I'd spring for a cheap toaster oven. The one I have will hold a pie plate or a 8x8 baking dish. Plus, you can bake cookies....six at a time! LOL! I did that more than once after my old stove died for the most part. Don't forget about breakfast for dinner. We loved it when we were kids and I still do it for myself now. My DGM always froze here apple pies uncooked, I do the same and they turn out fine. I'm not sure it would work with a crisp as I've never tried it before. This is a great main dish recipe and the first time I've not cooked steak on the grill. Might be a nice dinner for you and DH if the kids are spending the night at a friends house. Add a salad, starch, some good wine and well....you know.. : ) David STEAK DIANE FOR TWO (Mique) Mark Bittman, New York Times 2 6-ounce beef fillets, cut from the tenderloin (filet mignon), preferably not too lean Salt and pepper 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 2 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon minced shallot or onion 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, or to taste (I added 1/2 t. extra because dh likes it) 1/2 cup heavy cream or half-and-half Lemon juice to taste, optional Chopped fresh chives or parsley leaves for garnish. 1. Flatten fillets a bit with the palm of your hand, the back of a skillet or a small mallet; they should be about 1 inch thick. Sprinkle with salt and a lot of pepper. In small skillet, preferably one just large enough to hold fillets, combine oil and tablespoon of butter over medium-high heat. When butter foam melts, sear steaks on both sides, just until browned, no more than 2 minutes a side. Remove to platter. 2. Wipe pan clean with towel; add remaining butter over medium heat, with shallot or onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 2 minutes. Stir in mustard, Worcestershire and cream. Add some salt and a fair amount of pepper. Stir once or twice, then taste and adjust seasoning. 3. Keeping mixture at a steady simmer, return meat and accumulated juices to pan. Cook, turning two or three times, until meat is done to your liking, just 1 or 2 minutes a side for medium-rare. Remove to a plate, and add lemon juice, if using, salt and pepper to the sauce as needed. Spoon sauce over meat, garnish with chives or parsley, and serve. Closely related to steak au poivre, and best made with truffles (isn't everything?), it is about as straightforward, simple and impressive a high-class dish as you can make. If you and your date are meat eaters, you cannot go wrong with this. The process is easy, nearly foolproof, and gives you a few options. Though you can follow this procedure with almost any tender cut of beef (and with chicken breasts, if that direction appeals to you), it's a perfect treatment for tenderloin medallions (filet mignon) for two reasons. Tenderloin doesn't have much flavor of its own, so there's nothing to overwhelm with this rich, flavorful sauce. And it is supertender, which makes it a nice cut for a juicy, saucy dish in which you're going to use a knife. A couple of options: You can cook some mushrooms preferably wild, but shiitakes will do nicely along with the shallots, and add a touch of garlic as well, if you like. And you can add a tablespoon or two of Cognac to the cream sauce and ignite it for a bit of a show. But I doubt you'll taste much difference or note a change of behavior; for that, you're better off drinking it.

Some months back I posted this; I had just cooked a Boston butt pork roast, and it was fabulous. Only drawback is that it does take a few hours. Worth the investment in time, though. I bought a Boston butt pork roast and was looking for a recipe...ran across Marcella Hazan's recipe for pork braised in milk. Made it tonight. ("Pork Loin braised in milk, Bolognese Style") I used Boston butt as she recommends. WOW, was it good!! What amazed me was how simple it was. Pork, milk, salt, pepper, and a little butter and oil. That's it!! The milk solids gradually form a nutty light brown sauce, the pork gradually becomes fork tender and luscious. It takes 2.5 to 3 hours, but it isn't tedious: you check on it ever 15 minutes or so, but there are no high-pressure steps anywhere. I really admire recipes that are simple and get to the essence of good food. This is one of them, comparable to Hazan's Roast Chicken with Lemons. This recipe (and the chicken recipe) are sufficient justification to buy her "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking." I've eaten lots of pork roasts in my day, and have the waistline to prove it. This is the best I've ever eaten, if I do say so myself. I highly recommend this recipe if you are looking for a pork roast that is exquisitely wonderful. Here is a link that might be useful: pork loin braised in milk

Both my main grill and my small smoker are on my deck but I'm very careful. all I have to do is look over the the next door neighbour's melted siding to remind myself. I lay one of those cheap hardware store mats down. They are black/charcoal coloured and generally come three sizes stapled together. Hope I'm describing them, ribbed, made from some kind of recycled poly pop bottles or something. So, on top of the mat I place concrete patio stones, those square or rectangular concrete blocks that are used for walkways or patios when you are first married and can't afford rock work. So, the mat protects from grease drips, the concrete is a bit of fire/heat protection for the deck boards. The smoker is out, away from the house and siding even tho we have Hardie board and even tho the smoker doesn't run hot (the grill does!) When I'm done the concrete and the mat go into a deck box and the grill or smoker get covered and put up against the railing on the far corner, out of the way. Usually the grill gets left set up all summer but I move the smoker because its used not as often and you want it out of the way because after you use it a while it smells good and smoky. Whenever I'm either cleaning the grill or using the smoker I bring the fire extinguisher up from the workshed as well. Never had to use it in 50 years but I still have it on hand.

One of the coolest things I learned from CF this year was more of a technique than a recipe. Jacques Pepin has a recipe for crispy chicken thighs with a sauce, and it's fine; but what's really slick is the technique of cooking the chicken thighs. Take some skin-on chicken thighs, put them skin side down on a cutting board and cut a slash about 1/2 inch deep in the flesh parallel to the bone, about 1/2 inch from the bone. (This allows the thigh to flatten out somewhat.) Season with salt & pepper. Put them in a cold nonstick skillet and put it on high. When it starts to sizzle, cut the heat down to med-high to medium, check that the skin isn't sticking, then cover the skillet. Cook for 16-18 inches, checking every now and then to make sure the skin isn't browning too quickly. If after 18 minutes the flesh side doesn't look quite done, it's okay to flip the thighs and cook them uncovered for a minute or two. An ENORMOUS amount of fat comes out of the skin. (From a food geek standpoint, you're frying the skin in its own rendered fat, while the flesh side is steaming in the vapors.) At this point Pepin tells you to drain most of the fat and make a sauce, but I usually don't bother. It makes some nice 'fried' chicken with much less fat than 'real' fried chicken, but it still has some of the mouth-feel of fried chicken. The link is to Pepin's recipe. If you want to make the whole shebang with the sauce, go ahead, it's really tasty; but even if you're just cooking some chicken thighs, this frying technique by itself is worth adding to your repertoire. Here is a link that might be useful: Jacque Pepin crusty chicken thighs