Adventures With Our Instant Pot

I mentioned in the last post that Mom bought an Instant Pot for her birthday.  I am really enjoying it. BOL!  It makes really good chicken and rice.

This is it.  It is very quiet when it is on.

She has bought a few things to go with it.

This thing seems to be made for people who live in small spaces.  What is it?

It is a vegetable steamer.  It actually curls up a little to fit inside the pot.

Mom also bought a 6" pan to make cheesecakes and other items.  It has a cheesecake in it now.

Speaking of cheesecakes, Mom made one yesterday.  She has always wanted to make one, but thought it was too hard.  It is really easy in the Instant Pot.

This morning, she put eggs and potatoes in the Instant Pot using the vegetable steamer.  She then made potato salad for dinner.

Potato Salad

I told you that hard boiled eggs peel easily.  Here is proof:

Tada!

The only thing that Mom has made that she was not thrilled with were pork chops.  She fixed them in a mushroom gravy.  They completely fell apart. She probably cooked them too long.  However, the thing that she really didn't like was that the bones splintered, so there were little bones all over.  She said she would debone them the next time.

Tonight, she will use the Instant Pot and the air fryer to make baby back ribs.  She will cook the ribs in the Instant Pot and then put them in the air fryer to brown them more.  Most recipes say to use the oven broiler, but we don't have one.

She wants to try chicken wings. They only take ten minutes and then she will brown them in the air fryer.

If you are interested in learning more about cooking with an Instant Pot/pressure cooking, just check out YouTube. There are tons of videos.  Mom watched a lot before she bought one.  She didn't know in the beginning if she really wanted one, but then she saw how easy it was  Cooking is kind of a hobby for her.  She loves trying new recipes.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Loves His Mom's Cooking

Our February Happenings

February has flown by.

We are still at the campground with the messy people.  The guy behind us went hunting.  We are not sure what he killed, but the skin is hanging on a tree.  Some of the people who have left reviews on the park, have said it is a ghetto RV park.  Yep, our section is pretty bad. The other section is not bad.

Mom got nervous when we walked by a guy at 5 a.m. who has a really odd truck. His door was only open enough for his legs. His feet were facing in the direction of the truck.  He passed out while bending over the seat, we assume. We noticed that someone left a review on the campground and mentioned that a guy lives in his truck. We don't think he lives in it, but he is strange.

Are we scared living here?  No, we are not.  Most everyone is friendly. They are just really messy.

A new deluxe section is being added to the RV park.  We have been watching the construction of that area. The problem is, the people who stay there will have a view of the storage yard.  BOL!

Mom's birthday was last week.  Dad was off for a four day weekend.  They went to Denny's for breakfast, Smashburger for lunch and then Saltgrass for dinner.  Mom said it was fun. They went to Ikea, but didn't buy anything.  It seems like they spent all weekend eating.

I am still squirrel hunting most days.

We had been trying to figure out what they are building.

It is really loud.  We watched them bring the pipes up and then they would take them down. They did this for ten days and then it was moved and they started doing it all over again.  A neighbor told us they are drilling for gas.  We don't know.

Mom bought an Instant Pot.  She kept hearing other RVers talk about them, so she started watching YouTube videos and decided that she had to have one.  It is a pressure cooker, rice cooker, browns meat, makes yogurt and it is also a slow cooker.  It has replaced our Ninja.  Remember when she thought the Ninja was the greatest thing?  Well, the Instant Pot has caused Ninja to be taken to Goodwill.

Mom made pasta in the Instant Pot the other day.  She browned the meat and onions and then added the water, spaghetti sauce and the pasta and the Instant Pot did the rest in six minutes.  Mom added cheese at the end.  No draining.  Just one pot to wash.  It keeps food warm for up to 10 hours which is a nice feature because Dad can be quite late some nights.

Pasta made in the Instant Pot

Mom made me rice and chicken this morning in the Instant Pot.  Yum!!!

One of the things that we have a problem with as an RVer is a good data plan for our computer.  We have had 5 GB for $50 for the past five years.  That is not much.  Mom's phone now has 8 GB and she can use that as a hot spot.  She was pretty excited to have that much.  It allows a few YouTube videos, but no streaming of movies. On the 17th, Mom learned of a new plan that offered 250 GB for $60.  She jumped on ordering it.  The problem is/was that it is only supposed to be for certain states and Texas is not one of them. She reached a rep who allowed her to order it.  We wondered for a week if the right equipment would arrive and if it would work for us.  We heard of several people who were canceled and some received the wrong equipment.  Our equipment arrived on Friday and it is correct.  Mom hooked it up and our account says we have 250 GB!  We opened a Netflix account and we can watch three hours for a gig.  The folks are pretty excited.  We hope it continues to work for us.

