Category: food

fun at the state fair

If you’re from Texas (or are Texas Transplants like Arnavick and me), you know that the state fair is kind of a big deal. I am a huge fair and festival junkie, and the State Fair of Texas is the mother of all fairs ‘round these parts. From food that shouldn’t be fried but is, to carnival rides, to auto shows, to the Midway carnival games, to Fletcher’s corn dogs, to one very massive ferris wheel and of course, Big Tex, the State Fair of Texas has something for everyone. 

Arnavick’s sisters were in town with their daughters and a friend this weekend, and we had so much fun roaming around Fair Park with them! And we even saw three Airstreams and a Shasta trailer! #camperfriends

We tried the fried frito pie bites and the fajita fries, and both were pretty good! We of course rode the ferris wheel (the Texas Star), and Arnavick rode a few rides with his niece and sister, for which I happily held purses and spectated. I’m not a carnival ride person – I’ve ridden enough roller coasters in my life, thankyouverymuch. We also went into the green house, which was surprisingly cool temperature wise and not surprisingly cool because of all the greenery. The weather was sunny and in the high eighties, which is pretty nice this time of year for Texas. 

We also got to see the Redwood Log House, which is right up our alley, and gave our family a chance to see what size of house we’re going to be living in once Rosy the Argosy is done!

I didn’t get pics of everything, but here a a few highlights from the day:


Anyone else make it out to the fair in your state this year? What are some traditions that your state holds?

PS – if you haven’t had pineapple soft serve – stop what you’re doing and go get some! So good!

a hot topic – ovens

^^^ See what I did there?! *winks and nudges Internet with elbow*

We recently pulled out the kitchen in Rosy the Argosy…

…and it got me wondering, “Do we really, truly, ABSOLUTELY neeeed an oven”? The Great Debate, I call this. 

Let me back track a little bit. Once upon a time, three years ago, a girl moved into a quaint little apartment. The apartment was small and suited the girl’s few needs. Though this girl believes she has an eye for detail, she somehow completely missed the fact that this apartment did not have a MICROWAVE. 

Obviously, the girl is me, and obviously, my first instinct was to panic, because who in the heck can live a normal life without a mickey to heat up her mac n’ cheese leftovers?!

Somehow, three years later, I’m still alive and breathing, even without the modern convenience of concentrated, high powered heat waves to zap my food into a palateable temperature. ‘Vick moved in two years ago, and has also survived sans-microwave, thank goodness. We both grew up with microwaves in our homes, so neither of us had done much reheating in an oven or on the stove before. Google has been our friend in these trying times.

So, now that we’ve brought ourselves current, let’s talk about this oven thing…

Ovens take up so much space! Our range is small, and yet it still seems to take over a lot of valuable real estate in the kitchen area. When you’re planning on living in 200 sq ft, space becomes such a precious commodity!

This isn’t a great angle (or a great photo at all for that matter), but hopefully this gives you a general idea of the size of it.

When I’m not letting chain restaurants do my cooking for me, I do a lot of cooking on the stove. Really, the only time I regularly use the oven is for heating/reheating pizza (because pizza is life). And the occasional batch of cookies. And it’s great for storing a Costco rotisserie chicken for about an hour if I’m not starving, but will want to eat soon, and still want it to be hot.

But, is all of that enough for us to take up so much precious space in our little abode? Can we live without pizza? Of course not, let me try again – are there other ways to make pizza? Would we be solid with just a space saving induction cooktop? If we can live without a microwave, certainly we could live without an oven, right?

So talk to me, campers. To oven, or not to oven? That is the question. What’s your setup like? What are the pros and cons? What do we do?!