How do you make great coffee in your RV? Is it different if you like boondocking? What ingredients and systems do you use to make Joe on the go? This week’s StressLess Camping RV podcast is all about making coffee in your camper. We have tips and tricks for maximizing your coffee experience even without electricity. Should you use a French Press? What about pour-over systems?

And how do you grind the beans - or should you just buy them already ground?

Other places to hear the podcast

Mentioned on this episode

We spoke with Ron Heneger of Goodyear talking about travel trailer tires for this podcast episode

The dates have changed for the 2023 California RV Show in Pomona, CA. Here are the details.

Peggy’s article with her 19 favorite cast iron cooking recipes

Tony’s weekly RV review, the 2023 Rockwood Mini Lite 2507s travel trailer.

Our article about how we store spices in our RV and keep them fresh and convenient.

Join our weekly email family for more tips, tricks, articles, hints and hacks.

Our fun and friendly StressLess Camping Podcast Facebook Group (whew!).

Tony’s video about tips for mountain driving

If you’re confused about solar, battery power or just want to upgrade your RV we have found the solutions from ABC Upfitters are both reliable and exceptional.

We have a podcast episode and video where you can learn more here.

Our trusted partners - RV Discounts and Deals

Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast 205

Welcome to the weekly podcast, all about turning the great American RV adventure into Stressless camping. Each week we explore tips, tricks, ideas, and destinations, and talk to the happiest campers in the RV world. Pull up a seat at the campfire as we enjoy some Stressless camping.

Welcome to the Campfire.

I'm Tony.

I'm Peggy. And

We are two RV industry veterans who travel part-time

In a small trailer

Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips, tricks, discounts. So this past week we gotta spend some time with someone who has read stories that we've written and things like that. And Gary is a traveler in a trailer about the same size as ours. When he said he looked underneath the trailer, which you should do here and there, and he noticed a significant number of cracks in the frame Uhoh.

Yeah. In fact, uh, there were enough that he actually had to take it to a welding shop and have it repaired and it was pretty expensive. But as part of that repair, they also corrected the alignment on his trailer axles. And as a result, he was actually here in New Mexico looking at houses. So hopefully we get a new neighbor. But anyway, <laugh>, he said it was a fairly significant improvement in fuel economy and how easily his trailer towed.

Yeah. After he had the alignment done.

Right. So check your trailer tires for, I guess you'd notice if there's unusual wear, right? Like a strange wear pattern. Yep. Things like that. And that can indicate that your align's off. And you know, it's like when you have a crick in your back, one little misalignment in any body part. <laugh> leads to problems all over the place.

Yep. So as always, your tires on your, on any vehicle, but particularly if you have a towable, they really can help you tell the story. And they're pretty critical. And boy, every week I keep seeing story after story of these RV trailer tires imploding. So yeah. I'm gonna put a link to our episode with Ron Henneger from Goodyear and maybe give that a, listen, there was some good tips in that episode.

Right. Also, this week before we really get started, I wanna thank you Lane for writing and noticing that I had the wrong date for an RV show. I swear I think they changed it because it seems like a mistake I wouldn't have made. But then again, <laugh>.

No, no, they did change it.

Oh, they did? Yeah,

They changed it because there was some pushback from the RV and I don't remember what Oh, okay. But yeah, they actually did change it. So, so the

One we're talking about actually is the California RV show, which was in Pomona forever. It moved to Fontana for a few years, and then with Covid it shut down and now it is back in Pomona. Yeah. So, and that's in October. And I'm not gonna give the dates cuz I didn't write 'em down, but they're early in the month, not late in the month. <laugh>.

Yeah. So it's there. We have a whole bunch of RV shows on stressless camping.com, which by the way, you may notice looks different today.

Yes.

So a new homepage, you might also notice that the colors have changed. It's now basically black and white for the text. And we have found some people with visual challenges had requested that we make it basically black and white,

A little bit easier to read.

And so we did. Yeah. So we listened. So you'll see, if you go to stresses camping.com today, you'll go, Hey, it's a little different. Yep.

And thank you for those who noticed that in the email last week and went and checked out the secret trial version and gave us some feedback on that <laugh>.

Yeah. If you don't know, we do a weekly email newsletter and there's little things we put in there. Sometimes we are also planning to have a giveaway coming up. So if you're,

Yeah. So make sure you read that newsletter. Absolutely.

Well we also got an email this week that referenced ABC Upfitters and the RV, solar and lithium packages that they engineer and make available to you. And someone said, well, how long can you run your air conditioner? And the answer to that is depend.

