Cooking in the Camper

We're cookin' with gas!

Lily & Me making grilled cheese for Dad

The camper has everything we need to make the same excellent meals we made in our regular kitchen. A generously sized refrigerator, separate freezer, microwave, 3-burner gas stovetop, gas oven (15"Wx13"H), a large and small sink, plenty of counter space, and even an outside 3-burner stovetop for those stinky projects (fish, bacon, etc).

I did not bring many of our kitchen contraptions for lack of room (crockpot, food processor, ice cream maker, cheese pot, etc) but we did decide to fit in our bread machine. So far we have been incredibly happy with our utensil and cookware decisions. We left out things that could be replaced with other items such as the garlic press....just use a knife, Pyrex measuring glass...use regular measuring cups. The great thing about having fewer things is that we end up using everything on a weekly basis and don't waste space storing things we don't use.

Some of our cooking projects included eggs, toast and scrapple for Uncle Mike & Christian, tacos for Lily's cousins Jake & Elizabeth, quiche for our friends Sam & Liz, pork tenderloin for Nick & Sharon, "Bounty Rice" and "Winter Veggie Stew" for Mom, John & Babci, and today I made split pea soup and.......pumpkin pie! for lunch with Mom, John, Babci and Lily's Uncle Cas.

It's been an adjustment getting used to less freezer space and making smaller meals for lack of room for leftovers. We've been just eating the small leftovers for lunch the next day or dinner the same day.

The two cookbooks we chose to bring with us (our only two actually) are the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook for typical recipes and Simply in Season for seasonal ingredients and different tastes. We love Simply in Season because it's organized by Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter so, for example, it's Fall now and there are a lot of apples...so we have "Sausage and Apples" or "Apple Rice". In Springtime we would have a lot of fresh greens and so more salads. A much more sustainable way to eat than our typical habits of just making whatever we want regardless of growing season.

We have just loved continuing to host friends and family in the camper during our time in NJ and are looking forward to doing the same in CT!