After a one night stay at a KOA in Jennings, FL we continued our journey toward home with three nights at Tropical Palms RV Resort in Kissimmee.
Welcome to our new RV. Come on in!
Cooking in Small Spaces
We finally had those yummy burgers seared in a cast iron pan, topped with Peter Luger’s sauce, with sautéed mushrooms and sugar snaps, and Air Fried potatoes.
We had arrived in Jennings rather late in the day because we had to pick up a tow dolly at our previous stop in Greensboro, GA. So all we really did there was relax, watch some TV and enjoy the burgers we had planned on having a couple nights before. Cooking in the RV is a breeze. True it is a very small space, but with a little planning it is easy to create restaurant quality meals in a tiny kitchen. In order to have everything done at the same time, I cooked the veggies first and then transferred them to a microwave safe bowl. Then, in the same cast iron pan, I cooked our burgers. In the meantime the fries were cooking in our new Breville Smart Oven Air. Once the burger and fries were about 90 seconds from done I cover the bowl holding the veggies with a damp paper towel and nuked them so they were nice and hot. Everything sure tasted great!
And speaking of Cooking in Small Spaces… If you travel in an RV, live on a boat or just have a tiny kitchen and think you can’t cook great meals there, be on the lookout for my upcoming classes that will show you how easy it is to cook in small spaces! If this class would be of interest to you, please let me know in the comments section.
Tropical Palms RV Resort, Kissimmee, FL
All set up and now it’s time to relax for our 3 days at Tropical Palms RV Resort
Tropical Palms was the perfect place for us to stay for the last leg of our trip home. It was only about 3 1/2 hours away and had so much to offer inside the gated park and within walking distance that we never had to unhitch our car.
It’s 5 o’clock somewhere! The Bloody Mary was nice, spicy and thoroughly enjoyed poolside.
Once we got the RV all set up we started exploring the resort. They have miniature golf, shuffleboard, bocce ball, a fitness center and a beautiful pool complete with snack bar. They even have a little convenience store, which was helpful because we needed to pick up some bottle water. Our last stop on our exploration was the pool area. Once inside we headed straight for the snack bar for a cocktail. Nothing says vacation better than drinks by the pool. Our Bloody Marys were so good! Spicy, just like we like them with the exact right amount of Frank’s Red Hot. But what made them stand out was the pickled green beans garnish. So good we asked for extra green beans on our second round.
The beautiful pool at Tropical Palms RV Resort
The weather was a bit chilly for us Floridians on day 2 at Tropical Palms. But it was the perfect temperature to lounge by the pool, enjoy some lunch and read our books. Steve finished yet another James Patterson and I got about a third of the way through a new cookbook Wine Country Table, that I will tell you more about in another post. When it got too chilly we headed back to the RV for dinner, vino and some TV.
Last Day of 2019
The Traveling Locavores enjoying Old Town in Kissimmee Florida
We slept like logs because somehow this trip made all of the stress of everyday life just melt away. It was the last day of 2019. Another decade was biting the dust. The weather was glorious, so after breakfast we decided to venture outside the park for a nice long walk. The awesome thing was that Old Town was literally a two block walk outside the gate. We strolled in and out of several shops and even had a custom leather key ring made for our RV keys. The crisp air and exercise made us hungry so we stopped for hotdogs at Nathan’s.
And then we watched a whole bunch of crazy people on rides that seemed death defying to us. There were even street performers. One was a juggler and the other was a roving piano player who sang while her piano moved all over. We even got to see a classic car show with cars that brought back quite a few great memories of our youth. By the time we got back to Tropical Palms RV Resort we were ready to just relax by the pool and do some more reading. Our day had been a delightfully full one, but it was far from over.
New Years Eve Dinner was luscious Filet Mignon with Sautéed Mushrooms and Shallots, Peter Luger’s Sauce and accompanied by Baked Potatoes with Sour Cream and a fabulous bottle of bubbly.
We could enjoy the Old Town New Years Eve fireworks right from our door!
To ring in the New Year I had planned a special meal complete with bubbly. I made cast iron seared Filet Mignon with lots of sautéed mushrooms and shallots, Peter Luger’s Steak Sauce, and Baked Potatoes with Butter and Sour Cream. And for dessert we polished off the fabulous Rum Cake that our friend Linda had given us. It was the perfect meal to end 2019 and welcome 2020. We watched Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Years Eve to see the ball drop and had our own private fireworks show right outside our RV door courtesy of Old Town!
First Day of 2020
One thing for sure we did not want the trip to ever end. But we have lots of work to do before we can travel full time. So alas, we drove homeward and parked the RV where we will store it until we can become full timers in the Spring.
Don’t forget to let us know in the comments if you would be interest in taking our upcoming Cooking in Small Spaces online classes!
