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Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner in a 2’x4′ RV Kitchen
Cooking a multi-course meal in a tiny kitchen can be a bit daunting, but last year our meal was a success. With only two of us and a tiny oven, I wanted to make just the right serving sizes to have for our dinner and few leftovers.
My first plan was for the turkey. I decided on crockpot cooking and a 3# Butterball turkey breast. The breast comes in a plastic bag with the turkey wrapped in a string net along with a bag of gravy starter.
I started by taking the turkey out of the string net. There were two large pieces and a few small chunks. After cleaning the pieces, I set them aside and cut a red onion into 8 chunks and readied two garlic gloves. I layered the ingredients in the crock pot as such: 1/3 stick butter, 1/2 of the onion chunks, 1 diced garlic clove, 1/2 the turkey, spices, 1/3 stick butter, 1/2 bag baby carrots, the second 1/2 of the onion, second clove of garlic, all topped with the second 1/2 of turkey, skin side up. At the very top I added the last 1/3 stick butter and spices and 1/2 cup water.
Next I went about making the side dishes. With only two saucepans, I had to cook, clean, and cook and clean again. I first made the cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries (the only way to have it!) Easy to make for two in a small pan with 1/2 bag fresh cranberries and 1 cup sugar boiled with 1/2 cup water until the berries open and the sauce thickens just a bit. I then put the sauce in a bowl in the refrigerator to cool and thicken, washed the pan and started on the gravy.
At first I tried the gravy that came with the turkey but my son and I both agreed that the gravy just did not meet up to our standards. I then tasted the au jus and it was perfect as-is so we decided on using it. The last two dishes to be made were the stuffing and mashed potatoes just before ready to serve. I always make my mashed potatoes with skins on and a bit too much butter, and I usually make the stuffing homemade but with limited space and time, I opted for the boxed variety cooked with turkey drippings.
And although in an RV, we had a delicious homestyle Thanksgiving dinner made just for two!
This blog updated from last year–just in time for those needing it this year!https://travelingtuusome.com/2012/11/26/cooking-a-thanksgiving-feast-for-two-in-an-rv/
If facing a Thanksgiving dinner emergency, you can call the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line® at 1-800-BUTTERBALL (800-288-8372) for help.
keratoconus /ker·a·to·co·nus/
Some of you may know about my issues with poor eyesight and the associated problems I live with because of bi-lateral Keratoconus. I’ve worn contacts since 11-years-old, with near-sightedness since even younger–likely stemming from an accident when I was 6-years-old when my eyes were full flushed with leaded gas while trying to help fill a gasoline container from an elevated farm tank.
I had a corneal transplant to my left eye in 2005. Prior to that, my eyesight had gotten so bad that I could not drive in rain or at night, or on any road that I was not already familiar with because I couldn’t read the street names in order to navigate. At the time, my left eye was the worst of both eyes and so it was operated on first. The transplant was a success and quickly I was able to wear glasses and could see enough to regain my driving freedom. And just a year ago, I was able to start wearing a hybrid hard contact lens with a gas permeable skirt that brought me back to 20/20 corrected vision in my left eye for the first time in many, many years.
Keratoconus is a disease that causes the cornea to thin and thereby grow into an extreme cone-like shape. It also causes astigmatism, which in my case is extreme with bumps and bends so numerous that my ophthalmologist cannot even complete some digital tests on my right eye because of the variations. In turn, both problems cause extreme light sensitivity because the eye is receiving light and bouncing it off of multiple plains into the eye. This is why I’m often seen wearing two pairs of sunglasses at the same time, a regular pair and then an over-glasses style pair on top.
But good news from my ophthalmologist today … on December 18th I finally get the transplant I need for my right eye which is currently legally blind. Not just good news, the best! From squinting and spending most of my day with my right eye literally closed so that it would not just blur my total vision, instead to the hopes of the success I’ve had with my left eye is a wonderous thought.
This also means that, while I’m still able, I need to get writing and posting some ‘lost’ services that never seemed to make it to the blog. Last time I had the surgery I was a full week locked in a blackened room, so dark in fact that on the fifth day post-op I finally allowed the television to be turned on and what little I watched was literally through a white pillow case draped over the screen!
