Off grid in a caravan. Some musings about cooking

When I utter the words "We live in a caravan," I can see people's minds going. They are fascinated by the mechanics of daily living in a tiny space. When I go the next step and mention that we are currently off grid as well, then questions erupt. Bathroom, cooking, power, clothes washing.... But I have been thinking lately about what things I really appreciate having here in the caravan what we have stashed that we really could manage without and what more travel weight we could discard.
 

We have over the years collected some things and discarded others. There are a lot less of what once would have been essentials in my cupboards. And probably much more to discard when K is not looking. The longer we spend off grid, rather than attached to town electricity and water the less I utensils I use.


So to answer the cooking question .... Top of the list has to be the BBQ. Oven and cook plate in one package. Next has to be my coffee pod machine. Runs on the inverter. Followed by my coffee plunger for essential beverage production on grey sky days. Kettle to boil water. On second thoughts maybe coffee making first and BBQ second. We can always make a sandwich.

 

While I still have a full set of saucepans, which are still in the drawer cos K bought them specially on our first caravan trip, most days I get out either one medium pot or the fry pan the same size. I have a lid that fits both.
For larger jobs I choose a 26cm square fry pan with a lid and detachable handles. Two square light weight metal tins complete the regularly used things.


 I manage most stove top meals in one pan these days. Stove top pot roasts with vegies, stir fries and casseroles. I cook my meat in the pan and pop vegies with a bit of liquid and season in tin foil to steam. Either lazy or very clever. Not sure which.    


 Ditch the rest of the saucepans and free up a drawer I reckon. Plenty of tin foil, cling wrap and baking paper and I'm set.

Our outside kitchen consists of the BBQ and my portable two burner cook top. The BBQ doubles as my oven and the aforementioned saucepan, large fry pan sans handles and my loaf pan are my bake ware.  I double line the pan and use it for cakes and bread. The square saucepan is good for scones, homemade fries, and baked meat. I wrap things in tin foil and pop them alongside or in the pan.

 

Simple really.


Cheers Sue

Gentle days

A routine has developed here on the farm.


Breakfast sometime after sunrise, which thankfully is not as early here as in Mataranka since there is a 1 1/2 hour tine difference due to daylight saving. Check the water bucket under the shower and top up the toilet flush tank, or dump it in the twin tub for clothes washing.
K checks the power situation before making coffee in the pod machine if the sun has already started charging the batteries or in the plunger if it is still overcast.


Wander outside and contemplate the view. Be it raining, misty or sunny the view is pretty good.

Visitors at breakfast time

At the moment and probably for the next few days there is water in the buckets that we have placed to catch water runoff. Got twenty litres off the caravan roof yesterday and last night. Pumped through the filter that's one trip for water collection K doesn't have to do.

At sometime during the day the dogs, chickens and any other penned stock will get fed. K takes all 8 dogs for a run each day.

Two of the farm's dog contingent

 

Make bread, sort out food for dinner, try to use up some eggs, wash clothes, wander up to the gate to check the phone calls. Maybe go for a drive to one of the local towns we haven't visited yet.
We wandered over to Taralga one day, finding a café and drinking coffee watching the rain.

Will  get busier when the family get back from Sydney but .....

Mr Fix It and his new grandson.

Life is good.


Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move

Just a recipe collection and memories

Nothing serious is getting done around here. There's a V8 race on the TV. So naturally  since we are both "rev-heads"  the bed is configured as a lounge and we are glued to the screen.

At some point one of us is going to have to think about dinner. I'm fresh out of ideas.

I gave away all of the enormous number of cook books collected over the years on the basis that I couldn't fit them in. (I am a cook from memory with whatever is in the pantry and fridge kind of cook I figured I wouldn't use them even if I packed them.)

At times like this there are only two places I go.

One of them is the first book I bought when we were planning the transition from house to caravan. Eva Stovern has a series of books, this is the second, born from extensive travels. I set my first caravan pantry up based on her "30 ingredients." Her advise about kitchen essentials is pretty good too.  I don't regret buying the book and still use some of the recipes. This is the author's official site. Check it out



Caravan cook book by Eva Stevern
30 Ingredients and kitchen essentials.
 

The  other potential source of inspiration is my trusty recipe collection.  This is a little green book that I was given before we were married and still has my maiden name in very neat student teacher printing on the inside cover. I could not bring myself to part with this.

 

Inside its pages are recipes copied from both my grandmothers  who were frugal but amazing cooks, and both my mums (his and mine that is).  There is  a chocolate cake recipe still made by many of the members of the extended family with notes in the margin for conversions to gluten free.
Grandma's pot roast, mock chicken, mustard dressing are copied in neat printing.  Later entries are not so tidy. I can hardly read the crust less quiche. There is a page with the no fail sponge that never works for me. I think you have to measure carefully for this one.

Tucked into the pages and the front and back cover are magazine clippings as well as typed and hand written gems contributed over the years by friends.

It is more a bit of history than a cook book BUT as I flip through  I do spy devilled lamb chops in grandma's handwriting and there are some farm grown chops left in the freezer.

That's sorted. Back to the V8s. Go FORD!




