New Grill

When we were working on the bus, I was adamant about not having too much countertop.  I just didn't think I would be cooking so much in the bus.  I told Michael, "When we are on vacation, the last thing I want to do is be stuck in here cooking!"  Well, Michael was equally adamant about giving me countertop space.  Instead of telling me that I would need it for cooking, he convinced me the kids would need it for when we go on long trips and they need to do homework.

Fast forward 4 months and I am cooking all the time in the bus because we've decided to live full-time in it!  I have a few tools:  a toaster, a Vitamix blender, a Keurig coffee machine, a single propane stove burner, and coal.  With this arsenal, I still found it hard to cook things that I had been used to.

I should say instead that I found it too cumbersome to use the processes mentioned above to cook one of our family's beloved dishes, spaghetti.  It had been 3 months since I had made it!  To make it though, I would have had to use the coals to boil water for the pasta and to bake the spaghetti squash for Michael and me.  I also had to use our stove burner and our tiny 8" skillet to brown half the meat, set that aside while I did the other half of the meat. To warm the sauce I would just plop the whole works into a bowl.   I began eyeing all of our neighbors' grills, envying their cooking power and convenience.  Pushing an electric ignition was heavenly compared to setting out coals, dousing them with lighter fluid, throwing matches at the pile and waiting 20 minutes to start the cooking.   Ain't nobody got time fo' that!


So off to Home Depot I went and checked out different grills, making sure my dutch oven could fit inside, so I could do some baking."  I had originally tried to pick a grill by researching online, but I couldn't really tell if my dutch oven would fit based on the dimensions given.  I had to see the real thing and imagine myself cooking with several pots and pans at once.  I also had to pick a grill cheaper than the one I fell in love with online.

It fits!  This Brinkmann was affordable and could close with the dutch oven.

Weber Q 

I was so shocked that the dutch oven worked with this one.  I love the Weber brand because our first one worked so well.  But this model had only one dial for the entire grilling space.  Not a lot of flexibility.  And expensive!

Itty-Bitty Brinkmann

Talk about affordable!  This single burner was only $40 and it fit the dutch oven.  Unfortunately, it would have fit just one kitchen equipment at a time.


I tried the dutch oven with every grill cheaper than the Weber E210 Gourmet Series that I had originally coveted.  Still undecided, I brought Michael to the store to help me decide.  I was totally gunning for the 2-burner Brinkmann, but Michael was dissatisfied with the thin gauge metal.   He too loves Weber so we decided to go splurge and get the Weber we wanted despite its price.  

And we love it!!!  I've even cooked on it while it's been raining!   One of the coolest things about it are all the accessories you can insert in the middle to get a fine-tuned cooking process.

Mmmm, Bacon!

With the grill comes the griddle insert.  At the time of purchase, we also got the pizza stone.  We are ready to use the heck out of this grill!

Time for spaghetti!

I wasn't sure if I could boil water in a dutch oven but did it anyway and ended up with great-tasting pasta!  The spaghetti squash sat at the rack for about one hour and it worked just like an oven!  As for the saute pan, I could go bigger to fit all the meat, but I'd rather not have another kitchen item in our tiny bus.

We ate well that night.