Chicken Cheddar Quesadilla

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 5-8 minutes | Serves 1

• ½ cup chopped or shredded, cooked Rotisserie chicken
• 2 corn tortillas (non GMO brand like Margarita’s or try making your own from scratch)
• ½ cup shredded Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar cheese (1# cheese equals 4 cups shredded)
• 1-2 Tbls. Frontera brand salsa

Heat a Lodge griddle or cast iron skillet on medium heat. Put chicken in the pan and cook one to two minutes to just heat it. Remove from pan and place one tortilla on pan. Cook 1 minute and then layer with grated cheese, chicken, and salsa. Place remaining tortilla on top. Cook about 2 minutes or until cheese starts melting. Press down on tortilla to “glue” it to the bottom tortilla with melted cheese. Using a spatula, turn quesadilla over and cook until cheese is melted through, about 3 minutes. Remove from pan and top with your favorite salsa, chopped cilantro or sour cream-or all three! Cut in half and enjoy.

Strawberry Shrub

Prep time: 10 minutes plus a day to rest | Cooking Time: none

• 4 cups washed, hulled, sliced strawberries (overripe or blemished fruit is okay)
• 4 cups sugar
• 3 to 4 cups of Bragg’s organic apple cider vinegar
• 1 bottle of Seltzer water or create bubbly water an eco friendly Soda Stream

Place berries in a non-reactive bowl or dish and toss with sugar. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours and up to 48 hours. Using a fine mesh strainer or a cheese cloth lined colander, strain the sugar-juice off of the berries into a clean bowl. Press the berries to extract as much as possible. There may be some un-dissolved sugar in the berries. Add all of this to the sugar-juice as it will eventually dissolve. Discard the berries. Add 3 cups of vinegar to the sugar-juice and stir well. You now have shrub! Taste for tartness. It should be both sweet and tart. You can make a test drink with 2 Tbls. of shrub and 8 ounces of seltzer water. Stir and see if you like the taste. If you would like a bit more sourness, add additional vinegar. Store shrub in a sterilized glass jar or bottle in the refrigerator. You can use it to make drinks with, by just adding seltzer water or add it to your favorite cocktail, or create your own delicious cocktail recipe. It is also delicious drizzled on fruit salads or as an ice cream topping.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Basic Grilled Pizza Recipe

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cooking Time: 15 minutes | Serves 2-4

• 8 ounces pizza dough, in a ball (most pre-made dough is sold in 1 pound packages which will make 2 pizzas)
• ½ cup polenta (coarse cornmeal) or grits
• ¼ cup California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil

Toppings:

• ½ to 1 cup of sauce (your favorite red sauce, pesto or 1 cup canned tomato sauce mixed with 1 clove garlic minced, ½ tsp salt and 1 tsp. dried oregano)
• 1 cup grated cheese
• 4 to 8 ounces of fully cooked sausage, pepperoni or meat of your choice
• 1 cup sliced, cooked vegetables *
• ¼ cup parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbls. fresh herbs

As far as toppings and combinations, your choices are endless. Here are a few tips when making grilled pizzas. Most large grocery stores sell pre-made pizza dough that is inexpensive and convenient. It is usually sold in 1 pound packages, which are best cut in half when prepared on the grill. Many restaurants will even sell you pizza dough if you ask. Some will even sell you sauce and cheese to go with it! Nationwide, Trader Joe’s is a great place to find dough and they often have a few varieties to choose from. Make sure to fully cook all meat toppings. *Saute or grill vegetables before topping your pizzas, as the cooking time is so quick for the crust that the vegetables will not cook once on top of the pizza. Have all of your ingredients ready to go and at your side and most importantly make sure you let the dough come up to room temperature before you begin grilling.

