Stocking An RV Kitchen

[ChiGirl]

Hi all,

If this has been asked already, I apologize, but a rudimentary search didn't yield any results.

DH and I are making our plans to go full time within the next 6-12 months, depending on the sale of our home. For those of you who cook, what did you bring along in terms of kitchen gear? I'm looking at my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, my food processor, blender, crock pot, coffeemaker, and other assorted gadgets and wondering what should go with me. I've already narrowed down some things (such as our enormous collection of coffee cups and my Christmas dinnerware set), but I want to be practical about the other things since space is the most precious commodity. Any thoughts or experiences out there?

Thanks,
Linda / ChiGirl

[Gordon Dewald]

This is a topic my DW should probably answer but I will give it a go.

Obviously you should have the basics. Place settings for 4 (should you choose to entertain more take extra), cutlery to match, cooking utensils (your favorites), pots and pans, some baking pans etc.

Both the DW and I like to cook so we have our special "stuff" that suits us. I like grilling so I have my stuff that is grill oriented. We have a trailer so a 5 burner grill is part of the accessories, DW likes baking and I like eating her baking so some cookie sheets, pie plates, cake pans. Food processor, blender, two slow cookers also fit. Have a raclette that we use quite often.

We have lots of cupboards so still have a collection of our favorite mugs collected during various trips. We attend lots of pot lucks so have various plates and bowls to take our contribution to the gatherings.

Of course filling the space with some articles means less space of others. All of the space we have is filled. IMO if you have the space, you will ultimately buy something to fill it. And why not!

[ROSE K]

I have 2 induction hot plates and love them. I can cook inside or out. I try to multi task stuff. I have one large pan to make cheese, use as a canner and broth maker.

I got rid of all the heavy dishes and have a nice set of corelle. I like to drink out of real glass so have various size glassware but got rid of the stemmed stuff. These can be used as dessert dishes.

I make all my own bread, jams, cheese, cook beans from scratch etc. If you have room take all your stuff and weed it out as you go along.

[mangy dog]

Linda,

Keep the KitchenAid. I found room in my 28' C so your A should be fine.

Over the last 4 years I've gotten rid of almost all the cast iron I started out carrying. Now I use titanium, stainless and one teflon pan for eggs/omlets.

I still cary an Oscar food processor along with a larger unit. Unless things change the larger one might be re-homed. The Oscar will make enough pasta dough for one easily.

I don't always have a toaster but should because nothing makes toast like an electric toaster. Everytime I pick up a "new" one, I wind up eating a loaf of toast. I tossed my last drip coffee maker in favor of a filter holder for the cone filters. Somewhere I have a stovetop perc pot that will go the next time I find it.

Other than those I don't carry many gagets. If you're comfortable with a pressure cooker, they're great. My last aquisition was one of the larger pressure cookers made to be used with oil (not currently recommended but makes great chicken). One of my 2 pasta pots doubles as a steamer.

I also have a stick blender and some odds and ends that don't last too long. Things look good in the store but don't really work. One of the little things that did work well were the microplane graters.

Good Luck,
mangy dog

[datrbone8]

everything you use in your kitchen at home. if not you'll wind up buying one somewhere along the way

[twogypsies]

If you have room for it...bring it along. You can always downsize again once you get moved in if you don't use it within a couple months.

We do cook normal meals like we had in the S&B and we grill a lot. After 16 years I have a hand mixer, electric knife, toaster, coffee pot (2) - one is a perculator for the stovetop when boondocking and it makes wonderful coffee and a combo crockpot/roaster. Those are all the appliances we have.

We also have convection oven-size baking pans and casserole dishes. We have Corelle and none has broken in 16 years, wine glasses, drinking glasses, mixing bowls, measuring cups/spoons, small shredder for cheese,a set of pots/frypans, and the normal gadgets.

We found that a breadmaker isn't good for us - calories and the bread doesn't keep as long as store-bought. All dry staples are kept in square stacking Tupperware containers which take up less space than round ones.

