Advice from the cooks out there1

[greenbean]

My husband and I just ordered our new 19' trailer - we are sooooo excited! But now for all the decisions.
I LOVE to cook - and am looking forward to having a dry - clean - warm - non windy place to cook. My questions are:
Do you use/need your oven if you have one? Is the 5 cu ft fridge enough space to store all your food. I know we will carry an ice chest with bulky drinks in our TV - but it is hard for me to judge space in the fridge itself.

Another thought we have had is does anyone have a convection oven/microwave that fits in the microwave space? That way we could cook small casseroles in the convection oven.

Anyway - looking forward to meeting other Escapees next summer - we are registered for the Oregon gathering - and also hope to be able to make the Escape get away in June!

Thanks for the comments.....

[Jim Bennett]

Welcome, and congrats on your new trailer.

We love cooking and good eating too, but we have adapted our cooking to a Coleman 2 burner stove, and a Dickinson BBQ, or have used the stove inside if weather is really bad, and we eat great meals. We do not miss an oven of any kind at all. There is so many great things to cook and eat with just these appliances. At home we often have leftovers to be heated, but when in the trailer, we pretty much cook what we need as we go. Much healthier, and less prone to overeating this way too (gotta watch the diet as I age ).

At first we thought the 5 cf fridge would not be big enough, as our dog is raw feed and has a few pounds of meat in there for himself, but it has proven to be plenty big. We can easily bring up to a weeks food with us, but when travelling like to find fresh stuff every couple days wherever we are.

The space the microwave would take up is what we use as a pantry, which stores almost all of our dry and canned goods.

Anyway, you will definitely be getting a bunch of other opinions from others. What you will find is that there is really no one right way to do things, and you have to decide what is most important for the way you will want to travel and live in your trailer.

I won't be making it to the Oregon rally, but will be at Osoyoos, and hope to see you guys there.

[ddevin]

We don't miss our oven either, and cook essentially every night on a Napoleon BBQ, for up to a month at a time. The food we cook is simple, but wonderful, especially when on the coast! We love oysters on the grill, but have yet to convince the kids that they taste better than they look! We also feed our dog a raw meat diet, and his food is stored in a cooler. We don't feel the need for a microwave either, but really appreciate having that space for food storage. My wife and I agree that some of best times on road trips is preparing and enjoying our meals!

[gbaglo]

Me too.

No oven, no microwave. Got the three burner stove in the trailer and mostly use it to heat water for coffee in the morning.

Everything is done on the Weber Q and one ( or two ) butane, one burner stoves, outside.

I do have the folding Coleman oven, but only used it once to warm pulled pork.

baglo

[cpaharley2008]

Exactly, we are camping, so cook outside, not inside the camper like at home, enjoy the surroundings, use a tiny stove and improvise!!!!!

[float5]

The 5 cubic refrigerator is plenty for us. We use a small cooler with ice packs when travelling to the destination.

We had an interest in an oven but were not going to get it because of the weight and the fact that we probably would not use it that much. I am glad that we do not have one since I like that storage space.

We bake some food in the home oven to take with us. Then we use the microwave in the trailer. We also have a two-burner Coleman that folds like two pancakes together. That can be used outside as well as a metal "oven" that quite a few people use to make impressive creations.

It depends on what you normally do and whether you think you want to live differently with the trailer. Some never use a microwave at home and don't want one for the trailer either. Some use their oven so much that they cannot be without it. I can say that there is no problem having all kinds of food without an oven. If we were full-timing, we would want one but we are not.

[gbaglo]

As for casseroles, make those at home and freeze them. You could probably get six small ones in the freezer ( and because they are frozen they'll help keep the fridge cold ).
These can be re-heated on the BBQ ( on low ), sitting on an overturned cast-iron fry-pan, or whatever else you have handy ( rocks? ) to raise the dish a bit off the grill.

Get Steven Raichlen's "How to Grill" or Barbeque Bible and you'll never run out of good food ideas. ( Workman Publishing, ISBN 0-7611-2014-9 paper or ISBN 0-7611-2482-9 ). Weber also puts out a How to Grill BBQ book.

baglo

[escape artist]

Hi: greenbeen...Try a one pot supper. Start the boil with enough small redskin potatoes for two. When they're half done add a handful of baby carrots or greenbeans, and a couple Johnsonville Brats on top. When the taters are cooked so is everything else. We don't use the Micro much any more and the BBQ in good weather... often. Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[dave macrae]

Hi and contragulations. Aparantly we are in the minority but we love having the oven in our trailer, We don't have a microwaveand don't miss it. we have the I believe it is 6.2 or 6.7 fridge and it is huge. We just keep a cooler in the truck for drinks. I personaly think it all depends on what kind of camping you are doing and what kind of cooking/eating you like.