On a gas grill

Heat grill on high with the lid closed for 10 minutes. Then reduce heat on all burners to medium. While the grill is heating, sprinkle your work surface with the polenta. Roll out the dough. There are many ways to do this. You can use a rolling pin, you can press the dough from the middle out or my preference is to stretch it with my hands and let it’s own weight pull it into form. The edges should be slightly thicker than the center. You will want the dough to be 1/8 to ¼ inch thick. You should aim for an organically shaped piece of dough roughly 12 inches in diameter. The shape of your grill should determine the shape of your pizza. Brush both sides generously with the olive oil. Pick up the dough by the two corners closest to you and in one motion, lay it flat on the grill from back to front. Close the grill and grill 3 minutes. Check the crust and if needed, continue grilling a few minutes until the bottom is marked and nicely browned. Remove from grill and place on polenta sprinkled rimless baking sheet or pizza peel-grilled side UP. Be sure to close grill and crank heat to high to get it nice and hot. Spread sauce, pesto or olive oil on the cooked side of the pizza, sprinkle with cheese and top with meat and vegetables. Switch the grill to indirect heat if you have a 3 or 4 burner grill by turning off the middle 1 or two burners and keeping the outside burners on high heat. If you have two burners, turn one off and the other on high. You will then place the pizza over the burners that are off, and use the indirect heat to finish the cooking of the pizza. It will take 7 to 10 minutes to finish. If you have only one burner, like the O Grill that I used, turn heat back down to medium-low, open grill and place topped pizza on grill. Close lid and cook about 6 more minutes, checking every three minutes by looking at the bottom of the crust for marks and crispness. The cheese should also be bubbly. Remove from grill, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and some fresh cut herbs from your traveling herb garden. Enjoy!

Great Combo Ideas

• Basil pesto, fresh mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes. Garnish with parmesan cheese and fresh basil
• Olive oil, sautéed greens, crumbled sausage, halved cherry tomatoes(raw), fresh goat cheese. Garnish with parmesan cheese and chopped rosemary
• Red sauce, grated mozzarella, sautéed mushrooms and peppers, shredded chicken, olives. Garnish with parmesan and chopped oregano or thyme and chili flakes
• Olive oil, grated white cheddar cheese, heirloom tomatoes, crumbled bacon. Garnish with fresh arugula

Over the past few years wall covering has returned to the design boards of our most innovated designers around world. This has created a growing selection of new textures, colors and a return of some great classics that are perfect for small spaces.

Painting can often be a challenge in vintage travel trailers. The walls have to be pre-treated to allow the paint to stick. But with wall covering, you can simply add flair to your small space in as little as a signal.

The bonus for us small dwellers is that because we have small spaces, we can spring for the good stuff.

Check out two of our favorite wall covering designers.

DwellStudio

	Baroque, timeless and daring, this DwellStudio classic pays homage to our love of aviary motifs. We’ve updated this nature pattern with a hand-painted effect and soothing palette.This would look stunning covered over doors or used as headboard.
	This interlocking pattern by DwellStudio is inspired by one of our favorite deco motifs and makes a bold statement on the wall without making you run for white space.This design makes a big impact without overwhelming a small space.
	A clean and chic aviary motif—the simplicity of this pattern maintains an understated style. The repeating sparrows and trees add an element.Paired with drops of crystal and your small space is runway ready.

DecorMaison

	The DécorMaison Highlights from the North collection takes it’s inspiration from the company’s Nordic heritage and delicately blending in a rich culture.This pattern would fit right in to a tiny house.
	DécorMaison created the Bohemian Rhapsody collection to inspire the joy found in everyday life, where the antique rubs shoulders with the contemporary, the romantic the practical.This design is so naughty it’s nice!
	The WallKotyr collection by DécorMaison is inspired the designer’s drawing board, the fashion houses, runways, and Parisian Haute Couture.The patterns remind one of fizzy champagne And like champagne, their subtle tones and designs add demention and interest to small spaces that are so unique that it will tickle your toes.

After 19 years as a professional beer maker, brewmaster Teri Fahrendorf “followed the clouds of wort steam across the country” and towed her 15-foot trailer more than 13,000 miles to brew and bottle with fellow beer lovers throughout the United States.

During her trip Fahrendorf enjoyed meeting her fellow “beer geeks”, learning more about customer preferences, and adding to her “mental beer database”. Now, five years later, she admits she didn’t expect that the journey would take an epic turn.

“It was like giving birth when I didn’t even know I was pregnant,” she said.

When she embarked on the five month road trip Fahrendorf was pregnant—metaphorically—with triplets: the Road Brewer Project, her educational website, and the Pink Boots Society.

After resigning her position as Brewmaster at Steelhead Brewing Company, Fahrendorf decided it was time to pay a visit to the country’s other breweries. “I always had brewing friends but I only saw them at events like conferences and festivals,” she said. “I tasted their beer, but I never saw their brewery. I thought it would be great to go visit them and brew with them. They live all over, and some were in their 80s and it was my last chance to see them.”