It depends. <laugh>,

There's a lot of variables. For example, the colder you set it, the more frequently it runs, the more frequently it runs, the more energy it consumes. Sure. The more it goes through batteries. If you're running it in the daytime when there's plenty of light and solar, then it's gonna last longer than if it's at night when there's no solar. Well, you'll still have solar. You're just not getting any sun

<laugh>. And something that I, I guess I never really thought about, but what you just said, if you have it on a lower setting, maybe some units are different, but it will turn itself on and off. Right. Or sometimes a fan will run, but the coldness, the compressor part will only run periodically. Yeah.

The thing I've said a bunch of times, air conditioners, heaters, refrigerators, ovens, even, they basically, you know, you might put them at a certain temperature expecting they'll run at an increased setting. But really all that those thermostats typically do is just turn them on and off. So an air conditioner on the roof of your rv, if you put it for 65 degrees and you wanna freeze some meat in there,

<laugh>, it's probably gonna run constantly. Yeah.

It'll run much more frequently than if you set it up at 75 degrees, for example. And it's not like it's running more efficiently or less efficiently, it's just running more frequently and less frequently. Yeah. So the other answer is to this question that there are more efficient air conditioners now being produced. And I know ABC Upfitters does have the ability to install these now. So the air conditioner that you have on the roof of your RV typically is horribly inefficient <laugh>, they are not a modern design.

They're, they're old fashioned. And so you can improve them by putting a soft start on, or you could, I mean, if you, you know, it depends on your perspective, right? You can do all kinds of crazy stuff, but, uh, you can swap it out with a more efficient air conditioner and have it run considerably longer. So our answer is we can get four to eight hours out of our air conditioner with the battery and solar that we have, and we have a thousand watts of solar and 400 amp hours of battery.

That's about the answer that we,

It's for, uh, true for us, for our system. Right.

Yeah. But you can double that battery, you can add more solar. You know, it's, it's all in what you want to do. And that's one of the nice things I like about working with ABC Upfitters, is you answer questions and work with them and develop a system that fits your need. And if you've got this tremendous unlimited budget and need an incredibly insane system, they can do that. Yeah. But if you just want something that helps you go boondocking, they can do that too.

Right. Give them a call and talk about what you need and what you want. And maybe even a scalable system you wanna put in something now and then be able to add to it later. And Right. They use master bolt products, which are from the marine industry. And honestly, when you're out at sea, your tolerance for failure is pretty low. Right. So these are great components properly installed and all the right wiring and such. And that's why we keep saying, you know, if you're looking to get solar, your solar curious, your babies Outfitters are called.

They're very nice people and they'll be happy to answer your questions and they can do something that serves you as well as they have served us.

Right. Like Tony said, they don't just take one unit and try to cram it into every rig that comes along. They actually work with you, with your rig, with your needs and your power needs and develop a system that's just for you. Yep.

Well, speaking of getting juiced,

So to speak

This week, we've been kind of sitting on this topic for some time, but it's about coffee and RVing.

Oh yeah.

We're probably gonna sound like coffee snobs here and I kind of am one

Yeah. A little bit. I

Really like a great cup of coffee and I like 'em in the morning, couple of cups in the morning and one in the afternoon. And that's just me. And I want it to be good, strong, flavorful coffee. Right. I don't, I don't like the coffee shop stuff. I mean, if you do that's fine. We, you know, everybody has what suits them. Correct. But I am a good coffee kind of guy. So we have played with, we have a basket of coffee making, we do

Stuff

For our rv that's a little bit nuts because it's like, well let's try this and let's try that. And I think we have come up with a solution that really, really works.

Yes. So

Let's start with,

Yeah, let's start with the fact that if you are in your sticks and bricks, or maybe if you're full-time and you've got a good power system and you can use your electric coffee maker anytime you want. And I'm not talking about a Mr. Coffee drip.

Well, it could be a machine machine, Mr. Coffee drip machine.

It could be. But again, coffee snob talking here, <laugh>, we have a mocha master coffee maker that we have in our sticks and bricks. And you know, last year when we were what I call homeless, we were moving from one state to the other and we carried that mocha master with us. Yes,

We did.

Because we knew that the minute we had a new home, that was the first thing we were gonna need to plug in. So we carried it with us and we had it in the trailer,

Which was really inconvenient.

It was kind of inconvenient. It's, it's not small No. And <laugh>, but we had the power to run it and so we did. Yeah. And, and we also had, by the way, our electric burger grinder. So we really <laugh>, we really lived it up last summer in the trailer with our home coffee system.

Yeah. It was, it was kind of funny. We normally would never bring that. And plus it took up a tremendous amount of counter space Yes. In a relatively small trailer. Right. So there are a lot of people who want to bring some sort of a coffee machine on the road with you. Sure. And that's fine. In fact, uh, you know, as we always talk about the solar and lithium system, I mean, I'm sure you're already familiar with that <laugh>, and we can run the coffee maker and the berg grinder off those systems and have many times mm-hmm.

