RV Cooking Show #4 - Three ALL-NEW "Qwik-and-Easy" RV Kitchen Recipes! (Special Report)

It’s three all-new RV kitchen-friendly, easy-fix meal (and dessert) ideas! This time around, Jessie’s cooking up classic Olive Garden-inspired Italian Chicken, a savory, Southern-style Mississippi Chicken, and a quick & easy Instant Pot Dump Cake for dessert! 🍰 Take a look, and be prepared to have your appetites whetted! Of course, all three recipes are down below!

1. Slow Cooker Olive Garden Chicken

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 (16 oz) bottle of Olive Garden Italian Dressing
½ cup of grated parmesan cheese
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 - 2 tbsp. Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Coat a slow cooker with cooking spray. 

Place chicken in a slow cooker. 

In a separate bowl, pour in the full bottle of dressing. 

Add parmesan cheese, lemon juice, Italian seasoning, and a pinch of salt and pepper. 

Whisk to blend together. 

Pour the contents of the bowl over the chicken. 

Flip chicken to coat both sides. 

Cover and cook on High for 3 ½ hours or Low for 7 hours. 

Serve chicken with a salad or a side of rice or pasta.

2. Mississippi Chicken

Ingredients

3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 packet au jus gravy mix
1 packet (or 2 tbsp.) ranch dressing mix
½ cup (1 stick) salted butter
½ of a jar pepperoncini peppers (or to taste)

Preparation

Add 3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts to the bottom of the slow cooker.
Sprinkle 1 packet au jus gravy mix and 1 packet ranch dressing mix on top of the chicken.
Then, top with 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter and 6 pepperoncini peppers.
Cover and cook on Low for 6 - 8 hours in a slow cooker.  The chicken will produce its own juices, so you don't have to add any other liquid to this (but if you’re using an Instant Pot, add ¼ cup of water, and set the manual pressure to 8 minutes).
When it's ready, take a couple of forks and shred the chicken, then serve!

3. Instant Pot Dump Cake

Ingredients

Two 20 oz. cans of cherry pie filling
½ box yellow cake mix
4 tbsp. butter
1 cup water
1 tbsp. sugar

Preparation

Spray a 7” cake pan or springform pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Add your two cans of cherry pie filling to the bottom of the pan.
Sprinkle the cake mix over the cherry pie filling so there is no pie filling showing.
Cut your cold butter into small bits and place on top of the dry cake mix. Set aside.
Pour one cup of water into the bottom of your Instant Pot, and place your trivet inside.
Cover your dump cake with aluminum foil, sealing the edges tightly.
Place the pan onto the trivet and put the Instant Pot lid on top.
Put the pressure release valve to sealing and press the manual or pressure cook button and set the timer for 25 minutes.
Allow the Instant Pot to do a natural release for 5 minutes, then release do a quick release if there is any more steam to let out. 
Take off the Instant Pot lid and carefully remove the pan from the Instant pot. Remove the foil and sprinkle with sugar.
Place in the oven and broil for 3 minutes on high, or until the top becomes crisp.
Serve with ice cream or whipped cream if desired.

🎥 Our Video Gear 2022: Cameras, Microphones & Other Tech-Toys! - (Special Report)

You know how men are... we love our tech-toys!! 😄 As requested by viewers, here's a run-down of the cameras and other gear we use to make our travel vlogs, cooking shows and other video fun we make here on the channel! 

Three ALL-NEW "Qwik-and-Easy" RV Kitchen Recipes! (Special Report)

Crock Pots, Instant Pots, pressure cookers, slow cookers…  Oh, the culinary adventures we RVers can have with these fantastic little appliances!  If it weren’t for our Instant Pot, we’d be eating a lot more peanut butter sandwiches on our camping trips!  Check out our latest YouTube video, in which we show you (another) three of our favorite “qwik-and-easy” recipes for some pretty hearty dinners.  You can find the recipes we demonstrate down below, too!

Easy Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Sliders

Ingredients

3-4 large chicken breasts (about 1.5 lbs)	1 (12 oz) bottle of Frank’s Buffalo Wing Sauce
½ packet ranch seasoning mix (about 2 Tbsp)	2 Tbsp butter
Rolls for serving

Preparation

Spray your slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray.  Place the chicken, buffalo sauce, and sprinkle in ranch seasoning mix.  Cook on low for 4-5 hours or high for about 3 hours.  Once chicken is fully cooked, use a couple of forks to shred the meat on a cutting board, then return the chicken to the crockpot with the juices.  Add 2 Tbsp of butter to the crockpot and allow it to melt: stir to combine.  Serve on rolls and drizzle with a little ranch dressing or blue cheese crumbles.

