Repurposing with a vengeance - the stove

Repurposing project #2: RV stove top outdoor kitchen - this idea also came off Pinterest.

I do as much canning as I am able, however a lot of that comes during the hottest parts of the summer and I don't have an a/c cooled kitchen. The first day its not so bad, but by day three, I just don't want to be that hot anymore. So I looked around for a way to do my canning outdoors.

This would be ideal

I could work with this

Even this would do

I did manage a couple of batches in my pressure canner on the campstove. It worked great, but I did have to keep pumping the pressure back up because it had to be on so long. I also tried it on the side burner of the BBQ (propane) It also worked fine, but the weight of the canner had to be counterbalanced. I wasn't comfortable doing it again. One other problem was wind, keeping a constant temperature was difficult.

In the South, there are homes that have what are termed "Summer"kitchens. These are basically kitchens that are completely separate from the rest of the house. They are used for essentially canning, baking during the summer, and other food preparation that is hot and humid. By using the summer kitchen, the home remains cooler because the additional heat and humidity are some place else. I've seen these kitchens as either add-ons to a house or a screened in porch that has been converted. I don't have money to build an add-on and I don't have a screened in porch to convert. What's a girl to do?

I was looking for outdoor ideas for my hubby to do (I'm good to him like that) and found the picture of a three burner, propane fired cooktop in a wood frame. I had found it, just what I wanted for canning outdoors. Now to find the parts I needed. I did quite a bit of looking, placing ads on different sites, asking neighbors and friends, and watching for rv's in the paper. I figured that was going to be the easiest way to locate a propane fired cook top. Hey, remember that windstorm that wiped out my greenhouse? Well we had another one just 10 days later and one thing I noticed on my morning walks was a bunch of RV's and travel trailers demolished by trees. So I began knocking on doors and pleading on social media asking to salvage the cook top from a damaged RV. A few weeks went by and finally someone called and asked if I was still looking. They had a cooktop they could sell me for $30.00. Egads!!! Not what I was hoping for. We haggled and I finally got it down to $12.00.

Picture from Pinterest

With the picture from Pinterest firmly in my mind, I was extremely disappointed when the people showed up with the cook top. What they brought to my house was a stove/range from a motorhome from the 70's (okay, not that old)  and it certainly didn't fit the sleek cooktop look I was envisioning. 

In addition, they also offered the sink and water reservoir at no extra charge. I've gotta say, my brain caught fire, of course I would take those off their hands. (more on that another day). They were very grateful that I could take this stuff from them and I was grateful I got a stove/range, sink and water reservoir all for $12.00...delivered!

Using an old BBQ which had been designated for building that outdoor kitchen I wanted (two years ago), my handy husband set out to fit the appliance into the frame.

He removed the BBQ barrel and set about measuring, cutting, welding, measuring, grinding, and did I mention measuring?

He inspected the propane lines and decided that he would need to get a new gas line to go to the propane tank and a new regulator as well. This was about $60.00 at the big box store.

I kept sneaking out to see how it was coming, but you see those nifty orange things over his ears? Those are the "Huh?" devise or the "ignore the wife's question about how it is coming" tool

Any way, after he was done ignoring my silly questions, this is what he built. Ugly I know, but I was super excited, I had an outdoor kitchen, sort of. 

Of course I posted this picture right away on that social site we all are starting to deny we are part of, you know which one I'm talking about. The responses were varied, everything from "that's so Redneck" to "I wonder if the insurance company will let me keep the oven from our totaled RV?"

I had to try it out right away (not for canning) and decided to cook dinner and dessert on my new outdoor kitchen. This was the 21st of August and if I remember correctly it was pretty warm outside, so the timing was perfect.

What you see there is spaghetti in progress and chocolate chip cookies baked and ready to eat (which I did as soon as they were cool enough to get off the tray)

In the end I removed the old side burner, cut new wood for the "counter", stained and urethaned the heck out of it. The husband fabricated a windbreak on the back and since I can turn the cooktop, I can place that break where I need it. I've canned to my heart's content on this new stove and it's been fabulous. Redneck? Maybe...but my house is not hot.