Just Relaxing In The Sun And Then....

Monday, it was humid and we had a brief shower.  Yesterday, it was beautiful here and Mom and I decided to relax in the sun.

In this photo, you can see our new tire covers.  Pretty, don't you think?  BOL

Normally, I lay in the shade, but maybe I knew something was about to happen because I chose the sun away from our rig.

Mom sat with me for a while and then decided to move back to the shade near the motor home.  That was her big mistake.  What happened?  Well, all of a sudden without any warning, water fell from the roof.  It was not just a sprinkle.  It was a big gush of water.  Mom said it was like the ice bucket challenge.  She jumped up.  Her hair was plastered to her head.  BOL!   Her shirt was soaked.  It was pretty funny.  She had to change her clothes and dry her hair.

Evidence of the event.

We don't think anyone saw it happen as no one is really around.  If they did see it happen, I am sure they laughed and laughed.  It was pretty funny.  Dad said he wishes he could have seen it.  He laughed pretty hard when Mom told him the story. 

The rest of the day was pretty normal.  Mom did make an awesome dinner last night.  She fixed BBQ chicken thighs in the Ninja.  She sauteed the chicken in onions and garlic in the Ninja.  She then removed the chicken and added 3 cups of chicken broth and put the chicken back in the Ninja but on the rack this time. She steamed it for 30 minutes.  She then removed the chicken and drained the liquid but kept the onions and garlic in the bottom of the Ninja.  She then added the chicken back in without the rack and added BBQ sauce.  She baked it for about 15 more minutes.  Dad said it was really good.  It was better than actually putting it on the grill.  Mom loves her Ninja.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Stayed Dry Yesterday - BOL

What Are The Must Haves?

We have been asked several times in the past few months what are our "must haves" for our RV.  My list is pretty small.  I need a few toys, bully sticks, frosty treats, my boot and my bed.  I'm pretty easy. 

Oh wait....I need a couch.  Definitely need to include couch on my list.

 

Mom's list is somewhat larger.  She actually got rid of a few things and re-purchased them while on the road.  A few things that she has re-purchased are: iced tea maker, electric can opener and a food chopper. She bought the Ninja 3 in 1 and got rid of her old slow cooker. 

So, what are the items that Mom thinks are necessary?  Well, they may not be necessary, but she finds some items just make life easier.  Here is her list in no particular order:

Kindle -  She upgraded to the Paperwhite last year because it has a built in light and she loves reading at night.  She gets most of her books from the library, but also finds free books online.   She has been on a reading binge lately.  I think she has been reading something like four to five books a week since we have been here. 

Laptop - She has a tablet, but she prefers her laptop.  The tablet used to be used while we were on the road for the travel apps, but now she has a smart phone. Basically our tablet doesn't connect well with our Mi-Fi and it gets stuck a lot.

Mi-Fi - what is it?  It is a device that connects us to the Internet.  Our service is through Verizon.  We only have 5 GB a month, so we can't watch many videos and we definitely cannot stream movies.  The folks are pretty happy though because Mom's cell phone service was upgraded to 4.5 GB a month for free and the unused data is carried over.  Mom uses her cell phone as a hot spot when she needs the additional data.  Some campgrounds have fee Wi-Fi but many times it doesn't work well, so we prefer to have our own.

Mi-Fi

Smartphone - She really didn't think she would use it that much.  BOL!  She finds it is a huge help even when the folks go sightseeing for the day.  There are times that the GPS doesn't work and the phone has saved them.  She also looks up restaurants and attractions while they are driving.  Basically, she uses it all the time.

Satellite - Dish has a pay as you go program for RVers.  If we decide we don't want to use it, we can just stop and when we want to start it up again, there are no fees. We just tell them and it is turned on again.  In the beginning, we were using the cable that most campgrounds provide.  We found that most did not have a guide to tell us what was on and every time we moved to a new place, we would have to learn all the channels.  Mom found it frustrating.  Dad likes HBO and that wasn't included at most campgrounds.  They are happier using Dish.  When we arrive at a new location, Mom tells Dish where we are and they turn on the local channels for us.  Our satellite with this rig is located on the roof and all we do it turn it on and it finds the satellites for us.  So far, we have had sites without trees so our satellite has worked great. 

Ninja 3 in 1 - This is a slow cooker, cooktop, steamer and oven.  It is the size of a slow cooker.  Yesterday, she used it to bake a frozen pizza for lunch, roasted garlic and then fixed a meatloaf in it for dinner.  It doesn't heat up the kitchen.  (The frozen pizza was a half a pizza.  A full one will not fit, but Mom doesn't need to eat a full one anyway.)

Collapsible bowls, measuring cups. strainers, etc.  Basically, anything that is easy to store, she likes.

Printer - yes, we actually use our printer quite a bit.  It is also a scanner.  Mom prints off her Emeals menu every week.  Yes, she could use her smartphone, but she prefers to have the paper copy.  It is not uncommon for her to need to print something.

We have found that we can be quite happy without a lot of "stuff".  Our rule is that if you don't have a place for it, then you can't buy it.  When it comes to clothes, you have to get rid of something if you buy something new. 

Mom created an Amazon link to some of her favorite items. They are on the column on the right. (Above Jack's photo)  It is almost like you are peeking into our RV to see what items we own.  BOL!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Loves Living In A RV

A Visit To The Texas Prison Museum

We have driven past the the Texas Prison Museum several times and the folks decided to stop in yesterday and take a look around.

The prison museum tells the history of the prison system in Texas.  Mama said it was pretty interesting.  There were many items on display that prisoners have made.

Furniture made by prisoners.

A saw blade with several sketches by a prisoner.

A chess set made out of soap!