<affirmative>, you can also run whatever coffee maker if that's your preference off your solar and lithium system, or you can run it off a solar generator. But we have ways of making coffee that we think works out better in the RV that needs no electricity.

Right. So now, you know, if you are the type of camper who always stays at campgrounds and always has power, then it's not really a concern to you. And you'll have your electric coffee maker and life will be beautiful. Yeah. But if you are typically a boon docker or want to be a boon docker, and you're thinking, how in the heck am I gonna boondock and still make coffee with my electric coffee maker? You have the option of these good power solar systems. Or as Tony said, you find a way to make coffee that doesn't take any electricity.

And

That's really what we're talking about here. We kind of make finding great coffee part of our adventure on the road. Yeah. One of our favorite places to get coffee is in Fort Bragg, California at a place called Thanksgiving Coffee Company.

Yes. We used that coffee at our bed and breakfast for many years and it's still one of our favorite sources of coffee. Uh, our favorite roaster, I guess. Yeah.

Well, and Paul, the founder of Thanksgiving Coffee, he actually goes to the farmers and, you know, like Costa Rica, south America mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, where they grow coffee. And he actually shows him the process and gives him ideas of, of the final product. And he prefers the Fair Trade Coffee Roasters where, you know, the, the farmer actually gets a decent money for what they're doing if you really support that type of operation.

Thanksgiving is good in that respect too, but they just have really great coffee.

Yeah. Really great coffee. And

They do mail order it.

Right. One of the things that we do when we go on adventures is look for new coffee. Yeah. You know, maybe we're driving around exploring a place and we don't, we don't even have the camper. So we don't really have a coffee maker of any sort with us. We'll stop maybe at a local looking coffee shop and test out their coffee and if we really, really love their coffee, we'll buy some beans from them. Yeah.

That we did that I remember very distinctly in Biloxi, Mississippi. That

Was Chicory Coffee, right? No, no, that was, no, that was not Okay. Coffee shop. Oh, that's right. The bank. That's right.

We ended up talking to the owner and she actually roasts her own coffee

And Yes, yes.

Again, it was a local experience that was part of the travel. Right. It's part of the adventure that we enjoy.

So in New Orleans you can get pretty much anywhere you go for coffee, you can get Chicory coffee, which is a, it's coffee with chicory in it and it gives it a kind of a little different flavor. And then also here in the Albuquerque area, we found that pinion coffee is pretty popular. Yeah. So they put pinion nuts in with the coffee beans. That's true.

Well, whether you like tried that it or not, as a matter of Pinion.

That's right. That's what my socks say. <laugh>. Oh yeah. Actually got a pair of socks at the Pinion Coffee Company. <laugh>.

But I mean, if you're looking for more universally available, I like Trader Joe's French Roast or the Dark Roast from Costco. Those are both to me. Very good.

I think one of the secrets to making a great cup of coffee is buy beans and grind them fresh. So yeah, it's not, you know, again, when you're out boondocking, this might be a little bit of a burden and you have to buy coffee that's already ground. But if you have a way to grind coffee fresh each time that you're ready to brew it, that also really helps with the flavor. Yeah. And we will talk a little bit more about that, but sometimes that is fine and sometimes that just doesn't work. And that's okay.

Another secret to really great coffee is water at about 190 degrees Fahrenheit. Not boiling. People say it should be boiling. No, no, no. Not boiling 190 degrees. And many times I've suggested in your toolbox to have one of those instant read thermometers where it looks kind of like a little plastic gun. Yeah.

Like a little laser.

Yeah. It has a laser that comes out that points to what you're measuring. And I like that thing for the wheel hubs. I measure the wheel hubs and brakes on the trailer when we stop to make sure we don't have one overheating. I've used it to measure the inside temperature of the refrigerator, but we also use it to measure the temperature of the water. Right. So since it doesn't touch anything. Right,

Right. You

Can use it for some greasy thing, like your wheel or for your water, for your coffee.

Right. You're just shooting it at the item. You're not actually touching the item. So otherwise we'd probably have two different ones. <laugh>. Yeah, I would

Hope so. Ooh, what does this coffee taste like? Axle grease. Hmm. <laugh>.

Okay. So what are some different ways if you don't have electricity and you don't have a coffee maker? I'd say probably one of the most popular methods of making coffee is a French press. Yeah.

And the good thing about a French press is it really does make a good cup of coffee. Yes. But the bad

Thing, the bad thing, <laugh>, they,

They're

Messy. They are messy. They make a great cup of coffee and then you're, then you've got a vessel with grounds squeezed into the bottom and you've, when you're done, you've gotta find a way to get those grounds out. And you've gotta use a lot of paper towels or a lot of water to get that pot rinsed out. And it's just, when you're boondocking every drop of water, it's more important than electricity. You know, it's, it's, well, it's, well, especially if you have solar panels, it's definitely, or limited than electricity. Yeah. That's

For sure. The typical French press, while it does a good job, takes too much water and effort to clean for what we're looking to do, so. Right. We heard from a friend that the brew tech overlander is a good choice. And what this is, is it's a larger French press, but made out of double wall stainless steel.

