioned house! Sure, it's probably cheaper to buy ten pounds of potatoes than it is to buy five pounds, but unless you plan on eating them at every meal, and for snacks in between, you will likely throw out the last half, and then you won't have saved anything! The same goes for onions, or any other fruit or vegetable. Buy only what you need to get you by for about a week.
Don't hoard food, just because it's on sale! We knew one retired couple that lived in a park model in our park. She had the inside refrigerator stuffed with food, plus TWO refrigerators setting in the carport, where they also had to work harder to compensate for the summer heat, and they were stuffed like sardine cans! What is the point? The cost of the extra refrigerators and the electricity to keep them cool (especially in up to 118 degree heat) was more than the little bit of savings she was able to gain...considering that there was an Albertson's right across the street within walking distance! That kind of foolish hoarding of food is a total waste!
Unless you are going out boondocking for more than a week at a time, and avoid civilization totally, you are likely going to be near a store within a week, so don't waste money buying in quantity if you are going to end up with half of it going bad before you can use it! Something will ALWAYS be on sale somewhere. You can't buy all of it. THINK and be practical!
One of my wife's concerns was that full-timing in a small RV is going to cost us more for food "because" we won't be able to buy in the quantities that we have been used to. (We had one 14 cubic foot refrigerator at our real estate home, and that is more than enough for two people! Anything larger would have been a waste of purchase price, space and money!) Nor will we always be near a store that has good prices. So yes, her point is true.
But I look at it this way...it's a small price to pay for the freedom that being without real estate brings! What we save in NOT owning real estate and all the costs associated with it, is WAY MORE than enough to pay for a 10-20% increase in the food bill. And that doesn't even count eating out, which we do a lot more of now that we are back out there traveling again. It's a part of getting out and having fun, and as with many things would be considered a part of entertainment expense in any other lifestyle!
As we develop this blog, we will be presenting a lot of information on how to deal with food in a small RV, including recipes. I, for one, hate recipes that have a list of ingredients a mile long. Having to read through all that stuff, make sure we have all the ingredients, and go through all of the steps, just takes the fun out of cooking for me. I like things simple...six ingredients or less and I can deal with it. I don't cook because I love cooking. I cook because it's a necessity of eating! But I have better things to do than spend all of my time in a kitchen. So that's where this blog is headed...simple solutions to simple problems.
Make sure you subscribe by one of the four methods (simple email, RSS feed, Google Followers or Google+, and if you like what you see click on one of the social buttons to add it to your Facebook, Twitter or other social page so others can see it. We don't share your email address with anyone, and unless we dig really deep into the program that Blogger uses to manage it, we don't even see it ourselves unless we have a need to go look for it. We don't maintain the list. Blogger and Feedburner does.
We use Skimlinks and other affiliate vendors to monetize the blog, from which we might make a little money from clicks as well as purchases. If we have a product to recommend, we will do so on the blog...NOT by email blasts! And in some instances, we may recommend products which you can buy directly from our own payment buttons, but we will send you to one of our other sites for that.
As far as frequency of posting, I would like to say about once a week, but it might be sporadic. After all, I am retired, and have had my fill of meeting schedules. This is a hobby for me. I'm not out here to soak every last dime out of everybody I can. I will post when I have something to post about and have the time to do so.
How long do you usually keep fresh food in your RV? How do you keep it fresh? Please... join in the conversation! After all, that's what blogs are for!
As always, if you have any questions or comments, I will respond ASAP.
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