Creative Cooking Without a Stove

I never realized how cooking without a stove would limit us on what we eat! We have no stove or oven. When we moved into the new place, we knew there was no stove/oven in there but figured we could get one second hand and be good. Then we realized that the wiring is not set for a traditional electric range – it’s set for a propane stove. On the one hand, that is wonderful because I would prefer propane over electric anyway. On the other hand….it will be many moons before we are able to get one. So now I am left wondering, “How am I going to be able to make the same foods without one?”

Though I was not happy with the situation, my joy from moving into a home we were buying overshadowed any of the negatives. We had spent weeks working on getting things repaired, painted, draining, flushing, heating, and functioning in general. When we first moved in, I was thankful just to have a working bathroom! After about two weeks though, I was more than sick of crock pot meals and food off the grill. Even now, the mere thought of eating a smoked sausage off the grill makes my stomach churn and I don’t think I’ll want another until next Summer. So, as is the norm with being a modern homesteader, I had to get creative!

We bought a cheapy little 2 burner tabletop hot plate set up and that has worked out decently enough, if a bit on the slow side. That covers a lot of meals as does the crock pot and grill. The problem I was having was not thinking about the resources I had available to me in the traditional way. I needed to stop thinking of the crock pot as something just for soups and stews. I had to stop thinking about the grill as ‘just a grill’ and using it only for grilled meats and vegetables.

It was Mister Dreamer who helped open my eyes, especially with the grill. I was lamenting one night about not being able to make crackers, biscuits, cookies, or anything else because we didn’t have an oven. One night, we were going to have burritos (store bought, for those heat and eat nights) and he said he would make them. He knows I prefer them to be baked in the oven instead of heated in the microwave. I wasn’t paying much attention at the time; I was busy editing my next book. Well, about an hour later, he puts a plate of perfectly browned and delicious burritos in front of me. Instead of “thank you,” the first thing out of my mouth was “How the heck did you do that!?”

Turns out, my husband is a pretty savvy guy in the kitchen with a great imagination. He took two cookie sheets: the middle sized one and small one. He flipped the smaller one upside down and placed it into the middle sized one. This created a pocket of air between the two sheets and a sort of convection effect was created. I was floored, and impressed! About a week later, I decided to try it again with biscuits. I worried about them being burnt or undercooked if I made my normal large fluffy biscuits so I opted for smaller ones. It took a little longer than I expected (largely due to over-fiddling with the dials and temperature), but it worked! It got me thinking about other ideas for using these items in creative ways. Cooking without a stove can be done!

Yes, I know that people have been cooking without conventional stoves for thousands of years but I haven’t so it’s a bit of a learning curve.

Anyway, I started wondering what else I could ‘relearn’ how to cook. We took advantage of the case lot sale on apples that they have here every year and I ended up with 96 pounds for $85 bucks! For here, that is a serious score! I wasn’t sure if we were going to do it because there was no way my little 2 burner hot plate could handle that kind of weight (water bath canner filled with quarts of applesauce=heavy!) and I couldn’t build a nice fire in the driveway because there isn’t enough room until we clear some brush back.

I had the idea that the grill could handle the weight and ended up getting all those apples to make delicious treats for the winter with. It handled the weight just fine on the main part of the grill but the problem was it never got hot enough to boil. So now I am stuck with no way to boil that monster pot filled with jars of applesauce and apple butter, not to mention the next batch that was cooking inside. I was almost about ready to throw in the towel and head over to a friend’s house. I eyed the grill once again and knew the side burner would be able to make the pot boil but could it handle the weight? Not likely or at least, not for very long. I looked around and found a scrap 2 x 4 piece of lumber, cut it to size and braced it up under the side burner. It worked!

Well, mostly. The heat over propane is more intense and we ended up losing 2/9 half pints of pickled garlic and one quart of apple sauce. Overall, that isn’t too bad. I admit I was a little…perturbed by it though – I rarely lose a jar. These ones were broken on the bottom in a perfect little circle. It was like someone took a knife and sliced off just the bottom of the jars.

As we continue to adjust to life without an oven or stove, I am learning new techniques but the most important lesson of all is to never give up. Get creative and stop telling yourself something can’t be done. There is a way, even if it is a way that isn’t reasonable or logical, there is always a way. Instead of whining about not being able to at least water bath can, I figured out what would work instead of letting myself keep chained up by saying, “I can’t!”

Sometimes the hardest prison to break out of is the one you put yourself in. Give yourself permission to break out, try something new, and realize how awesome you are!