Hi Patrick. Hi, Janet. What's up? How you doing? Are we live? We are live. I pushed the, I told you I pushed the button. What do you say when we're live action. Oh. Welcome to the 18 Wheel Talk podcast Show. My bad. Often imitated never duplicated. The blue, the green, the big rig. I know that's right. I know, right, right left, right left right.

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I was trying be funny. You were talking social media, huh? I know you said @18WheelTalk everywhere, like that was part of the name 18. What I made a chance anyways. So what are we talking about today, Janet? Gadgets, gizmos, cooking, and more. Ooh, that's right. Right up my alley. That is right up your alley.

Mm-hmm. I'll right up your alley. Mm-hmm. So today we're discussing cooking and storing food in your semi. Okay. You know, where do you 'cause that, that's important. Mm-hmm. As opposed to. On the floor. Well, well, yeah, I Did you ever know anybody did that? Uh, maybe yeah, I did. I might've known a couple drivers or two or three that were slobs.

Yeah. So any who, because truth be known mm-hmm. You'll save a lot of money just by not eating every single meal at truck stops, diners, restaurants, you go along the way. Well, how you supposed to harass the, the waitresses if you don't eat at the restaurants? Um, Convenience stores, vending machines, et cetera.

Go in and have a cup of coffee. You can do that and harass a waitress. Not that I condone harassing waitresses coming from that field as well. Okay, then what? Okay, but then you smell all the food and, and you eat first. Eat first. Eat first, then go have, alright then, then I then go have your after dinner coffee.

I can have coffee and pie then. Oh, there you go. And you still saved a little money, but I don't know a lot of people that have coffee and pie after breakfast. But if that's what you wanna do, Patrick. You go for it. Sunshine said was breakfast. I was eating. You said dinner? I said every meal. Oh, every meal.

Every meal. I didn't say dinner. Oh, I missed that. I missed that. I said every meal. Mm-hmm. I missed that. You missed it, baby. My bad. That's okay. You are bad. So anyways, continue before we really get into this. We need to say a couple things. Okay. There's a lot of options for everything we're gonna talk about in this episode.

Mm-hmm. So keep that in mind. Like if we mention one product, there's gonna be a similar product that will suit your needs better. Yep. We'll put whatever we discuss in this episode, it'll, we'll put links in the show notes for all the products that we. We're talking about that. That we would use. Yeah. And so what you can do is you can follow the link and then look at the descriptions and the specifications and shop around, find there, shop around, find what's best for you.

You might like that one. Exactly. And say, Hey, that's the one for me. And you might say, oh, this one's recommended. Lemme check that one out and like that one better. Mm-hmm. Find what's best for you. But yeah, there's plenty of options out there, price, price wise and brand wise. Well, and also, You know, new drivers especially, you know, you really gotta pay attention to your wallet.

Well, some of 'em nowadays don't, but anyways. Well, we know those people, but when we started driving and, you know, I, I'm lucky when we started driving and, um, what are those things called you? Um, they're not cigarette lighters anymore. They're, they're auxiliary outlets. Auxiliary outlets Were called cigarette lighters.

Yeah. This, this just in, this just did cigarette lighter outlets and now, now known as auxiliary outlets. That's been a while since news at 11. It's been a while since I bought a new vehicle now to the show or drove a car or drove a semi, I mean, Motorcycles still have cigarette outlet, I'm just telling you anyways.

Um, but anyway, yeah, so, um, yeah, it's just like, I don't know, I just, anyways, we will put links to all the products that we talk about in this episode. Yes. In the show notes. So have no fear. You got, you guys can do price comparisons with Walmart, Amazon, whatever. But yes, we will put links to all the products that we like.

We would, we, we prefer to use. There's even some of 'em that that, that we used way back then way back, that are still being used and still recommended, which just floors me. It's like, wow, I really did pick a good product back then. It's a good brand. Yeah. It's like, wow, those were good brands. So it's like the, what was it, refrigerator.

That's the one thing I wanted when I, uh, when I was over the road. Okay. How'd you get it? I, I, uh, I, I begged everybody in my family to pull their money together and get me one. Mm-hmm. That was a good idea. Well, the one I was looking, there was one that I was looking at, at a specific truck stop, I don't remember.

It might've been the flying hook. Mm-hmm. Um, and it. Was big enough to fit in the, the cubby hole that was provided mm-hmm. In the truck. And uh, I wanna say it was about 200 bucks back then. Yeah. But it's a good one. Yeah. It would heat or cool. Yeah. So, That's the ones you take the plug and you Yeah, just reverse it.

Yeah. That's the type I had. I think that might have been Coleman for some reason. I wanna say it was, but it might, I, the, the name escapes me. I don't remember. And I'm not going to the garage to look. Me neither. So, because it still works and we still have it. But anyways, that's the one thing that I, you know, 'cause I, I could always get coffee at the truck stops.

I really wanted a refrigerator to keep my cold beverages, you know, 'cause it was cheaper to buy a 12 pack of Mountain Dew versus, you know, Yeah, I really didn't drink soda. I mean, I haven't drank soda in, I drank drink, drank coffee up until, you know, it was like, it's like, it's like Sundays. I drink coffee till noon, then I drink beer.

