1) Breville Smart Oven Air
During our recent renovation, we decided to tackle our oven issue. RV ovens are notorious for working minimal at best. I’ve only had one experience with our oven and it left a sour taste in my mouth. We were on a trip to Tennessee and had plans to make s’mores that evening. It started raining right about dinner time. My kids were bummed that we wouldn’t be able to build a fire and make s’mores. We had chocolate chips on hand so I decided to make a “s’mores dip” that I had seen on Facebook. So I placed chocolate chips in a frying pan and topped it with the marshmallows and placed in it the oven. I don’t remember what temp or how long it was supposed to cook for, BUT I cooked it for double as long as it was supposed to cook for. The kids were passed ready, so I finally gave up on it! The chocolate chips were not melted all the way through and the marshmallows did not even begin to brown. I will mention that I have heard that placing a stone or heat-proof tile in the oven will help evenly distribute heat.
I decided I just wanted to change our oven out. We actually purchased (and returned) several ovens, but were struggling to find just the right one that would both fit in our spot and have the features we wanted. I finally convinced Philip to make a trip to William-Sonoma with me. We FINALLY found the perfect oven for us. It fits in the existing oven opening and has TONS of features. The Breville Smart Oven Air is a convection oven, air fryer, dehydrator & slow cooker. It can toast 9 pieces of toast, cook a 14 lb. turkey, and bake 12 muffins. On our first trip out after installing the oven, we made 12 muffins for breakfast one morning. They turned out beautifully! There is a bit of a learning curve with convection cooking. Food cooks faster with convection cooking vs. a traditional oven. I believe the time on the package was 12-15 mins. The muffins were done by the 12 min mark.
2) ChefSteps Joule
Here is a good, brief overview video of the Joule.
Last year, my mom mentioned sous vide to me and sent me the link to the Joule. I saw the video above, saw the price and moved on. When her birthday came around, my dad was looking for gift ideas. Philip mentioned the Joule. Apparently, she had sent him the link too and it had peaked his interest also. My dad and I went in together and purchased the Joule for her. We enlisted the help of her best friend to help us surprise her with it.
Fast forward about 6 months. My mom had been sharing with me the joys of her Joule and telling me about all the wonderful dishes she had made with it. I think one of her favorites is still roast beef. Our family had an extremely rare occasion to get together for just a few short days. I’m very much a planner and I wondered how in the world I was going to feed up to 10 people for several days. My mom brought her Joule with her to let me try it out. We bought 3 of the biggest Boston butts we could find, seasoned them up with Cash & Carry’s Steak and Chop Seasoning and ran them through the FoodSaver. We threw all 3 butts in my medium size cooler with the Joule and a bunch of water for 24 hrs.
Within 2 weeks after that gathering, I purchased a Joule of my own with the Big Clamp. Boston butt is not the only thing yummy that the Joule can make. My kids love to make boiled eggs with the Joule. I’m particularly fond of doing chicken breast with the Joule. Before, when a recipe called for shredded chicken, typically we would put the breast in a pot of boiling water and hope we would pull them out at just the right point to not have a good case of salmonella or something that resembled shoe leather.
A couple of weeks ago, we camped near the beach and had planned to have chicken quesadillas for dinner. I placed the bag of 2 chicken breast in the pot of tap water, set the Joule and left for the beach. We knew that even though we were out enjoying our day at the beach, that we would come home hours later to hot, perfectly cooked chicken breast ready for chicken quesadillas. That’s the beauty of the Joule!
3) Husky Rolling Tool Chest
What?
4) Instant Pot
I won’t spend a lot of time here. There has been so much said about the Instant Pot/electric pressure cooker craze as of late. It’s just a game changer in the kitchen, regardless of whether you have a big sticks & bricks kitchen or whether you have a tiny RV kitchen like mine. I have actually gotten rid my crockpot because everything that I would cook in the crockpot, cooks faster and better in my Instant Pot.
5) Breville Food Processor
As you may already be able to tell by my review of the Breville Smart Oven Air, I’m a huge fan of Breville products. The Breville Sous Chef 12 Plus was my first Breville product and really fueled my love for Breville. Philip calls our food processor a “glorified cheese grater”. Most food processors we have had have been just that, but not this one! It does so much more! It slices. It shreds. It dices. Last, but not least, it makes some mean French fries.
I will note here, that according to the link above, it doesn’t appear that the current version comes with the French fry blade.
6) IKEA French Press
Good. Cheap. Functional. Philip and I have been on the French press bandwagon for quite some time. We’ve spent really good money on Bodum presses, only to have our kids drop them or set them down too hard and break them. The solution? Buy IKEA French presses and the kids won’t tear them up near as often. Even if they do get dropped, they are only $8.
7) FoodSaver
The current model we use is no longer available, but this one seems to be about the equivalent.
We have been a FoodSaver family since about 2005. We have had probably 6 or so different models all the way up to the monstrous Wild Game edition that seals up to 15 in. bags. The Wild Game edition was the last that we had in our sticks & bricks but even with the larger countertop we built, I knew that we did not have space in the camper to bring it along. Thankfully, we still had our last one laying around. We use our FoodSaver mainly for sealing meats and cheeses. In our sticks & bricks, we would buy cheddar cheese in 5 lb blocks and FoodSaver it. The FoodSaver also works wonders for putting meat in to cook with the Joule, as mentioned above. When we get home with meat, we usually know what we intend on making with it. We typically remove meat from its store packaging, season it and FoodSaver it before putting it in the fridge or freezer.
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