Air Fryers and Slow Cookers: Leftover Turkey

 

Many static caravan owners rarely use their traditional cookers. They mostly cook using smaller appliances such as a slow cooker or air fryer. These use far less energy, are often much healthier and save cleaning the oven!!  

At this festive time of year, I thought I would share  a really easy slow cooker recipe which is ideal for using up left-over roast turkey, but without drying or overcooking the meat ...

TURKEY AND VEGETABLE CASSEROLE WITH ONION AND PEPPER (SLOW COOKER)

Ingredients 

Two chopped sticks of celery
Half a red, yellow or orange pepper cut into pieces
One sliced onion 
Half a large sliced leek
Half a sliced carrot
A few pieces of chopped sweet potato or butternut squash (optional)
One dessert spoonful of lentils
One dessert spoonful of pearl barley
One tin of chopped tomatoes 

About one litre of tap water 

A small amount of chopped, crushed or dried garlic   
A pinch of mixed herbs
Left-over cooked turkey removed from the bones (darker meat works best)
Cornflour or other thickener 

Method

Add the vegetables, garlic, lentils, barley, herbs and tinned tomatoes to the slow cooker. Rinse the empty tomato tin with extra water and pour over the vegetables until they are well covered.

Do NOT add the turkey or thickener yet

Cook on high for at about 6 hours until the vegetables are soft and the liquid is bubbling.  

Add a heaped teaspoonful of cornflower to half a cup of cold water and mix thoroughly. Add to the slow cooker until the liquid thickens slightly. 

Add your turkey leftovers to the slow cooker for the last half hour ensuring that the meat does actually reach boiling point for at least 15 mins to kill any bacteria.

Serve with ready made garlic bread or freshly baked baguette from your air fryer.

NOTE Adding the meat later will help to keep it moist but it must still be boiled. If your slow cooker does not reach boiling point, use your hob or microwave at the end to bring the casserole to the boil for a few minutes.     

TIP If you like to 'spice up' your food add chilli to taste. If you like to sweeten your sauce add a  teaspoonful of sugar or low calorie Stevia.

 

 

To Let or Not to Let??

That is today's question, and one I would imagine more and more static caravan owners are asking themselves now that pitch fees and the cost of living in general are rising, though of course not all sites allow you to sub-let your caravan.

If you are a member of any static caravan social media chat groups, there will always be people who will forcefully tell you to keep your caravan just for yourself and stress if you have to let your caravan you shouldn't own one. I can't agree with this view. Such people undoubtedly have more free income than I do, and, in any case, it's my caravan and I can do what I like with it! 

Potential Problems

Of course letting brings with it potential problems, especially if you let to strangers. Some people will not take as much care of your caravan as you do. They may be wasteful of your gas and electric. and if you're really unlucky you could get a tenant who enjoys causing damage, refuses to pay, or decides to walk off with one of your belongings. You can't entirely prevent this from happening, but you can minimise the risk. You also need to make sure your insurance covers you for lettings and check out your position with the taxman.

The Letting Options  

1. Friends and Family (Low Risk but Small Income)

If you only let to people you know, they are far more likely to take care of your caravan. You can leave extra belongings for them to use or tucked away in a box somewhere. You can ask them to bring their own bedding and to clean the van before they leave. They can order gas bottles if needed and you can reimburse them. The downside is that the number of potential friends and family renters is limited, and you probably would need to charge 'mate's rates'. 

(Friends)

 

                                                                 (And Family)

2. Let Through your Site 

If your site offers a letting option, and your van fits their criteria, then this can be worthy of consideration. You will have to remove all belongings not on their inventory list, but after that the site will take care of everything, cleaning, bedding, gas, condition checking, replacing broken items and emergency call-outs. They will also handle payment and advertising. They may even offer you extra insurance to cover minor repairs. The down-side is that your site are likely to take a big percentage of the income for their trouble. Ironically, you'll get most income during the summer school holidays, when people use less fuel for heating and lighting. However, if you have school age children, you may want use of your caravan for yourself at these times.

3. Use a Holiday Agency

There are plenty of agencies around, and they offer a variety of services from advertising or payment collection only to full management with cleaning, key handling and bed changes. Charges, condition and quality vary enormously, so you need to do your research. Such agencies will often take on letting 'older' caravans which do not fit a site's letting criteria.

4. Do It Yourself

This option has the potential to make you most money, but is also likely to be the most trouble. In the very least, as the owner, you will need to do your own advertising, money collection and deal with any issues. If you can find a trustworthy person who 'lives' on site or is close by them you might be able to pay them to clean, change beds and hand over keys, but ultimately you will be responsible for damage claims, troublesome tenants and night time emergencies. 

My Options

So in my first year of caravan ownership what did I choose to do and did it work? 

I have let my caravan out for some of the time this year and have covered about 75% of the pitch fees. I have also left plenty of time for myself and family to stay there. Unless you find yourself unwell or working away from the UK for long periods of time, there's not a lot of point in buying a static caravan if you don't use it yourself.  