Instant Pot Spaghetti

Ingredients

1 lb. ground beef (or turkey)	¼ cup onion diced
1 tsp. garlic minced	1 jar spaghetti sauce (24 oz.)
2 cups water	8 oz. spaghetti noodles
2 Tbsp. olive oil	1 tsp salt (optional), or add to taste

*I do not recommend doubling this recipe.  Make two separate batches if you want more.

Preparation

1. Put Instant Pot on saute.

2. Add olive oil, onions, and garlic and cook until onions are softened a bit.

3. Add ground beef and cook until pink is gone.  Drain grease or leave in, your choice.

4. Turn Instant Pot to manual, high pressure.

5. Add jar of spaghetti sauce, water, break noodles into thirds and push noodles into liquid until they are covered, but do not stir (I add the 2 cups of water to the sauce jar and shake it to get any remaining sauce out, before I add the water to the Instant Pot).

6. Secure lid, close steam valve and set to 10 minutes (if you want more al dente set for a bit less time.

7. Quick release when it beeps, stir and serve.

Easy Crockpot Potato Soup

Ingredients

1 30-oz bag of frozen diced hash browns	1 32-oz box of chicken broth
1 can of cream of chicken soup (10 oz)	1 pkg cream cheese (8 oz, not fat free)
3 oz bacon bits	1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Put the hash browns in the crockpot.  Add in the chicken broth, cream of chicken soup and half of the bacon bits.  Add a pinch of salt and pepper.  Cook on low for 7-8 hours or until potatoes are tender.  An hour before serving, cut the cream cheese into small cubes.  Place the cubes in the crockpot.  Mix a few times throughout the hour before serving.  Once the cream cheese is completely mixed in, it’s ready to serve.  Top with cheddar cheese and some additional bacon bits.

UPDATE! Fall/Winter 2020 Travel Plans... or Lack Thereof... 😢

Hey, Happy Campers out there! Smokey here, with an update on our adventuring... or to be more accurate, our likely LACK of adventuring.  The COVID-19 "pandemic" has changed the world more than any of us probably ever imagined it would, and it's certainly affected our travelling plans this entire year.  Beyond that, it has cost me my job, which of course, also puts a very-large crimp on any travelling we might want to do.  I've been out of work for more than four months now, and as several million other job-seekers out there can attest, new opportunities are mighty hard to find these days.  Thankfully, Jessie continues to be gainfully employed and will keep us from having to live in a cardboard box under an overpass... for as long as she can!

Nonetheless, we will try our darndest to continue honoring the philosophy that drives our YouTube channel, that adventure can be found close to home.  We have a weekend at Lake Hartwell State Park booked for next weekend, and while circumstances may prevent us from going, we hope to still make that trip.  With a little luck, we might be able to get in another weekend outing somewhere before Thanksgiving, and we also might whip up a video or two, like a product review or a "How-To," before the year is out.  Who knows?

The two BIG favors we ask of all of you out there in "Noob Nation" are 1) to please keep following us on social media for updates and other tidbits when we have them to share, and 2) support our channel by going through our "Shop" page here on the blog when you shop on Amazon (https://www.livenlearnrv.com/p/store.html).  You can purchase ANYTHING on Amazon from that point, not just camping gear!  As long as you begin your surfing on Amazon from our link, we'll get a tiny commission on anything you may buy, and those pennies really help us keep the channel going.  

Enough gloom-and-doom!  We love hearing from all of you out there and seeing what fun YOU'RE having, so again, please, please keep us a part of your camping/RVing YouTube viewing and social media interaction!  Surely, better days are ahead for all of us, and we can all get back to doing some more-regular Livin' and Learnin'! 

Mission 020 - Petersburg Corps of Engineers Campground

Our tour of Lake Thurmond’s camping spots continues! Petersburg Campground is our first experience at a Corps of Engineers campground, and how nice it turned out to be! Join us as we spend a weekend discovering how well the Army engineers maintain this facility, and seeing more of Thurmond Dam than we ordinarily do. We also take a lovely boat ride around the lake, soaking up some desperately-needed lake breezes! 

