Homemaking

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Cooking in an RV

Cooking in an RV is not without its challenges. For me, the single most important challenge is the lack of counter space. I don’t let that stop me from making absolutely anything I want, even if I have to pile things on top of each other in order to get enough room to roll out some dough.

Behold tonight’s dinner:

Homemade dough crookedly rolled out and topped with jarred pasta sauce (Prego Onion and Garlic, if you're curious (very yummy!))

Homemade dough crookedly rolled out and topped with jarred pasta sauce (Prego Onion and Garlic, if you’re curious (very yummy!))

The flash makes the dough look quite pasty, but it was actually perfectly browned. The cheese is a mix of 'Mexican' cheeses giving the pizza a real kick! I also added a diced orange pepper.

The flash makes the dough look quite pasty, but it was actually perfectly browned. The cheese is a mix of ‘Mexican’ cheeses giving the pizza a real kick! I also added a diced orange pepper.

OMG

This was the best pizza I have eaten in recent memory!!! It was even better than the pizza I had in Whitehorse! The crust was that perfect mix of crispy and chewy, the sauce was flavourful, the cheese blend unexpectedly delicious. I had a hunch that a pizza cooked in a propane oven would be superior to one cooked in an electric oven, and I was right. I’m going to get a pizza stone!

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Making the Bed

With my lack of sleep lately, a conversation with Croft, and a recent post by Gypsy, I’ve had beds on my mind lately.

I think I would be a contender for the top prize in a ‘most difficult to make bed in the universe’ contest. I sleep in the bunk over the cab in my class C. I hate the thin, hard mattress that came with the rig, so I put over it my super comfy house-style mattress. This leaves me exactly 23 inches between the mattress and the ceiling. Right over my head, there is a ceiling light that reduces the clearance by about an inch and a half. I cannot count the number of times I’ve cracked my head on it. 🙂 But, otherwise, I can count on one hand the number of times that I’ve sat up in bed and hit the ceiling. It’s cozy up there, but comfortable

I still make my bed ‘normal’-style, with a fitted sheet, flat sheet, and comforters. I hate sleeping in a bag! So, once a week, I find myself spread out flat on my stomach on the bed trying to get the darn inner corners of the fitted sheets into position. Add to that a certain cat who thinks that sitting on the bed and playing with the sheets constitutes helping. 😀

Despite this self-imposed ‘hardship’ I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve slept in top bunks and lofts most of my life and much prefer that to sleeping close to the ground. Getting up into the bunk is not difficult. I do not, as my friend Croft believes, climb up and down a ladder to get into bed. Rather, I step up onto the dinette bench then onto its back. It’s really no more difficult that climbing or descending a very wide staircase. In the ten months I’ve lived in this rig, I’ve never found myself up there and thinking “Crap, I need to go back down to do x, y, or z”, getting down is such a non-issue.

Sleeping over the cab might not work for everyone, and it would probably be a pain for a couple, but for me it’s perfect. It also has a great perk.

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Digging Deep

I had a full day off Sunday and the weather wasn’t great; cold that eventually turned to rain. I decided that it was a stay in day to knock off a to-do list that I’ve been ignoring for months: emptying out all the overhead cabinets (except the pantry ones) and reorganizing everything. It was kind of a funny thing to do when I just got to a new city I’m itching to explore, but it makes sense. Now, I can enjoy my summer.

When I moved in, I essentially put everything where it fit. I knew where things were, but getting to some involved the risk of avalanche. Opening up one of the bins in the dining area was a suicide risk after moving as every time I did so a huge book would fall out!

By this point, I knew where I need things to be and which cabinets are a pain in the you know what to get into (glares at the ones over the dinette). So, I took everything out and put it back in again. It sounds like a huge job, but none of my cabinets were bursting with stuff, so it didn’t take long at all. I was especially glad to get the ones in the kitchen done as putting away dishes was becoming increasingly annoying. I also took piles of books that had been lying flat and put them upright, scattering them throughout the rig. At some point, I might decide to better organize the books, but I have so few of them now and only four places to check, so I’m not sure the exercise would be worth the effort, especially since books come and go.

It stands to reason that when I stumbled into the kitchen this morning to make a cup of coffee on automatic pilot, I had a hard time finding my coffee supplies. Until I remembered that I put them in another cabinet for easier access. 😀

I love reorganizing my home; it’s just as satisfying as moving!

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Klondike River Campground Respite

I decided to stay two nights at the YTC at Klondike River (actually 1.5km from the river!). I’d done a hard day’s drive, so I would enjoy a quiet evening at home, then scope out my housing and work options ‘in town’ the next day. Town, you say? Oh, come on, you know exactly where I am and if you don’t, you were just too lazy to pull out a map! 😀 I won’t say it until the next post, though, because I’m silly that way.

The campground has two pull-thrus, but they are arced, so no good for pulling in and unhooking. I needed to unhook and didn’t like how open the pull-thrus are, so I instead back into a nice long treed site. I’m rusty at the whole backing up thing and I was very tired, so getting in took some work, but I was finally squared away.

I love these rustic government campgrounds because they have so many fewer rules than do private campgrounds and usually offer a lot more privacy. I can set up a clothesline if I want and sit outside without feeling obligated to say hi to neighbours.

The fee to stay at YTC is 12$ per night per accommodation unit (ie. if friends camp and each have a tent, then it’s 12$ per tent per site). That’s fine for short term stays, but for a month you might as well find a park with a monthly rate. I was happy to learn that you at least get free firewood for your 12$.

So, for the first time in my life, I made a campfire to sit by in the evening while wearing sunglasses. It was a rather weird experience, LOL!

I made bannock over the fire for breakfast the next day, mixing cinnamon and a chopped apple into the dough:

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I went to bed early and slept like the dead, to be expected after the sleepless night I had in Whitehorse, which already felt like it was a whole world away.

I did exactly 502.4 kilometres this day, my second longest day ever on the road.

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Grocery Shopping North of 60, Take One

Watson Lake has one grocery store, ‘Watson Lake Foods.’ It is small, but fully stocked, with a decent selection of ‘ethnic’ type foods. I was happy to find my first loaf of Russian black bread since Ottawa (!) at a fantastic price of 2.50$ as well as, for a treat, a package of pre-made gyoza (Japanese dumplings), for a reasonable price of 5$. I didn’t have any sticker shock whatsoever as I wandered the aisles. Convenience and junk foods were a bit higher than down south, but not significantly so, and fresh produce was comparably priced. I picked up Gala apples for 1.19$/lb, which is a bargain! Cheese is ludicrously expensive, as it is in BC, at a couple of dollars higher than there, but I got some blocks approaching their best by date for very good prices and will freeze them. One thing I noticed is that they’ll have a product, say unsweetened cocoa, but in only one brand and size. So, while I’m used to paying 3.99$ for a small off-brand tin of cocoa, I  had to pay 7.99$ for a large tin of Frye’s brand; no big deal of course but I’m sure some people would have sticker shock at that even though the unit price is comparable.

I got everything I needed and a couple of treats and still met my bi-weekly budget of 75$ without feeling any sort of pinch. The north has yet to be financially intimidating!