"Bob Myers" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Mark Shaw" > wrote in message
> ...
>> A crew is going to come and demolish my early-70s era kitchen
>> on the 5th, preparatory to rebuilding it from floor to ceiling.
>> I anticipate being completely without kitchen facilities for
>> the entire month of July, and probably well into August.
>>
>> What do others who've gone through this kind of thing have to
>> offer in the way of survival tips?

Yup. I went through that. And about the time my dream kitchen just about
broken in, we moved halfway across the county. I still miss that kitchen
(sniff).

But I digress. There's not much you can't cook with the combination of a
grill and a microwave. Nowadays I even bake bread in the grill when it's too
hot inside in the summer.

For days when weather prevents outdoor cooking, make sure you've got
something on hand you can cook in the mwave from start to finish. If I had
to do it all over again, I'd have things like homemade soups, etc. prepared
and frozen in single-serving sizes. Or whole-meal TV dinner type things.
There were plenty of times when cooking was too much trouble and we were too
tired and dirty to go out and we didn't care much what we ate. Things that
could be microwaved and eaten and the dishes thrown away were perfect. Seems
to me I found some frozen products that were acceptable, but if I had
planned ahead, having my own pre-made would have been better.

If you've got a toaster oven or something like that, you've got more cooking
options; I didn't have one, but it worked out fine, anyway. I suppose you
could have a crockpot simmering somewhere, too, but I didn't do that,
either.

I found that cooking wasn't the biggest problem; cleaning up was. I didn't
have a usable sink for some time on the main floor of the house, so
dishwashing had to be done in the upstairs bathroom or downstairs laundry
room. So I quickly leaned to use disposables for everything that I could.

I also didn't have a lot of prep space since there were no counters and the
dining room was pretty much a staging area for construction tools and
supplies. So I always thought about the prep process. There were a lot more
bagged salad greens, frozen veggies, and things like that, so I didn't have
to wash, peel etc.

Good luck!

Donna