Cooking Up a Storm

 Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Hi Blog!

Like most of our family and friends along the East Coast, we were keeping an eye on the progress of Hurricane Isaias. We dutifully filled our gas tank and fridge and prepared to hunker down. We awoke Tuesday morning to a pretty soggy campground after a night of wind, thunder and lightning.

Rainy days in the RV give us a chance to cook up a storm. We started with a pancake breakfast complete with fresh peach sauce.

After breakfast, we began the process of making a couple loaves of bread. The recipe we chose for today was sun-dried tomato and rosemary. During the Great Covid Bread Flour Shortage, we discovered that King Arthur flour will work as well as bread flour, although the bread it makes is a heavier style due to the extra protein in the non-bread flour. The sun-dried tomatoes are diced up in the Ninja Blender and added to the dry flour.

Once the bread mixture is ready, we put it in the bathroom with a space heater to keep it nice and warm while the dough rises. Unfortunately, the local power went out during this process. So, like any good RVers, we fired up the generator and got back to work.

Next on the cooking-up-a-storm agenda was vegan breakfast sausage. We started making homemade breakfast sausage about 20 years ago. The recipes have changed over the years from meat and veggie combos to all veggie versions. We've collected over 20 different ways to spice the base. This batch contains black beans, red quinoa, oats, spinach, red pepper, green pepper, broccoli, peas and sun-dried tomatoes. Do you sense a theme yet?

Below, David weighs out each 2 oz. patty for Kathy to form and bag for the freezer.  We're not sure what that look was on his face, but we think he was anticipating how scrumptious these veggie patties would be for breakfast the next morning:

There are no if's, and's or but's about it. Making veggie patties is a messy, messy job. However, having fresh, delicious, healthy breakfast sausage is so worth it.

Once the veggie patties were done, it was time to beat down the bread dough and divide it into two pans. While the bread was rising in the pans, we put together a black bean and fresh corn salsa.

As soon as we cleaned up from the salsa, it was time to pop the bread in the oven. While the bread baked, we put together a tomato pie. Now, this is not the typical tomato pie you see at pizza parlors and bakeries; this is actually a pie made with tomatoes.

By the time we were done baking the tomato pie, the hurricane had passed and the sun was shining. Not only did we end up with a beautiful, sunny happy hour, but dinner was already prepared!

So, the next time a hurricane dampens your outdoor plans, just cook up a storm.