This is what worked for me...

a) I let my caravan through the park for July and August. This involved just one clearance and return of my personal belongings most of which I locked away in a secure shed. I don't have school age children any more so probably wouldn't enjoy being on site in high season anyway. The letting service provided by the park was high quality, and they mostly sorted any minor problems. The caravan was handed back to me at the start of September in very good order. They even cleaned the carpets. I think my total loss was one cereal bowl, a cork coaster and a minor fence repair. I will use this service again next year.  

 b) I let my caravan to family and friends at reduced rates at other times when requested. I paid a cleaner just to check everything over before the tenants arrived, I asked guests to bring their own bedding and I made various arrangements to hand over the keys. I only live about half an hour away, so it's not too much effort for me. People were generally very grateful for the cheap holiday and looked after my caravan well. I hope to get some repeat bookings next year, but will have to raise fees slightly to cover the increase in gas and electric.       

   

Bottles, Bins and Blizzards

 We have been at our caravan for five nights now....our third stay and the longest so far. This was intended to be a restful pre-Easter break filled with walks around the lake and evening drinks on the decking. Sadly, the weather has not been on our side. Tuesday afternoon was thankfully the exception. The sun appeared for a couple of hours. I uncovered our patio furniture and sat outside in comfort without a coat, G &T in hand. 

I watched a Gold Crest dancing around in the adjacent shrubbery, showing off its striped head and distinctive song. It was not still enough for me to capture its presence with a photo, but this will now be my challenge every time I sit outside. I also watched a crow transporting long sticks to his nest in one of the tall trees.

Generally speaking, though, the weather had been murky, chilly, damp and overcast but I had no idea that the worst was yet to come.  Tuesday evening brought heavy rain which descended on to the caravan waking me in the early hours with night-time creaks and splashes.

Despite the weather so far, there had been plenty to keep us busy. We are still caravan newbies, and there is a lot to organise and learn. The central heating in the caravan is good, but I nevertheless reinstalled the curtains which the previously owners had removed for aesthetic reasons, They were there for a reason and provided an extra layer of insulation at night.

Despite my initial worries, the heating seems reasonably inexpensive to run. We've had the boiler running day and night for most of our stays so far, and have only just emptied the first half full gas cannister which is one of two attached to our caravan. Following a walk to reception and a payment of £79 the newly filled gas bottle was reinstalled later that day, though I'm guessing that prices will rise this year.

It's been interesting watching the very friendly staff prepare the park for the extra Easter visitors due next week. The grounds are kept looking natural, but nevertheless paths are cleared and the site is neat and litter free. There are several fenced in areas filled with large lidded rubbsh skips for residents to use and these are emptied very regularly so there are no overflowing bins or unsightly piles of rubbish.

So we reach the finale...April snow...not the occasional bit of sleet, but great lumps of endlessly floating and icy fluffy bits. These flakes haven't read the UK spring weather manual as, instead of melting they cover the ground in a white and very disconcertingly Christmas Card-like image.

      

Home now, I've put this freakish weather episode behind me and started to compile a places of interest pack for when our first friends and family visitors arrive. The first visitors however came uninvited on the final day of our stay. 

 

The Beginning

 In February 2022 my husband and I invested in a static caravan at Coghurst Hall Holiday Park which is situated off a country lane between Hastings and the village of Westfield. 

Although I say 'invested' you need to interpret the word with caution. Static caravans do not gain in value, but depreciate quite rapidly over time.  Our investment was not for profit. It was simply an investment in future holidays and short breaks, which we could tailor to our needs and those of family and friends. So why, you may be wondering, have we chosen to purchase a UK holiday home so close to our own main residence, when foreign travel is just beginning to wake up after such a long period of Covid restrictions?

Coghurst Hall may be only a half hour drive from our home town of Bexhill, but it provides a totally different environment. Set in a wooded valley with an impressive lake at its centre, it has the feel of a rural retreat which could be anywhere in the UK.

Our decision about location was guided by our need to choose somewhere which could provide a complete change of scenery, but would be close enough to our main residence to to return home at short notice should my husband's needs require this, or indeed the demands of my voluntary commitments in the community sector. We also had to admit that, for medical reasons, foreign travel or any long journeys were much more challenging than they used to be. Despite my busy life, I found myself increasing resenting the confines of Covid and longing for a safe break away from home.  

So why did we choose a static caravan? Why not a touring caravan, campervan, lodge or a villa, or a more permanent brick built holiday home? The reason is simple. My husband is no longer allowed to drive, and I don't want sole responsibility for towing a van or taking charge of a motor home. We simply couldn't afford anything more costly than a static van, without overstretching ourselves. So here we are...owners of a lovely two bedroomed static caravan at Coghurst Park, and a reason for me to embark on another series of blogs. More to follow  ...