You did not drink beer when you drove. No, but I'm just saying it's, it's like I drink coffee till noon and then I switched soda. Well, and I drank coffee till noon and then I poured myself a new cup and drank coffee till six. And then I, I also drank coffee, poured myself all new cup. Anyways, let's, let's, yeah.

Um. Yeah. What was your, what was the one thing? Truck stopped? Coffee. It just killed me. What was the one thing? Coffee pot. I figured you and your espresso shots and everything? Mm-hmm. Okay. Yes. Well, that's cool. Very, very cool. Anyways, so I started with what I considered the basics of cooking and storing. So then as I had more money to spend, I bought items that I not only could afford.

And I knew I would use. Okay. 'cause why buy something just 'cause you think it's cool? Um, because we know, 'cause it's cool. We know people that did that. Hello? Um, but I knew that. Check out this gadget. Oh, that's really cool. But I knew they wouldn't add to the weight of my rig. Um, I don't know if people still pay attention to that as much as I did, but, well, eh, most of this stuff doesn't really weigh that much.

I mean, if you combine, but all that stuff adds up. If you combine it all and you get maybe 50 pounds worth of stuff, you know, with through inverters, but you know what I mean? You know, stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. Hot plate. You add everything up and your clothes and food and stuff for the pet, and you know, well, I'm talking about just the cooking essentials.

Yeah. But I thought of that in terms of everything, you know? Oh, my Rottweiler ate a lot. I mean, I had to keep tons and tons of food for her. Your toy. Your toy. Little. Schnauzer there. Yeah. With a Rottweiler bark. Six pounds of her. She ate a lot. Like I know she did. Anyway, anyways, so anyway, so I always thought of that and I thought of storage space 'cause it's limited.

Mm-hmm. You know, um, this is true and me, you know me, I wanna make sure that things are. Have double usage, double duty. Mm-hmm. You know, so that if I can use it in the refrigerator to store Oh yeah. No, i, I to store cold vegetables. Agree. Once the vegetables are done, I can clean it out and use it to store something else.

Exactly. You know, so that, that was for me, a big thing. And. Obviously still is. Mm-hmm. So, yeah. Anywho next. So some of these items are 12 volt and some of them are not. If they're not, you're gonna have to get yourself a power inverter. Yep. Or, hey, if you're not a part of the fan club, we might be giving away a power inverter.

You never know could be join the fan club. So just make sure that whatever power inverter you get is large enough for what you're hooking to it. Right. Um, I always give the example of a microwave 'cause it's easiest to figure out. Mm-hmm. There are strangely enough people that have really big microwaves in their rigs.

Mm-hmm. But if you have a thousand watt microwave, you need a 1500 watt minimum power inverter. Okay. Obviously that's not a plugin one, that's a hookup one. That's a, yeah. Direct wire. Yeah. You can use the, the clamps to hook it to your batteries, but that's a lot of work. Yeah, it really is. I mean, at least mine were underneath my steps, so it was a lot of work.

Yeah. It's a pain in the you know what pain in the because if you overload your power inverter through your plugin, What's it called? Auxiliary auxiliary outlet. I will get that some year. It's a cigarette lighter outlet. Okay. It's, it's, that's plain and simple. Okay. You know, we're old school if the, if the, if the kids these days don't get it, well, you know what?

They ain't ever gonna get it. Um, so if you overload your power inverter through your cigarette lighter mm-hmm. Um, you can screw up your electrical system. And I, because I do believe that it, uh, the fuse boxes are still labeled cigarette lighter. Oh, now I really wanna know. But anyway, when, when you're looking at fuses, I believe they're, I don't think it's says auxiliary outlet.

I think it says cigarette lighter. That's really cool. You just made my night. I believe. I know, I know. The Kia is a cigarette lighter. Well, it is a, it is a, both of our vehicles have, and the motorcycles too. They have cigarette lighters, not auxiliary. Yeah. But God, thank you anyway. Even though we don't smoke any who, so anyway, so.

Keep that in mind. Don't buy something that's too big for your power inverter your power inverter when you get it somewhere on the box in the instructions somewhere. Yeah. Somewhere it'll tell you. And if it doesn't maximum, if you've bought something like, um, a coffee pot or whatever. Yeah. You look and see what the amps and the volts are.

Mm-hmm. And then if you're going power inverter shopping after you look at the power inverter, and if it doesn't say it, Google it. Mm-hmm. Google that exact thing you bought first. Yep. And see how big a power inverter you need. And then buy the power inverter. Don't just guess, because that's how you have electrical problems in your truck and flickering lights, and usually all sorts of fun experiences.

Usually like a 400 watt power inverter is enough to like power, like a, um, coffee pod maker. Yeah. Which is enough to make a to-go cup. Of coffee. Yeah. And if you keep it plugged in, you can just keep making coffee, wine all day. But you know what I mean? You know what I mean? You know what I mean, though. It's trying to be funny.

I know. But you know what I mean. I do know. So like, like I said, a 400 watt one, you can power a a, a small coffee pot. Mm-hmm. Uh, it should be enough to power a slow cooker, a water boiler, you know? Yeah. Water, boiler water, hot pot. Well, that'll, that can plug directly in sometimes, so. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of times it can you, if you can't buy.

