Pepper Grinder – We forgot the black pepper grinder, so to crush the black pepper corns we used a pair of pilers. Hard going and took ages but our dinner tasted yummy.
Natural Air Freshener – Bought a plant and named him basil. He sits on the dash in the huge cup holders catching some rays. As well as add a nice flavour to your food, it also acts as a great natural air freshener.
Tea Towel Dryer – We have put some small elastic across the front door casing so we can hang up the tea towel. It not only drys it but keeps it fresh.
Tupperware is great for keeping everything fresh but it also makes it easy to store things in fridge, freezer and cupboards.
Place a silicon baking sheet under the grill pan to stop any rattles when traveling plus it keeps your grill pan clean.
Storing dinner plates and preventing them from sliding everywhere can be a nightmare. We use the Ikea wardrobe drawer dividers. You know the white plastic things you put your socks and stuff in. Well they work a treat for both plates and bowls. Easy to stack (upright) and if they rattle a little just pop in a kitchen roll or sponge.
Pans – we have a regular frying pan, a tiny frying pan and then 3 camping saucepans that stack inside each other.
Kettle, use a simple whistle kettle that you boil over the gas flame. The electric one’s consume a lot of electric if you are not hooked up to the mains.
Kitchen utensils, foil and clingfilm are all essential items but they can be untidy. Keep them tidy and stacked in a way to optimise space. A length of brown plastic downspout from any DIY store. Cut to desired length, stick together and pop in drawer to hold utensils. Takes up minimum space and keeps everything tidy.
A length of black bungie around the bin lip stops your rubbish bag from closing then always falling in.
The last time Jo went home I bought a box of cheap red wine, I promptly drank it all…….. Err, hiccup. oh yes I then decided to cut out the pouring gizmo from the bag inside, cut a hole in one of my spare water container tops, (found it in Italy, on the floor, shhh) bonded them together and ended up with a self sealing water dispenser that’s easily filled, fits on any of our water containers and is better than the ones sold in the shops. Screw it to a smaller bottle, keep it in the fridge and you have nice ice cold water on tap, just like those posh American fridges. (It also tasted very nice to make, but did make my vision blurred for an hour or two afterwards.)
Pizza – everyone likes pizza, i usually make them from scratch including the dough, but every so often I cannot be bothered so an El Cheapo from Lidl does fine. The problem is though that the ovens in campers & caravan are a bit crap and don’t heat evenly like a fan oven at home. This makes the pizza’s end up like burnt biscuits before they done. The answer is too use a frying pan and grill instead of the oven for pizzas. Place the pizza in a dry frying pan and stick it under the grill until the topping is just cooked. Now transfer the pan to the hob and it cooks the bottom perfectly within a couple of mins and give it good flavour too. I even do this with fresh pizza and it also cooks quicker so saves a little gas.
Silicon mat – The thick type used as heat plates for pans are also idea on the work surface to stop damage and also take up little space and don’t rattle. They great at protecting the table too from hot serving dishes etc. I got some from the Pound shop so they aren’t expensive things.
For kitchen sink bowl we use the collapsable camping bowl.
Drying dishes – drying mat and simple small plate dryer from Sainsbury’s.