Jewelry box made out of match sticks.

A stump carved into several heads.

Old Sparky is on display.  It is the electric chair.

A cell that visitors can explore.  Mama said she felt very closed in just being in the cell.

There were several newspaper articles about the deaths of Bonnie & Clyde as well as this pistol.

The museum has a gift shop and many of the items are made by in the inmates such as leather wallets, some wood items and badges. 

Mama enjoyed the museum.  Dad said it was okay, but it wasn't a must see for him.

The folks ate lunch before they visited the museum.  Dad wanted to try a restaurant that was ranked as number one on Trip Advisor.  The folks had a heck of a time finding it.  GPS told them they had arrived when they were in front of a cemetery.  They kept circling around and finally found it.  The signage was hard to see and the restaurant was in a double wide trailer.  The folks decided to try it anyway because the reviews were so good.  Another family came in while the folks were there and also commented on having a hard time finding it.  Dad said it just shows that social media can really help small places because that is how people are hearing about them.

The restaurant is small. The furnishing is quite simple.  It looks like they probably bought all the table and chairs at garage sales, but it works.  The staff was very nice and checked on the folks several times.

BBQ at Bennie J's Smoke Pit

The folks both ordered ribs and brisket and they both said it was really good  They have not been impressed with BBQ in Texas, but this was by far the best.

We have another Ninja update.  Mama fixed Cornish hens this week.  They were good.  She baked the Cornish hens and then seared them at the end.  That is not the normal technique, but she wasn't happy with how the skin looked without the searing.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Wonders What 2014 Will Be Like

Cookie Tasting 2013

Yesterday, Mama made fudge and no bake oatmeal cookies.  I was not allowed to taste them due to the chocolate. 

 This afternoon, Mama decided to make peanut butter blossoms and she said we could taste the peanut butter part.  Scout did not participate because this is what she was doing during the cookie tasting.

Scout was too busy sleeping to taste peanut butter cookies. She is asleep but her eyes are open. She is scary sometimes.

I'm ready for my cookie tasting.

Yum, yum, yum!

Oops, I drooled...sorry.

Very good, Mama!  Another please!

These are the cookies. We used refrigerated ones because we only  have one oven rack and it would take all day if we had to bake homemade.  I did not taste the chocolate, just the cookie.

This is how a greyhound should look when they rest, not like Scout. BOL!

We have a Ninja 3 in 1 update for those that are interested.  Mama made spaghetti in it last week and it was so simple and fast.  She browned the ground beef and mushrooms in it and then changed it to the bake mode because that is what the recipe said to do. She added the sauce and the noodles.  The recipe called for a pound of spaghetti.  Mama only had a half pound of angel hair pasta, so she knew the cooking time would be less than the half hour the recipe said.  It was probably about ten minutes and it was done.  It was good!

Spaghetti in the Ninja

Mama tried ribs again. This time she used the St. Louis Style ribs.  The ribs turned out really good, but had more fat than the baby backs she tried earlier.  She was impressed by how good they were though.

Mama also made another roast this weekend, but didn't take photos. She used condensed mushroom soup and dry soup mix and she said it was really good.

Mama is still trying to figure out what she wants to fix for Christmas dinner in the Ninja.  It will either be ribs, chicken or a roast.

We met a lady yesterday who said we were beefy looking.  I don't think it was a compliment, but since I like beef, I was not offended.  Mama told her that our vet said we look fine to him.  Mama also said that you can't hide anything when you wear white and I am in white fur.  BOL!

We still need to finish Part 3 of our year in review.  We just decided the cookie tasting was more fun today.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Only Has One More BIG Sleep Before The Fun Police Is Back In Town

Cooking With A Ninja

Mama has been cooking with a Ninja.

Our Ninja

 A Ninja 3 In 1!  BOL!  

The first meal she prepared was a roast.  She browned it in the Ninja.

...and added some fresh mushrooms.

 She added a Campbell's Slow Cooker Sauce to it which she had not tried before. She thought the Tavern Roast Beef sounded really good.  Unfortuantely, she didn't really like the taste of it.  It wasn't Ninja's fault though.

The finished roast.

The next day, she decided to bake a chicken.  The recipe said to brown the chicken first in Ninja.

Yum, it looks pretty good like that.

The recipe then said to add chicken broth to the pan.  It was the first time Mama had used the Ninja to bake and didn't think about the chicken broth causing steam.  She then re-read the recipe and saw that this was a steam induced chicken.  It definitely steamed.  All our windows steamed up.  Mama was not totally pleased with the result of the chicken because she likes to eat the skin and the skin was no longer firm. The chicken was very moist though.  Scout and I gave it eight paws up!

The finished chicken is kind of wrinkled.

Today, Mama decided to fix baby back ribs.  She seasoned the ribs which were already cut up when she bought them.

Ribs being browned.

Mama then put the ribs on the baking rack and added beef broth.  Yes, this is once again the steam induced cooking.  They cooked for one hour and then Mama emptied the broth and baked them with BBQ sauce for 30 minutes.  The result was delicious!  Mama said they were some of the best ribs she has ever had.  We were not allowed to taste them.

BBQ Ribs

Mama is really liking the Ninja. The clean up is so much easier than using more than one pan.  The baking rack was a little messy today with the BBQ sauce, but it came clean with a SOS pad.

Tomorrow, we are going to have a visitor.  She is a follower of our blog.  We are supposed to be on our best behavior because she is interested in adopting a greyhound and we need to leave her with a good impression.  We were supposed to clean today, but decided we should enjoy the sunny weather.  We hope Miss Emily is not turned off by our home that is not as clean as it could be.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Hopes His Sister Doesn't Embarrass Him Tomorrow...BOL!