So once you make your coffee, it stays hot for a good amount of time. Right.

And that's kind of good. And it, I think it does well over two cups of coffee. So it's, it's convenient in that respect. Another thing that is convenient about it is the bottom of the one we bought unscrews. So it's, it is easier to clean up than the typical French press. And they have some technology they've developed in the process so that it doesn't keep steeping the coffee grounds.

Right. So you push those coffee grounds to the bottom and it holds 'em down there. Now unfortunately, what it does is also holds some water Yeah. Down in the, in the grounds that you're gonna dispose. And so when you take the bottom of that overlander apart, you take the bottom off to throw away the coffee grounds, there's quite a bit of water in there, which is, if you don't know it's gonna happen, it's really messy <laugh>. Yeah. But even when you expect it, then you've got grounds with water. And I mean, we throw 'em in the trash can, but then that's putting a lot of liquid into the trash can that can cause trouble.

And so it's just, again, it makes good coffee, it makes it easy, it holds it hot, but the cleanup cleanup is still a little messy.

So what is the solution that we really, really, really, really like?

Really, really, really like the arrow press. Yep.

And we just bought a third one.

We did just buy a third one. We wear them out because we use them so much. Actually I think we bought a fourth one.

I think you're

Right. Now both of our two original ones have, I think what actually happens is it, there's a plunger and that rubber part that plunges through the sleeve just eventually kind of wears out and it doesn't really plunge anymore. And then it starts to get a little leaky.

Yeah. So if you're not familiar, what the Arrow press is is sort of a French press. It's really, really popular all over the world. It's made out of plastic materials. So if you drop it, which we have Yeah. Done break, it's sort of two halves of, it looks like a gigantic syringe without the pointy bit

<laugh>. Sure.

And so what you do is you have your ground coughing, you put it in, and then you pour in your 190 degree water and let it sit for two minutes. And then we do what's called the inverted method. So there's a paper filter that goes into like a little basket thing on the bottom. We brew it upside down and then flip it over after two minutes and press it out.

Because if you don't do that, the way we originally learned to make it was you put that filter basket on the bottom of the sleeve, put the coffee in, pour the water in, and then you put the plunger in and back it off a little bit so that it causes a vacuum so that the water doesn't, so the coffee doesn't drip through while that two minute timer is going on. That's a, for me, remember that for, yeah. Making that, backing that up and causing that vacuum was kind of tricky for me. So now we do it, as Tony said, inverted. There's no need to cause a vacuum.

You just leave it steep in the sleeve sitting on top of the plunger. I'm not sure if this makes sense to, if you can't see it. And then you put the basket and filter on top, and when it's done timing, then you just flip it over and plunge it into a coffee cup.

It makes a great cup of coffee. It's RV proof. Right. Made outta plastic. It only makes one cup of coffee. So that's the downside. But the cleanup, so when you're done making your coffee, you unscrew the little filter basket at the bottom and just pop what amounts to like a hockey puck of grounds

Of grounds. Yeah.

Into the trash and you're pretty much done. Yeah, that's, I mean, yeah, you could go over and rinse it or wipe it, but you know what

You have to do. You almost never need to. And if I were gonna, if I'm gonna use it right away, again, I don't worry about a few grounds being stuck to the tip of the plunger because I'm just gonna use it again and it's not gonna hurt anything. So that is really nice for cleanup. And maybe, you know, if I've already got a paper towel that I'm working on, I might swipe it just a little bit, but it's really not even that necessary to wipe it or rinse it unless you know it's the last day of a trip and we're not gonna use it for a while, then I clean it up a bit.

Yeah. But it's very water efficient, makes a great cup of coffee, RV resistant, so arrow press for the win. Yeah. And you know, you can put, if you have different styles of coffee, if you want it stronger or not so strong or whatever.

Or flavored or whatever. Yeah. So that's an advantage, actually, Tony calls it a disadvantage that you only can make one cup at a time, but if you want a cup of afternoon decaf or someone's just really in the mood for some hazelnut coffee or something, you can make one cup, then clean it up, you know, get all that hazelnut flavor out for next time. So you <laugh> don't surprise yourself <laugh>. Yeah. But I see that as possibly an advantage making only one cup at a time. Because if it's just, if I'm camping by myself, I don't need a whole pot of coffee because if I make it, I will drink it.

Oh yeah. And there's no need for that. Or if it's afternoon and I just really could use an extra cup of coffee, it's great to just be able to make one cup very easily. Yep.

