Cooking during kitchen renovation

[Marlene]

Finally on Monday they will begin the total destruction of my kitchen in order to build my dream kitchen. As I've been packing up this week, it occurs to me wonder, short of eating out every night. what I'll be able to cook for the next 6 weeks or so.

i will have a fridge, convection microwave (i've never used the convection part), a toaster oven and a Hamilton Beach combination deep skillet, griddle.

No stove, oven or dishwasher. And a husband who won't eat leftovers.

I'll be operating mostly out of my dining room for prep, so won't have a lot of room.

Any ideas on things to make?

[elyse]

When I was a teenager, we had a big renovation which lasted for months. We cooked in the bathroom (it was quite large). I think we only had an electric skillet, so we had a lot of chicken cutlets. That's the only thing I remember as far as cooked stuff went. Sorry I'm no help.

[snowangel]

We have just been through this. With three kids, eating out all of the time was not an option. I got some great tips from Rachel on the thread on the remodeling of their kitchen. What we did:

Diana and I went on a real cooking binge beforehand, and really loaded up the freezer. I made lots of stock, and we made and froze some pasta dishes (Rachel was right; plain pasta just doesn't freeze very well). I used those small disposable casserole dishes, and they fit in the toaster oven (I have a Cuisinart one which is pretty big). My microwave isn't convection, but I learned that if one reheats one of these dishes in the microwave to finish it off in the toaster oven.

Indespensible during this time was an electric skillet (you can usually pick them up at places like Goodwill) and the crock pot. Crock pot for soups (if you put noodles into the soup in the crock pot, they take forever to cook, but if the pasta is really small -- like those mini tubes and orzo, you can boil them in the electric skillet) and stews, skillet for chicken cutlets, pork chops, etc. I cooked chickens and we added them to salads, etc. We often ate great sandwiches.

Don't forget about the take-out/deli area of your grocery store.

We ate a lot of eggs. Frittata, omelets, scrambled, whatever. You can do a lot with eggs.

Someone also lent me a stand-alone burner, but it wasn't beefy enough to handle a big pot, so I didn't use it much.

We did a little baking -- cookies and 8" cakes, but the toaster oven isn't quite big enough for a pie. We made a lot of ice cream with the Donvier.

Someone also lent us some plastic plates (I've seen them at Target now that they are gearing up for summer), which sure beat washing pottery dishes in our cement laundry sink.

It is hell, but it is worth it. Keeping the kids out of the tools that were laying around just about put me over the edge.

I love my kitchen. Mine was an extensive cosmetic remodel; we did keep most of the cupboards and counters, since they are beautiful, and the layout is great. My kitchen was an explosion of harvest gold -- and whoever did this originally really liked paisley. I did the work myself, with minimal help from my husband, and successfully did some major plaster/drywall patching, rewired light fixtures to handle halogen, added light fixtures, built in a dishwasher, laid a new sub-floor and floor, refinished two pocket doors, reworked the interior sheet metal to "sleeken" two old, big cold air returns. My husband manufactured (on a Bridgeport, out of delrin) new wheels for the obsolete hardware on the pocket doors (instead of tearing out a lot of plaster to put in new track). It looks fresh, updated, and most of all, clean and plain. I am loving my new off-white walls.

Most of all, I am very proud because I did it myself (I know where everything is at Home Depot and my local hardware store), and brought it in under my $2,000 budget!

[Marlene]

Yes, I looked for that thread, but perhaps it was gone in when OTC was deleted. Anyway, thanks for the tips. They will certainly come in handy. Your new kitchen sounds lovely. I can't wait until mine is done. It's been several months in the planning, and since it's a floor to ceiling reno, I would never do it myself, but I really admire you for tackling it! We're replacing the tile in the kitchen and sunroom with hardwood, taking out the california ceiling and putting in potlights, all new cherry cabinets with granite, and and island ending in a breakfast bar. One wall will have a panty for food and a pantry for all of my small appliances as well as the pull out bar and pull out spice rack. And wonder of wonders two convection ovens, and a thermador cooktop. I just keep telling myself it will all be worth it!

[Rail Paul]

We updated our kitchen, and were out of service for about two weeks. Some thoughts:

---takeout, customized with your choice of vegetables

---salads as main courses

---grill outside. we made bacon/eggs, bread, steaks

---second dishwasher. Had our outgoing d/w set up in basement. Cost about $100 to have it done

[Miss J]

---grill outside. we made bacon/eggs, bread, steaks

Amen to that. When we bought our flat, it came with no appliances whatsoever and we had to wait 3-6 weeks for everything to show up. Fortunately the fridge came first. Appart from that, we headed straight over the road to our nearest DIY emporium and bought a big gas grill, on which we then cooked everything until the cooker arrived and we found someone to wire it into the wall.

[Marlene]

I never thought of having the dw hooked up in the basesment. Hmmm. Good idea. Hubby thought we might have the stove hooked up down there too. Nothing like going up and down the stairs with a bubbling casserole or a load of dirty dishes. Trying not to trip over the three cats who consider the basement stairs their own personal bed. May be worth it though.

BBQ absolutely if we can get through the kitchen to the back door!

[rozrapp]

Marlene Posted on Feb 4 2003, 04:44 PM

Yes, I looked for that thread, but perhaps it was gone in when OTC was deleted.

Marlene, In case you still would like to look at it, here's the thread on the Perlow kitchen remodel. (It was in General.)

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...chen+renovation

[scamhi]

During my kitchen renovation(lasted 4-1/2) months. We moved a convection microwave to the dining room along with

a toaster, and a mini refrig we bought at Costco.

We started on real plate washing them in the bathroom sink and ditched that and moved to disposable products paper and plastic.

Grilled outside alot, had lots of salads and baked potatoes,

Best dish of the renovation was a lump crab, grilled corn, tomato and onion salad.