We took the inaugural voyage in our new RV trailer this past weekend. I have a lot of thoughts I need to put into writing about the entirety of the trip — and about the new project Kin and I are starting: trails.contrafabulists.com. But before I forget, I want to jot down what I cooked (and how I cooked) for this trip.

Mise En Place

Before leaving town, I did as much mise en place as possible, knowing that the countertop and prep space is really limited in the RV (and that I wouldn't have my nice knives with me). I stored all my chopped veggies in Stasher bags. I'm really glad I did this as it made cooking much easier.

Thursday Night

We were late getting out-of-town (and hooked up, driving, and set up), and I should have thought of that before planning Thursday's meal. I thought I was being clever by packing the two steak-and-ale pies my mom had sent Kin for his birthday — and indeed, they were delicious. But heating the oven and cooking pies for 30 minutes added a lot more time to the meal prep than we wanted at 7:30 or so at night (when we normally eat several hours earlier). I also brought new potatoes to boil and make mashed potatoes, along with a packet of brown gravy mix and lettuce for a salad.

Friday

I made pancakes for breakfast. I'd pre-made the dry mix, and so I just had to add the eggs, milk, and oil. I set off the fire alarm in the RV cooking these. Next time, I think, I'm going to do sheet-pan pancakes, as it sucks to be flipping pancakes while the other person is already eating breakfast.

We typically eat fish for dinner on Fridays, and I'd first thought I'd make tuna casserole. But Kin hates tuna casserole, and so I made mac and cheese with chorizo and kale, topped with fried onions. I didn't prep the chorizo, and damn, yeah, my RV knives sucked. This was a good meal, despite using several pots for the sauce and the pasta (the kale cooked with the macaroni).

I made two microwaved "mug cakes" for dessert. This was a brilliant dessert, and I will bring along the ingredients for this each time. There are lots of ways to vary the flavors here — I had vanilla, and Kin had chocolate chip.

Saturday

I'd made bagel dogs ahead of time, and we ate these for lunch each day. Kin had the leftover pancakes for breakfast; I had sweet potato breakfast cookies — stellar — and yogurt and granola. These are all going in the regular repertoire.

I made drunken noodles Saturday night, and here was when I was particularly thankful to have done the mise en place. It turned out fine — I always think about Isaiah when I cook this as he'd complain my pad kee mao was woefully under-spiced. And this batch was woefully under-spiced, despite chopping up a jalapeño. That's fine though. It tasted okay (and I'm going to eat the leftovers for lunch today).

Saturday night's dessert was a mug cake with two peanut butter cups dropped in.

Sunday

We had to check out of the campground by 11, so there was only really time for breakfast. Although we definitely could've eaten a bigger meal — we were so hungry by the time we got home at 3 that we went out for pizza immediately — cooking would probably interfere with tear down. So that's something to keep in mind for the next outing.

Overall, I packed the right amount of everything. We did bring home some leftovers. But the snacks got eaten. The cookies got eaten. We didn't go hungry, and I made good meals, even though this was all very new to me.