So we talked about water at 190 degrees. If you're boondocking, you may not have access to electricity, but most RVs have a propane stove. Right? Yeah. So there you go. There's how you get your hot water. Or you know, some vans, some of the classy vans have an induction cooktop. Right. We have a kettle that works both on the induction cooktop that we have and on the propane stove.

Yeah. So we actually have a tea kettle, which we usually use at home. And then, you know, those percolators, that blue metal with the speckles. Well I still have an old, old percolator coffee maker. Unfortunately I lost all the insides, so we can't percolate coffee. So some people are probably gonna tell us, we forgot to say that that's the best way to make coffee and making that over a campfire and everything. There's just not enough control to me in that method. Yeah. But anyway, I do have the pot and that's kind of basically what we use as a teapot is the old coffee percolator without the insides <laugh>.

It is

Beat to heck.

It is beat to heck,

I think. Isn't that your mom's old coffee?

No, no. That's one that I've been using since I was in high school.

Oh, okay. Oh my gosh. And they had metal that long ago.

I know. Wow.

So we had mentioned about freshly ground coffee being the optimal situation. <laugh>, we bought a hand grinder. Yes. That's mechanical. You know, it's, it's no power necessary other than human power. And <laugh>, the good thing is it works really, really well.

Oh, it makes great grounds. My

Word, it takes four two evers to it

Literally takes as long to grind enough beans for one cup as it does to boil the water <laugh>. Yeah.

It's crazy. But the good thing is the size of this thing is absolutely perfect for the arrow press.

Yeah. That worked out really well. I don't know if that was intentional, but the first time we tried it we're like, well let's see how much a full canister of beans will make. And it made exactly the right amount to make a cup from the arrow press. So that is the good thing. It's just you wanna plan ahead or you wanna be ready to, you know, it's like you, you twist it, you know, like, oh, it's like a, you hold it in one hand and you twist a handle with the other hand and it grinds up the beans. Yeah. And it's kind of tiring. <laugh> <laugh>.

It totally is. So me being me, I had to try it with the electric drill.

Well of course you did.

And it didn't actually work as well as I had hoped it would, but it worked. It worked. It was,

Yeah. I think going back to hand grinding, you know, now we just kind of buy in little bit smaller batches and grind the coffee when we buy it. Yeah.

For on the road.

Yeah. For on the road. When we're at home, of course we use the grinder on the counter every single day.

We have talked about our portable electric blender and you could use it as a coffee grinder. Not really the best solution, but work. And so if you're like on the road and you've been making margaritas and you need a cup of coffee or whatever, you could use that blender. Again, not optimal, but eh work. And so

I think that there are battery powered bur grinders that are intended to be, in fact, if you're old enough to remember the movie City Slickers, Billy Crystal brought, I think it was Billy Crystal brought a battery operated bird grinder and he was grinding beans in the morning and it startled the cows and started to stampede <laugh>. That was the disadvantage of using a noisy grinder to bake your coffee beans. But hey, if you want fresh ground coffee, you're going to figure out a way. Yeah. Even if you cause a stampede.

And

I know this doesn't get all the different kinds. I know our friend Robert Morales makes, uh, with that Italian little coffee maker. So there's lots of, what's the way you make your coffee?

Yeah. What's your favorite way?

We'd love to hear, you know, are we wrong? Are we right?

I'm sure we're gonna hear lots of people tell us that we left things out or that we dissed their favorite way <laugh>.

You know, we always talk about our fun and friendly stresses, camping podcast, Facebook group. And you'll never guess what this week's question is gonna be. Yeah.

We've got some other stuff to take care of before we get there, but we'll circle back to this in a moment. Yeah.

We do have other stuff to take care of, including a tip this week from our friends at RV Life Pro. RV Life Pro is our favorite trip planning software. You plan your trip on the computer and then transfer it to your phone and it has all kinds of things that you may not know. For example, elevation in grades. Yes. A lot of our veers are concerned about the elevation their root goes through and the grade of some of those steeper

Roads. Yeah. And we have gotten into situations that we didn't expect. We were fine, but we were driving along thinking, wow, this is steeper than I anticipated because I didn't really know how to find that information. So now thank goodness with RV Life I can actually look up and say, well it shows us two different pathways and one of us gonna take us up this 9% grade. Maybe we should go the long way. <laugh>. <laugh>.

Yeah. So that's one of the many, many features built into RV Life Trip Wizard. And you can get RV Life Trip Wizard at a discount. In fact, we even talked with them about a free trial. So you can give it the full once over as it were. Give it a try, see what you think. We have a code on our website in our discounts and deals section and it gives you a great opportunity to try out RV Life Pro and RV Trip Wizard, part of the RV Life Pro system.

So give it a try. And by the way, grades are color coded for easy identification. Great. So see the elevation and grade feature, uh, in action live as you try out RV Life Trip Wizard.

