Outdoor Kitchens?

[Sun Sprite]

What ideas do others have for outdoor kitchens?

Personally, I love the heat of summer, the sun is my element.

However, I hate the air conditioning, and every time I cook, it never seems to want to stop.

I have an electric grill I am thinking of useing outside. We have an outside plug, and I have a nice picnic table I can set it on to cook. It's big enough to do meat and vegtables on.

We have a charcoal grill, but it seems so expensive to use (cost of chacoal), and is too big an awkward for many things.

Any other ideas and suggestions?

[KaidaMidnight]

Sounds like you have a great idea. I'd just add one of those electric burners (they come in single or double) so that if you have to boil something, you can do it without having to go inside. :) Add a cooler for some cold drinks and your set :D

[Tullip Troll]

sounds awesome, and a great way to not add heat to the house.
There are web site that show you how to make a sun box as well. They are easy to make and you can even make cookies in them and they opnly use the sun to work.

[SSanf]

Something like this!

Versatile – roasts, bakes, cooks, steams, slow cooks and serves – truly a second oven. You can move all your baking outside!

I LOVE having an extra oven for parties and holidays! I roast my meat in my Nesco and the pastries in the regular oven.

It stores nicely on top of the upright freezer.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/602-3040702-2037456?asin=B0000665TC&AFID=Nextag&LNM=B0000665TC|NESCO_18_Quart_Roaster_Oven_with_4_piece_Buffet_Kit&ref=tgt_adv_XSN10001

[alwaysfallingup]

Maybe a solar oven or a cob oven?

[Sun Sprite]

Thanks everyone. I will definately check out the suggestions.

[dragoncrone]

When we lived out in the country, every summer when it got hot (105 and up...) I cooked out on the big screened-in porch. It had electric outlets, so we set up either the electric frying pan or the toaster-oven and threw some ice in the big tin bucket. No way was I cooking in the house!!

[Hærfest Leah]

Great thread topic Sun Sprite. We just have your cheap round black charcoal grill. We used to have the nice gas type but found this simple/cheap one works better for us. We like to grill our t-day turkey by the indirect method and the other grill also wasn't big enough to do something like that. But that's all the cooking we ever do outside.

[Tanya]

Well.... you can do a cooking pit.... use fire wood, get a bed of coals, scrape 1/2 aside put your roast wrapped in foil or sewn into wet banana leaves onto the coals and bury in the other half... this works nicely for Thai fish (rub a whole fish with a paste of crushed fresh giner,garlic, chillis, lemon grass, and sea salt or fish sauce) If you are anal, use an over thermometer to tell you how hot it is and set your cooking time accordingly.. personally, I don't mind my lamb or beef a bit rare at the bone.. but then all our meat is home grown and organic...obviouisly, game and fish have to be fully cooked.... one can always rewrap and bury again...

comming for appalachia, we are believers in summer kitchens... go to an auction/estate sale and get a cheap old gas stove that runs on LPG(bottled gas). I plan to build one into a BBQ area in my back yard... this is really handy for the WORST summer cooking job I know of... canning.

and means peach pie can happen without killing everyone in the house.