But as we all know, my blessings are at the cost of another’s tragedy. For me to gain a healthy cornea, someone out there has lost their life and has donated such a precious gift to someone like me. I truly hope that I am worthy of the donated cornea I already have, and I hope to hold myself worthy to the one I shall gain during this holiday season. A blessed gift indeed.
To learn more about this disease, visit Keratomania.com at http://www.keratomania.com/keratoconus-vision-simulation.html, or visit The National Keratoconus Foundation at http://www.nkcf.org/
For more information on becoming an organ donor visit http://organdonor.gov/becomingdonor/index.html
Student of the Prophetic Sisterhood
So I am applying to a few seminaries for Fall 2014. I’m signed up to attend January convocation at Meadville Lombard in Chicago and am planning on visiting the Harvard Divinity campus. But with so much time before I can even make my final decision, I decided to be proactive by beginning the UUA ministerial required reading list.
Many of the seminarians I’ve already met often post on social media about the difficulty in attending courses, internships, writing papers, and all the while, attempting to read and absorb the rather large collection of writings meant to introduce ministerial candidates to the expansive world of Unitarian Universalism.
With a random spattering of documents and books, I’ve chosen as my first reading, a book that touches close to home in my personal journey. The Prophetic Sisterhood: Liberal Women Ministers of the Frontier, 1880-1930 by Cynthia Grant Tucker (Authors Choice Press, 1990.) The women in the book are independent, strong, and always choosing a path with love, difficulty, and leadership in the face of male dominance.
Always one for the unique path in life, and after competing in a few beauty pageants in high school, I graduated early and joined the Marine Corps at the age of seventeen. I was attending boot camp while my friends were attending prom, and I was at my first duty station during our high school graduation ceremony. If that wasn’t enough, I served as a C-130 (Cargo) aircraft mechanic and later did a tour in the Army as a heavy wheeled vehicle mechanic, spending all eight years of my tours as the only female in my workspaces. I followed these with now twenty-plus years in the social work field, working for the American Red Cross in multiple countries and volunteering for many other groups.
Now, much older and wiser from my veering paths in life (I say as I laugh half-heartedly!) I find my faith and family as the touchstones to my life–now merging my social work past, my love of literature (theology is strongly interpretation of the written word, is it not?) and my humble beginnings as a religious lay leader to my fellow recruits while in boot camp.
My path has lost its twists and turns and is now a single road before me. Dusty, rocky, and assuredly over more mountains than I’ve already climbed, but single and chosen by my life’s experiences and my heart’s longings to guide, love, and support my fellow human beings.
So, with the Prophetic Sisterhood, I begin.
Dear prospective UU seminarians (helpful advice. freshly squeezed.)
Sharing in the light of my seeking entrance to seminary!
Dear prospective UU seminarians (helpful advice freshly squeezed.).
Shared from Raising Faith {dot NET}
Writing for Worship
Since beginning my travels in January, I’ve been wanting to write a book based on what I’ve seen and experienced in the many worship services I’ve attended. Although a topic was elusive to me before now, I magically awoke this morning with not just one, but two book ideas that I could begin on today! Excited and eager, I’ve already begun blocking out one and writing topic points for the other. I guess this will be a simultaneous project in the works, but I’m not complaining, I’d rather be working two projects than none.
Part of what I’ll be working on is listing things that all congregations should either be doing, or not be doing, when it comes to worship services. This comes from the many pages of notes I’ve taken while attending in the different locations. Whether I felt welcome. Whether I felt lost during the process of the actual service, etc. All things, even simple, create either a warm community or a place to avoid. And while I’ve not found a place to avoid, I have noticed little things here and there that could be shared among the many congregations as a means of improvement to all.
What I would like to hear is what all of you feel is a pet peeve when attending a service, or what makes a special moment when attending a service. Was the signage bad when entering and you felt lost? Did you feel awkward because the order of service didn’t say when to stand or when not to? Did joining in with a certain aspect make you feel more spiritual or accepted?
