11 Hopefully Helpful Lists

13 favorite sauce and salsa recipes

Not sure what to make for dinner? Cook anything - pasta, grain, meat, tofu, eggs, whatever - and cover it in sauce. You'll find these sauce and salsa recipes used in many other recipes on this site.

10 easy salad dressings and condiments

Most homemade vinaigrettes and salad dressings takes just a few minutes to make and can be modified in an endless variety of ways based on what you have and what you like. Here are a handful of my go-to recipes plus some condiments I rely on to add flavor and texture to all kinds of dishes.

12 basic scratch cooking guides

I love many convenience foods but there are some things that are just better made from scratch. Also, sometimes from-scratch cooking IS the more convenient option.

Labneh cheese, for example, is one of the most useful and versatile ingredients but can be difficult to find in the States. Homemade croutons are a great way to use up leftover bread and chicken broth is a great way to make your chicken do double duty.

2 small kitchen resources

6 articles about RV life

In May of 2020, my husband and I sold our house and moved into an RV. We work remotely and travel year round, and love every second of it. Here are just a few things we've learned about full time RV life so far.

5 travel guides for our favorite places (so far)

We've spent a lot of time in all of these places and have some great recommendations for what to do and see if you visit any of them!

6 recipe collections

10 essential pots and pans

These are the ten hardest working pans in my kitchen. I use all of them on a regular basis and you'll see them in plenty of photographs on this site.

But, if you really want to pair down the list, you can make pretty much anything with a skillet and 3 saucepans - small, medium, and large. And if you're a true minimalist, you could get by perfectly well with nothing more than a skillet and one medium size saucepan.

1. Cuisinart 1-quart saucepan
2. HexClad 3-quart saucepan
3. Cuisinart 8-quart stockpot
4. HexClad 8-inch non-stick skillet
5. Cuisinart 12-inch non-stick skillet
6. Lodge 15-inch pre-seasoned cast iron skillet
7. Lodge pre-seasoned cast iron dutch oven
8. STAUB ceramic square baking dish
9. Stoneware rectangle casserole with lid
10. Small non-stick cookie sheets

7 Kitchen tools I can’t live without

Besides the basics like wooden spoons, spatulas, a can opener, and the like, these are the kitchen tools I rely on every day.

1. Food thermometer. The Thermapen ONE is my favorite food temperature thermometer. It's essential to knowing when animal protein is at the desired temperature but I also use it to test the temperature of hot oil and to know if homemade bread is done baking.

2. Oven and grill thermometer. The temperature display of nearly every single oven, smoker, and grill is slightly (or more than slightly) inaccurate including mine. I use the ThermoWorks Square DOT temperature probe to make sure my oven and my Traeger smoker are cooking at the correct temperature. The Square DOT automatically calculates the 15-minute running average temperature so I get a more accurate reading than most oven thermometers.

3. The ThermoWorks Infrared Thermometer is seriously one of my favorite kitchen tools! By pointing it at the surface of anything - a frying pan on stovetop, my Blackstone grill, my Traeger smoker - it tells me what the surface temperature is. Super helpful!

4. A pizza steel. My oven is slightly smaller than the average oven and one of the problems with smaller ovens is that the food is always too close to the heating element. I've found that keeping a pizza steel in my oven is a great way to mitigate this challenge.

I use the steel to make homemade pizza, of course, but I keep in my oven at all times because it helps conduct heat more evenly around whatever it is I’m baking or roasting. It also creates a barrier between the bottom heating element and the food which helps prevent the bottom of things like cookies or biscuits from burning.

5. Baskets that keep my cupboards organized. I have these woven baskets inside every single one of my kitchen cupboards. Their soft sides makes it easy to move them around as needed, keep everything organized, and help me take advantage of all the available space inside my small cupboards.

6. Refrigerator organizer bins. Since we live in an RV, these refrigerator organizer bins do double duty for us. They help keep our refrigerator organized while helping us to maximize space, and they keep everything from rolling around all over the place when we're traveling.

7. Large wood cutting board. This double sided cutting board stays on my countertop all of the time. I use it for everything. I love the two sides for cutting and carving and the stainless steel trash and drip tray. Plus it's the perfect size for my kitchen.