“Some breweries I just invited myself, I was so impressed with their beer,” she added. “I just wanted to be with them for the day, and shadow one of the brewers.”

“But, all of a sudden I had an identity crisis I didn’t anticipate having,” she said.

“I thought, I’m not a brewmaster anymore; what am I?” she said. “I was going on this trip and I didn’t want to walk through the door and say ‘hi, I’m a former brewmaster’. So I came up with an identity. Road Brewer.”

She secured www.roadbrewer.com, fired up a blog, and started planning her cross country trip.

All she required was a flat, 31-foot space to park for the night, with access to a shower. “Your driveway or brewery parking lot could work,” she wrote to brewers. “Anything free is appreciated, as I’ll be unemployed!”

Before the trip, Fahrendorf upgraded her rig from “Little Buddy”—the teardrop trailer she shared with her husband—to “Big Buddy”, a shiny new 14-foot Fun Finder trailer made by Cruiser RV, towed with an Astro minivan.

Originally I was planning on taking the teardrop, but I couldn’t get motivated,” she said. “I finally figured it out: there was no bathroom! It’s great for the woods, but I realized that I would be city camping in people’s parking lots, or on the street in Brooklyn with sketchy characters around. Once we had a trailer with a toilet, I was ready to go.” She left on June 4, 2007.

I loved living in the trailer,” she recalled. “I didn’t need to worry about paying the bills or things that needed to be done around the house. It was freedom from the responsibilities of life, with just the basics of what you need around you.”

She painstakingly coordinated the trip to plan in advance how park her rig, avoid urban rush hour, and time her arrival before nightfall “but not so early that it would interrupt their customers,” she said. “It was tricky!”

I had to drive really carefully; this was pre-GPS,” she said. “I had one on my laptop and could watch myself go down the highway but you couldn’t really enter addresses. Plus it was always saying ‘turn around’ when it came to actually figuring out how to back into a brewery warehouse.”

“It was kind of old school in 2007, using maps, and calling for directions and writing them down,” she said.

She settled into her daily travel routine: rise early, jump behind the wheel, and strive to arrive at the next brewery in one piece, often fishtailing in the wind without the stabilizer bar that she uses now. (“I was kind of white knuckling,” she said.) Up at dawn the following day, brew all morning, blog in the afternoon, then crash early in the trailer after a meal of granola bars (or, if lucky, dinner courtesy of the brewers.) Repeat. Visit nearby relatives on the weekends. “People ask me, ‘did you see the Grand Canyon?’ I said, ‘are you kidding?’” she laughed.

She immediately learned that “blogs are a lot of work. There were many times I thought I could have more vacation fun and less work but I had so many people say ‘I’m living vicariously through you; please keep going, please keep writing,” she said. “They were saying, ‘this is my fantasy trip!’”

Fahrendorf’s “pink boots” persona emerged at Deschutes Brewery in Oregon—the first brewery she visited.

Throughout her career, other brewers were always surprised to learn that she was a woman in the typically male-dominated industry. “But then I start talking in the beer lingo and I become one of the boys,” she said. “But on this trip I really felt like I was representing my gender and I wanted to keep that in mind.”

“The ubiquitous piece of brewery safety equipment is a pair of rubber boots,” she explained. “You have to wear them.” Her husband mentioned this fact to his mother, “and suddenly, before I left, this pair of pink boots arrived,” she said. Fahrendorf wrote about them on her blog.

When she arrived at the first stop on her itinerary, she considered her entrance. “I had brought both pairs of boots; black ones that I’d worn my entire career and that pair of pink boots from my mother in law. I’m looking at the pink ones, and I thought, ‘I can’t wear these bubblegum boots, they’re too flashy.’ So I went in the door with my black pair on and the first thing they said to me was ‘where are your pink boots!?’”

“I said, ‘I left them in the trailer’ they said, ‘go and put them on.’ I realized then that was my persona, and I had to wear them as part of my signature.”

“I would walk into a brewery and people would say ‘you’re the pink boots lady; I was just reading your blog last night,’” she said. “‘We know who you are, they told us you were coming and that we’d see you a mile away!’ I was brand marketing and I didn’t even know it.”