Uh, a coffee pot that plugs into a, a cigarette lighter then, and you have to use a power inverter. Usually a 400 watt one is the, probably the smallest I would go for a coffee pot and you're gonna have to get a small coffee pot. But, but I, yeah, I would a pod maker, but I'm talking about Yeah, I, that's what I'm, I'm talking about the pot, you know, single cup.

Yeah. I say if you get anything bigger, you have to get a bigger power inverter. Definitely. Definitely. Um, but there are some, some of the small things that you can plug in. To a power, small power inverter. Mm-hmm. That are really useful. Yeah. You could charge your phone on 'em. You could. Yeah. Like I said, laptop.

Yep. You could plug your computer in. Definitely. Plug your computer and get your computer charged up and that type of stuff on. Stuff like that. Yeah. So that's what I think they were most useful for. 'cause I had two, I had a, a 400 watt that I kept my computer charged up on. Mm-hmm. And my phone when it wasn't flying out the window.

Yeah. And um, The big one is what I plugged, you know, appliances into. 'cause everybody goes through their A stage nowadays. Nowadays you, you could, most appliances, well, most gadgets, okay, sorry. Most companies, oh my will, will, if you ask. If you provide the power inverter, we'll hardwire it for you. Oh, even back when I drove, they would, you know, so that's all I was gonna say.

Oh my bad. I'm so sorry. You get mad at me for guessing your words. Stop guessing mine. I just wanna see how you, you like how it felt? It's like, no, That's not what I was gonna say. But that sounds good too. Oh, okay. Anyways, so, um, So, yeah, I was just saying that earlier. I kept a coffee. My first purchase was a coffee pot because I think truck stop.

No offense. No offense to any truck. Stop. Ah, I know you, but, but your coffee sucks. You hate truck. Stop coffee. Uh, I'm, I hate most coffee unless I make it myself. Let's be honest, Starbucks has weak coffee. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so does like Yeah. All of anyway, um, weak, coffee's, coffee that you can see like a quarter of an inch into it.

Yeah. If you can see through your coffee, it's too weak. If you can see into your coffee, it's too weak. Hmm. Yeah, if you can see the sugar from the bottom of the cup, if it's a clear cup. You got tea, you got tea, you got screwed anyway, so fuck sake driver. Get some coffee and make sure that's right. Get some good coffee.

Get some real coffee. Stand that spoon up in it. That's, that's Marty's parents. They're the ones that taught me about really strong coffee. 'cause they used Joe, their son-in-law, Joe Glowacki. If it eats the spoon, it's good. No, he used to say, if you could stand your spoon up, and it Marty's mom and dad. Don and Betty liked it.

And I'm like, oh, that's what I think of coffee too. And I loved them. They were so nice. That'll grow Hair on my head. Damn. Driver. Yeah. There you go. Wonder what color had come out.

I don't know, uh, what white, gray, brown, I, who knows? But anyway, back to the, back to the conversation. Um, buy a good coffee pot. That's basically what you're saying. Buy a good coffee pot, not just for that, but there's a lot of bouncing in a semi. I don't, well, that's why I suggested like a pod maker, because you're gonna make your one cup and, and put it, you can make it in a to-go cup.

Yeah. You know, which will keep it warm enough. Mm-hmm. And you make that, you put it away, you go. And when you stop you can make another pot or you make three or four on failure to go cup like I would, but, but some of those to go cups, you can put some of those to go cups. You can put the, the filter in almost all of them.

You can put a, um, clear filter in that you add your own coffee grounds to. Mm-hmm. So you can make your coffee stronger. Well, that's what I mean. Okay. You don't have to buy pod coffee to use a pod maker is right. Yeah. Well they make a specific pod maker that has a travel mug. Yes. Is what I'm trying to get at.

We have one. Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at. Oh, you meant the travel mug size. Oh my bad. I I did say travel mug size. Nope, you just said pod maker. That, that, that is made for travel mugs. I say travel mugs like three or four times. My bad. Listen to both ears darling. Anyway. Anyways, you gotta listen to both ears.

This is a podcast show, we talk, you have to listen too I don't wanna. If you drink a lot of coffee, you can also, or whatever appliance you use the most. Mm-hmm. Strap it to the front of your jump seat. If you don't have a passenger, you know, if you don't have, um, on the floor or in the seat, strap it to the front on the floor.

Oh, okay. The front would be, To me, the floor. I, I gotcha. Gotcha. Mm-hmm. Um, if you don't have someone decorating your jumpsuit, put 'em, you know, like Taz, put 'em, put the coffee pot on the floor or whatever it is. You like my crockpot? I did the same way. Put it within reach. Yeah. So, yeah. Anyhow, anyway. So anyways, um, yeah, don't back over your phone though more than twice.

If you do it twice, it's acceptable. And once off the top is three times. Twice off the top, so twice out the window backed over and twice flying off the roof is good. When you hit the fifth one, it's done. You need to find a different way to talk to people. You need to, the, the cell phone company says, we're no longer gonna carry you anymore.

Actually, they didn't. They still covered my insurance and they still gave me my new phone. Uhhuh. I was really lucky. You figured you'd learn how to strap that sucker down. You would think so. Well, the, the first two times I did learn not to put it on the visor so it bounced out the window and got backed over by the driver.

