Pressure Cooking

I must share with you the most amazing invention—perfect for Rvers—the pressure cooker. If you’ve never tried one or just have heard the horror stories of exploding food, stay with me for a minute. I love my crock-pot, but just knew that it had to go into storage. We brought it and I made a couple stews, but the thing is heavy and power hungry. I can’t see running the generator for 6 hours to cook stew or lugging it around and only using it when hooked up to power. I had heard about pressure cooking—pressure cooking uses pressure to super-heat water and cooks things really fast. As an example, you can make a 3 lb pot roast in 45 minutes or tasty barley stew in 10 min cooking time.

A bit of investigation revealed that pressure cookers aren’t dangerous anymore. They got a bad rap in the 50’s, when faulty designs allowed you to open them when under pressure, spewing the super-heated contents everywhere. Nowadays, they have 3 or more safety features protecting against over pressuring or opening. They physically can’t be opened under pressure and have overpressure relief valves. You do have to be careful not to overfill them and watch the steam when opening them, but they are simple to use.

I bit the bullet and bought a six quart stainless steel pot from Wal-mart and a how-to cookbook from Barnes and Noble. My first effort was a 3lb pork roast with sweet potatoes. I wasn’t going by a recipe and found out belatedly that a pressure cooker cooks veggies FAST—I was treating it like a crockpot and stuck everything in at once. The roast was phenomenal—tender and tasty, but the sweet potatoes were mush—oh well, mushed them with butter and had mashed sweet potatoes.

After that, I actually read the how-to (and yes, I read the instructions on the pot before using it—you do have to be careful with them). The cookbook I purchased, Pressure Perfect by Lorna Sass is wonderful. I’ve already tried her Beef, Barley and Mushroom soup (made this morning before Greg even got up—10 min cutting, 10 min cooking under pressure and 10 min just letting it sit there and cool naturally before opening.) and her “Curry in a hurry” with beef chuck and potatoes. Let me just say--if you love beef stew but can never get the meat all that tender or hate watching the pot for hours…try a pressure cooker. The meat just falls apart. Lorna Sass also has tricks for the ‘one pot’ gals like me—pressure cookers can tend to over cook some things, so she does things like make little foil boats for the carrots—you put the stew ingredients together then wrap the carrots in foil and pop in on top—result: tender, perfectly cooked carrots in the same time as the stew cooked. Oh yes—I also cooked wild rice with brown rice—15 minutes! And perfect.

Email me if you want more info about it…it’s a wonderful device (wyethia at gmail dot com).

Yes, I’m in love with a cooking appliance.

Phoebe’s all better now, her rash is going away. Maybe I’ll even go take some photos at JcPenny before we leave. We were pretty much goofing around and enjoying ourselves for several days—flea market, visiting, not doing much. Today we had fun, but we also got a lot done in terms of organizing the trailer. Finally have use of the other side of our kitchen table. I also go to download photos onto the computer from memory sticks and CDs. I’ll maybe even get them online soon!

Phoebe is learning to really play for sympathy. She gets a boo boo and immediately shows it to Grandma and asks for kisses. When she hugs us, she claps for herself—very proud of how sweet she is—we ‘taught ‘ her that inadvertently by praising her so much when she gives hugs and kisses.

We got to go on bike rides today too. Our bike chains had been totally frozen up after Burning Man—we did nothing with them whatsoever and chains don’t like playa plus rain and snow. I had forgotten how nice it is to ride, but WE hate our bikes, they are very uncomfortable. I think we’ll go get fitted, then shop thrift stores till we find ‘the right bike’s.

Greg had to take the truck in to get the brakes and alignment checked. The truck had started pulling really hard to the right. $59.95 later, it drives great. Who knew anything on a diesel truck was that cheap to fix! The guy forgot to check the brakes, so we’ll have to go back in. Humorous side note—they don’t make appointments in Yuma—everything is first come first serve. Arrive promptly at opening, because snowbirds get up EARLY!

Phoebe sick

I finally took Phoebe to the doctor. We had decided her rash must be an allergic reaction, but it would get better and then get worse again. I took her to an urgent care walk-in place and an hour or so later had a verdict—viral rash. Who knew there was more than chicken pox, measles and 5th disease. She should just get better on her own. She’s such a trooper you can’t really tell she’s ill except at night when she’s very clingy.