If used, your name will appear in the book with your comments so please feel free to join in! You can also share on our Facebook page, traveling tUUsome, with a link to the right.
Footprint for Mother Earth
It’s been an insane season for thunderstorms in the Ohio Valley Region this year. Forget that, I mean thunderstorms, drought and tornadoes the last few years. Oh, wait, the last ten years? Okay, we all have to admit that the earth has been rumbling and turning in her dreams and the blankets above are being tossed upon us in all kinds of fanciful ways. So is this Mother Earth just going through some hot flashes? Or the global warming of scientist’s screams?
As a non-scientist looking in from the outside, and after reviewing the data, watching many documentaries (which one must translate into non-partisan language to absorb), and adding just a touch of good old common sense, I have to go with it’s both!
Based on what I’ve been able to understand, this is a true cycling of the earth. Something that has happened in the past and is happening again. But, also based on what I’ve learned, this process is being pushed, prodded and uber-energized by man-made desecration of our sacred home.
Because of this, I have personally taken to lessening my own impact on the earth’s resources. Living in our small recreational vehicle, our footprint is less in size than most dwellings. While parked at a campground with full hook-ups we do the little things, like using less water by turning off the already regulated shower head when not needed and by only heating the water on-demand. (Even with the mini, and by using my Jeep for local driving, we use less gas when on the road than most workers that commute by car.) We limit our electricity by unplugging items not in use and by keeping our thermostat at about 78 degrees in summer, and when on the road, by limiting our small generator use to 4-5 hours a day maximum. I’ve also planted a mini traveling garden with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and mint for tea, and even in our tiniest of space, we still make room to separate out our recyclables.
Knowing that I won’t live in my RV forever, I’ve been giving a serious look into tiny houses and our society’s re-look at the viability and resourcefulness of shotgun style homes. I also give merit to large homes where funds and the building resources are sunk and the home either already has intelligent choices towards energy conservation or has easy adaptability to the like.
So think about it. What are you doing today? What simple little thing can you change right now? What are you doing to save our Mother Earth?
via Footprint for Mother Earth
Shared from my opinion blog: www.dustybakeradamson.com
Whiskey, Monsters and Peace: General Assembly
In the late 1990s I was attending college in Belgium and volunteering with the American Red Cross overseas by teaching and working in volunteer leadership. During my stay I was lucky enough to receive a regional award granting me free ferry passage from Calais, France, to Dover, England. So with nothing more than a small Toyota pickup, a cheap $40 tent, and a cooler full of food in the back, my husband and I headed out with a very small wallet and a big dream of a wonderful new experience.
Tent camping our way from the White Cliffs of Dover, to the bustle of London and then north into the heart of a purple hazed heather-covered Scotland, we experienced the countryside as intended. We weren’t burdened by hotel check-ins or event schedules, we just followed the road, living amongst the scenery rather than viewing it from afar. We tasted Scotch Whiskey, searched for traces of Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest, and rambled among the ruins of walls and castles from long ago.
Brave and young, we found ourselves south of Inverness in the beautiful valley of a famous monster. Chancing at a campground on the shore, we pitched our small tent with only a foot or two of space from the front flap to the drop off that became the cold waters of Loch Ness. I remember going to sleep that night as the thick fog slowly enveloped the space before us and around us. So thick was the fog that I dared not even step out in the small spot of land in front of us for fear of slipping into the water that I could no longer see. In that moment, I looked at my husband and jokingly said, “Well, we’ll know if Nessie is real if we wake in the morning alive and not eaten.” While we shared a laugh and settled in, I felt a deep peace as we floated amongst the fog and clouds of an endless sky and land.
This peace returned to me at General Assembly in the fleeting of a thought. I stood amongst Unitarians at a precipice—a place where only things begin and never do they end. In a moment and at a place where Rev. Dr. Peter Morales, UUA President, spoke of the Spirit of Life and Love that we hold true as the catalyst in our personal lives and in our religious practices.
My hope is that at some point in our lives, and our earth’s future, we will all find that Peace.
Peace within. Peace amongst. Peace be with you.
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