Mission 017 - Baker Creek State Park | RV CAMPING | Lake Strom Thurmond

Thanks to the COVID-19 scare ruining our (and most everybody's) longer-distance travels this spring, it seems our camping "theme" of 2020 is turning into a tour of they myriad parks and campgrounds in a fifty-mile radius of our house!  In this video, we visit Baker Creek State Park, another of the many RV camping spots up and down the Savannah River. Come along and see what we discovered at this quiet little boating and biking haven on the South Carolina side of Lake Thurmond... not that we had the chance to do either of those things this particular weekend...

RV UPGRADES! Oxygenics Fury RV shower head installation! - (Special Report)

Looking for something to do during the "Lockdown?" Try changing out the stock shower head in your RV!  Adding an Oxygenics Fury RV shower head is one of quickest and easiest modifications you can make to your camper! (...and let's face it - if it wasn't easy, we'd never attempt it!)  Take a look us as we do the installation and try it out! 

10-Question RV Quarantine Challenge | 😷 COVID "Clamp-Down" - (Special Report)

The “COVID Clamp-Down” drags on, and it seems another topic of conversation has been making its way around the YouTube RVer community. We were nominated to take part in the Ten-Question RV Quarantine Challenge, so we jumped right in! Join us as we run through the list of questions passed along to us by the Traveling Buckeyes (https://www.youtube.com/TravelingBuckeyes) and hear how we've been managing during this period of... oh, how should be describe it... "enforced solitude...?"

RV SETUP TUTORIAL | How to Connect to Campsite Water 💦 - (Special Report)

We can't travel, but we can still make videos! While we’re all being victimized by the “COVID Clamp-Down,” we can use this down-time to learn a thing or two about the camping process… right? Take water, for instance. You’re newly-arrived at your campsite - the first thing to do after unhitching is to start hooking up to utilities (assuming you’re not dry-camping, that is). If you’re “glamping,” connecting to water and power is something you’ll want to learn how to do pretty quickly, and in this video, we’ll show you the process we follow and the products we use to get fresh water into the Aluminum Falcon.

UPDATE! How We're Being Hit by the "COVID Clamp-Down"

Howdy, Happy Campers out there! Jessie here again with an update about what's happening with our travel plans these days.  Let's face it - just about none of us anywhere are camping during these trying times lately, and I imagine that very few of us are happy about it.  One week from today (as I'm writing this), Smokey and I were supposed to be pulling into Fort DeSoto Campground down in St. Petersburg, Florida for our only long trip of the year.  We were oh-so looking forward to taking the new Aluminum Falcon on a lengthy adventure and finding lots of new and exciting things to see and do, and to make lots of video content to show all of you.

Well, so much for that!  You all know that I'm an educator (an elementary school librarian, to be precise), and with schools everywhere shut down for the duration of this health crisis, I've been working extra hard preparing materials and arranging things for our students to engage in some Socially-Distant learning.  Smokey being an administrator in healthcare means he's been working just as hard, if not harder, than usual, with no end in sight.  Even if Florida's governor hadn't closed things down, chances are that neither of us would've been able to justify leaving our jobs in early April to take the trip as planned. 

Certainly, we want everyone everywhere to be healthy and safe, and to not take unnecessary chances.  We're human, though, so we can't help but be disappointed that current circumstances are preventing all of us from living our lives.  Not only do we enjoy the few chances we get to go RV camping, we also enjoy making videos of our experiences to share with you, and we are thrilled beyond description that you seem to enjoy them.  Sadly, there won't be as many of them over the coming weeks, however, and that just kills us!  

We'll try to do a few things on our YouTube channel in April and May to let you know that we're still out here and still wanting to keep you engaged.  Please don't forget about us while, like you probably are, we're all cooped up at home waiting for this crisis to end, and please keep following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, 'cause we'll still be posting there!  We're hoping that our next scheduled trip, to Baker Creek State Park in mid-May, will still happen, and we can get back to doing some Livin' and Learnin'!  Stay healthy, everybody!

FINALLY! See the "Aluminum Falcon," version 2.0!!

At long last, we present the Aluminum Falcon 2.0! (Well, to be fair, we've only owned the thing for eight weeks, so give us a break! 🙄) This much earlier-than-expected upgrade is almost surely all the RV we'll ever need... unless we hit the lottery or something! Take a look out our newest home-away-from-home, and see how Forest River is outfitting this "couples coach" model, which sits at the higher end in their Rockwood Mini Lite lineup. Now THIS is Glamping!!!

