Week two in the desert. The novelty of misery has worn off. Now it's just... life. Hot, small, remote life.
I've adapted the cooking. The oven is too hot to use during the day (it heats up the entire apartment, and the AC is already struggling against 112-degree external temperatures). So I cook at night — after 8 PM, when the sun is down and the temperature drops to a comparatively arctic 95 degrees. Dinner prep happens in the afternoon; cooking happens after dark.
This is how Mom cooked at Pearl Harbor, she told me. 'Hawaii wasn't as hot as the desert, but the humidity made the kitchen unbearable. I cooked at night. Early morning or late evening. Adapted.'
Adapted. The military wife's most important word.
The crockpot is doing heavy lifting. Crockpot meals don't heat the kitchen the way the oven does. I've expanded my crockpot repertoire: Mom's pot roast, obviously. But also crockpot salsa chicken (chicken, jar of salsa, black beans, cumin — dump and go), crockpot white chicken chili, crockpot beef stew. Everything goes in the pot. The pot does the work.
Caleb is adapting faster than me. He's found the base playground (which has a shade structure, thank God) and he runs under the shade with the three other children who also live in this specific circle of housing hell. The children are: a two-year-old named Jackson, a three-year-old named Sophia, and a four-year-old named Marcus who bosses the other kids around with the authority of a future Marine.
I met Marcus's mother — a woman named Tamara who has been at Twentynine Palms for two years and has the thousand-yard stare of a survivor. 'It gets better,' she said. 'No, it doesn't. I lied. But you stop noticing.'
Military wife humor. The genre that keeps us alive.
Mom's care package arrived: sunscreen (industrial strength), a new oven thermometer (backup), dried herbs, and a handwritten note: 'Three square feet is enough. Your grandmother cooked in a kitchen smaller than that in West Virginia. The Abernathy women have always made do.'
The Abernathy women have always made do. I'm putting that on the blog. I'm putting it in the book.
Made crockpot salsa chicken tonight. $4. Four servings. No oven required.
Making do. In 112 degrees. With three square feet. And a crockpot.
The crockpot salsa chicken that kept us fed through week two at Twentynine Palms planted a seed—once you commit to dump-and-go cooking, you start riffing. These Buffalo Chicken Tacos are the natural next step: chicken in the pot, a handful of bold ingredients, no oven, no drama, and dinner on the table after the sun finally drops below the ridgeline. Four dollars, four servings, zero heat casualties. The Abernathy women make do—and sometimes making do tastes like this.
Buffalo Chicken Tacos
Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 3–4 hrs (low) | Total Time: ~4 hrs | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce (such as Frank’s RedHot)
- 1/2 cup salsa
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 8 small flour or corn tortillas
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
- Optional toppings: sour cream, sliced green onions, diced avocado, jalapeño slices
Instructions
- Load the crockpot. Place chicken breasts in the bottom of a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker in a single layer.
- Add sauce and seasonings. Pour buffalo sauce and salsa over the chicken. Sprinkle cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper evenly over the top.
- Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 3 to 4 hours, or on HIGH for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until chicken is cooked through and tender enough to shred easily.
- Shred the chicken. Using two forks, shred the chicken directly in the crockpot and stir it into the cooking liquid. Let it sit on WARM for 10 minutes to absorb the sauce.
- Warm the tortillas. Heat tortillas in a dry skillet over medium heat for about 30 seconds per side, or wrap in a damp paper towel and microwave for 30 seconds.
- Assemble and serve. Spoon buffalo chicken onto each tortilla. Top with shredded cheese and any optional toppings. Serve immediately.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 370 | Protein: 36g | Fat: 10g | Carbs: 30g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 820mg
About the cook who shared this
Rachel Abernathy
Week 229 of Rachel’s 30-year story
· San Diego, California
Rachel is a twenty-eight-year-old Marine wife and mom of two who has moved five times in six years and learned to cook a Thanksgiving dinner with half her cookware still in boxes. She married young, survived postpartum depression, and feeds her family of four on a junior Marine's salary with a freezer full of pre-made meals and a crockpot that has never let her down. She writes for the military spouses who are cooking dinner alone in base housing and wondering if they're enough. You are.