But you don't wanna know who was driving Janet, me. Um, but then when I set it up on top and forgot it up on top and then went down the road, I was like, oh, well my phone was up there. Anyways, I, I realized it when it hit the reefer. Ah, it's a multi-use item. Um, yes. So what was your favorite multi-use item?

Slow cooker. Mine too. Because, because you could set it and forget it. Pretty much. And there's so many meals you can put in it. Yeah. Oh god. Yeah. From bread and, and you could even make something at home. Put it in the crockpot and use it as a warmer Yeah. Just to heat it up. You could like, pardon me? You could pre-cook, say chicken, for instance.

Mm-hmm. Um, freeze it, you know, dice it, cook it, dice it, freeze it. And then add that with some low sodium vegetables that are in a can. Yep. A little broth. And some broth. Make your own. Yeah. Put it on low and exactly. Next thing you know, you start smelling it and you get hungry, you'll pull over and you No, no, no, no, no, no.

You know what else you can make in a slow cooker? Most people don't realize What's that Oatmeal. Oh, yeah, yeah. Overnight. O like you can use the instant stuff, but you can make oatmeal overnight. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's pretty good too. Especially when your dog eats it too. But anyway, there's a lot of different things.

You can put the, you can put your pre-cut, pre-cooked meat on the bottom. Mm-hmm. And then like your vegetables and. Dice up some, uh, potatoes and par boil 'em if you know what that, most people know what that means. Like partially cook 'em. Okay. Keep those in the fridge or the freezer and then pop those in on top.

And then put a little bit of broth on the bottom. Smell that cooking all day. You got yourself a nice stew. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Red beans and rice. Um, jambalaya. Jambalaya. Yeah. I, I just pretty much, if I can make it at home, I can make it in a truck. Ham and beans. Yeah. Okay, so now I'm getting hungry. I know, right.

Anyways. Anyway. Yeah. So anyway, slow cookers. I like slow cookers. Highly recommend slow cookers. Uh, I had a slow cooker where, where it had a band that held the lid on. Oh yeah, mine did too. I forgot all about that. Going down the road this way. Didn't jostle around. Yep. And then I took the, one of those heavy rubber bungee cords.

Mm-hmm. And then I hooked it to the bottom of my jumpsuit. Yeah, that's how I kept it from the mine. Mine. Even though I had rubber on the floorboard, I kept it there because I had a dog. Mm-hmm. And I didn't wanna have to worry about her. Mine. I had hooked to the, um, you know how you had the cabinets? Mm-hmm.

Mine, there was a, a, like a countertop. Okay. The refrigerator was underneath my, my countertop. I could, I could bungee cord it. It had actually had hooks that I could Oh, nice. Not mine. Yep. Nope. You must not have been at a Peterbilt. No, I wasn't a freight shaker. That's why I had, I had tie me downs. You can't call it that.

I sure can. I drove it. I can, you cannot. My daddy said so. I can, I can. I drove it. I say I was a freight shake. Shake. He's shaker. He's gonna come down. Shake your head. Shook. Can't. When you, when you feel your head smacked in the middle of the night, that'll be my daddy. All right? Mm-hmm. So, Yeah. Anyway, it's also, they're easy to clean.

You just put the water in it and plug it back in. Yeah. Basically. And warm it up. Mm-hmm. So, so a lot of people put electric burners in their truck. You know, those little coil styles that you use, like for camping? Yeah. College students used to use them and now they're illegal in most dormitories. Yeah. But now they got these new ones though, that are like infrared.

Yeah. See those, those are a lot better. But anyways, I, I, the electric burners or um, um, Um, I, I, I used to call 'em the camping stoves. Do you ever have those camping stoves? Not in my rig. No. I, well, I wouldn't, I I would pull it out. No, I cook, cook with a camping stove. I never kept one in my, I'm just saying that.

I just never did. Yeah. But anyways. You're, you're a camper though. Well, I, when I was younger, I, I had all that stuff. It's still out in our garage. Well, not the camp stove. The camp stove's gone anyways. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, pretty sure. Yeah. So looked like it looked like a green suitcase. So anyway, um, I wasn't really big.

Open it up and Yeah. The size that came out mm-hmm. And protected it. I can picture the Coleman one. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah. I had one when I was in my twenties and I, uh, threw it at someone when I was in my twenties and it was gone. Eddie wig swinging past his head bounced off him and into the river.

It went pow right down river. I have no idea. So now that we've got that out of our head, tell me how you really feel. I did like using appliances more than a burner. Okay. Because with appliances over a burner, you don't have to also keep all the little pots and pans and everything. Mm-hmm. Because I knew a lot of drivers old school.

That kept the little burners and then they had to mess with the pot and pan and then they had to, you know, and this pot or this pan for this and this pan for this and everything. And I'm just like, Nope. I had my, my certain set things that I cooked certain things in. Right. And I actually, I don't even know if they make 'em anymore.

The electric skillets that have the dividers in them. I don't know if they have the dividers in them. I know they, they still make the electric skillets or well, or electric sauce pans now. Yeah. But they used to make an electric skillet. Skillet that had three, like it was divided into triangles. Is it something that you could set in there like that?

