So there are great and not so great aspects of cooking in an Airstream kitchen… or cooking in any camper for that matter.
My favorite part is that I get to cook with a gas stovetop rather than the electric that I use at home in Puerto Rico. It has taken a little getting used to and adjusting but over all it is a lot more accurate and I am loving it!
The tough part is that the Airstream is so small, there are counter top and storage space challenges. I have one countertop space that is 2 feet wide by 2 and a half feet deep. That is it! If I am not cooking on the stove I can add a cutting board to the top of the stove to add a little space but it still isn’t much. I have 3 small drawers and one cabinet for kitchen items so space saving gadgets and appliances are a must! You can see picture of the inside of our Airstream here.
There are a few things that we have done on this round of “full timing” that have made this process much easier. Here are a few of my favorite kitchen gadgets, appliances and tricks that have made the last month much more enjoyable.
one | two | three | four | five | six | seven |eight
one and two – When we first got the Airstream it was the same month that Tavis and I got married so I just put all the duplicates from combining our houses into the camper. That was great at first so we didn’t have to spend a lot of money to outfit the camper, but slowly I am replacing the items that I can with more purposeful items. The collapsible measuring cups and colander are two of those items. The frugal part of me didn’t want to buy something when the one that I had was still working just fine but I am SOOO glad that I did! The space that it saves is really great. I also got the measuring spoons that match, but in hindsight I wish I hadn’t. They look like the measuring cups but they are the same size as my old ones so there isn’t much of a space saving benefit. It was a silly purchase.
three and four – These are a great coffee maker and grinder for any kitchen that is on the small side, not just a camper. They mount to the underside of your upper cabinets to free up counter space. The grinder also came with a food processor attachment. It is really small but it is more than adequate for the camper. We actually got these a while back but I couldn’t leave them off this list since they are one of the best space saving changes that we have made since we got the camper.
five – We picked up this knife magnet at a commercial kitchen supply store and it works great! We were going to get one at Ikea but the magnet didn’t seem strong enough so we passed. The last thing that we wanted was to crawl into the camper after a long drive with the airstream bouncing down the road and have knives all over the kitchen floor. We waited until we could find one that was up for the job and we are glad that we did. If I remember correctly we got it for about $25. Since we didn’t want to buy one online I am not including a link. I think you should grab one in a store as well so you can test it and see if the magnet is strong enough. We keep our knives, scissors, kitchen tongs and a few other utensils on it right next to the stove. It is more convent and it keeps the utensil drawer less cluttered. I am contemplating getting a utensil canister and velcro-ing or using double sided tape on it to keep it in place while we are driving but then I would have to sacrifice counter space… I am still debating which one is more valuable.
six, seven and eight – Because the kitchen is so small in the airstream we cook in our outside kitchen a lot! This was the best addition to our outdoor kitchen this summer by far! We picked up our CampChef 3 burner stove at Costco for a steal a few weeks back. It came with the 3 burner stove and the single griddle attachment (numbers six & eight). I think it was $169, if you act fast your local Costco might still have them. We ordered the double grill box from amazon and a few other accessories. The thing that I love about this set up is how versatile it is. Since there are 3 separate burners you can use 3 separate pots or frying pans or a number of combinations of the griddle (covers a single burner) grill box (covers 2 burners) and pots and pans. I love cooking breakfast outside, as well as lunch and dinner, but breakfast especially since the bacon doesn’t smell up the entire camper. The only thing that I can’t do is bake but they actually do sell a pizza oven attachment, can you believe that?!?! Last summer we bought a small “camping grill/stove” and we regretted it the entire 6 weeks that we were on the road. It was expensive and never really worked right. We contacted the manufacture with in a few weeks of getting it and they would not fix the issues or replace it. This CampChef Denali is a dream to cook with! It takes up more space but it is a willing sacrifice.
Check out our Instagram feed and follow for pictures of us cooking with our new kitchen set up and leave a comment or ask questions.
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