And I'm just gonna offer this little bit, someone reached out or actually someone commented the other day that they were trying to use it and they were struggling with something and I offered and had them message me. If you decide to download this and take the seven day free offer and you're really struggling to get get started, do not hesitate to use the Contact us and write me an email. Tell me what you're specifically trying to struggle through. Cuz I use it quite a bit and there are a lot of things I don't know. But I will, I will figure it out if you have a specific question or if you just need a little bit of help getting started, I'm happy to help.

I really do like the app and the website and so I want people to really love it as much as I do. So I'm willing to help you get started.

It's a really useful tool. And plus we also have a direct line to the folks at RV Life.

Yeah. If you have a question that I can't figure out, I can go a little higher up.

Our people can talk to their people.

There you go.

We like to have a destination each week and we don't have one to report this week because,

Because we've been kind of home for a while and actually we've been home having a really good time. Uh, really good friends of ours. Michael and Mickey loaned us their tractor. Oh yeah. And we have not wanted to leave the house because we are tracking <laugh>. Yeah.

I was up at five 30 this morning. He was on the darn tractor.

Good thing we don't have neighbors. We are building a little bit of a pad in a driveway for a better place for our trailer to park when we are at home. So we haven't been anywhere, but we are going to Grants New Mexico this weekend for, well basically for a car show. But there's also a lot of stuff to see in grants.

There absolutely is. If you don't know, I love car shows. And so I'm all excited to go to Grants New Mexico for their inaugural car show this weekend. So we'll be there

Now. Only one of us can sit on the tractor. So while Tony was outside Tractoring <laugh>

And singing

And singing, I actually wrote an article that compiled our favorite cast iron recipes that we've come up with over the years. And so I have 19 cast iron recipes you can cook over the campfire or in your RV oven or however you prefer to cook. And of course we will put a link to that in the show notes so that you can see those cast iron recipes. We've got everything from sweet and savory breakfasts and lunches and dinners and desserts. And then also, you know, some time ago we spoke to Kent Rollins, who's a cast iron campfire expert.

And there is also a link to that conversation that we had with him, if you'd like to listen to that again.

He's a just a gracious, neat guy. And so Peggy has these 19 recipes. If you've been listening long enough, you may remember during Covid we had camp boredom. Yeah. Where we got our propane fire pit. And a friend of ours made like a tripod stand that we could hang the cast iron dutch oven over the propane fire pit. Yep. And we came up with a whole bunch of these ideas then and some new ones since. Right. That's where a lot of these come from is from camp.

Right. From our own yard. <laugh> <laugh>. Yeah.

Well, you know, we couldn't really go anywhere.

We couldn't really go anywhere and we said, well this is a good time to experiment because if we mess up we'll just go in the house and find other food <laugh>. Yep. But actually, I don't think we messed up any of those recipes. Everything that we tried turned out really well. We

Like to cook because we like to eat and we

Had Yeah, for

Sure had the commercial kitchen when we had the bed and breakfast. So we've taken classes

Now. Yeah. So Tony, I think that you have a great tip for us this week as a gadget report to help with those campfire recipes. Yeah.

Another thing we learned at the b and b was in a commercial kitchen, you pretty much label everything, right? Yeah. You label it what it is when you put it in the fridge or in a container, whatever the heck it happens to be. And so we have been keeping our spices in little Tupperware containers. And the neat thing about that is we bring them into the house when we are not on the road and then we put 'em in the trailer when we are on the road and they're Tupperware.

So I mean you could kick 'em across a football goal <laugh>, and they're fine,

But we don't wanna just leave them in the camper when we're in the house because then they'll sit and they won't stay as fresh. Now we also shop at Savory Spice Spice Shop <laugh>. That was a lot of s Yeah,

It was.

Yeah. So we buy really good spices and so we want to keep them in really good fresh shape and ready for us. I also happened somehow, and I wish I could remember where, but somewhere I bought a spice rack. Yeah. That happens to be exactly the right size for those Tupperware containers. Well,

At the very least they sell like a rotating one, but, but we bring them in and out of the house. They're all labeled. They've just been great. And talking with our Tupperware lady, we have a Tupperware lady <laugh> about the spice containers. And I don't know if you know, but spices actually do diminish over time. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So especially ground spices. And they say typically within six months they're pretty much shot Tupperware claims that their spices can last for years in these little containers.

And they are pretty airtight. I mean, again, they're Tupperware. But the nice thing about going to savory spice shop, as Peggy said, you not only can get really incredible spices, I mean if you have, it's a chain. If you have one near you just go in and breathe. Oh my gosh. <laugh>. The other nice thing is you can buy kind of as much as you want. So if you want just a wee bit of a spice, you don't have to buy a huge amount. We go through chorizo spice, so we buy the biggest bag they have.

