Oven out, storage in!
Our three-burner Amana/ Magic Chef, (www.magicchef.com) propane stove was wonderful. Talk to serious blue-water sailors and overland travelers who really like to cook, and they will tell you propane is the way to go, and despite misconceptions, propane can be found anywhere in the world, and it is totally safe when properly installed. Yes, forget diesel cook tops. Word from the road is that they have trouble with good German diesel, and in Africa, they are a joke.
Our problem was the large-capacity oven with its built-in broiler. Great design, but we never used it. Cooking over a grill outside is infinitely tastier than broiling, and Monika can bake great cakes on the stovetop. We needed the storage more than an oven.
It was a ten-minute job to replace the combo range/oven with a new Amana stove top. Same 9,100-BTU Superburner with infinite heat control plus two 6,500-BTU back burners, which are lit by modern Piezo Spark Ignition. A slanted control panel with easy-to-read graphics and a heavy-duty one-piece grate are all the same.
Now we had this huge hole under the stove. A trip up to visit Jeff Paddock in La Pine, Oregon was the answer. We met Jeff at the Overland Expo 2009. He owns Nautilus Construction, (www.nautilusconstruction.com), and he is a master finish carpenter. That hole under the stove now holds two grain-matched cherry wood drawers with the same full-extension roller guides and marine stainless latches used on our other cabinets. As long- distance overlanders know too well, storage is a premium, and now we have more.
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