I Was Promised A Warm Winter

The folks told me that we would have a warm winter.  They were wrong.  They said on the news that it hasn't been this cold in two years.  Today, it didn't get above 35 and with the wind, it was in the 20's. I had to wear a coat!  Mom asked a guy that works here if they shut the water off when it gets below freezing.  He said they don't.  They just put a sign up saying to keep your faucets running.  Tonight, it will get down to 24, so we will see what happens. We have a new heated hose, so hopefully it works for us. Mom has been trying to conserve our propane, so we have just been using our fireplace and our furnace on the electric mode.  We have kept all the shades down to keep the heat inside.  Mom stresses a lot about using our propane because getting it re-filled involves driving the rig to a place to have it filled.  We know that much of the country is much colder than us and we shouldn't be complaining and we are happy that we haven't seen ice or snow yet.  We just don't like the cold.  It takes a long time just to get ready to go outside.  Gloves, coats, hats, etc. 

I knew I should have gone to Florida with Grandma.

Santa will be at Petsmart this weekend.  Mom said we might go.  She made me a new collar so that I look extra handsome when I see the big guy.  I really don't care about seeing him.  I just like going to Petsmart.  

My new snowman collar.

You know that Mom loves her air fryer.  Well, she was frustrated with the size, so she bought a bigger one.  She used her work money to buy it, so it was free in her mind.    This one is a GoWise 5.8.  Her other one is a Paula Deen 3.5.  Paula Deen just came out with a bigger one but it is sold out supposedly until spring.  There were a couple of factors that influenced Mom to buy the GoWise.  It has buttons and not dials.  Mom said that is easier for her.  She could also buy it through Amazon and use her work money on it. She hasn't fixed any meals in it unless you count lunch, but so far she is happy with it. It arrived on Monday. She will fix wings next week and that will be a good test.  She used to have to do wings in batches and she thinks she will be able to do them all at once with the new fryer.  She may try to make Red Lobster biscuits in it tonight to go with our Chicken Marsala that has been cooking all day in our slow cooker.

Old and new

The new one is quite a bit bigger.  It is more powerful too.

Mom and I have been hunting squirrels every day except today. They were not out today.  I searched and searched and couldn't find them.  Mom said they are probably in bed. :::rolls eyes:::

Joey,

The Greyhound Who Is Glad That Nice Weather Is Returning This Weekend

We Bought An Air Fryer

Exciting things last week.  First this happened:

Yep, a brand new Dollar Tree opened here and Mom was there for the grand opening!  BOL!  She said the store is beautiful.  All the shelves were stocked and she probably used a cart that no one else had ever used.  I think she was there five times the first four days it was open.  She buys laundry detergent, dish detergent, some frozen food, pain relievers, doggy bags, etc from Dollar Tree.  Oh, they have 18 eggs for $1.  When we were in CA, we were paying $5 for a dozen.  She has bought eggs from Dollar Tree before and they have been fine.  She checks the expiration date.  A clerk told her that the eggs go fast.

The second exciting thing is that she finally bought an air fryer.  She has been wanting one for quite some time, but did not know if it would work as advertised.  We don't have a lot of space, so that was also a concern.  She started doing research and read a ton of reviews.  She was planning on getting a certain brand and then the reviews left her with doubts.  She joined an air frying group online and that is where she heard of Paula Deen's Air Fryer.  The reviews on that one were really good.  It has an enamel basket which doesn't chip or flake which was a problem with the one she had planned on buying.  It also had the accessories that she wanted.  She decided to go for it.  I think she stalked the shipping of it constantly from the time she ordered it on Monday.  It finally arrived on Friday.

TA DA!

It comes with a cake pan and a small pizza pan. It also has a steaming rack which she has used to do tier cooking.  It comes with a trivet but it is really small.

So what does an air fryer do?  It cooks food with little or no oil.  Basically it is super heated air that circulates and cooks the food.  The food is supposed to taste like you have deep fried it in oil.   Does it?  Well, the fries she made did not.  She did play around with them and found that if she put a little oil on them and then seasoned them, they were good.  As good as deep fried?  No, but they are good and less calories.  They were steak fries, so maybe a thinner fry would taste better.  Most people seem to make their own fries, but Mom is probably not going to do that.  She bought the fries at Dollar Tree which is why she visited so often last week.  She stocked up on their frozen items so she could try out the air fryer.

She fixed chicken thighs the first night and they turned out great!  She just dipped the chicken in self-rising flour, salt and pepper and cooked for about 30 minutes.

Very crispy on the outside but juicy on the inside.

Dad was impressed with the chicken. I thought it was really good too!

She made grilled cheese sandwiches and Dad thought they were really good.  She has also made hamburgers, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, chicken fried steak, and frozen burritos and she hasn't even had it a week.

She let the mozzarella sticks bake a little too long, but the clean up was easy.

A hamburger in the air fryer. Steaks are supposed to turn out good, but we haven't tried that yet.

This is the basket that the food goes in.  It has the grease from the hamburger.  Clean up is really easy.

The only thing that hasn't turned out was a cake.  Mom thinks she messed it up.  She didn't flour the cake pan, so it stuck to it.  She put foil on top as directed, but it also stuck to the cake, so she needs to make an adjustment.  She will give it another try.

She really wants to try hot wings.  Oh and fried pickles.  There is only so much food we can eat, so she is pacing herself.

This is a great appliance for us because our convention microwave/oven does not work properly.  It is very hard to get things to brown in it.  The air fryer browns like a champ.  As far as space goes, it really isn't that big.  She is just leaving it on the counter for now.   It doesn't heat up the RV and it is quiet.  Five days in and Mom loves it.

We also got a power head for our central vacuum.  I am not really thrilled with it since I hate vacuuming, so I am not going to talk about it.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Likes When His Mom Cooks