7 favorite kitchen appliances

Besides my oven, stovetop, and refrigerator there are seven appliances I would have a difficult time living without:

1. KitchenAid Stand Mixer
2. Vitamix blender
3. Cuisinart food processor
4. Pasta maker
5. Ninja Foodie
6. Blackstone griddle
7. Traeger smoker

I am aware that many people, especially those who live in an RV, have little use (or space) for many of these but I use almost all of them weekly.

In addition to the recipes you'll find on this site, I create and publish recipes to a baking site - ofbatteranddough.com. I am a baker, and when we moved into our RV, the KitchenAid mixer was a non negotiable.

I use my Vitamix several times a week to make smoothies and smoothie bowls for breakfast. It's also essential for making some of my favorite sauces, like roasted red pepper sauce, and soups like this curried roasted cauliflower soup.

I feel like a food processor is (maybe?) standard fare for most cooks. I have the mini size for space saving reasons but to be honest, often miss the large food processor I had when we lived in a house with a large kitchen.

People are often surprised to learn that I've made room for a pasta maker in my tiny kitchen. Homemade fresh pasta is just so much better than the dried packaged varieties that we couldn't stand to give it up. Also, I find pasta making an overall enjoyable experience, which is reason enough.

My Ninja Foodie was seriously one of the best things I've ever bought. On the one hand, it takes up quite a bit of precious space. (We have to store ours in the laundry closet because our kitchen cabinets are quite small.) On the other hand, it saves a lot of space because it does so many things - pressure cook, slow cook, air fry, dehydrate and more. I use it often and most of the instant pot and slow cooker recipes on this site were created with it.

Our 5th wheel RV came with an outdoor kitchen that contained a small gas stovetop and tiny refrigerator. We removed those and added a Blackstone Grill and Traeger Smoker. I love them both but, if I'm being 100% honest, I kinda wish we would have bought the Ninja grill and smoker instead of the Traeger.

I love my Traeger, but it's large and heavy and the Ninja grill and smoker does the same job but doesn't take up as much space and is considerably lighter.

One more product I want to mention is this grill caddy. It's fantastic to load it up with everything I'll need to cook outside and be able to take it out and back inside in one load. It also keeps everything contained while I'm cooking outside.

14 menu suggestions

1. Favorite breakfast on the go: Healthy chocolate banana muffins or raspberry crumb muffins, a piece of fruit or handful of nuts, coffee in a to-go cup.

2. Favorite leisurely weekend breakfast: Pancakes, breakfast potstickers, fruit salad, coffee and grapefruit juice.

3. Favorite eclectic non-traditional holiday meal: Pork carnitas, homemade dinner rolls, cream cheese mashed potatoes, Israeli Salad, roasted carrots and dates, French apple crumb cake.

4. Birthday lunch for Steve. Crispy corn tortilla quesadillas, fresh avacado, white forest cake.

5. Birthday lunch for me. Lasagna bolognese, Ceasar salad, chocolate almond cake.

6. Weekend lunch with friends. Shredded pork tacos with pico de gallo, chips and guac, chocolate chip pecan cookies.

7. Weekend dinner with friends. Lasagna béchamel with mushroom ragù, warm crusty bread, tossed salad with marinated roasted bell peppers, olive oil cake with lemon mascarpone cream.

8. Entertaining a large group in a small space. Black bean enchiladas with creamy tomatillo sauce, homemade flour tortillas, jicama salad with apples and honey lime dressing, brookies (chocolate chip cookie brownie bars).

9. Lunch on the go. Pearl couscous salad, dried fruit and nuts, cans of seltzer water.

10. Picnic before or after a hike. Cheese, hummus, fruit, bread or crackers, Israeli salad with Yemenite Ja'ala, tahini brownies.

11. Friday night dinner for two on the couch with a movie. Rotisserie chicken soup, buttermilk biscuits, a package of fig newtons.

12. Favorite vegan meal. Vegan loaded baked potatoes, fruit salad.

13. Favorite vegetarian meal. Skillet vegetable lasagna, roasted carrots and dates, vanilla ice cream.

14. Favorite meal for when I'm feeling nostalgic. Double crust chicken pot pie, oatmeal raisin cookies.