While brewing or bottling with her hosts she was often surprised when sharing tips with younger brewers, both male and female, who had never learned the techniques she had used for decades. “I’ve been brewing so long I had forgotten I even learned some of the stuff I thought was completely basic,” she said. “Newbie brewers needed information that I took for granted.”

For example, Fahrendorf encountered some brewers discussing grain handling. “I wrote an article in 1993 about grain handling systems,” she said. “I realized that if one person I met on the trip needed one of the articles that had been published in the past, other people would need it too. I realized I should start rewriting some real basic articles, and put them online somehow.”

In addition to blogging, Fahrendorf created terifahrendorf.com from the road, where “everything I’ve ever written” (on basic topics like how to use a brew clock and a mash hoe) has been archived, and new educational articles as well.

New brewery owners often approach Fahrendorf to thank her, saying “‘I’ve read all your articles, and they really helped me get started,’” she said.

“I’m not the guru that gets you to the top level, but I’m maybe the guru that can help you get off the ground when you’re a homebrewer and you’re not sure how to start a three, five, ten, or even one barrel professional brewery,” Fahrendorf explained. “You can find the basic information on my website, and it’s all free.”

Fahrendorf soon stumbled upon an even more profound reason for her road trip when she was assigned to shadow a young woman at Stone Brewing in California. “She had never met another woman brewer before, ever, and she was in the brewing industry for two years already,” recalled Fahrendorf. “When I told her I was a brewmaster for 19 years, I could kind of see what she was thinking: ‘wow this doesn’t just have to be a job for me; I could work my way up and achieve my career potential.’ It felt like she was getting inspired by my story, and I was getting inspired by her.”

Fahrendorf began to think of her own career in a different context. “I’m not a young person fighting my way up anymore,” she realized. “It dawned on me for the first time that I was mentor material. That was the duty that I needed to take on.”

“Once I was a thriving career person and ambitious woman brewer, working my way up,” she said. “I realized then I wasn’t just the leader of our brewery where I used to work, I am an industry leader. I’m now at a mature point in my life where it’s my responsibility to be a mentor to others, and to mentor women specifically. It’s absolutely necessary within our industry to encourage women to join it, and stay in it.”

The young brewer was curious about other women in beer and asked how many there were. Fahrendorf didn’t have an answer but vowed to seek them out as she traveled, and keep count. “I’d hear a rumor, ‘there’s one in Indiana somewhere’ and I would add her to my list and track her down,” she said.

To Fahrendorf it was clear: young female brewers needed—not just wanted—to connect with others who had more experience.

Weeks later, she was at dinner with another woman brewer who again asked, “how many of us are there?”

“By then, I had been counting,” Fahrendorf said. “I had an answer! It’s sixty.” The other brewer then went further to say “Great! Who are they? I want to network.” Fahrendorf began posting the list on her website.

It was titled ‘List of Women Brewers’, and I thought, that’s so lame,” she said. “I thought well, I’ve got these pink boots on, and people seem to like that, and there’s that group of women over fifty called the Red Hat Society, that’s pretty snazzy,” she reasoned. “I’ll just call this list the Pink Boots Society. I didn’t think too hard about it.”

To her surprise, emails began to pour in.

“‘Dear Teri, I’m a brewery lab tech’, or ‘I’m the packaging manager for a brewing company’ they said. ‘Can I join the Pink Boots Society?’ I didn’t think it was something you could join!” said Fahrendorf.

She built a separate website for the soon-to-be new organization, and with the help of the young woman from Stone Brewing, she convened a meeting of all the women on the list at the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego.

“This is freaking historic,” said Fahrendorf. “We ought to have journalists document this.” She invited women journalists and beer writers (no brew bros allowed; “it changes the dynamic when you get the men in the room”), to be present when the Pink Boots Society was born. It’s now an official nonprofit association, created to empower women beer professionals to advance their careers in the Beer Industry through education. All woman who earn a professional income from beer, not just brewers, are invited to join.

“We are all networking, and all mentoring each other,” said Fahrendorf. “A young member from Seattle told me, ‘the Pink Boots is where I connect; that’s where I’m learning, it’s meant everything for me in my career.’ The thing is, before the Society a young gal like her would’ve felt very all alone out there working with the guys on the floor. Sometimes you think, maybe this career is not for me. But the Pink Boots Society is keeping women in the industry, and we don’t have as much turnover now.”

