Must Have kitchen items for the AS Kitchen

[Len n Jeanne]

We've opted for permanent plates and utensils. We do a fair bit of desert camping in sites where we have to bring our own water.

Our solution is to first wipe the dirty dishes with a disinfectant surface type of wipe. The common ones are Chlorox or Lysol, but there are some "green" ones on the market. Then use a long handled dish brush (wand?) in a cereal bowl of soapy water to scrub the dishes. Then rinse in a separate plastic tub of clean water, not in the sink with the tap running.

The wipes have to be tossed (or burned) but they make a lot less trash than paper plates, and they also cut down on our water useage.

Sometimes for a quick lunch on the road, I'll make some sandwiches or wraps on a paper napkin, rather than on a plate.

[Toasterlife]

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

You can burn your paper plates in a campfire, which is what I like to do when without hookups.

If you can’t, at least the paper will degrade...unlike styrofoam.

I would just use regular utensils, and do your dishes with a soap wand rather than pan full of water...not as much water used that way.

Maggie

I am on "Team Lily" when boondocking I either wipe the plates with paper towels then wash, or use inexpensive thin paper plates as plate liners (never plastic or paper coated with plastic), I save the greasy covered paper towels or greasy paper plates for fire starters. The thin plates work quite well as liners, with the support of a plate underneath. The greasy paper from bacon for breakfast starts a good fire. When washing up I use a small tub of very hot water with detergent to wash (about 2 cups of water, often boiled on the stove unless we had the water heater on for showers) and a larger bowl of cool water with a dash of bleach to rinse and sanitize (no more than 4-6 cups of water). I follow my grandmothers tradition of washing glass ware first, then cutlery (previously wiped with paper towel), then plates (also wiped) then pans etc. I think our washing up uses at best 8 cups of water. No running tap ever - not when boondocking. We tend to use cloth napkins for several days (everyone has their own napkin ring). These are not new ideas but rather old ones but they do work.

[Hibby]

I would echo the thoughts on the Anova Sous Vide cooker! This is a wonderful tool for cooking in the Airstream...

https://anovaculinary.com

Even more valuable, I would add the Instant Pot to this list! We have a large 8-quart at home, and love it so much that we bought the 3-quart Mini Ultra for the Airstream:

https://instantpot.com/portfolio-item/ultra-3/

Both of these items have made cooking easy, and lock in the scent so you can do just about anything without needing to run the fantastic fans with the door open!

There are TONS of YouTube recipe channels that offer creative cooking ideas.

[Mamasmurf50]

Must have for me. Can cook outside so do not heat up as. On meal one pan. Also use crockpot liners. Not a lot of clean up

[Oregonboy]

No plastic wine glasses. You can buy a travel-trailer wine carrier on Amazon and it will hold 6 glasses without breakage. Easy to store.

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by Oregonboy

No plastic wine glasses. You can buy a travel-trailer wine carrier on Amazon and it will hold 6 glasses without breakage. Easy to store.

. . . until a wine glass falls off the picnic table and scatters tiny glass shards all over the campsite . . . with young 'uns walking around . . .



Plastic may not be perfect, but "to everything there is a season" IMO. There are better quality plastic glasses of all shapes and sizes, with "safe" plastic composition. West Marine and other nautical catalogues have supplied these for decades, often with non-skid bottoms which can also help if you put a glass on top of a tilting cooler, for instance.

Peter

[HHPJ]

Love my retro toaster !

[Hittenstiehl]

Hhpj that's beautiful.

[Len n Jeanne]

We don't use plastic wine glasses. Crystal truly does make the wine taste better, but cheap crystal works as well as the expensive kind. We use whatever we find inexpensively, but most of them are Riedel wine glasses, preferably on sale at one of those discount home stores. (Out here, Winners.) However, we use stemless glasses, as much less prone to tipping over and breakage, and then they travel in the boxes that they came in. We've never had them break in transit, even on rough roads.

Plastic and metal do change the taste of the wine, and not for the better. Bar glass is better, but cheap crystal isn't all that much more expensive.

https://www.riedel.com/en/shop/o-win...rlot-041400098