Must Have's - Kitchen

“How do you possibly live with a kitchen the size of a Kleenex box? I couldn’t do it.”

It’s our funny version of groundhog day. The orange word changes, but everything else about the question stays the same. Happens every… single… day…

I love this question. I love having the door opened to talk about the RV and living in it. Maybe I feel like a bit of a rebel because we’re doing something a bit different and I want to share it. I don’t know. Ask away!

Which reminds me… Scott has been after me to put links into the posts for the Amazon stuff. I get it… a family of 4 can’t reasonably eat on $27/month (in the U.S.). But I like telling stories. That doesn’t lend itself to something like: “Jack peed all over the Starbucks mug {buy it here for $65}….” Several things would immediately happen to both of us – you would have an involuntary eye roll followed by a face twitch. Internal monologue would go something like, “Oh woman… phuleeze…” I would be grossed out by myself. That’s a pass for me.

So I’m going to try writing about our must have’s and/or our ‘absolutely do not buy this’ stuff. You know it’s legit. I put my money where my mouth is. If it sparks ideas for you – awesome. If it’s boring – skip it but come back for the stories. If you disagree, feel free to express your opinion. Either way, I get to tell Scott I put some links in a post. #GoodWife

Let me be crystal clear….these are affiliate links. If you click on any of the links below, we will get a small percentage of anything you guy on Amazon for the following 24 hours. You don’t have to buy one of these items… just sending you to Amazon makes the magic happen. If you can’t stand me but you want to check out one of the items and you click the link… wait 23 hours before getting into your Amazon account to buy it. 😉

So here are my kitchen must have’s. This isn’t everything in the kitchen, but it’s the stuff I would go out and buy again if it broke.

2 Pots – One of them is from 1970 and was stored in a box in my Great Aunt’s cellar for decades. It’s probably made of lead, toxic paint and the broken dreams of all those horny people from ‘back in the day….’ (how else would you get that nice orange color?!). Good luck finding it online. The other one is from Emeril Lagasse’s line. There are 2 things that are critical about it – the size and the fact that the lid has a built-in strainer. I don’t have to dirty another dish to strain the water out. That matters when we’re boondocking. I couldn’t find it on Amazon. No link, sorry.

Instapot – I use it almost every day. I keep it where the microwave used to live (which crapped out somewhere before San Fran so we pulled it out with every intention of getting a microwave/convection oven to replace it. That hasn’t happened… ) I’m not sure if our solar set-up would support the Instapot (and still give us plenty of power for lights and charging computers and using the water pump) so I always turn the generator on when I use it.

Check out the original wallpaper too. It’s special. Yes, I secure the Instapot with a bungee cord. I’m a military man’s wife after all…

Mini Food Processor – Abuela Carmen taught me how to make her salsa. Now it’s become a staple of our diet. Scott has become a salsa connoisseur in preparation for our lives in Mexico (kidding… simmer down, Mom). I also use it to make bread crumbs when I bake fresh bread (in the bread maker, silly… let’s keep it real). Upper right in the next picture.

The nested bowls are awesome too – OXO. I’d buy them again even though I consider them to be obscenely expensive. How many items do you see with 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon with 227 customer reviews?! They’re totally worth it. Bonus, if Scott needs a bowl to collect a mystery liquid, I hand over the large one… they’re stainless steel. Ditto if one of the kids has a bad tummy.

Filtered Water – Obviously, we always put potable water into the water tank. That being said, “potable” is more of a range than a specific state. Additionally, Scott and I didn’t install the water tank. Did we shock it with bleach? Yes. {Did Scott accidentally drink a lot of bleach because we didn’t flush it properly? Yes. Did I? No. I always drink filtered water.} But still…. I personally don’t know what’s in there so I’m not drinking what’s coming out. We use this water filter. I fill it up several times a day. I then refill glass growlers so they’re easily within reach of anywhere in the Chief. I use growlers because they’re funny and they make me think of beer.

Tea pot – I couldn’t find our exact model. That should tell you something. We bought ours at a Walmart in Minnesota. This is the same brand – I think it’s the new version. I don’t think I’ll ever live without a teapot again. I love it.

Coffee makers – Coffee may be the single most important thing we have in the kitchen. When we were having trouble with the solar system, we made some mods to our coffee making system. Now we only need propane (or… in a severe pinch… a fire) to make a cup of joe. Oh… the humanity! Heat water, pour over this thing. Done. Get one. You’ll LOVE it. Bonus – no hot water touching anything plastic.

Silverware holder – We do have drawers under the sink. I could have put the silverware in a drawer. But then the kids would have been able to get into it. I keep the silverware up so they can’t access it and I can hand it to Evie to “set the table” when the time is right. I love this setup. However, I don’t love this model. Forks seem to slip through the cracks. I’m a 5 out of 10 on the implementation.

Utensil Holder and hanging rod -I like having everything handy when I cook. The big utensils hang and the spoons are in a basket. I use a bungee cord to secure anything hanging while we’re underway. It really doesn’t make any noise.