[missourijan]

X2 on what twogypsies said. I have a hand mixer and rarely use it. We have corelle dishes, corelle bakeware, plastic glasses & wine glasses, elec coffeemaker and a stovetop one, toaster, blender, small food processor, elec skillet, 1 cast iron skillet, crock pot. We use the crock pot a lot. DH bbq's a lot. We rarely eat processed or frozen meals and try to stick to low carb.

[ChiGirl]

Wow, you guys are awesome. Thanks for the replies. You pretty much confirmed what my instinct was telling me. I like to cook, DH likes to eat what I cook, and I'd hate to get rid of something only to figure out later that I should have kept it. I can always weed things out later.

Also, I was wondering about the Corelle dishes and can see they are quite popular from the responses given. Our heavy dinnerware will be going to one of our daughters. We don't even like it in our S&B house, let alone the coach.

Oh, I can't wait until we're on the road!!!

Thanks everyone!
Linda

[JFXG]

Originally Posted by ChiGirl

.....I'm looking at my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, my food processor, blender, crock pot, coffeemaker, and other assorted gadgets and wondering what should go with me.....

Linda......We have coffee mugs that seem to procreate on their own!


Our coffeemaker is used every day, so that's a no-brainer- stays on the counter with the toaster. We carried our big Kitchen Aid mixer and Cuisinart for a year and rarely used them. Gave them to our daughter, and replaced the big mixer with a KA portable (KHM920). The big crock pot went, replaced by a small one. We quickly determined that was too small and moved up to a medium size. Also added a medium rice cooker.

Look into silicon cookware and bakeware. Much lighter and easier to clean, although I'm still holding on to my Calphalon sauté pan and a couple of other things. I've always been a traditionalist about gas cooktops, but I've learned that the micro/convection can be your friend. We find that our smaller saucepans, etc are used less and less frequently.

The Lekue company (www.lekuecooking.com) makes silicon cookware for microwave use. We've bought a few pieces. They work well and are quite useful. Like many euro companies, Lekue names their products in lieu of model numbers. We use "Omelette", the omelet maker, and "Ogya", a general purpose cooker, regularly.

You also have to be organized about things. We have a large, deep cabinet area above our W/D. I modified it as shown to optimize space- knives on the door, pull out shelf drawer, separate area to store flat things on edge. Nothing new or revolutionary, but if you've spent years in a large S/B kitchen, you may not be thinking this way initially.

Good luck with it all!!

[mrsharper]

I cook a lot as well. All of these posts are great suggestions! We are husband and wife and two dogs...and we find that we don't need near the amount of dishes we do in the s&b...we have four plates, two bowls, two coffee mugs, 4 wine glasses, 2 regular glasses, 2 scotch glasses. Our silverware is minimal, 4 of each fork, spoon, knife. Paper products for lots of meals which can be tossed in our campfire! We wash everything as soon as we're done so we can reuse at next meal.

I have one small pot (can of beans size), one large pot (boiling water for pasta, making soup size), one griddle, one small omelette pan, one larger non-stick pan, one very large lipped pan with lid. One casserole dish, one smaller corningware dish.

I carry my crockpot, coffeemaker, stick blender, cheese grater, lots of knives, can opener, bottle opener, two cutting boards, metal baking pan that will fit, colander, one cast iron for cooking on a campfire.

They way i narrowed down my way large assortment of gadgets was to look at what we really liked to eat for two weeks prior to our first trip...the usual stuff that I would love to cook on the road.

I made a list of every utensil/gadget/tool that I used during all of those meals. I reviewed the list at the end of the two weeks to decide if there were any tools that I didn't really need or could have done without. If I wasn't sure, I brought it.

We've weeded out a few things...but I found this true 2 week assessment was enough to tell me what we really used.

It's different for everyone because some people really love to bake (I don't) so baking essentials are necessary...some people love to make bread (I don't eat bread)...etc.

And like everyone said...if it will fit, bring it...then donate later if you find it's taking up valuable space for food, books, blankets, or more importantly wine

Enjoy cooking while on the road! It's fun for me to see how much I can multitask one pan while making a multi-part meal...less to clean!!

Can't wait to see how you stock your kitchen! Keep us updated! And share recipes!

