A while ago, I wrote about some of our family’s favorite dishes in our sticks and bricks home. Today I’d like to circle back and share some of the lessons learned and a few more recipes that have worked swimmingly in Tad Cooper.
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In my first post I wrote about 3 different recipes:
Sourdough bread Bannocks!
We ended up scrapping the sourdough. The limited space in an RV fridge vs a residential fridge just didn’t allow us to keep fresh food and the fairly large container where we stored the starter. Also, the bread takes a long time to bake and we were wary of using that much propane.
But! I did discover a great bannock recipe that we’ve made many many times!
Ingredients:
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 T Baking powder
- 1 t salt
- 1 ½ cups water
- ¼ cup butter
Optional (pick one or none):
- 3-4 gloves garlic +¼ cup parmesan cheese
- ⅔ cup shredded mixed cheese
- Mixed herbs
Hardware:
Process:
In a large mixing bowl, mix together all the ingredients, plus any extras.
Preheat the cast iron pan a bit and grease if necessary. Bake in your oven at 350F for 25- 30 minutes.
Toad in the hole!
This we did end up trying and it worked quite well. Now in the original recipe, we used a 13x 9 glass baking dish, but that wouldn’t fit in our oven. This time we used our 12-inch cast iron skillet. Due to the smaller area, we only did ½ lb of sausage, but it still turned out amazingly. Additionally, we cooked up the sausage on the stovetop then added the batter and popped it into the oven.
Power cookies Brownies!
We haven’t tried the cookies yet, but I already know that we will halve the recipe and modify how we bake them, as we have no cookie sheets that could fit in our oven. But we did find a great from-scratch brownie recipe that also works in our 12-inch skillet!
Ingredients:
- 10 T unsalted butter cups
- 1 ¼ cup sugar
- ¾ heaping cup cocoa powder
- ¼ scant t salt
- 1 t vanilla
- 2 eggs
- ½ c all-purpose flour
- (optional) ⅔ cups nuts or dark chocolate chips
Hardware:
- Mixing bowl
- Cast iron pan
- Swedish bread whisk
- Oven
- Microwave
- Measuring cup
Process:
Melt the butter in the measuring cup in the microwave. Mix the melted butter and all other ingredients in the mixing bowl. Pour into the heated cast iron pan. Bake at 325 for 20-30 minutes. We like to take it out when it’s a little underdone so that they are still a little gooey.
Conclusion:
The main challenge has been size. Our oven is about ½ the size of a residential and we’ve had to halve most of our oven recipes. This isn’t a problem for desserts, but for mains, we need to think about side dishes more. Mashed potatoes to go with the Toad in the hole, steamed veggies to fill out a roast, etc.
Something we’ve really had to be flexible with is that the numbers on our oven, telling us what temperature we set the oven to, wore off almost immediately. We need to get ourselves an oven thermometer to help with accuracy, but so far we’ve had pretty good success just estimating.
One thing that has not been a problem, that many others report, is our oven has seemed to be fine with the consistency of temperature throughout the oven. Many RVers say their food comes out burnt in some spots while raw in others, and they recommend getting a pizza stone to put in the bottom of the oven to help even out the heat. Maybe it’s because we’ve been baking and cooking in cast iron pretty exclusively (which most RVers need to leave at home because of weight considerations), but we haven’t had problems without the pizza stone.
The other things we’ve had to think about are the climate and energy requirements. Foods that were great in the temperate Pacific northwest have been too heavy for the late summer of Montana. Foods that should be stewed for hours in a crock pot can’t really be done when boondocking during overcast days.
I’m sure we’ll find more great recipes for boondocking and discover more flavors as we tour the nation. Stay tuned!