Nope. It was part of it. It was Teflon. Oh, no kidding. Teflon inside, which of course they can't do that anymore, I don't think, but. Anyways. Yeah, it was really cool though. You could put like three separate things in it and it'd be all good. Right. So it was like having three soft spots go in at once. Nice.

Yeah, it was really cool. So, very Gooch. Very good. So my refrigerator was built in, I know the, yours was plugged in, but you had a cubby. Well, it had a, yeah, it had a built in cubby with an auxiliary outlet. So the same as built in that I could, yeah, basically. But you could pull yours out. I couldn't. Mm-hmm.

You know, um, great place to keep all the ingredients and everything. Yeah. And beverages. I used to keep a lot of cold cuts. I used to make a lot of sandwiches over the road. Yeah. You know, so I would get, I would get like a pound of salami. Mm-hmm. And then some sliced cheese. I'd keep like mayonnaise packets.

Yeah. I'd get the mayonnaise packets from the truck stop. Yeah. I was cheap that way for me. It was mustard and Yeah. And butter. And then I'd keep hot, you know, spicy mustard. Yep. And I, I wouldn't get the pound of salami. I got the pound of braunschweiger, you know, liverwurst. Ugh. And American Cheese. Any who I do love my liverwurst baby.

I had to bring that up. Just you brought up salami. I had to bring it up. Uhhuh. But you like salami, not like you do. I can't like make a whole sandwich out of it. Well, I didn't just have salami. I mean, I only That's the way you just made that sound. I, well, the reason being is you can get a pound of salami, which is like, This much for, for as much as this much of ham or Turkey?

Not anymore. You can't, I'm I'm just saying back then. Back then it was like 99 cents a pound you bought. Yeah. And back then Liverwurst was like 49 cents a pound

anyways. And a pound of liverwurst and a jar of peanut butter. All right. Enough with the god damn liverwurst, God. Lemme finish my sentence. A pound of liverwurst and a jar of peanut butter would last me like three weeks. Anything would last you three weeks. Thank you so much. Eat like a bird. That's a nice, no, birds.

Eat their weight every day.

Labafungoo Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet. Anyway, anyways, so. Where were we? Um, I lost track. I lost track after the, the liverwurst incident. Yours was a cooler with the heater. Yeah, mine was a built-in fridge, but I also had one like you did, but I found I wasn't using it and Yeah. Unless I was in my S U V and yeah.

I mainly used it to keep beverages cold and, you know, just keep, yeah, use that. I mainly use it as a refrigerator, never heater. Yeah, and I used mine as a refrigerator also. And then my niece, her boys got older and she started doing a lot of camping and I finally just gave it to her 'cause. Eh, you do that for family, that's what you do.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So there's these lunchbox style stoves. They're, they're, they're pretty cool. Yeah. They have either they're, they're butane, butane. Butane. I just heard a flutter by, or 12 volt. Yep. Okay. They're more of a reheat than a cook, are they? I haven't used them. Yeah. Um, from what I've done, you know, from what I've seen in my research, They're more of like a heat heated up.

So like if it's already cooked, 'cause it has like a dish that's a, a divided dish that, you know, like a, like a TV, dinner type tray. That's kinda like what I was talking about with my skillet. Yeah. Okay. And, and so, so this fits inside the box, which, see, I've seen em, I just haven't used Oh, I gotcha. So, so it basically warms up your whole meal.

Okay. You know? Yeah. That's what that. Tho tho that's what the lunchbox, they're, they're not, I don't think they're cookers, but then again, they might be, they're almost like a, a fake microwave or something, you know? No, no. Like I said, it's, it's like a, it's like a wannabe slow cooker. Okay. You know, it's more I know what they are.

They're an easy bake oven. Yeah. Yeah. Right. It's, it's mainly to, like I said, warm. Already already cooked up food like pizza. That's what my Barbie oven did. Pizza. You, you put pizza in. Oh, well yeah. I could bake cookies in my Barbie oven, so I know, right. So put one of those in your truck. Yeah. Easy bake oven.

Woohoo. Um, you were saying that you had your little camp stove? Mm-hmm. I didn't use that. But I did when I stopped at rest areas. What's that mean? Back in the day, I know you guys back in the day, way back tr uh, rest areas where trucks used to be allowed to park at any of 'em. They used to have barbecue or, uh, used to have barbecue grills, char charcoal grills where you could just put charcoal or wood if you carried wood.

Yep. And you could use either one. And what you'd find is some one driver would go out there with his bag of charcoal and some food and. 10 others would join 'em and you'd end up having, you know, 10, 5, 10, 15 drivers figured y'all pitched in, you got fire, everybody pitched fire, everybody cook your food pitch, everybody be cooking their food, standing around, drinking water, drinking coffee, whatever.

Mm-hmm. And having a nice visit while we all took our 10 hours off, you know, that was, that was tailgating before it was tailgating. I know, right. That was real tailgating, let's be honest there. Yeah. That's, that's just, you know, that's just good old fun. Um, I had an immersible heater. Okay. Explain. Explain to our listeners what an immersible heater is.