“Your heart swells with pride, listening to the members pass the microphone and introduce themselves,” she said. “We have an amazing breadth of experience, and we can call on our own talent to teach each other. These women are running across the room to meet each other; they’re paying attention to who does what and who they want to connect with. It’s wonderful.”

Fahrendorf has had five years to reflect on her Road Brewer project, and says that the trip significantly exceeded her expectations.

She knew she would enjoy the excitement of being in the moment and relish the camaraderie of her fellow brewers, but she was floored by the level of generosity she experienced.

“Brewers are a friendly lot,” she explained. “Even if we are competitors, we’re collaborative and friendly and we help each other. But the pure, heartfelt generosity of what I received on this trip astounded me.”

“Besides meeting women and connecting with them, the brewers gave me lunch and dinner. People would want to show me around. One brewer even gave me a $50 gas card. People would invite me to their home. The people at Cape Cod Beer had me put the trailer at the beach so I could watch the sunset over Cape Cod, and they all went out there and had a beach barbecue,” she said. “I met the brewer’s children and spouses; they timed special events to happen while I was there. I was a perfect stranger, but they not only invited me to visit their breweries, they invited me into their lives.”

Occasionally, brewers offered Fahrendorf employment at the companies she visited. “I hadn’t really thought of it originally as a jobhunting trip,” she said. “But I said, yeah, I actually am, I guess.” But she new something greater was calling.

“I’m a big fan of Joseph Campbell,” explained Fahrendorf, “I’m very aware of the ‘hero’s journey’ and I realized I was on one. I couldn’t just stop and take a job. There needed to be a complete story, with an ending, all the way back to where I started.”

On a hero’s journey, the central character returns a changed person, and brings something back, she explained, “something for the benefit of humanity. And the hero himself is changed—he’s a stronger person.”

“This was going through my mind the entire time trip,” said Fahrendorf. “I was on a hero’s quest or heroine’s journey, going out into the world to learn something that I could bring back and make the world a better place.”

“If you leave on a journey with an open mind and open heart, and are ready to receive what the world has to give to you, you will bring something back whether you know it or not,” she said. “You are pregnant with the second half of your life; and when you come back with the gift, you will be ready to give it.”

“What I brought back was the Pink Boots Society. It has benefited the industry,” she said. “And who knows, if I’m lucky, humanity.”

Fahrendorf is now a traveling sales rep on the road visiting breweries full time. Learn more about the Pink Boots Society at www.pinkbootssociety.org, read her travel adventures as the Road Brewer at http://roadbrewer.blogspot.com, and access her articles about beer making at http://www.terifahrendorf.com/

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Five tips for traveling on the road with small children

One of the best things about a road trip is the many little memories we collect in the corners of our mental scrap book. Memories are a curious and delicate affair, they know no monetary value yet they tend to grow with interest when preserve in the arms of friendship, and when shared their value doubles.

Being confined in close surrounds is a great opportunity to build a valuable relationship with your young traveling companions. Yes, it is hard to hear “Are we there yet?” every 12 minutes when you still have seven hours ahead of you, but before you become frustrated and pass out the electronic pacifiers, consider this as a golden opportunity to collect memories for future holiday gatherings and family visits.

Stuck for ideas? Here are five tips we used when the kids were small, and 20 years later these memories still make our family laugh.

1. Bring a stop watch on every trip.  Most kids love to time things.  Holding their breath, how long before they see another truck, racing at the rest stop, the list is endless.

2. Learning the ABC’s, backwards.  On a long drive through South Dakota our family started this exercise.  We learned the first 3 letters (ZYX) then added the next group, breaking it down as we went.  After 2 funny hours, all of us knew the backwards alphabet, we could recite it in under 5 seconds, and South Dakota was behind us.  25 years later we still crack each other up racing to see who can say it the fastest.
   

3. Make up a story, one person and one line at a time.  Our young 3 year old granddaughter loves this and contributes her line just like the adults.  This really opens up their imagination.

4. We try to have special car-only toys. On a 2 hour Amtrak ride with my 3 year old granddaughter, I purchased an inexpensive package of small washable markers and several small coloring pictures. This kept us busy for the entire trip. This “special” toy tip is also handy to use when mom or dad gets a phone call. The toy then becomes the phone-only toy!
5. Keep small sticky notes on hand for the youngsters to write mileage and towns on.  On one of our trips, our 5 year old granddaughter drove with her grandpa in the RV as I followed behind them in our Jeep.  At the end of the trip, I looked in the RV and discovered all of her sticky notes on the dashboard.  She felt so important that she had helped her grandpa keep track of the towns and mileage.

