Thonotosassa… Try saying that 3 times fast!
Thonotosassa (I love the name) is home to the Big Top Flea Market, aka Rachel’s version of heaven!
They have just about everything you could want and when I found out Allen had a job in Riverview, FL and we would be staying at the Happy Traveler RV Park again, I got super excited! Continue reading
Allen put this on the “make again” list, so I know it’s not too bad!
Whenever I know, or think, we will be traveling, I try to plan meals that are quick to make, and quick to clean up. The last thing I want when we are on the move is a sink full of dirty dishes to worry about on top of everything else! Continue reading
Let’s start with the cuteness…
All I can say about this is: yum
I found this recipe in a Taste of Home Grilling Magazine I bought. It looked delicious so I gave it a try. Continue reading
I’ve tried my hand at more than a few different potato salad recipes and I’ve never really found one I’ve loved… Until now. Continue reading
You know those little short videos that have been showing up everywhere on social media? The ones that show how to make food, that take the recipes step by step? Continue reading
I use my blog kind of like a cookbook, a way to keep all my recipes in one place so that I don’t lose the little scraps of paper I jot them down on.
This morning I got ready to make a loaf of this delicious Banana Nut Bread for my neighbor Amy as a congratulations on her new job. So I got my bread maker out and pulled up HomeSweetHomeOnWheels… No Banana Nut Bread recipe listed. Well crap! So then I had to go searching and luckily I found this guy among other random unorganized-ness in the filing cabinet (that I plan to make a slipcover for – against Allen’s wishes… but he’ll like it in the end!)…
I just added it to the recipe section so I will have it in the future for sure! But here it is if you’re curious…
- 1/2 cup buttermilk *
- 2/3 cup butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (3-4 bananas)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 2 2/3 cups flour, regular all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
Put all these ingredients (minus the walnuts) into your bread pan. Select the “quick” bread cycle-this just means it doesn’t have a rise time. You’ll need to help the mixing process out… You don’t want lumpy clumps of flour – yuck! So help it mix up and get everything off the sides. My machine mixes for about 7 minutes then rests. This is when I add the walnuts, again helping out a little. Then it mixes again, and bakes for an hour and a half. Try not to burn your fingers when it’s finished, let it cool a little before you dive in!
*I have never used buttermilk in my life. It’s not something I just have in the fridge and I don’t plan well enough to buy it ahead of time. So a good substitute for buttermilk is 1 cup of whole milk + 1 tbs of white vinegar. I know it sounds weird but it works, I promise!
Someone asked me yesterday if Charlie had her own section of the blog… That she does! It’s here… You can also donate to her treat fund here…
I love seafood. It’s healthy, it’s delicious, it’s easy to cook (once you figure out never to OVER cook it).
I usually make this Mango Salsa to go with salmon but since I couldn’t find any salmon to my liking, we went with tuna steaks instead. (I think frozen is perfectly delicious if super fresh isn’t available…)
I always preheat the grill and get it smokin’ hot while the fish is thawing out and getting seasoned with love. Ok, I use Canadian steak seasoning in place of actual love for the tuna! (With salmon I use Old Bay and white pepper with a smidgen of garlic salt).
Be sure to oil the fish then place it on the smokin’ hot grill, close the lid and leave it alone. Depending on how actually smokin’ hot your grill gets, will determine when you should flip the tuna. We have a Weber Q (the back side is being weird as of late and not staying lit, so it’s not getting as super hot as I would prefer).
But usually about 4 minutes is good, then flip the tuna steak. (It should let you flip it easily, fish tells you when it’s ready, it’ll stick if it’s not). Do about 3 minutes on the other side and you’re finished!
Now on for the really tasty part that gives the whole meal a kick…
Mango Salsa
I mix all these yummy things together at least an hour ahead of time to give them time to get acquainted and mingle and develop some delicious juice to hang out in.
I serve the tuna over steamed white rice and top it all off with the mango salsa. Yum! And it’s all good for you!
Yes, this soup is all of those things. It’s so good. I made it last night for dinner and just had the rest (a 1/2 bowl) for lunch. Yum! 
I’ve been wanting to make black bean soup for a couple months now and I’ve had 2 cans of black beans in my pantry just waiting to be used. I don’t know what happened or why I didn’t make it, but I’m fairly sure I bought these cans of beans the LAST TIME we were here at the RV Ranch in Keene… That means they’ve been out to San Francisco, over to Winnemucca, NV; Rawlins, WY; Hermosa & Salem, SD; up to Hillsboro, ND; down to Council Bluffs, IA; through Oklahoma City; back to Keene, TX; up to Sparta, KY via West Memphis, AR; and back down here via Dickson, TN and Texarkana. These are, were, some travelin’ beans!