Immersible heaters are like, and I'm going to give it, you're probably not gonna, immersible heater is kinda like what we used to use in horse troughs to keep the ice from, well, to keep the water from turning to ice in the winter. Okay. Um, immersible heater. It's like a what? A stick when you Yeah, it's like a heating stick.

It's like a heating stick. It's, it's about a nine inch typically. Um, loop. It goes down in something so that if I, if I got out of my truck, and this is back before everybody had every type of coffee mug that kept coffee actually warm. Right? If your coffee got cold, you could stick this down in your coffee cup and it would heat it back up really quick and you would plug that into cigarette lighter.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Your auxiliary outlet. Yeah. My, yeah, my auxiliary, I smoked back then. It was my auxiliary last year. Yeah, I know. Um, but it was also great to melt fresh snow off the hood of my truck for my dog. Okay. Um. If I was running low on water supply, you know. Oh, okay. I made sure it was off the hood of my truck.

Like if I was parked overnight, I'd get out and scoop some up, you know, and put it I in a bowl for her and then melt the snow real quick for her survival technique. Yeah. If we were stuck in a snow storm because we were stuck in some really good snowstorms. Mm-hmm. You know, like if you've ever been stuck on an interstate in a snowstorm for two days, been there, done that.

Um, I don't think I've ever been stranded on the highway for two days in a snowstorm. The worst storytime ding. You can't do that. We don't got the bell. I could ding your head. Um, I was trying to be funny. The worst one I was actually stuck behind, uh, was in southern Ohio. Okay. Which of everywhere I've driven you'd think.

Really? Mm-hmm. It's because up north they closed the interstates and the one in southern Ohio caused a rock slide. Okay. And. We had snow storm behind us that iced over all the roads. Okay. And I mean, huge ice storm. And in front of us, I was next to some, they call 'em mountains, but they're not like out here mountains.

You know, they're like, they're like east coast mountains and hills. Yeah, they're, they're, they're rolling hills. And it was in the east, but it caused a rock slide. Right. The boulders as big as semis took over the, the road. Whoa. Yeah. It's like, okay, guess we're stopping now. I take that back. I, um, when I was little, um, driving from Binghamton, New York up to back up to Schenectady.

Mm-hmm. Um, I 88 was famous for freezing over. Yeah. And we were out stranded on the side of the road for a couple of hours waiting for a salt, a salt shaker to come by and salt the road for us. Salt shaker couldn't fix this. Yeah, they were trying to get snow plows and. Trucks and everything to blow. They used dynamite to blow the rocks up in front of us.

I bet. Because we couldn't go backwards on the interstate. Yeah, think so. Everybody, it was really good because everybody back then had cbs. Mm-hmm. And there was cars stranded along with us and those of us that had food, shared it and got down and made sure that the people in the cars were taken care of and had food and weren't running out of fuel so that they could stay warm and, you know, I had extra blankets and I, there was a car next to me.

I had, you know, a couple of kids, I made sure they had an extra blanket. I said, just whenever we get going again, just gimme my blanket back. That's all I asked. That's all I asked. Gimme my, gimme my shit back. Yeah. And here's a loaf of bread and peanut butter and jelly. And they were like, woo. We, we scored, we got next to a nice person.

Yeah, right. But yeah, we were there for almost two solid days waiting for the road to be cleared. Wow. I couldn't imagine that was a hard one to explain when you're only 50 miles from, you know, the next truck stop. It's like 50 miles from the, from, from, from your delivery point. Uh, not gonna make nothing. I could do, there was like two dozen semis and probably 20 or so cars too.

And we were just stuck. We made news, we, we done got us rocks slide. So yeah, that came in real handy there. I i, it was towards the end of season, so I didn't even normally have it with me by then. But I hadn't unloaded all my winter gear. Nice. You know, so anyway, that, that came in handy. I, yeah. Anyway, I also, um, I had a rice cooker.

Okay. You know, me and rice. Oh, rice is, is good. Rice or quinoa, you know. Yep. Uh, rice cooker or steamer is great to have on, especially if you're trying to get healthier. Okay. And you keep a small one because people don't realize how far rice goes. I've seen people cook rice and they're like, okay, I need to put two cups of dry rice in this.

Not realizing that rice, two cups of cooked rice is a lot of rice. Well, two cups of dry rice is like five and a half cups of cooked rice. That's what I mean. That's a lot of rice. That is, that's that's a lot of rice. That's like a month's supply for me. You better be making a big old meal with that, like chicken and rice or something.

Um, just saying so next on our list. I've never taken on the road with me, but I have 'em at home. I know sandwich makers, the little panini makers. Sandwich makers. Yeah. Yeah. Those little dinky things. Yeah, those would be perfect. Now the small ones, I, I've seen 'em at like Walmart, so Yeah. So those, these small little sandwich makers.

Mm-hmm. Those, those would work on a nice 400 watt power, like the little ones I have in the cupboard. Yeah, that's what I mean. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. Because the waffle ones, I know. That's freaking amazing. You can take the waffle iron. The little bitty one. Yeah. And you can make waffles, you can make basically pancakes.

Same, same recipe basically. Basically you can make sandwiches. Yeah, you can make paninis just, just so they big deal. It's got grill mark on it. You can make quesadillas. Which are also called cheese, Chris. There's like a whole list of things you can do by buying one little waffle maker that's about seven inches around for 10 bucks.