And that's neat because I take the there spice and we make chorizo out of like ground Turkey or ground pork and it's less grizzly and greasy than store

Theresa I. Love.

But it's still got that delicious chorizo flavor.

Yeah, it really does. So anyway, that's our tip of the week is the Little spice containers from Tupperware. And we have a story on our home on the web@stressescamping.com.

So are you gonna take that spice rack and put it in your RV of the week?

I could. And <laugh>, this week I took a look at a brother to our own rv, the Rockwood Mini Light 25 0 7. And this one has one feature that you either like or you don't. That is a Murphy bed. And our first Rockwood mini light had a Murphy bed and we really, really liked it. And that's where we got introduced to the RV super bag. If you have any RV bed, you know they're next to impossible to make. Well the RV super bag solves that problem.

It is a great way to make your bed because it's essentially a sleeping bag with sheets in it, for lack of a better description. But this Rockwood mini light, it's a tremendous amount of space in a relatively short package. The Murphy bed is an actual proper queen size bed. And Rockwood does by far the best Murphy beds in travel trailers, period. End of story. And again, this one is a real queen size bed counterbalanced.

When the bed is up, there's a couch there with little footrests that kick out. When the bed is down, you get a proper queen size bed. And they do have heated mattresses, which I think are kind of cool.

That's really important to me in a Murphy unit, is to have a bed that actually doesn't have a folded mattress. That just does not sound comfortable to me. <laugh> at all.

That's split in the middle is always where you don't want it. Right. Rockwood is just exceptionally good at details. And that's why we have one. We're on our third one. Right. Plus we really should be on our second one. But <laugh>, you know those of you who followed for a while? No, it happened last summer. We got rear ended and totaled one of 'em. Yeah. But for example, there are three seating choices in the slide, one of which is a U-shape dinette. While that U-shaped dinette, rather than those horrible poles that most travel trailers have to hold up the table, this one's on a collapsible stand and it's freestanding.

So you can drag that table over to the little couch by where the bed is. You can take it outside, you can use it at the dinette, you can use it for food prep. And it's those kind of details.

They put high performance fans. Rockwood does their own vacuum lamination in their own chop. It's a double assl wall. They use torsion axle suspension, they use Goodyear endurance tires with tire pressure monitors on and on and on. There's just a lot of things that that company does. Well, I really like this 25 0 7 s now. You know, not every RV is, no RV is perfect for that matter. And one of the silly things about it, a windshield and a Murphy bed, come on.

You know, that's, that's crazy. I don't understand that. I don't know why they keep doing that, but they do. So that's, you know, little stuff like that is like, come on guys. But whatever. It is what it is. Since we had our Murphy bed, Rockwood, which was a 2016 model, they've really changed the whole Murphy bed system such that now they have a full pass through storage as well as two little storage compartments on either side. Plus in the slide there's a tall vertical storage compartment and there's access to underneath the dinette from outside.

So it's just a neat trailer well thought through. And of course our review is right there@stressescamping.com.

Excellent. So last week we had, as we always do a question of the week and last week, I wanted to know, do you have a tradition that helps kick off Summer? It was Memorial Day weekend. That's kind of the unofficial or official beginning of summer. And I was just curious about any traditions. A weird thing happened to me. I could not access those comments.

That was weird

On a browser, on my laptop. However, I was able to find a little pull down menu on the app on my phone that worked. So I'm not sure what's going on. That's very strange. Hopefully that's only happening to me

Off Facebook.

Yeah, Facebook. Anyway, so how do you traditionally kick off? Summer, Kathleen goes on a two week road trip. William makes his own key lime pie. And so wait, what? I would like to know where he lives so we can visit for the next kickoff <laugh>.

Right. I love, you know, when we went to Key West a few years ago, we actually went on a quest. We did indeed the best key. You know, some of you are hikers or bicyclers or whatever adventure we go and find the best. Like chili or coffee or key lime pie

Or ice cream or beer, ice cream or beer

Or barbecue.

We travel on our stomachs. <laugh> Mike. Uh, I'm not sure this is really a tradition, but he sweats <laugh>,

Don't we all?

Steven raises the flag on Memorial Day at the lake and then heads north with his microlight. Kimberly was, well she did have a tradition to take the kids to camp for a week at Jellystone, but they were down a vehicle this year, so they did some tent camping instead. Which is also a good tradition. Yeah,

It's intense.

Yeah. Maria likes to leave Arizona for four or five months. <laugh>.

Yeah. That's not a bad decision.

Yeah, that sounds like a good summer tradition is to leave Arizona

<laugh>. Although surprisingly Arizona has a lot of different elevations in Well sure,

Yeah. Sort

Of microclimates.

Yeah, that's true.