Yuma, AZ

Yuma was a surprise to me. I imagined a dry and dusty desert town, plunked down at the border of California and, therefore convenient, but without much going for it. Yuma has a lot more going for it than just convenience and a short love affair with the RV craze. The town is situated beside the Colorado River, in a little valley with mountains to the east, north, and west. The main town is placed on gently rolling terrain to the south of a large agricultural valley. A large flat separates Yuma downtown from the Foothills 'suburb'. Foothills is the true RV town--most lots in Foothills have two full RV hook ups and either a 'stick house,' as the locals call them, a mobile home, a stationary RV with or without outbuildings, or just camped RVs. Admittedly, the desert does not have the awe inspiring beauty of Joshua Tree or surrounding Tucson, but all desert has its charm. Vast > brush land, cut with lively mesquite populated washes. The mountains to the east of Yuma always give you scenery to look at. Although we have lucked into seeing them with a healthy tint of green from all the recent rain, even gold and brown they have a rugged style.

Yuma was a traditional crossing point in the Colorado River for the Quechan Indians. Yuma was colonized by Spaniards seeking an overland route to their Baja California missions in 1697. Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, a Jesuit priest discovered that California was not an island and established a land route from Arizona into California. The Spaniards established a mission in Yuma in 1776. After the Mexican war, the United States came into possession of the huge tracts of land that today is called Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Yuma remained an important way-point in the crossing of the Colorado River. In 1877, the Southern Pacific completed a railroad line from San Diego to Yuma, crossing the Colorado River and making Yuma a major shipping point. The original town site of Yuma was laid out in 1854 and originally called Colorado City.

Yuma is definitely a place the beginning RVer feels home. The population of Yuma swells exponentially in the winter months and the whole pace of the town pulses to the rhythms of the snowbird. You have to get used to the new hours--a little hint--don't go to the Laundromat or grocery store at 11am on a weekday and think you'll miss the rush. Restaurants are slammed after 4PM and the whole town slows and quiets after 6pm. Shopping in the Foothills area, a 50-year old is the youngster. It took Greg and me over a week to finally find a place filled with under 30s--Barnes and Noble--we even saw green hair there!

You are not stuck for shopping and things to do around here either. The main town is fully stocked with the American shopping mainstays--Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, etc. A new shopping plaza north of town holds more shopping. There are two large flea markets that are open Fri through Sunday (the new 'flea' is also open Thursday). Yuma is an RV repair and stocking paradise with many RV supply and repair stores--or if you don't want to drop it off, mobile RV repair that come to you. Indeed, we are told that we will come to you is a very popular thing for many businesses to offer--anything from putting a skirt on your 5th to washing your vehicles in your yard. Algodones, Mexico is just over the border and you can drive nearby and just walk across the border--no pesky Mexico insurance to worry about. We are going on Wednesday--I'll let you know how it goes! Yuma has about 10 golf courses, a shooting range for everything from bow-and-arrow to machine guns north of town, ...the area is an off-roaders dream with the bombing range to the south (no longer used for 'real bombs' just lasers--you need a permit to go on), miles of desert road and the sand dunes to the west.

Yuma is giving me the chance to settle down and start to enjoy my unemployment. I find it a bit difficult to just relax and not constantly be moving.

leaving J tree

Our trip to Joshua Tree ended rather abruptly. The original plan was to stay the full allowable 2 weeks, or longer if we could swing it somehow, but the weather got to us. We had two gorgeous days New Years weekend and actually went out and hiked and did a bit of climbing with our buddy Lewis, but other than that we had rain, wind, cold and even snow. I have to admit—I was totally excited to see the snow. We continued to have battery issues. We bought two new better batteries and put them in. Greg checked the water level and it was below the plates (not good). Not knowing better, he filled them, then charged and they boiled over. Who knew? He cleaned them up as best he could, but we had no idea if the batteries were still good or not. The charger started giving an error message—the batteries would charge on the generator, but not the charger. We took them back to Kragen, but they just tested them and said they were fine.

The good news was that despite that, we could leave our heat on at night and stay somewhat warm. The old single battery wouldn’t do that. But the unrelenting cold was getting to us and it didn’t look like things were going to improve so we left for Yuma on Wednesday. Phoebe also had a weird rash that was bothering me—I was happy to get her to the warmer Yuma climate.

Oh—I also towed the 5th wheel for the first time. It went well…that is, until I cut a corner close and popped a tire. Poor, sick Greg had to go out in the rain and wind and change the tire. I got to drag it into the tire repair shop though. Luckily, it was the bottom, not a side-wall!