Recipes From The Road- Pears and Figs in a Sherry Sauce

While wondering around the fruit section of a grocery store the other day we were trying to find fruit that we had not tried before or fruit we hadn't eaten in a while. There was a gorgeous display of ripe green pears and the sign above it listed the pears as being the "Best Ever Pears" from Oregon. Well, who can beat that? And plus, its from Oregon! The store also conveniently provided take home recipe cards as suggestions on what you could do with these pears. The suggested recipe was Pears in Sherry and Fig Sauce, and after reading through the directions and ingredient list we decided to give it a try.

Recipes From the Road- Thai Tom Kha Gai Soup

As you all probably already know, Thai cuisine is one of our favorites. We can usually judge the quality of a Thai restaurant by their soup, and we almost always order the Tom Kha Gai coconut soup. Over the years we've tried recreating the soup at home and have never really found a recipe that has come close to what we've found while eating out...until a few days ago, when my friend Maranda posted a recipe she'd recently tried out herself. We had most of the ingredients on hand so we decided to give it a go, and you know what? This is probably the closest we'll ever get to restaurant quality! If you've been looking to make the soup yourself, I would recommend that you try the this recipe!

Recipes From The Road- Thai Stir Fry

On our last day in Houston we followed a tip from our friends Mark and Lianna and went shopping at the Canino Produce Market. The front portion of the market resembles a regular grocery store, but there is an adjacent area in the back of the market where local farmers set up booths and sell their produce directly to you. In this section of the market you can bargain on the prices and there is quite more variety to be found. While there we stocked up on a bunch of fresh vegetables and fruits, so we needed a recipe that called for what we'd purchased. Given our love of Thai food, we did a quick search on the Thaifood.About.com site and quickly found a stir fry recipe that hit the spot. That night we made a super delicious meal and I thought I would share it with you!

Recipes From The Road- Cranberry turnovers

A few Thanksgivings ago Sky and I made too much cranberry sauce and had left overs sitting in our fridge well after the holiday. We had no idea what to do with it and we were tired of eating it with our left over mashed potatoes. Then we had an idea! What if we bought crescent rolls dough, smeared cranberry sauce in the middle of each roll, roll them up and bake them to make tiny cranberry turnovers? So we did, and it made for an awesome dessert!

Recipes From The Road- Homemade Salsa

When Sky was working in the corporate world, he had a Mexican co-worker who made amazing salsa. She refused to share the recipe until the day we finally announced we were leaving the company, and then she emailed it him. Technically this recipe requires a blender, and we don't have one with us...but because we were staying at a well equipped RV park we had access to great resources and we made use of them.

Recipes From The Road- Panini Sandwiches

There are a million ways to make a panini sandwich. If you think about it, a grilled cheese sandwich qualifies as a panini, so really, we've all been making panini sandwiches since we were children. There is nothing new about this recipe, I just really enjoyed making this set of sandwiches the other day, so I thought I would share it with you.

Recipes From The Road- Thai Spicy Basil Chicken

This is one of our favorite Thai recipes that we make anytime we get a nice fresh bunch of basil. We'd picked up some basil at the San Rafael farmer's market, a huge bunch of it for 75 cents, so it was time to make the meal! Its not a recipe we came up with, so I will share with you the recipe that is listed on thaifood.about.com 

Recipes From The Road- Garlic Shrimp w/Spaghetti

One of our favorite dishes to make for a special occasion is shrimp sautéed with olive oil and garlic, served over spaghetti. This is a super easy to make meal that takes all of 15 minutes, but tastes super gourmet, especially when served with a chilled bottle of Chardonnay. I’m sure there are lots of ways to make this meal, but the way we like to make it is like this:

You buy a pound of fresh raw shrimp. We have found some very reasonable prices on shrimp here on the West Coast, usually in the 5 dollar range for a pound. Taking into account the super low cost of spaghetti and the almost no cost of garlic and olive oil, this meal ends up costing well under $10 for the both of us.

Recipes From The Road- Chicken Salad

This is a simple chicken salad that I like to make to mix up the boring ham and cheese routine with. I'm not going to list how much of everything is needed, its all up to your discretion and taste.

First you boil an egg or two. Every time I go to boil an egg, I swear its like tying a tie, I have to look up directions on the internet. Here is a link I like to use in case you need some help as well. While the egg is boiling, open a can of canned chicken (or use baked chicken breast if you have some laying around), and finely chop it.

Cooking in a Travel Trailer

We've had several questions on what we eat in the trailer. The answer? Pretty much what we used to eat back home. We have a three burner gas stove, an oven and a medium sized refrigerator, so we have access to the same ingredients and preparation methods. Generally breakfast is oatmeal, cream of wheat or cereal (with coffee! got to have the coffee!). Lunch is mostly packed up sandwiches, chips and fresh fruit for site-seeing picnics. Dinner is always hot, and made on the stove. Since the refrigerator space is somewhat limited, and we don't have a microwave, we stay away from making large portions, we generally eat everything we make. Our favorites are Thai dishes, soups and taco salads. Here is some Thai Spicy Basil Chicken we made using this recipe:

Healthier Spaghetti

So Maria and I are both huge spaghetti fans... heck, anything with carbs is borderline addictive.  So on a whim the other day, we purchased a "spaghetti squash," not really knowing what it was, or what we were going to make with it.  After getting home, we went to the trusty Allrecipes website to figure out how and if we were going to make this squash. For those of you like us, who aren't familiar with spaghetti squash, it looks like a slightly longer and yellow version of an acorn squash, and once baked, it falls apart to spaghetti like strands. (And if you are familiar with this particular squash, you already know odd it is.)