[greenbean]

Thanks for all the quick responses! I'm leaning towards no oven - but my husband thinks he would miss chocolate chip cookies.... We could always warm them up in the microwave! I'm intrigued by all the BBQ responses. We rarely BBQ - think I'll check out the book recommended. Thanks again...

[dave macrae]

So far my favorite has been fresh hot apple crisp with ice cream on top. My wife definatly knows the way to my heart!! We have had home made pizza's, nachos, and some other things I am sure I am forgeting.

[Jim Bennett]

You don't say where you live (maybe you could add that to your profile), but most days we have used our trailer, I would not want the heat from a built-in oven going. We had one in our previous trailer for 12 years, and used it twice.

I have baked stuff like cake, pies and squares in the BBQ. I usually put a griddle underneath to deflect some of the direct heat.

Remember with a microwave, you will be bound to using 120V AC power, and would not be able to use it off grid without a generator.

There are lots of good solutions out there to fit all the different needs of individual campers. If someone I camped with offered me fresh out of the oven apple crisp a la mode, I would never turn it down. ;

[dave macrae]

When I didn't see my wife for a little bit and I looked in the trailer to see her preparing apple crisp I have to admit I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I must admit that I think having a ovengoing in the trailer would be a poor idea when it is realy hot out. But then again I do like to eat and if the chef wishes to use the oven to cook for me then so be it.

[dbailey]

For us weather isn't usually a concern. We do a lot of camping in mild temperatures, so the heat in the trailer wouldn't be a concern. For us, the big tradeoff is in storage space.

We almost never camp with power, so the microwave is a non-contender. That frees up some space, either for a larger fridge or for more food storage. The oven has the advantage that it's propane-powered, so doesn't require power. So the options we are considering are oven vs no oven, and regular fridge vs large fridge. Those two choices give us four different options that trade off different flexibilities for storage space.

Not sure where we're going to land, yet. I like the idea of occasionally being able to bake a treat like cookies or apple crisp. And we like to eat out occasionally, so being able to warm up left-overs is a good thing (possible but not straight forward on a bbq). But I'm not sure I want to give up fridge space or cupboard space for these few uses.

Like everything else, you have tradeoffs. We'll all use the different options for different things, and value them differently, so there's no one right solution.

[gabeck]

There surely is no real substitute for fresh from the oven "apple crisp with ice cream "..... but one can get by with a simple fry pan for things like rolled up crepes filled with thinly sliced apples topped with vanilla sauce or whipped cream - taste similar to strudel - or filled with blueberries and whipped cream cheese topped with whipped cream .... or filed with whipped cream cheese topped plum or rhubarb compote !

[greenbean]

I've saved a recipe from Cooks Illustrated for stove top apple crisp. Sounds great - still need to try it out. We live in Bellingham WA, so hot weather will only be a concern when we are travelling south or east. I think another trip up to Escape is in order, to think through storage, food, etc...

[dave macrae]

We have the large fridge and Oven so we don't have storage over the fridge and the oven also takes away storage space, I was initialy concerned with a lack of storage space but with shelves in the wardrobe so its a pantry not a wardrobe now we find we have lots of storage space but then agian everyone seems to have a different amount of stuff with them.

[DonM]

We did it all....
My wife is a COOK. She cooks to please herself and her guests. So we went oven and microwave. We ALSO went with a 1500w inverter plus solar and dual 6volts so we could use the micro off the grid. In fact we plan to run the micro full time through the inverter ( remember it is only 700 watts).

Comfort over storage - I think the items we often bring rarely get used. Give me storage and I will fill it with toys..

[robinwstebbins]

Fresh chocolate chip cookies out of the oven are a wonderful treat after a day of playing in the wilderness. Our kids seem to keep having fundraisers with pre-made cookie dough lumps. They store good in the freezer and then cook up great in the oven.

We purchased some plastic drawer/containers that fit under the sink area that work well for the utensils and other stuff that would normally go in the drawers under the stove. This allowed us to keep the closet for hanging items.

For years we used a utility trailer that the kids could sleep in, but we had to set up the stove and tent whenever we made camp. That makes me greatly appreciate being able to pull into a campground and be fully set up just by disconnecting and putting the jacks down. On cold fall and winter days, the oven heat is nice, and on hot summer days we spend our time outside so who cares if the trailer gets a little hot now and then.

[hippo]

We ordered a 19ft in 2010 and wanted a stove and oven. After talking to Reace we said he would do the oven for us. Our trailer was the second one off the line with a oven and the second front box off the line and the first one with extra tail lights on each side of the rear window. My wife cooked corn bread the first night in Canada after taking delivery of the trailer in Nov 2010. She used the oven many times after that. The 5.0 fridge is large enough for all your food. Congrats on your purchase the 19ft is easy to pull and well balanced. Oh and latter in the year at the Escape Rally Tammy said they had 5 trailers on the line with ovens.
Chuck