Allen and I both put on a little teensy tiny bit of hibernation weight in North Dakota so I’m all about trying to make healthy meals for us this year! Not to mention, as I’m sure a lot of folks are right now, we are just hanging on until tax return time! The holidays combined with three weeks off work are fun and all, but we are definitely feeling that now!
Anyway, I try to save these recipes I find as bookmarks on my phone or write them down somewhere but this one just disappeared… So I went searching via Google yesterday and found recipes from the Pioneer Woman (I love most of her recipes for just about everything), Epicurious (Jennifer from Tyler, TX specifically-I did write that down!), and Food Network…
I didn’t have all the ingredients for any of them so I mixed and matched and used what I had… Here’s my version:
Cheap, Easy, Healthy, Delicious Black Bean Soup
- 1-2 tbs bacon grease
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 jalapeno, some of the ribs and seeds removed, diced
- dash of oregano
- dash of cayenne pepper
- dash of ancho chili pepper
- dash of chili powder
- a large dash of cumin
- 2 cups of beef broth
- 2 cans low sodium black beans, undrained
- 1 roma tomato, diced
- 1-2 tbs jarred salsa
- about a 1/2 cup frozen corn, maybe more
- salt to your liking
- palmful of chopped cilantro
Saute onion and jalapeño in bacon grease over medium heat until just getting soft. Then add garlic. Add all the spices. Once the garlic begins to get fragrant, give it about 30 more seconds and add the broth. Stir to combine, bring to a boil. Add your beans and give those a stir. Then add corn, as much as you prefer really. Once the corn warms up, give it a taste. I probably added about a teaspoon of salt, maybe a tad more, but I didn’t measure. Let that simmer for about 20 minutes to bring the flavors together then stir in your cilantro. I topped mine with a dollop of sour cream and more cilantro, with a little bit of green onion last night. Today for lunch I topped it with a diced avocado and that was absolutely scrumptious!
Allen had to work today. And last Sunday. That kinda puts a damper on the so-called weekend! He works on broadcast towers, you can read more about that jazz here… But they are trying to hurry and finish this job so we can get the heck outta here… I don’t really want to be around when they close the highways! They already closed parts of I-80 that we took to get here. Seems like we left San Francisco just in time to get through the mountains with no snow…
So it’s just me and Charles hanging out today watching football. Luckily the Bengals play tomorrow night so Allen will get to see the game regardless!
I forgot to show off our new home decor I picked up while we were in South Dakota…
They are those wall decals that just peel and stick. You can remove them and move them with no damage. I think they are perfect for our camper. I try not to put holes in the wall if I don’t have to, part of the reason I love Command hooks also! “Home Sweet Home” is above the front door and the other is in the bathroom behind the toilet (I didn’t know where else to put it!)
Anyhow, the other night for dinner I made this Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork and we made tacos with it. Yum! And super simple!
Here’s the recipe:
Layer the following in the slow cooker, in this order…
- 1 large onion, quartered, and separated
- a pork butt or shoulder roast (mine was about 3lbs), make sure you salt and pepper this guy very generously
- a can of chipotle peppers in adobo
- a can of Dr. Pepper at room temp (use two cans if you have a giant roast-one was enough for me)
Stick the lid on. Turn it on low.
About 4 hours in, flip the roast over. Flip it again in an hour or two. If it is falling apart, take it out and shred the meat. If not, give it another hour and check again. Once you get the meat out, try and skim some or most of the fat off the top without getting rid of too much juice. Shred it and put it back in the pot for another hour, making sure all the meat is soaking up all that juicy goodness.
I served this on warm flour tortillas (I just heated them in a dry pan over medium heat for about a minute on each side). I topped it with some homemade pico (my version follows), a few sprigs of cilantro, and some pepper jack cheese. Delicious! And we have plenty left over for dinner tomorrow…. I think you should try this tonight! (P.S. I’ve been loving The Pioneer Woman‘s recipes, that’s where I found this one! She made hers in the oven, but since I have a camper oven, I prefer my handy dandy slow cooker.)
Pico de Gallo
- 4 roma tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 1/2 jalapeno, seeded and diced
- a good squirt of lime juice
- a palmful of chopped cilantro
I hope you are all having a better Sunday than my super hard-working, loving boyfriend!
Oh, and by the way, Allen said the Potato Bread I made this week beats out all the others for best yet! And I’ve kind of decided that If I keep it in a ziplock baggie vs. the bread baggies I bought, it stays softer and fresher longer…
Home Sweet Home on Wheels 