Sunday, October 19, 2014

Cooking and Cleaning Off the Grid!


This is our Stove Tec rocket stove, an easy and effective way to cook when I need to boil eggs or make quinoa. I don't like to turn on the electric burner for something that takes a while to cook, so this has been my go-to for a lot of different meal components. Now that it is getting colder, I will not be using this and instead just cook inside on the wood stove. 

 Speaking of wood stove, we made our first batch of chocolate chip cookies in our wood stove oven. They were yum... This is a very small oven, a normal cookie sheet does not fit in it, so we had to improvise a bit. A frozen pizza fits like a glove though! 
The stove top is just one huge burner that varies in temperature. Normally it is anywhere from 200 all the way to 600 degrees when the oven is heated to about 350 or so. We have an awesome laser pointer temperature gauge thing that helps decide where to put the skillet. 

This is our simple two burner hot plate. I use this if I really don't want to burn something, and I know it will be a quick meal. This was our first experience eating wild edible mushrooms! I went foraging with my wonderful friends Nancy and Greg and we found comb tooth (that's what is in the pan), shaggy main, and maitake mushrooms. They were AMAZING!!




I am loving my kitchen! With Glenn's great idea of pulling the cabinets out from the wall a bit on the back wall of the kitchen to make them a little more flush with the huge refrigerator, we have a ton of extra counter space. So, I have an out of the way spot for the dish drying rack, and I could not be happier with how everything has turned out.  



I have been going to the laundry mat weekly for about 5 months now, and most of the time, I just barely dry everything, then bring it home and line dry it. 

Yeah don't feel bad for me because this is the amazing view that I get to enjoy while I'm hanging everything. Glenn says "ahhh it smells like sunshine.."
 when he smells the clothes that I bring in once they are dry.  

I did say my goodbyes to the laundry mat just this week when Glenn brought me home our brand new LG washer/dryer! So this is what I came home to!!!!
 He somehow managed to get it from his truck down to the cabin... I have know idea how because we just barely managed to get this beast up the stairs. Oh, and I had never heard of such a wonder machine that washed and dried your clothes, but she does it! 

Glenn decided he wanted to make it even more awesome by adding an upstairs sink too. He said it would be easy since he is already running water up and adding a drain, so that's what he did. 

BAMMM!!! Our washer/dryer plus a sink! Sweeeeet!!!
 When you turn this beauty on, she sings a little tune and lights up like she is as happy to see me as I am her! :)   She takes quite a load out of our solar bank, so she will only be used when the array is in FULL sun and our battery bank is mostly full. The drying takes the most energy, so I don't plan on drying clothes to their fullest, just like I got use to doing at the laundry mat.

You may notice that the walls and floor are still unfinished... this is really the least of our worries and are very happy with what we have accomplished and don't plan on focusing on the finishing touches. Ha!! Most people may think that finishing touches would be painting and trim work, nope we think they are drywall and flooring! :)  Life is becoming more and more convenient and cozy in our tiny  off grid cabin every day!

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