It’s no secret to those who know me that I love to cook for my family. Over the years we’ve collected several family favorites that we know how to make at home. Making them on the road, however, will probably present new challenges. Today I’m going to give a run down of some of our family favorites, and how we make them now. Later I’ll circle back and talk about the changes, if any, we needed to make.
Read more: Tasty Treats and Family Favorites!Mom’s Sourdough Bread.
Who doesn’t love homemade bread? Better yet, who doesn’t love homemade bread that you can literally forget about and still have a tasty product? Mom has a whole wheat sourdough recipe that you may want to try.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup sourdough starter
- 6 cups whole wheat flour
- 1T salt
- 1 cup Quinoa (optional)
- water
- rolled oats
- 1 cup sunflower seeds (optional)
- butter
Hardware
- Mixing bowl
- 2 bread pans
- Swedish bread whisk
- refrigerator
- oven
- dutch oven large enough to hold both bread pans (optional)
Process.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the starter, 3-4 cups of flour, quinoa, and enough water to make it soupy, like a pancake batter. Cover with a towel and let sit overnight. If you made it in the morning, park it in the fridge overnight when you go to bed.
The day you’re going to bake it, butter two bread pans, then put a cup of flour into each. Shake the pans to thoroughly coat, then dump the excess into the mixing bowl, then add the salt, sunflower seeds, and enough flour to get a ‘shaggy’ dough. Divide the dough evenly in the bread pans, then sprinkle with rolled oats. Cover with a towel and let rise until about doubled.
Pre-heat the oven and dutch oven to 350F. If using the dutch oven, bake the bread for 30 minutes with the lid on, then 15 with the lid off. If not using the dutch oven, then just bake for 40 minutes.
Pros
- simple ingredients
- no special appliances needed
- very forgiving recipe that recovers well from neglect
Cons
- can take up a lot of counter space while rising
- takes up a lot of fridge space when parked.
- RV ovens are smaller than residential, we may need to modify the baking
Toad in the Hole with Onion Gravy
This is one of the dishes we discovered during one of our international feast days when the children were doing a unit study on the UK. It’s basically just savory sausages, baked in a Yorkshire pudding but the kids, especially The Boy, love it!
Ingredients
Toad in the Hole
- 1 lb sausage (kielbasa is a favorite!)
- 2 tsp oil
- 1 heaped cup of flour
- 4 eggs (room temperature)
- 1 2/3 cups milk (room temperature)
- Leaves of thyme, rosemary, whatever is available
Onion Gravy
- 2 onions diced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups of stock
- 1 T Worcestershire sauce
- salt and pepper to taste
Hardware
- Cutting board
- Kitchen knife
- 13×9 oven-safe pan
- Large pot or saucepan
- Oven
- Range
- Blender or food processor
Process
Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Wipe down the 13 X 9 with the oil. Chop the sausages into bite-size pieces, scatter in the pan and bake for 15 minutes.
While the sausage bakes, add the flour, eggs, milk, and herbs to the blender. Mix well.
When the sausage is done, pour the batter into the hot pan and return to the oven for another 30 to 40 minutes, until the batter is set up in the middle.
While the Toad in the hole bakes, melt the butter in the pan and cook the onions until they start to brown. Add the flour and mix through. Then add the stock, and Worcestershire sauce. Bring the concoction to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Stir occasionally.
Pros
- Simple process without any special techniques
- adaptable with different sausages or herbs
- takes less than an hour
Cons
- RV ovens are smaller, and may not fit a 13 x9
- lots of ingredients, may not be able to make it on a whim due to lack of storage.
- uses countertop appliances that might be too bulky to bring with us.
Power Cookies
The “power” comes from these cookies using a combination of Whole Wheat flour (the only one we really use) and oatmeal. Really these are just chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, but “power cookies” sounds so much more menacing!
Ingredients
- 1/2 lbs ( 2 sticks) softened butter
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cup Whole Wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 cups rolled oats
- 3 cups (dark!) chocolate chips
Hardware
- Stand mixer with paddle
- 3 cookie sheets
- oven
- parchment paper
Process:
Preheat the oven to 350
Beat butter and sugars together in the stand mixer until creamy. Scrape the sides and add the eggs. Scrape the sides then add the flour, soda, and cinnamon. Once that’s all incorporated, add the oats and chocolate.
Dispense the cookie dough onto the parchment paper-lined cookie sheets, about 3 tablespoons per cookie, about 9 to 12 cookies per sheet, staggering and not touching. Put your first sheet of cookies in the oven on the bottom rack. Bake for 6 minutes, then move to the top rack, putting sheet 2 on the bottom rack. Bake for another 6 minutes. Remove sheet 1, move sheet 2 to the top rack and put sheet 3 on the bottom rack, repeat as needed. The cookies will spend a total of 12 minutes in the oven. You can slide the parchment paper off of the finished cookie sheets to cool, re-line the sheet, and re-load to keep the process going.
Pros
- simple, adaptable cookie recipe
- high fiber
Cons
- requires a stand mixer to cream the butter and sugar
- small RV oven may not fit cookie sheets
- cooling cookies take up a lot of space
Parting thoughts…
The main theme seems to be space. Smaller oven, smaller counters, smaller storage. It may just come down to what we can bring, and how we can adapt. I’ll let you all know when I figure it out!