Making meals, counter space, and stove top arrangement

[Swamp]

LESS STUFF MORE LIFE....adapt life is too short. Hull #848 9k since July this trailer is luxury.... stock . Make room for what is important the answer to your question is all around you.

 

Swamp

[Jim_Oker]

On 9/3/2021 at 12:58 PM, Ray and Susan Huff said:

Regarding meal prep outdoors: I do very little outside.  I like being in the kitchen, where everything is handy and I don't have to carry a lot in and out of the trailer. 

I hear you but after fifteen years with our standard size van (with raised top) we've gotten the utensils and ingredient shuffle down (a few Rubbermaid storage boxes work quite well for this) and frankly just prefer to spend more time outside in the lovely sites we tend to camp at. When we chose how to customize our van we didn't include a counter mounted stove and instead chose to just use a portable (which we can take indoors if really needed) and that worked super well. I think we'll be doing some more very cold and also very rainy camping in the Oliver so will surely be cooking indoors a bit more now that we have that option, but if the weather is good see ya outside!!

[connor77]

I'm with WolfDDS on cooking outside.  I love to cook on our Weber 2200 and we can cook entire meals on the grill.  In the morning:  pancakes, eggs, bacon, english muffins all on the grill and then lunch and dinner:  grilled vegetables, steaks, burgers, dogs, marinated chicken thighs, etc.  My better half will do the veggie prep inside and I'll get everything ready outside.  Our outdoor food prep station is a folding table and we have dialed in the utensils, condiments and everything else we need into a container or basket so we're not making too many trips in and out.  If the weather is lousy, we'll have chicken salad or tuna salad or something that's easy.  Cereal in the morning with fresh fruit.

I want to get to a point where I can cook entire meals on the fire like SeaDawg has mentioned in other threads.  Recently bought a bunch of cast iron for both our grill and the campfire from Lodge.  I really enjoy cooking with cast iron.

My wife is an excellent cook and we have a nice kitchen in our home.  That said, she has never mentioned to me that the working space inside the trailer is inadequate.  We eat very well, but simply, when camping.  Love to buy fresh, local produce and good quality meats when traveling and we'll also pack some vacuum sealed foods as well.

Good luck with your purchase!

[Jim_Oker]

Yeah we make heavy use of our little weber portable grill too. I often make compound butters and a salsa or two to take along on trips to put on grilled fish and meat for super easy and very tasty mains.

[Nancy K.]

We have a metal stand/grill top that we place over our propane fire pit.  Perfect for foil packet dinners such as Low Country Boil.  For cooking inside, I do think it would be a challenge in the LE 1 but we have the LE 2 and it's not hard to make it work.

[Ray and Susan Huff]

On 9/18/2021 at 11:10 AM, Jim_Oker said:

I hear you but after fifteen years with our standard size van (with raised top) we've gotten the utensils and ingredient shuffle down (a few Rubbermaid storage boxes work quite well for this) and frankly just prefer to spend more time outside in the lovely sites we tend to camp at. When we chose how to customize our van we didn't include a counter mounted stove and instead chose to just use a portable (which we can take indoors if really needed) and that worked super well. I think we'll be doing some more very cold and also very rainy camping in the Oliver so will surely be cooking indoors a bit more now that we have that option, but if the weather is good see ya outside!!

How do you deal with bees????  They seem to be prevalent everywhere we go . . . . . the minute you start cooking, especially meat, they swarm . . . . and some places it is impossible to eat outside.  Frustrating, to say the least.

[Jim_Oker]

Just now, Ray and Susan Huff said:

How do you deal with bees????  They seem to be prevalent everywhere we go . . . . . the minute you start cooking, especially meat, they swarm . . . . and some places it is impossible to eat outside.  Frustrating, to say the least.

We have never had them truly "swarm" while cooking or eating outside. We may have a different definition for that term though - it's fresh in my mind as we had some swarm while trying to enjoy a viewpoint in the Washington Cascades last week, when my dog was pawing at the hole to their nest that was right in the middle of the trail to the viewpoint. They were starting to rush out of the nest en masse based presumably on some sort of "bee alert system" and were most assuredly starting to "swarm" in big numbers - I yelled "bees" and we all ran up the trail and then checked ourselves and the dog for any that had attached while we were near the nest. The dog got a few stings and my wife and friend each got one but somehow I was spared (thick long legged pants may have helped though my wife's sting was on her arm). We do, however, often have a few annoying but not angry bees stop by when we're cooking and eating - sweet stuff like fruit also seems to attract them. They've never shown any interest in going after *us* though and we just kind of try to wave them away which only partly works. We just live with it though the dog has a slightly harder time just being at peace with their existence. She seems to know enough not to go after them unless they're going after her though. I think she must have had some other hive encounters perhaps when she was a stray before we got her. Biting flies, otoh, she aggressively hunts and when she catches them, she eats them. But we've never had more than maybe 2-3 bees buzzing around while cooking/eating outside while camping - do you often have more than that, and are they aggressive/angry bees?

[Ray and Susan Huff]

16 minutes ago, Jim_Oker said:

We have never had them truly "swarm" while cooking or eating outside. We may have a different definition for that term though - it's fresh in my mind as we had some swarm while trying to enjoy a viewpoint in the Washington Cascades last week, when my dog was pawing at the hole to their nest that was right in the middle of the trail to the viewpoint. They were starting to rush out of the nest en masse based presumably on some sort of "bee alert system" and were most assuredly starting to "swarm" in big numbers - I yelled "bees" and we all ran up the trail and then checked ourselves and the dog for any that had attached while we were near the nest. The dog got a few stings and my wife and friend each got one but somehow I was spared (thick long legged pants may have helped though my wife's sting was on her arm). We do, however, often have a few annoying but not angry bees stop by when we're cooking and eating - sweet stuff like fruit also seems to attract them. They've never shown any interest in going after *us* though and we just kind of try to wave them away which only partly works. We just live with it though the dog has a slightly harder time just being at peace with their existence. She seems to know enough not to go after them unless they're going after her though. I think she must have had some other hive encounters perhaps when she was a stray before we got her. Biting flies, otoh, she aggressively hunts and when she catches them, she eats them. But we've never had more than maybe 2-3 bees buzzing around while cooking/eating outside while camping - do you often have more than that, and are they aggressive/angry bees?

My "swarm" was a bit exaggerated!  Usually 3 or 4 bees (Yellow Jackets) - enough to be annoying, especially while eating.  I guess I'm just not very tolerant of bugs.

[Jim_Oker]

Just now, Ray and Susan Huff said:

My "swarm" was a bit exaggerated!  Usually 3 or 4 bees (Yellow Jackets) - enough to be annoying, especially while eating.  I guess I'm just not very tolerant of bugs.

Yeah, from backpacking and car camping with tents we long ago just got used to that phenomenon. I've learned to sort of assess their intentions and cope accordingly. If they're not angry then I mostly avoid risking making them angry - waving at them to shoo them a bit seems to not trigger their attack mode. But if they're not right in my food or face then I just leave them be and they leave me be. When we disturb a hive/nest though, it's a code red situation for sure!!