Day 152: Hello there, twenty-thirteen!

We ended 2012 with everyone sawing logs inside the Mish except for me. I stayed up until midnight and heard fireworks from Islamorada as midnight arrived. It was very uneventful. No champagne, no midnight smooch and not even good enough TV reception to see the ball drop as we welcomed 2013.

To us, it was just an ordinary day to end a very extraordinary year. In 2012, we spent 5 months on the road. Another 3 more living in the Mish after selling our home in Ventura. We are starting 2013 much the same way. We are looking at another couple of months on the road before making our way back to California. Even when we get back there, we are likely going to still be living in the Mish for awhile before deciding what we are going to do. We are already contemplating new travels for 2013-2014 but it will take some time for these new plans to materialize.

Well, maybe I did have a couple of pops of Sierra Nevada’s Torpedo IPA last night by myself. Hey, I am a sucker for bitter, hoppy beers, OK? Don’t judge.

The truth is that even if we were at home and near friends, we wouldn’t have done much in ways of celebrating anyways. Ever since we became parents, we have never lived anywhere close enough to family to be able to drop them off to go out. And even if we did, it doesn’t feel right making someone else stay home on new year’s eve.

Our first day in 2013 is pretty uneventful. Since nothing is open for business, especially down in the Florida Keys, we are making food at home. Actually we have been eating in a lot lately during our stay here.

The trick about making meals in an RV is to make everything in the same pot. AKA ‘one pot meals’. We have several of them that have become staples of our Airstream cooking.

First item on the menu, a little homemade turkey chili. We bought a Costco size pack of ground turkey for Thanksgiving when we made our Thanksgiving shepherd’s pie. We have been slowing making our way through them and this is the last of it.

Another simple one pot dish that we have been making a lot involves a healthy portion of thick-cut bacon.

The only other ingredient is brussel sprounts. No salt, no pepper, nothing else is necessary. As long as you get some nice, thick-cut bacon, all of the flavor you will need is already in there.

That is how you want the brussel sprout to look. Nice and charred with the flavor of bacon permanently infused. I am hungry.

Yoda on the other hand has no interest in brussel sprouts and bacon. She much prefers the fish and shrimp we made for our Christmas Eve dinner.

Finally, as the kids went the sleep, Marlene and I got to catch up on episodes of Downton Abbey while eating dairy-free pecan pie straight from the tin. As you can tell, our new year’s resolutions do not involve any kind of healthy eating.

over and out,
dan