Me and my frog

Temperatures were near 90 on Mom's birthday.  

Mom may be getting a different scooter.  She is still debating it.  She loves Buddy, but he doesn't go fast enough for some roads.

I think that about sums up our February.  I patrol the park six or seven times a day.  I have lots of canine friends here and everyone seems to know my name.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Relaxing In The AC Today

Cowboys, Weather And Life

We are halfway through the month and this is our first post.  Nothing really exciting has been happening here.

The Dallas Cowboys lost last night.  We were cheering for them since we are here.  It has been fun being in a playoff city.  People have been decorating their yards and people have Cowboy flags on their cars.  It was a good game.  It started off slow for our team, but then it turned very exciting.  During the game, we had heavy rain that knocked out our satellite.  Mom and Dad were rushing around trying to get it to work on the antenna. After the game, tornado sirens went off.  Mom's phone keep saying "TORNADO WARNING".  She was scared.  I guess we didn't shut our front door correctly because we had a waterfall coming inside.  Mom open and shut the door and then it was fine.  We had a stream going through our site and our door mat floated away.  We found it later.  It rained really hard for quite a while.  There was flash flooding and some cars got stuck on the highway.  Our campground has flash flood warning signs, so we were wondering if everything was okay here.  We were finally able to go out when the rain slowed down, but didn't venture far as the water was covering the folks shoes.  Around 11 p.m., I decided I needed to go out again, so Mom took me.  The streets were still flooded, but we walked through it anyway to see if the water was out of the bank.  It wasn't, but we discovered this morning that it had at some point last night. The sites on the opposite of end of the campground were flooded.  We are more on an incline.  We are drying out today.  It has been raining since Friday.

This guy left his awning out while he went to the game last night.  He also lost his Cowboy canopy.  He was not happy.

 

The water came up over the bridge. This leads to the tent camping area.

Debris in the tent camping area.

This area was full of water last night.

We have seen water gushing through here at times, but all is quiet now.

It was cold here last weekend.  We were below freezing for a few days.  We went through $60 worth of propane in just a few days.  It was 14 degrees one night.  We were nice and warm, but heating an RV is different than a house.  Mom does not like living in an RV in cold weather.

A little snow caused a ton of problems on the roads.

This is how we lived when it was cold.  We kept the blinds closed to keep the heat in since it was not sunny.

It wasn't terrible for me.

The folks went to an RV show last weekend.  Mom wasn't happy that parking was $15 and it was $12 a person to get into the show.  She said it was okay

The folks have, of course, been eating out.

Burger Extreme

Salsa at Abuelo's.

Mom likes the inside of Abuelo's.

Shrimp fajitas

Beef Chimi

The folks thought the food was good at Abuelo's, but not as good as Pappasito's.

Mom has been binge watching Downton Abbey.  She really likes it.  She is on season 4.  Normally, we can't stream videos, but the Wi-Fi is great.  One of the workers here told us that he streams movies all the time.

We have some sad news.  Our friend, Lee, has died. He had been trying to get a new liver, but he ended up getting a virus and also pneumonia. He went into the hospital and died within 24 hours.  It was quite shocking.  He and his wife enjoyed our blog. We visited him in Memphis a few years ago.  He was a high school friend of the folks.  He introduced Mom and Dad to each other.  Last year, his wife died. Her death was unexpected.  She developed a virus and was hospitalized for a few weeks and then died. They were both in their early 50's.

We also lost a greyhound friend. Declan also known as Deccy.  He was a fellow blogger and lived in England.  He is missed by his folks and his many fans.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Happy To See The Sun Today

Santa Needs His Hearing Checked

I asked Santa for a guinea pig.  He gave me a pig.  They are not the same thing, Santa.  I think I already have a pig like this.  I need to check my toy box.  Disappointing!

We haven't been around much.  Mom has been sick with a cold, allergies or sinus issues.  She is not quite sure.  Her biggest problem the last few days has been low energy.  She finally started feeling better yesterday and took Buddy out for a ride. Yes, she went out on Christmas Eve. She said the traffic wasn't bad at all.  I thought we had turned the corner on illness, but now Dad is sick.  I am really getting tired of all this coughing, sneezing and blowing noses.  It really interrupts my day.