For more car games check out http://www.momsminivan.com/, and be sure to share your travel memories with us.

Here is a look under our hood at how we manage the technology that supports the day-to-day communications at TrailerChix.

Technology is the basic foundation of any business communication strategy and we are no different, although ours is very simple and we keep our wires will hidden.

Online Access: Because we don’t have access to landline and are often on the road we have to rely on wireless air cards. We use two, one from Verizon and another from Cricket. It took quite a while to find which ones worked in our area so you may have to experiment with the various carriers to see which works best in your area. Because we are constantly viewing our videos and sending images back and forth we are often throttled down by our carriers so we find it necessary to toggle between the two. If your business is not image or data driven you could easily get by with only one card.

There are all kinds of boosters to help improve your connection, but it gets pretty complicated pretty quickly. It’s like aligning the stars; everything has to be on the same wave length. You can’t effectively mix your 3G with your 4G devices, however sometimes your signal will bounce from two different towers which is totally out of your control.

Most 4G phones can also act as a hotspot, meaning they can also service as your wireless internet connection, but here again my experience is that they only work well in optimal areas, such as large urban areas, definitely not here on the island. Also, if a 4G bounces off a 3G tower, you will not be able to be online and on the phone at the same time. This can be problematic if you are on a business call and trying to present to a prospect.

Note: The bars you see on your devices are not an accurate measurement of the strength of your connection.

Voice: It is often hard for many small space dwellers to find great connectivity because we are often in more remote areas which are not supported by many carriers. So extra effort and due diligence is needed on your part because nothing screams that you are under powered than a bad connection and dropped calls. If you are sticking with a bad carrier because you got a screaming good deal on a cool phone – you are not focused on business success, rather you are focused on apologies and excuses.

Although they seem to disappearing, there are still some “all you can eat plans” (i.e. unlimited usage plans) available which are great. I found one at Verizon after Sprint asked me to leave because over 90% of all my calls were roaming and they were losing money on my all you can eat plan.

Cloud Computing: Seems to be all the talk, but in fact this concept has been around for years and you probably have been using it in some way or another for a while already. Once you had to buy the software to do many of the simple backend business functions, now you simply rent what you need. For us, we found that we did not need many tools, just great functioning tools to operate a good business. Here are the top four that we use companywide.

• Backup: A MUST for everyone, business owner or not. The safety of your company, family pictures, music and records are dependent on your backup process. But don’t rely only on a cloud based backup service which could have security breaches or equipment failures, you will want to double up. We use Carbonate for a daily backup and an external hard drive and do weekly backups.
• File share: There are a number of files that are just too big to download or that we are working on in a collaboratively, so we found that uploading them to a shared place helps us keep track of the file and updates. This is also a great way to send client presentations or videos. So far we have not outgrown the free version of Drop Box and it’s working very well for us.
• CRM: When your team is stretched from Toronto to Fargo to San Francisco, it’s impotent that we keep everyone on the same page and informed no matter where they are. So we researched a customer relationship management tool that fits our size and budget. It helps keep us organized without taking up any space. We’ve been using Karma for about 10 months and its working great for us thus far.

• Conference Calling: These services are getting pretty fancy and it’s not that I don’t like the video conference calling, I do. However for the traveling public it’s not that convenient. The image has to stream over our air cards at a snail’s pace, which makes the picture very jumpy or you may even end up with that annoying delay. Besides, who wants to be caught jumping on a 6:00 am call when you’ve just gotten back from a shot at 2:00 am – it’s not pretty! Trust me on this one!

What we do like are the simple apps like Tango.me. We can share what we found for the ShopChix page or share shooting locations and get real time feedback from our PC or mobile devices.

For our standard client facing conference calls we use Free Conference and when we want to share our desktops we upgrade as needed.

Tech Support: There are a lot of options when it comes to remote tech support and it comes in handy when you’re living remote. However, one thing to note is when you are having a technician working on your computer remote, you will most likely be using your air card. Not only does this eat into your data plan but it’s very slow, we’re talking slow like pulling an Airstream uphill with a VW bug slow.