Or a panini maker. They actually have a, a panini maker. Yeah, panini makers you can make, yeah. But yeah, it's, but yeah, those are, they really are multi, multi, multi-use. Especially if you like sandwiches. Yeah. But they're mult and I sandwiches want, I want quesadillas, quesadillas. I want quesadillas. Oh, that sounds good.

Anyway, we got Tortolas. Don't we don't have tortolas, do we? I forgot to order something. You didn't order Tortola. I'm fired. You're fired. Okay. You're in charge of shopping. Okay. Thanks Bye. Anyway. Anyway, any who, rather than go buy the mini pancake maker and sandwich maker and panini maker and. Just buy one quesadilla maker and waffle maker, just buy one.

Yeah, just, just pick one that you're gonna use the most and make everything in it. Yeah, it works, you know. Um, did you keep spices with you on the road? Um, just salt and pepper. I think I had, you know, 'cause it was the easiest to. I would probably, because I did a lot of sandwiches. Yeah. I, and, and if I brought anything from home, it was more like, um, like a baked ziti or spaghetti, you know, leftover.

Okay. And so it's just a little salt and pepper and that was it, you know? Okay. So when I, because you could use a microwave at a truck stop. I didn't have a microwave in my truck. Yeah, that's true. I don't know if they still let you. Used to be, you could just go ask. That's why I wasn't worried about one. I usually walked in and say, Hey, mind if I used a microwave?

And they're like, yeah, no, go ahead. Oh sure, go ahead. You know? And then you'd be like, oh yeah, by the way, I wanna buy this. Oh, okay. I'll pay for this while that's cooking. Okay. Yeah. So, um, so spice wise, when I first started out, I was like, I need this minimum 10 spices with me because I do love to cook.

Mm-hmm. But then when I realized the recipes I used the most, I blended my seasonings. I used the most for those spices. Okay. I'm not a big pepper user, so didn't worry about that. Right. Sodium deficiency. So yeah, I always have salt with me. Right. So I had my salt grinder and then I had like three seasoning blends that I mixed myself.

Okay. And that was it. Which for someone that cooks pretty much I need, which someone cooks as much as me. That's pretty good. You know? Plus nobody poisoned me. I never had to worry about that. Yeah. Right. Um, Okay. And then there's the, the big multi-use items that are so big that you always have to hook 'em to a big power inverter.

Okay. I've never seen one of the, well now they do have the great big, um, not skillet, um,

frying pan. It's bigger than a frying pan. It's thick. You mentioned it, um, earlier today. I did, yeah. Turn off light.

I thought I had everything off. Turn off Janet's light. What? My plant lights might've forgot to turn that alarm off. Anyway, anyways, um, um, it's like a sauce pan. Yeah. Okay. It's. Like an electric skillet size, but it's deep like a sauce pan. So you can cook soups and stuff in it for a family or a lasagna or something like that in it too.

Yeah. But those are big. I've never seen one of those that'll plug into the cigarette lighter. Those all have to have a, a power inverter and a big one, like a 2000 watt power inverter. You can't get away with a small one on something that big. Okay. When you buy the bigger appliances like that. You need something big.

Like I know one person that still carries an electric griddle with them. Okay. Up way above in the top cabinet. Mm-hmm. They've got the 2000 watt power inverter, so they're not worried about it. Right. And when they use it, they really use it. You know, they're like, they're. Bacon. They're making, they're making, they're making eggs, pancakes, bacon and bacon, scrambled eggs and everything.

But what they do is then they take the leftovers and they wrap 'em individually and they pop 'em in their freezer to freeze. Yeah. 'cause they got a good freezer in their refrigerator. And then when they wanna heat stuff up, they put 'em in the crock pot in the bottom. They layer stuff still in the foil.

Nice to heat it. See, what I used to do is I used to try to make, uh, big pancakes. Mm-hmm. But thin ones. Yeah. And then I could put like bacon and eggs and stuff and roll up and roll 'em up. Yeah. And, and that would be like a breakfast thing for me. Yeah. Um, I can't think of what the French version is, and I used to eat 'em all the time.

A baguette? No, no. That's of a pancakes. A crepe. A crepe. Yeah. A crepes. You had crepe. Yeah. I used to make crepes. You had crep. So you had crepes. Remember how I mentioned, um, my Barbie oven and people should buy a barbie oven? Mm-hmm. So I kept running across this one thing in my research. Okay. And I mentioned an easy bake oven.

Yeah. So this is a retro. Okay. And I'll put the link just because I was just like, awesome thing. Well, yeah, and, and like I said, we're gonna put links in the show notes. Yes. What, for all the items, mean items that we talked about, this is a retro looking like it looks straight out of like the fifties. It's Yep.

Bluish green color. Oh, oh, oh, oh, okay. Retro, retro, retro looking three in one. Electric breakfast station. Oh, I remember you showing me. Remember me showing you that? Oh yeah. It does look like an easy bake oven. It's got the griddle on top. Uhhuh. It's got the four sliced toaster oven, right? So you can also use it as an oven.