Cheers  Sue

A Ferg on the Move

A tale of bread, sticky date pudding and washing.

Today didn't go as planned.

I had four things on my to do list today; try out the new gluten free bread mix that has arrived in the post, cook gluten free Sticky Date for K, make some more yoghurt and do the washing. After that I was going to go have a swim with the holiday makers and catch up with the caravan gossip for the week.

My first gluten free cob loaf

I read the bread mx instructions last night. I'm really keen to get this working. I found it after some serious research. Most mixes are a batter, this one makes a dough and can be shaped into rolls or a cob loaf.

Gluten free cob loaf risen ready to go into the oven

 A great deal of emphasis is made about the need for accurate measurement of ingredients.
Now I am a chuck it all in from memory cook so naturally my mini kitchen scales were right at the back of the under sink cupboard.  K came in for a cuppa just as I had the whole lot on the floor in front of the fridge.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Just cooking," said I stuffing everything back in with great care.

Carefully assembling the ingredients I weighed out the flour mix, adding a bit more, still more and some more again. Since the flour was overflowing the small container I had on the scales I concluded that the scales had better be checked for accuracy. Sure enough a 250gm unopened cheese block weighed 50gms on my scales.

What to do?  While pondering this problem I made up the yoghurt and had a cuppa.

Yoghurt made up and sitting in the bench, I fired up the ute and made a 14km trip to borrow scales from the cook at the roadhouse in town and catch up on the town gossip for this week.

Back on track I mixed, kneaded and set the bread to prove in the obvious place. The dashboard of the ute.

Bread rising inside the car on the dashboard.

All went well with the sticky date because I had popped into the supermarket to say hello on my way to get the scales and remembered that I didn't have dates! That was a good save.   AND I had to use a pot as a cake tin because the right tin was ... you guessed it ... under the sink.

Now the oven. Not willing to trust the bread to the BBQ the first time I baked it I decide to use the glass oven which was sitting snugly in its usual storage place. ....You guessed it again.....Under the sink where had put it after I did the photos for the outside kitchen blog.

K breezed in on his way to fix the commercial drier.  "Still cooking," said I stuffing everything back in with great care again and dumping the glass oven next to the outdoor power point in the annex.

Sticky Date Pudding in the glass oven.

Sticky Date in the oven and bread  rising beautifully in the car  I lifted out the twin tub washing machine, pulled out the power cord and ....  No free power point.

So I currently I am sitting on the bed in the caravan waiting for the bread to finish, doing the washing with the twin tub in the shower, plugged into the power point under the bed and using the shower head to fill it.

Washing machine inside the caravan in the shower.
I usually do this when it 35plus degrees outside. 

K has come in from work to have his Sticky Date with cream and have a shower... Ooops.



Gluten Free Sticky Date Pudding and cream

I still have to return a set of kitchen scales.


Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move.

The outdoor kitchen

Baked vegetables and sticky lamb ribs loaded into our portable hooded BBQ.
Put lid down and bake  1 hour on medium 180 degrees Celsius
No smell or heat in the caravan
 

I promised you a tour of the outdoor kitchen. 

Regular readers will remember that my caravan oven  is actually deployed as a coffee pod storage cupboard, a use it was obviously designed for because the pods fit perfectly.  I have just packed away 40 cartons containing 10 pods each. Not a centimetre to spare but they fit.

So .... the outdoor kitchen is currently deployed at the front of the caravan under a free standing gazebo. At other times it lives under the awning.

We use a double burner gas stove set that can be used as two large burners for the kettle and a pot. It has a non stick BBQ  plate as well. This pretty much covers our everyday cooking needs.  K installed a drop down table on the side of the van and when we are mobile the two burner stove can be dropped onto it in a matter of seconds.

Double gas burners with BBQ plate

Double gas burner stove with room for kettle and a pot.

The hooded BBQ is just the right size and shape to slip into back of the ute. It is easy to lift and gets used not only by us but  by the family when we stay on the farm. K put a oven thermometer in the lid so I have started using it for baking as well.

Gasmate BBQ with a stove thermometer installed in the hood.
Well used and well travelled appliance.

We kept two electric appliances. The slow cooker is tiny, only 1.5 litre capacity. It  can be run off the battery inverter and I have been known to break my "no cooking inside" rule to set it up in the kitchen sink and have dinner cooking in the slow cooker  as we drive. We get some funny looks at fuel stops when there is a delicious smell emanating from the locked caravan.

Glass turbo oven and 1.5 litre crock pot,

The last item is a glass turbo oven, a cheap version, which travels tucked under the kitchen sink. If I want to do serious baking and we have 240v electricity this is fantastic. However as I get better at regulating the heat in the hooded BBQ I am using this appliance less and less,




My caravan outdoor kitchen. Gas and electric appliances  that all pack away when we travel.
Note the gas bottles. We are connected to the large one at the back which has the gas lantern connected for light in the cooking area at night. The black lead on the right comes from the caravan battery inverter.

I don't have everything out usually, but in your honour here is the whole kitchen set up. 

Of course  now I have to put some of it away. Oh well.    Guess I can tidy the mess under the sink at the same time.


Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move