Cooking Without Electricity II

I have read that if you needed to use a dutch oven to cook one hot meal a day for a year that you would need fifteen 20 lb. bags of charcoal.

That's a lot! But if you're going to be using a bbq grill, hibachi or dutch oven to cook you'll need charcoal. If you decide to keep charcoal briquettes around remember that they will absorb moisture which can make them difficult (if not impossible) to light, so for long term storage you might want to put them in a sealed plastic bucket.

Also I have seen a portable stove called the Volcano II Collapsible Stove that looks like a neat little contraption. You can put your dutch oven in it and it protects the oven from the wind and utilizes your charcoal more efficiently. It also allows you to grill right on the stove or with a skillet/pot using charcoal, wood or with gas using a propane attachment.

The stove generally runs about $90 or $140 w/ the propane attachment. There is a 4 minute video about it at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5zUZR7KoKM&feature=player_embedded

This is on my Christmas list. Gary - are you listening? Hey, Gary. Tap, tap. Is this thing on?

Cooking Without Electricity I

Alcohol Cooking Stove

I attended a demonstration that showed how to use alcohol stoves for cooking. This YouTube shows one type of alcohol stove that you can make yourself. Many more designs are available on the Internet.  Good things to know!