We had a change in weather last Saturday.  We dropped over 50 degrees in just a few hours.  It was crazy!  We had wind chills in the single digits.  Mom said it was worse in Missouri and elsewhere.  I wore my coat and boot.  Mom wore a hoodie under her coat along with gloves and a scarf.  Going outside took a while to get dressed, so I made sure that it was time well spent.  We walked like it was a nice day.  Nice and slow.  BOL!   This weekend, it is nice and warm - 70's. The AC is running today.

Mom got a really bad haircut almost two weeks ago at Great Clips.  She asked to just have her hair trimmed and shaped up. Well, the girl either was inexperienced or decided to be creative. She cut off 2" on one side giving Mom a shag.  Remember Carol Brady?  Yeah, that was Mom's cut on one side.  She didn't even measure when cutting.  It was whack, whack, whack.  The first cut did the most damage. Another stylist had to come in and try and fix it. The bad stylist kept shooting daggers at Mom while her hair was being "fixed".  At the end, Mom lost 3" and was told it was all that could be done until it grows.  Mom is still pretty upset about it.  She is trying to decide if she needs to cut off more of her length to make it look right or just keep wearing hoodies.  She complained about the haircut and is supposed to get a coupon for a free haircut.  She hasn't received it yet.  It probably is not coming. She isn't planning on ever going back there, but Dad said he would use the coupon.

Want to hear another complaint?  Mom ordered a candy thermometer from Amazon.  It was supposed to get here last Friday.  The tracking said it was out for delivery.  Then, it said there was a delay.  Friday night, Amazon called and put Mom on a conference call with the supervisor of the driver.  He said the package had been lost in the vehicle, but was now found.  He asked if she needed it delivered Friday night.  It was close to 8 p.m., so Mom asked if they could deliver it on Saturday. The supervisor said that yes, they would deliver it on Saturday.  Mom said that was fine.  Well, they didn't deliver it on Saturday.  They scheduled it for Monday!  Grrrr!  Mom needed it for Sunday.  She called and explained the conversation of the night before that they recorded, but the best they could do was Monday.  Mom cancelled it and ordered it through Prime Now and had it within two hours.  Why couldn't they have done that?

Okay, for some fun stuff.  This is how we decorated this year.

Our flag is two-sided.

Mom decorated our windows this year.

You can still see our neighbors' appliances.

Those people are a reflection of our TV. 

Snowman changes colors.

Our greyhound ornaments.

Tree we bought in Lancaster County.

We also put a bow and "Merry Christmas" on our front door, but we haven't been able to get a good picture of it.

Mom will probably put all our decorations back in the shoe box tomorrow.  BOL!

The folks have reservation at Mom's favorite steak place here, but I am not sure they are going since Dad is sick.  We may just have nachos.

Friday night's sunset.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Still Wants a Guinea Pig

I Saw Santa!

It is another chilly day here.  The sun was supposed to come out, but it has been MIA all week.

Today was pretty exciting.  Mom said I was going to Petsmart to see Santa.  We had to get the oil changed in the Jeep first.  Let me tell you, getting the oil changed is boring!  Yes, there were lots of people and there was another dog there, but I wanted to get to Petsmart.  Finally, we were on our way.

When we arrived at Petsmart, it was just like you see on the commercials.  There were dogs all over heading inside. I was so excited!  I love going to Petsmart. I thought the line would be really long to see Santa, but there were only a few dogs ahead of me.  One dog surprised me by coming up from behind and he sniffed my stuff.  Mom said I jumped two feet off the ground. I doubt that was true, but my feet did leave the ground.  His nose was cold.

Santa didn't ask if I was good. He didn't ask what I wanted.  I think it was one of those "Don't ask, don't tell" things.  I was okay with that.

This is the official picture from Petsmart.

 The pictures are free and they didn't mind Mom taking her own photos.  She put her camera on continuous mode and shot about 30. The following are her favorites.

After we took the pictures, I did a little shopping.  I told Mom I wanted a guinea pig for Christmas.  She said that was probably not going to happen.  I then said a bully stick.  I heard the folks discussing it, but it doesn't sound good either.  They think I will cut my tongue again.  I didn't see any toys that I wanted.  Petsmart is just too exciting to pick out a toy.

We stopped at Wendy's on the way home for lunch. Yum!

I am now settling in for a long nap.  It has been a good day!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Saw Santa