going high tech for camping cooking and lighting?

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e9999

e9999

Gotta get out there...
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OK, I'll admit it. I have been toying with this radical idea...
Right now I have a ton of classic camping gear for cooking and lighting: lanterns, grill, stove, pots and pans, propane bottles and tanks, regulators, masts, hoses, etc. Pain in the neck...

Well, I also have a generator and a fridge. mmm.... maybe someday, at the risk of offending most everybody here, I may just take the generator along, together with the fridge and.... *a small microwave oven*... :D

Picture this: no more fumbling with drippy meats, messing up omelettes etc and then having to worry about cleaning dishes without water and fending off bears attracted by the mess or fresh food odors. I'd take a fridge full of frozen entrees from Trader Joes and Costco, warm them up in the microwave together with hot water for tea or cocoa anytime I want, eat tasty indian food under soft electric LED icicles lighting, and most importantly, no cleaning! :)

Hmmm... could set it all up on the roof rack and have fully equipped 21st century kitchen up there... Could add an electric broiler and capuccino maker too maybe :) Hot toddy and frozen icecream anybody?

Plus, consider the kitchen babe magnet effect :D
 
e9999 said:
Plus, consider the kitchen babe magnet effect :D
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Ebag333 said:
Bring one of these.
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[/STRIKE]

Bring one of these
party_boat.webp
 
good thinking! the kitchen babes might get friendlier and I might have blurrier vision making them instantly baber, both of which might help the same way... :D

more tech content: with my new system, the only thing I'd need besides the appliances is a fork and spoon, which I can keep clean easily enough... :)
 
wob said:
Have you ever been laid?
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nope, found my kids running feral at Comicon and adopted them, but the no lay situation is sure to change soon with my new no-cleaning camping system...
 
You seem like the kind of guy that wants to make sure every thing is perfect so that you can have fun, but you constantly worry about things being perfect and therefore can never have fun.
 
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Hey e9999,

I'm right there with you!! I think trail cooking is overrated. I hate cooking on the trail and I hate cleaning up even more!! I do everything I can to pre-cook what I bring so I only have to warm it up and not dirty any camping gear. I would happily bring a cook with if I could. ( Come to think of it; I guess thats why the wife won't camp ... )

Even Lewis and Clark brought a chef on the trail with them. I'm sure if microwaves had been invented, they would would have had one on the back of their Land Donkey.

I love camping ... I hate house cleaning. . Microwave ... genius!

Excuse me while I put on my flame retardant suit!

.
 
I do have a trailer. Still have to do cooking in it and clean up. and cooking inside a trailer is not a great idea in bear country anyway :)

chat? what chat? this is a technical solution to a camping problem. Is this not the camping forum and are RF frequency antennae based heating devices not tech? :)
 
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Use nothing but a microwave for the next three days for your meal preparation... tell me how excited you are to extend that experience to your next camping trip. Does not sound appealing to me at all.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have any propane/kerosene lanterns anymore, not even an incandescent light, I use all LEDs around the campsite, but no plans for a microwave, unless I get some kind of RV some day.
 
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There is a point where camping is no longer camping, when you start getting every comfort of home involved.

One man's opinion, but there is something to be said about the aesthetics of the sound of a gas lantern, the taste of bacon and eggs cooked over a propane stove in the cool morning hours outside...

Yes, if you have little kids...a trailer is nice to clean up and put them to sleep, but that does not mean you need to totally lose the experience of camping with microwaves and s*** like that.

Give me a break.
 
seriously now? well, yes, that's a problem, missing the old romance. Not so sure about getting tired of the food if it's just 2 or 3 days. The variety of stuff you can get frozen and microweable is amazing now, though. As I was saying, there is some great indian food -and many others- that are unlikely to be ever savored otherwise with regular camping cooking. And one could get a microwave/broiler too if $ is no object. Another real problem with the microwave and generator is the space issue, of course. That takes a fair amount of space and would be an issue unless one has a utility trailer. But the generator has many other great uses such as lighting, battery recharging, fridge cooling etc. My EU2000i is a wonderful piece of equipment but it's still not tiny. And still more, if the generator conks out, you're out of food unless you can make some campfires, and I don't think frozen microwaveable stuff is that nice uncooked :) !
 
e9999 said:
seriously now? well, yes, that's a problem, missing the old romance. Not so sure about getting tired of the food if it's just 2 or 3 days. The variety of stuff you can get frozen and microweable is amazing now, though. As I was saying, there is some great indian food -and many others- that are unlikely to be ever savored otherwise with regular camping cooking. And one could get a microwave/broiler too if $ is no object. Another real problem with the microwave and generator is the space issue, of course. That takes a fair amount of space and would be an issue unless one has a utility trailer. But the generator has many other great uses such as lighting, battery recharging, fridge cooling etc. My EU2000i is a wonderful piece of equipment but it's still not tiny. And still more, if the generator conks out, you're out of food unless you can make some campfires, and I don't think frozen microwaveable stuff is that nice uncooked :) !
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Also take into consideration that a single EU2000i may not be enough to handle the initial surge.

Couple weekends ago was hanging out at a camp site with a guy who had an incredible setup, with a giant Mercedes van, microwave, two fridges, etc. He had to run two EU2000i's in order to handle the initial surge, especially for the microwave.

Depends on microwave size/efficiency of course, but his was pretty small.....
 
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