The subject of cooking aboard an RV is not as simple and straightforward as one might think. Every RV is equipped with different cooking capabilities that range from “hunter/gatherer caveman” to “Julia Child’s kitchen on wheels.” Our Airstream falls somewhere in the middle on this scale. We do have a full kitchen on our rig, albeit a quirky one. Here’s the way it breaks down…
Our first cooking option is every man’s favorite: the microwave oven. What is there to say about a microwave? I like the location of ours (right above the refrigerator) since you can transport food a mere 12 inches from freezer to nuke zone. Of course, a microwave oven sucks electricity like there’s no tomorrow. If you are camping without hookups, you’ll need your generator in full Raging Bull mode. When you run this thing on a generator, you will be well advised to shut down any other electricity sucking features (the hot water heater comes to mind) or your circuit breakers may cry for mercy.
For baking, we have a propane oven. This works pretty well, although it does have some eccentricities. First is the lighting process which is not a simple turn-and-click affair. Rather, it’s a turn-and-listen-for-hissing-propane-and-apply-external-lighter-while-waving-a-kitchen-mitt affair. It’s always entertaining to watch Kristy as she fans the oven with a mitt to encourage the lighting process. This also makes me just a little bit nervous, since the propane is just hissing out into our camper. I have a feeling that one day we may singe our eyebrows along with our biscuits. But once properly lit, the oven gets plenty hot plenty quick. As you’ll see in our video, it seems to get much hotter on one side.
We also have a propane cook top with four gas “eyes.” This cooktop seems to work quite well. Again, there may be a few quirks with the propane lighting process, but once lit … “you’re cookin’ with gas!”
Our final cooking option is one we turn to frequently on our travels. We have a Weber Baby Q grill that we haul around North America. It’s handled bison steaks in Wyoming, and beef steaks just about everywhere else. We’ve done a separate video about the Weber, but suffice to say that it’s a great little grill. Ours seems to be aging nicely considering its current mileage and abuse. The only feature that’s “failed” is the plastic flame adjustment knob, which tends to fall off in transit. We really like using the grill — not only because we like grilling, but also because it brings us outside to enjoy the outdoors.