Travels With Miranda

I arrived last Tuesday at Nugget City at about 2:15. I was up a ladder priming a door by 2:45, and by 3:15, I had fallen off the ladder (its fault!) and was soaked in blood-red primer. Oh, it was good to be back.

Last May, in my ignorance of all things telecommunications in the Yukon, I over-used the internet with just email, blog posting, and general surfing… to the tune of almost three hundred dollars!!! So, when I wasn’t able to get on to their network this time, I didn’t expect much sympathy and have been doing without the internet all week. The owners were very good about what happened in May, saying I should have been told that they  have such a low bandwidth amount. But I’d hate a repeat of that, so I’m posting from the library in town where it’s nice and safe.

I’ve been painting for a week solid. It’s very good for the ego to have people come up to me and say “Oh, you’re the painter!” I’ve so far done three coats, plus primer, on a garage door, one side of a fence, and a dozen small flights of stairs. I need to do the other side of the fence, a second coat on both sides, a second coat on the stairs, and then at least two coats on a huge wall.

I was stopped yesterday and today by weather that has never been seen here by the owner: SNOW, and lots of it. It fell in big fat flakes all of yesterday and there is up to a foot in parts! I’ll need to do a few long days to make up for two days off and if the weather cooperates there is more than enough to keep me busy another two weeks here. I was glad for the forced rest because all the ladder climbing and squatting has been as hard on my knees as was the Chilkoot!

Being without the internet has made me discover just how long a day is! I’m not bored, far from it, but I’ve had time to watch Gone With the Wind AND reread the book! I’ve been cooking, baking, and doing other domestic chores, and I’m pretty sure I’m all caught up on my sleep. *makes a mental note to take an internet sabbatical more often*

The heater I bought in Whitehorse is fantastic. Between it and the larger unit, I have not had to turn on the propane yet and it’s cozy in the rig, not just tolerable.

I’m sure there’s more to say, but I only have 10 minutes left, so this will have to do. More next week.

The onsite restaurant closed this week and tonight surplus food was brought over to the motel. I helped myself to oranges and huge onions that inspired me to ask the owner if she could spare two eggs. She sure could and she also handed me sour cream, which fit in well with the fate I decided to reserve for those onions, as well as a few other items. I decided to turn them into a crustless quiche!

Quiche à la Rae is one of only two egg dishes I eat (the other is French Toast à la Rae). Quiche à la Rae involves lots of flavourful ingredients to mask the taste of eggs, namely strong cheese and plenty of sweet, caramelized onions. Tonight, I substituted sour cream for the skim milk I usually use, and I also added some basil I’d bought earlier in the summer and frozen. I baked the whole thing in a casserole dish and it came together quite nicely. I served the dish with hot buttered toast and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. This is going to make a fabulous breakfast tomorrow or maybe lunch. If it’s anything like regular Quiche à la Rae, it’ll be even better cold!

Inspiration

Other goodies: butter, oranges, radishes, and lemons

Two eggs, sour cream, fresh frozen basil, salt, pepper, grated old cheddar

What onions are supposed to look like

I wrote last fall about a wonderful Dutch couple that left me several bags of useful items. I’m still using the dish soap they left me!

This week, I was once again the recipient of much appreciated gifts! I met a wonderful, feisty RVer a few days ago when she brought in a bunch of books for our book exchange. She let me have first pick, so I took a couple of novels. Then, she came in this evening just after I started my shift with two more things for me. The first was dinner! She brought me a slice of pizza fresh from town!  She also handed me an unopened package of  fancy hot dogs that aren’t full of the junk regular hot dogs have. I don’t normally eat beef or pork, but I’m not a vegetarian anymore so I don’t turn down free protein!

As it turns out, they’re about to cross the border, so they can’t take any meat with them. The sausages were all they had left and rather than ‘donate’ them to customs, they thought that maybe the single gal would appreciate them. She does.

Today, my manager suggested I check out the Dawson City thrift store at St. Paul’s church. The first Saturday of the month (2pm to 5pm), they have an ‘all you can stuff in a grocery bag for 5$’ sale.

I scooped up quite a few skirts and some blouses, several not being wearable right now but which I will be glad to have if I end up with an office job in Campbell River this winter. I also found a fleece jacket for the Chilkoot trip. I had not bought one at MEC back in Vancouver because I have a fairly good one, albeit with a temperamental zipper. I decided that if I found a cheap replacement, I would get one, but otherwise I would endure with the jacket I have even if it clashes with the rest of the clothing I’m taking on the trek. The jacket I found this afternoon is in perfect condition, is my size and is of a colour (olive-ish) that matches or complements the rest of my Chilkoot gear! Sweet!!! I also picked up several books. My bag was bursting at the seams, but I didn’t get a sarcastic comment from the cashier, so I don’t think I was excessive.

Then, I checked out the Saturday market on Front Street and bought a mountain (okay, a pound) of basil from my manager’s husband before going to the general store where I found mozzarella on mega sale. Looks like I’m having pizza again for dinner. I am so excited to have so much sweet-smelling basil in the house! Whatever I can’t eat in the next few days will get frozen and enjoyed in the next few weeks. Yum!

Cooking in an RV is not without its challenges. For me, the single most important challenge is the lack of counter space. I don’t let that stop me from making absolutely anything I want, even if I have to pile things on top of each other in order to get enough room to roll out some dough.

Behold tonight’s dinner:

Homemade dough crookedly rolled out and topped with jarred pasta sauce (Prego Onion and Garlic, if you're curious (very yummy!))

The flash makes the dough look quite pasty, but it was actually perfectly browned. The cheese is a mix of 'Mexican' cheeses giving the pizza a real kick! I also added a diced orange pepper.

OMG

This was the best pizza I have eaten in recent memory!!! It was even better than the pizza I had in Whitehorse! The crust was that perfect mix of crispy and chewy, the sauce was flavourful, the cheese blend unexpectedly delicious. I had a hunch that a pizza cooked in a propane oven would be superior to one cooked in an electric oven, and I was right. I’m going to get a pizza stone!