A little oven too, like a it. And a coffee maker. And a coffee maker. It fits the little pizzas in it too. Oh, I was doing all the research. You can put the little mini pizzas in it. If we were still driving, you know, it's You and I would have it. Oh, I would totally. I'd be like, I don't care. I want it. It, yes, I would.

I would recommend that you use a big power inverter for that. Yes, it needs a big power inverter, but I would so buy it. Just because it's just to have it. Just to have it. Just to have, because like I said, it's got the griddle on it that's big enough to make. Pancakes bacon. I know, right? You can put the toast and the toaster oven.

You can make your plug. We'll, a link, we'll definitely put a link in the show notes for that. Out of, out of all the stuff that I looked at that I've never had, that was like, oh, it's too bad we got a full kitchen. It's, I almost want one. It's like, it's like the, the, the sun, the, the beam of light just shined down on it.

It's like, oh. To the point that I actually said to Patrick, do you think we could use that on the back patio? It's possible. I see. It's possible. Anything's possible. Anything's possible if I cook, right? So, yes. Anyway, it was just so much fun researching cooking items. I tell you. It's like, well, like I said, I knew this, this, this episode would be right up your alley and you would get like drool marks on your face.

Do you know that I actually made homemade cookies in my truck? Did I ever tell you that? Yeah, you told me that. Yeah. I used the electric skillet. Mm-hmm. Turned it on real low. Mm-hmm. Sprayed it real good. Yep. Then I put foil that I sprayed real good, or that I greased real good with. 'cause I always kept a little bar of Crisco with me.

They used to put it in bars. Mm-hmm. I barred the Crisco, then I made homemade cookie dough and yeah, I made the cookie dough at home first. Okay. Then I pressed it down into the foil, and then I turned the electric skillet on low and covered it. Oh, so you made one big, huge cookie. I made like a bar. Yeah.

You know, like cookie bars? Yeah. And then I cut 'em up and they were just like thick cookies. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I made oatmeal so my baby could share them with me. Oh, my little moto. Whoa, woo woo. Tazziemoto. Anyway, so yeah, you can bake in your truck too if you're, if you're, you can, if you're really good at it. Like I said, you know, slow cookers can do a lot.

Mm-hmm. Rice cookers can do a lot. Everything. You can find another use for it, you know, that you wouldn't think you could. Exactly. Uh uh, the Immersible heater. The Immersible Heater. Heater. Yeah. That, that I'm sure would come in handy. Other than just heating beverages and melting snow. Oh yeah. Um, I've, yeah. The, like I said, the lunchbox style.

I, I I, that's more this generation than mine. Yeah. Um, and, and I, from the research that I have seen, those are pretty good at reheating meals that you bring from home. Uh, 'cause and I don't see where you'd have room for all these meals from home. Well, they, because they have the, uh, a, a, a. It's like a Tupperware bottom base.

Mm-hmm. You know, so you'll have like a Tupperware dish that you put inside it to, to, and, and it just, it circulates the air inside. Well, what I was gonna say is if you were like me, there was times I was gone for three weeks, four weeks at a time. But if you got a refrigerator, It's not keeping a month's worth of those, uh, you know what I mean?

No, I do, I'm just off the top of my head like, yeah, you could get the first couple, you could get the first week for meals from home, but then if you stop at the rest at, at a truck stop and you had ate one meal and you had leftovers, that leftover can go into that box to be reheated. Oh, yeah. That feed me for another four days.

But you, you see what I'm saying? Yeah. But that's where, that's where the lunchbox heaters, I think come, come into play is, is they're really good for reheating. If you don't have a microwave, Yeah, that makes sense. You know? Yeah. 'cause I'd be more likely to heat stuff that way than I would in a microwave.

'cause I'm not a big fan of microwaves. And then, uh, the refrigerators, I, I liked, I always, my mine would do both cool and heat, but I always kept mine on cold because it was, it was, yeah. It was in a cabinet and it was a bear to get out. Yep. So I left mine in there, but there's one other link that I wanna put in and that's for that thin refrigerator I found.

Um, The cooler. It's a cooler, but they also call it a refrigerator. It is tall and thin and can sit next to your seat or behind your seat. Right, right. Yep. Specifically for like drinks and snacks and yeah's Yeah, there's speci, there's there's some, there's gonna be other links in there that we're gonna put the show notes.

Yeah. That's one specific that I, I'm like, boy, I would've used that a lot because that would've saved a lot of stopping. Yeah. And yeah, it puts, puts things in hand reach. Yeah. You know, and that was one thing, 'cause I kept a little Coleman flip top cooler for stuff in hand reach. What? Nothing. I'm, I'm, I'm agreeing with you.

Oh, I'm, I'm doing hands motions too. Yeah. I'm agreeing with you because I'm, yeah, I'm Irish. I talk with my hands. It's, it's Okie dokie. So, anyway, anyways, I think that's everything that is, when it comes, like I said, we will have links to all the products that we mentioned in this episode in the show notes.

So, so don't be afraid to come over to 18 wheel talk.com and find this episode and, mm-hmm. And check out the, the show notes. Um, there'll be links for everything. Yes, you can comparison shop. Uh, don't forget to sign up to be a part of a fan club. It's our birthday month. Uh, we're celebrating four years. Oh, don't forget our resources page.

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