So not all of Arizona's hot, hot, hot in the summer. Pat

Is going to escape the a hundred degree temperatures by camping on the coast. David pulls out the jet skis. Engel says, since I live in San Francisco, I plan camping trips to places where it's a little warmer. <laugh>, you know,

Isn't that Mark Twain said? The coldest winter. Coldest winter I

Winter

I've

Ever spent spent with a summer. Summer I spent in San Francisco. Yep.

<laugh>.

Scott Burns the stick pile and makes the first s'mores of the year. Cheryl said these days it's working their way towards Salida for some harmony time. That's their daughter and some time with friends. And then at the end of June they'll hit the road for a really big trip. Paul's tradition is laying in the sun by the pool.

That's a good one.

Yeah. Jerry said it used to be getting the air conditioner up and running when they were in Northern California and going on camping trips. But now they live in coastal Oregon and they look forward to warm sunny days. <laugh>

Like that San Francisco thing.

That's right. So she is actually planning, instead of escaping heat, she's actually planning to escape the tourist. Cuz of course we all wanna flock to the coast during the summer. Right? Yeah. Cause that's where it's cooler. Mike says he lives in Phoenix, so, uh, there's a lot of cursing involved in his traditions. <laugh>.

Oh, it's where it's

Hot. Connie taught us something and said that listening to the crickets chirping and determining the temperature by how fast they are chirping. Yeah, I think I kind of knew that in the back of my mind somewhere. But that was a really good, interesting thing to learn that you can crickets chirp in, in association with the temperature. Hmm. Bill goes to the national cemetery to pay his respects to his father and other related veterans and then has a barbecue. That's Memorial Day, right? That's what we should be doing. Yeah. Gary's new tradition is to travel to Albuquerque East Mountains and look for a house and then have beers in Corrales with some crazy people named Tony and Peggy, I think.

I can't imagine what he's talking about. I think that's a great tradition. Although if they find a house, that won't be a tradition anymore. Cuz they'll already live here. Maybe then they'll have

To, well they may still be having beers with us.

Maybe then they'll have to kick off summer by going back to where they live. Now, <laugh>, Larry's tradition is getting the trailer to a place in the Colorado Mountains and being able to wear shorts.

Oh yeah.

And speaking of shorts, Michael puts his on until winter arrives and then takes them off and puts pants back on. And since he lives in California and now the drought is over, he can actually wash them once in a while. <laugh>. Oh

Man. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Michael. Michael is the travel trailer guy on YouTube.

Yes, indeed. Great

Videos. Well, of course this week our question relates to our topic. How do you make coffee on the road?

Right? This is your chance to tell us that if we got it right, if we got it wrong, what we forgot, what we don't know about. Maybe there's a great way that we haven't learned yet,

Perhaps. So you can answer that at our fun and friendly Stressless Camping podcast, Facebook group. Whew. Long name, but really nice folks.

Really nice folks. Great answers. Even if I can't always read them. <laugh>.

Indeed.

Did you know that we have a once a week newsletter?

Yeah. And it's absolutely free. And further, if you're not signed up yet, here's a little inside tip. You might be the winner of this month's prize if you do sign up. That's right. So we are giving away a tire changing kit from our friends at the air gear store.

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We're just gonna use that to keep up with you. That That's right. And giveaway prizes. Yeah.

Apparently. Yeah. Now we're gonna do a monthly giveaway for a while, see how that goes. But yeah, of course, while you're on the website, you can find the notes for this episode, episode 2 0 5 on the podcastPage@stresslesscamping.com, where you can also find our discounts and deals for the best deals on the things you'll need on your Stressless Camping adventure. And if you've got a great deal for our audience, we are happy to hear what you've got

For sure. And then of course, once you've spent all that time on the website and you've seen all those great places to see, and you've read all those recipes and read all those reviews, <laugh>. And if you're still awake after all that <laugh>,

Well you're drinking coffee,

Right? Well, I don't mean cuz it's boring. I mean, cuz there's a lot to see. Oh, <laugh>. But if you're not done with Stressless camping, you can use those links at the top right. And jump off to the social places like Facebook and Instagram and yeah, Twitter,

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And as we always say, a review will help others find this podcast. And the more listeners we have, the more we can continue to get the best guests for you. So if you haven't left a review yet,

We sure appreciate if you will. Yeah. And if you've already written a review, don't forget that. It's also very helpful. If you see something that you like on our website or in our Facebook posts, go ahead and share those with your friends. That is also very helpful.

Yeah,

Sharing just really helps quite a bit. And of course it's free and hopefully you are providing value to other RVers as we hope we do for you. Right. And with that, we really appreciate your being here once again this week. And happy, happy camping,

Camping. We hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next Stressless camping adventure. We're honored by your reviews on Apple Podcasts, which helps others find us too. Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss out on the adventure. And we look forward to your joining us next week. Until then, happy camping.