It was Easter last Sunday. A time for celebration, to mark a special moment in life. As you may already be able to tell from our blog, my family celebrates with food. So, even though it was just going to be The Bearded One and myself for Easter dinner, I planned Easter Dinner. Granted, not the multiple course, over the top dinner that the larger family would plan, but a few special foods that we would not eat on an average day. There was one catch. We are living in our truck camper.
WHAT? Aren’t you at home selling your house? Yes and no. We are living in the truck camper near our house SO we can sell our house. It is easier on us since the house stays tidy and can be shown at a moments notice. It is also better for the sale since The Bearded One smokes. (I know, yuck, but he started in those years long ago when smoking was touted to be a positive thing. A blog for another day perhaps…) Anyhoo, we have washed and painted and eliminated any trace of smoke from the house and it will stay that way.
Back to Easter dinner. Since we are trying to use up all the items in the big freezer before we move, I looked through the inventory. I found part of a spiral sliced ham left from Thanksgiving and a bag of walnut halves. At this point, I must sing the praises of Food Savers. You know, those machines that suck the air out of bags to reduce or eliminate freezer burn. They work.
Walnuts and ham from the freezer.
The ham is from Thanksgiving is and is like it was frozen yesterday. The walnuts (I am somewhat embarrassed to say) are labeled with my mom’s handwriting. She has been gone for six years. They also were fresh, even snacking straight from the bag…”perfectly good” as she would say. Both were sealed using a Foodsaver system. This is the one I use: I planned a Maple Glazed Baked Ham, Sweet Potato Casserole, and Asparagus Gratin. The hard part was done…planning. On Sunday the Camper Cooking dance began. Have you ever cooked in a closet? Good, then you know how challenging it is. Here is my closet, er, kitchen.
The camper kitchen. In the picture a cutting board is on the range burners to provide a bit more countertop. Of course, when I start cooking, I lose that prep area.
The dining table is immediately behind me when I am at the sink/stove and can be used for prep too. Spacious!
The most important talent to have when cooking in small spaces with limited utensils is Executive Function. Can you figure out what to prepare when so that all the dishes for the meal are completed at the same time so dinner can be served? I am pretty good at executive functioning if I do say so myself. I have the family trait of organizing through lists and I seem to be able to automatically create an organized To Do list in my head. I tested it on Sunday. I used the same pan to boil the sweet potatoes then mix the potato mixture then blanch the asparagus. I timed the baking of the potatoes and the ham then broiled the asparagus under the heating element of the oven.
Then….success. Dinner is served.
Easter dinner. Success!
Maple glazed baked ham. I was out of brown sugar so used maple syrup and a bit of bourbon then baked the ham.
Yummy Sweet Potato Casserole from Allrecipes.com (walnuts substituted for pecans)
Asparagus Gratin from Cook’s Country
Now, just to wash the dishes…