[plasma800]

Originally Posted by datrbone8

everything you use in your kitchen at home. if not you'll wind up buying one somewhere along the way

LOL, why do I have this feeling you didn't have much choice in stocking said kitchen

[StevenNSteph]

Only YOU know what you cook and what you need to prepare those meals. For example, we don't drink coffee and I never use a crockpot so you won't find a coffee maker or crockpot collecting dust in my coach. However I use a microplane almost daily so I have two of them, my stick blender also get's used a lot and while I use my Cuisinart FP a couple of times a month, I wouldn't want to be without it since there are no real substitute for it and I have the space.

As far as other suggestions I will put these forward

Correlle is great for plates, I buy the generic white ones at Wal-Mart and add pieces to the set as I need it. If you buy a pattern you will have a hard time getting individual pieces or even unusual pieces that you may need.

Magma cookware is highly quality and stacks inside of itself, use it in the RV and on the boat.

Induction Cooktop - I use a TruInduction double cooktop inside the rig that sits on top of the crappy propane stove. I have two other ones that I take outside. If you haven't tried induction than you are really missing out, it beats the pants off of your stove in the RV.
Baking bread - Stones seem to break with all the bouncing so I use a cast iron pan in the convection oven for my artesian breads.

Mixers - Don't use one, I use a wet dough for yeast breads that is mixed by hand. Quick breads are mixed by hand also.

Colanders - Get a collapsible silicone one

Of course you will have a set of sharp knives, a steel and a sharpening stone.

Good luck

[mricet1005]

Originally Posted by StevenNSteph

Only YOU know what you cook and what you need to prepare those meals. For example, we don't drink coffee and I never use a crockpot so you won't find a coffee maker or crockpot collecting dust in my coach. However I use a microplane almost daily so I have two of them, my stick blender also get's used a lot and while I use my Cuisinart FP a couple of times a month, I wouldn't want to be without it since there are no real substitute for it and I have the space.

As far as other suggestions I will put these forward

Correlle is great for plates, I buy the generic white ones at Wal-Mart and add pieces to the set as I need it. If you buy a pattern you will have a hard time getting individual pieces or even unusual pieces that you may need.

Magma cookware is highly quality and stacks inside of itself, use it in the RV and on the boat.

Induction Cooktop - I use a TruInduction double cooktop inside the rig that sits on top of the crappy propane stove. I have two other ones that I take outside. If you haven't tried induction than you are really missing out, it beats the pants off of your stove in the RV.
Baking bread - Stones seem to break with all the bouncing so I use a cast iron pan in the convection oven for my artesian breads.

Mixers - Don't use one, I use a wet dough for yeast breads that is mixed by hand. Quick breads are mixed by hand also.

Colanders - Get a collapsible silicone one

Of course you will have a set of sharp knives, a steel and a sharpening stone.

Good luck

x2 on the Magma stainless cookware. High quality pots and pans and stacks into a very compact package!

[wa8yxm]

I'm looking at my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, my food processor, blender, crock pot, coffeemaker, and other assorted gadgets and wondering what should go with me. I've already narrowed down some things (such as our enormous collection of coffee cups and my Christmas dinnerware set),

Much depends on your storage space. A Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer is a rather large item (Wish I had one) There are smaller ones (Proctor Silex perhaps) or a hand mixer, but in truth, none are nearly as good as a Kitchen Aid (Drool).

Food processors are likelwise fairly large but more likely to be stowable.

Crock pot and coffee makers are MUST HAVE items, i have more than one of each.

Christmas Dinnerware?... Optional but .. I like the idea.

I have 2 crock pots, Small "Food chopper" type processor, larger one from Aldi, Deep fryer, Steamer (Very useful) Kureg Mini-10 plus Mr Coffee 4 cup plus a proctor silex one cup coffee makers (the PS is in long term hiding) A small Electric oven (Larger than a toaster oven but able to toast as well) Toaster, Hand mixer, Dinner ware (Assorted) a "George Foreman" type grill (also Proctor Silex) a single 120 volt electric "Burner". and a few other things, An assortement of baking dishes and fry pans, and sauce pans and mixing bowls, some microwavable.

Your collection will vary depending on the kind of cooking you like to do.

me... I prefer to think of KISS when cooking (Keep it super simple) but Im not above doing more complex dishes when the need arises (Christmas for example)