Finding a good IT person is like finding a good mechanic and my phone book holds a number of resources I have collected over the years of reliable resources across the country. When you find a good sources, take care of them. One of my IT guys put me in front of the line for an emergency repair. His team worked on my computer during their lunch and I brought them back hot wings.

The best prevention for the need for tech support is keeping your antivirus up to date. When working in a café I will often run my antivirus in the expanded mode in the background because the connection is often faster than I have in the Airstream.

Because I rely on it daily, a laptop is the one thing I keep a spare and because it’s small I can keep in the bottom of my shirt cubby. It’s often lent out to other team members whose computers have had to go in for service.

Peripherals: These are the little add-ons like printers, copiers and scanners. Although we only on occasion use the copier and printer for photo releases and NDAs, we do find that having an all-in-one definitely saves us time and money.

Not having a landline precludes us from using our fax in the traditional sense, but we can print, sign and scan a document and send the endorsed copy via email. This has saved us from driving 50 miles round trip to locate a fax machine.

There are some machines which will not allow you to scan if you are out of ink, seems like a huge rip off to me, but I did manage to locate a very small Epson which stows very nicely under the Gaucho.

Remember to shop on quality rather than price. Low price might provide you with short term savings, but you will most likely be paying for it again in short order – not to mention the impact on our landfills.

However, for a growing number of us who have adopted Robert W. Service’s Lure of Little Voice as our personal anthem, harkening for the wild, the stark and sullen solitude. We embrace the unknown. Wait! Stop! Rewind! This is all great up to a point. We want to know we can support this adventure.

There are countless opportunities to work remote or on the road, and if you have strong computer skills your earning potential can increase substantially. With a little imagination and creativity you can sustain a fabulous mobile lifestyle.

Mobile Boutique or Food Cart

Taking a page from the mobile foot cart play book, mobile boutiques are popping up from New York to Los Angeles to Portland Oregon. Many of these modern tinkers support a high-end market of fabulous artisans. There is very little overhead and you can move your business with you.

Writer

If you have a knack for writing, there are a number of ways to use your craft for generating income. Businesses today outsource a larger portion of their writing projects, from social networking and blogging to newsletters and proposals.

Although there are a large number of travel writers, if you can find a way to differentiate your travel experience that is engaging, you could find a niche writing articles for travel sites and magazines around the world.

Computer services

If you have computer skills you have a wide variety of options for generating income, from emote IT support, graphic design, computer programming, to web design.

Even if your computer skills are not at the programmer level, there are a host of opportunities that range from data entry to research.

WorkCamp

We often think of workcamp as being a camp host, but that’s changing. Companies like Amazon set up temporary RV part during peak holiday seasons for workers on their campuses. There are also employment agencies that now help connect workers and employers.

Professional Services

Traditional professions such as legal finance or even medical services can be provided to clients through remote access. With new online help sites popping up across the web weekly customers and clients are becoming more and more comfortable working with professionals remote.

There are also a number of agencies that support doctors and nurses who want to work temporarily in under serviced areas.

Let us know how you earn your living on the road.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cooking Time: None! | Serves 4-6

• 4 cups of chopped, cooked chicken from a Rotisserie chicken
• 4 to 6 ounces of feta cheese, crumbled
• 12 mint leaves, chopped
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 2 cups of grapes, washed and sliced in half

Dressing

• 4 Tbls. lemon juice
• 1 Tbls. honey
• 1 tsp. Diamond Kosher salt
• freshly ground pepper
• ¾  cup California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil

Optional

• Sliced radishes
• Chopped cucumbers
• Salad greens
• Cooked Alter Eco Organic Royal Pearl Quinoa
• Cooked rice
• Pita bread

In a small jar, combine lemon juice, honey and salt. Shake or whisk well. Add olive oil and shake to emulsify. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Set aside. In a medium bowl or use your Progressive Salad Spinner, combine chicken, feta, mint, green onions and grapes. Mix gently and start by adding half of the dressing. Mix to incorporate dressing and add more as needed. You may add radishes, cucumbers or celery to the salad. A handful of toasted almonds, pecans or pistachios would also be delicious! You can serve this salad on a bed of mixed greens, in a leaf of romaine or on a bed of cooked quinoa or rice. It also makes a great sandwich in a pita pocket with a few leaves of lettuce and additional dressing.

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