Anyone else here with experience from cooking at a mountain cabin?

E

evan

Well-known member
Long story short: I like the mountains, so I bought a mountain cabin last fall. It has electricity, but the kitchen is - well, small! So I have to plan the meals carefully because we need to bring all the food up here that we're going to eat (I forgot butter the first weekend we spent up here and it was quite interesting!) and alas, all the food that we don't eat back home. So for packing reasons alone I try to measure the food acurately.

I'm vegetarian, DH eats everything and so we tend to make two dinners (or one vegetaian dinner with a piece of meat for DH).

I made a veggie stew on Thursday - and added meat for DH, and served it with brown rice. I re-heated it yesterday, and today we're having hot dogs (soy hot dogs for me. Yay - not!).

Tomorrow is spaghetti pomodoro-day, and then we are going home.

We really need to spice things up here. Any ideas, my friends?

 
Let me add: The cabin doesn't have water (we have to carry it inside from a pump house outside)

so I'd prefer dishes that can be made without using too many pots and pans.

 
two things that I'd start with are: 1) cast iron dutch oven

and 2) electric tea kettle
Dutch oven is very versatile so you can use it in place of several pots and pans. IMHO they (cast iron) are EASIER to clean not harder than just about any other pan and you don't have to worry about scratching them. If something gets baked on just boil a little bit of water in it and it will come off easily then just re-season if you do the boiled water/steam thing.
Although I drink tea only a few times/month, the tea kettle is probably the most used thing in my kitchen. Boiling water in a couple of minutes for everything from coffee (aero press) to cleaning. And if your stove is electric you'll use less electricity with this than with your stove. Either way it will boil water faster than your stove. Mine is gas but the tea kettle is a lot faster for boiling water.

 
Me, I'd start with reservations at the nearest Hilton....I know, I'm a wimp smileys/smile.gif

 
I can offer you a link to Christina Cooks. I watch her regularly on TV and

she has a ton of vegan recipes. She's big on soups.

How about packing some sternos and a portable chafing dish to keep your food warm without using your stove?

http://christinacooks.com/

 
I can offer you a link to Christina Cooks. I watch her regularly on TV and

she has a ton of vegan recipes. She's big on soups.

How about packing some sternos and a portable chafing dish to keep your food warm without using your stove?

http://christinacooks.com/

 
Not that I own one, but a crock pot seems perfect for this.

Food cooks all in one pot while you are off doing vacation in the mtns things.
It can be plugged in anyplace while cooking and leave you more space in the kitchen to prep other things.

 
Congratulations! I have such fond memories of family mountain vacations. What's the elevation?

My family's cabin is at 7,200 feet so it takes forever to boil pasta or potatoes and you can forget most baking. Concentrate instead on grilled, sauteed and roasted items.

You might want to stock your freezer with finished food like chili, stews, spaghetti sauce, lasagna, curries, etc. and bring them with you. Frozen foods can serve as ice for your cooler on the way up and save space.

 
Joe, GREAT idea about freezing food and bringing it up before it's thawed. Our cabin

is at 3500 feet, because the mountains in this area isn't higher than around 7000 feet.

My family had a cabin so I grew up with one. It was tiny, with only one bedroom, no bathroom and really very spartan. My grandfather built it himself and we spent every Easter up there when I was a kid. I can't believe my paren't took four kids up there for a week every winter, but they did. I love them for giving me those memories, but it must have been a ton of work and I can't imagine a family doing the same today.

My mother had the old cabin re-built 10-15 years ago and she put in solar panels and a bathroom and a fridge and an oven (all on gas) so it has turned out really great. My family cabin is situated by a lake (we have a boat so we go fishing there) while my cabin is up in the mountain with a spectacular view. We have three bedrooms and a bath, and a water tank that we fill manually so we can shower and do everything we do in "normal life", but still we need to carry the water so we think twice before spending any.

The only thing that scares me about my cabin is the toilet. My mother has this wonderful bio toilet that (eventuelly) turns everything into soil.

The old owner of my cabin put in a toilet with a burning device that burns everything into ashes. It's practically a miniature crematorium, and it scares the heck out of me! It's supposedly the *latest thing* in mountain-cabin-toilet-fashion, but if I could choose myself, I'd definitely go with the bio toilet. Oh well, too late for that now.

But I LOVE being up here. It's so peaceful and calming and we have wonderful ski tracks here. What's not to like? smileys/smile.gif

 
LoL, Cheezz smileys/bigsmile.gif. I do own an electric tea kettle (I drink tea every day) so I have that. A cast iron

dutch oven is a great idea. I have been thinking about getting one, but somehow forgot about it. I'm thinking maybe I could get one to keep on my wood burning stove? I could slow cook stews and bolognese on it. I think that would be pretty awesome! smileys/smile.gif

 
I don't know how my parents did it either. With 8 kids and 2 weeks' worth of supplies all crammed in

and on top of a giant Dodge station wagon. It was an 8-hour drive to the Sierras. My dad used to rouse us at 5:00 AM so we could be out of LA and past the hottest part of the desert before 9:00.

My mom kept it simple--a frozen pot of chili, one of spaghetti sauce and meatballs, one of chicken curry, frozen burgers and hot dogs. We had a store up there to buy milk, eggs, bread etc. but it was too expensive for other things. Don't ask me what we did for vegetables--I don't remember any!

There were other family friends who vacationed at the same time and also had large families so it was quite a scene. As we got older the yearly vacation included a 5-day backpacking trip which also had to be planned and shopped for, but by then there were more cars and drivers involved. Such memories!

Sadly, we lost the cabin in an avalanche 30 years ago but my brother and sister bought a place nearby and I still join them occasionally, Their kids have grown up with the same tradition.

P.S., we had a conventional toilet and a septic tank which didn't get used enough all year to ever need attention.

 
Hi Eva. Nice! I'm not promoting any particular brand, but the other day on

tv I saw an infomercial for a portable induction cooktop. I think the name was NuWave Precision Induction Cooktop. Yes, I found it and have linked their site below.

It fries, boils, steams, apparently does everything except clean up after itself. :eek:) If I had some room in the kitchen, I may even order one myself! Sounds perfect for your cabin in the woods (sounds so pretty).

http://www.nuwavecooktop.com/?ref_version=PPC-BRANDEDPN12&gclid=CK-flcmq0rUCFQZV4AodiygAuw

 
We were making catty references to Mitt Romney's poor Irish setter. I know I know,

we need to get over it.

 
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