Mission 014 (Pt. 2) - "First Day Hike 2020" at Huntington Beach State Park

Happy Sunday to all of you out there in "Noob Nation!" It's New-Video Sunday! In our latest YouTube video, we'll show you how we started the first day of the new year - by heading down to Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet, SC for First Day Hike 2020! Ranger Mike Walker led almost a hundred hikers on a two-mile walk through the sand dunes and salt marshes of the Sandpiper Pond Trail, teaching us lots of things about the delicate environment and the wildlife and plant life that live there. Take a look at our day discovering yet another of South Carolina's terrific state parks! (Oh, and we'll tell you a little more about the NEW Aluminum Falcon...)

Mission 014 (Pt. 1) - Myrtle Beach State Park & Brookgreen Gardens

Christmas vacation!! Well, the week AFTER Christmas, anyway. Off we go to Myrtle Beach State Park, South Carolina's first state park! We were smart enough to make our first visit to this great little island of wilderness in the heart of the Grand Strand during the off-season, so as to increase our chances of having some peace and quiet. We'll also show you the "Night of a Thousand Candles" out at beautiful Brookgreen Gardens, and even leave you hanging about a major life change that happened to us on this trip! Gotta get you to come back for the NEXT video, right...?

Ten RV Lifestyle Questions Challenge! (Special Report)

Have you seen the current YouTube Camping craze??? Well, these videos probably aren't as "viral" as those Ice-Bucket-over-Your-Head Challenges from a few years ago, but at least the Ten RV Lifestyle Questions Challenge doesn't require a towel and a change of clothes! In our latest YouTube video, we jump into the fad and provide the answers to the questions that all of you our there have been dying to ask! (Just play along, folks - we have fragile egos...)

Campground Review - Lake Greenwood State Park, Ninety-Six, SC

One year of RV ownership!! To mark the occasion, we returned to the site of our “shakedown cruise,” our very first RV camping trip last September (2018), Lake Greenwood State Park! Since we’re a little more comfortable with the camping process this time around, we devoted a little more time to our surroundings so we could share our opinions with you. Take a look at our latest video over on the YouTube channel, as we take you around the park and show you its high points… and low points… so you can decide if you’d like to see this lovely camping destination for yourself!

Furrion Vision S Backup Camera - Unboxing & Installation (Special Report)

Haven't all we towable-RV owners struggled with backing our rigs into spaces at one time or another? Being able to see everything you need to see from the driver's seat with a large trailer behind you is always a challenge, and having electronic "eyes" on the rear of your rig can certainly benefit you. In our latest YouTube video, we'll install one such product - the Furrion Vision S Vehicle Observation System. Take a look and see for yourself just how easy this process is!

Mission 009 (Part 1) - Tallulah Gorge State Park

Our newest YouTube video is up and running! After climbing out of Tallulah Gorge, we felt the urge to shout "DELIVERANCE!" to the Heavens, as we then totally understood how Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight felt at the end of that movie! Well, maybe we exaggerate a little... Take a look at our visit to Tallulah Gorge State Park in the Georgia mountains, where we foolishly jumped into the infamous "Gorge Trail Hike." Rushing waters, jagged boulders and broken toes all conspired to wear us down, but we conquered the trail and lived to tell the tale! 

Mission 008 - Calhoun Falls State Park

Another camping trip, another rainy weekend… but, what? You think we’d stay home? Nope! Calhoun Falls State Park is a lovely, secluded park on the shores of Lake Russell, where (in dryer weather) fishing and boating are the activities of choice. Despite the rain, we’ll show you both campgrounds in the park, as well as the almost-two-mile hiking trail and the very-friendly “wildlife” that may visit your camper!

Take a look at our latest entry over on the YouTube channel!

The "Falcon" Gets it's First Bath! (and other mundane chores...)

"If you wanna have the fun, you've gotta put in the work!" So said a Wise Old Man, once upon a time, and it's very, very true when it comes to RV ownership. In this video, we run up to "Docking Bay 94" to give the Aluminum Falcon his first real bath, specifically cleaning and treating the roof, along with some other little fix-it projects. Oh, and we finally fly that darn drone a little, too...

Campground Review - Ocean Grove RV Resort, St. Augustine, FL

Our "epic" adventure to St. Augustine finally comes to an end.  Ocean Grove RV Resort was our "home base" during our week-long stay there, and we could not have been more pleased with it! In our newest video, we show you the whole place, including our campsite, the poolside bar, the "turtle pond" and the lovely marshland views at the back of the resort. See our review!