apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I dont have any experience with hot plates, but I found in college that a medium sized toaster oven was incredibly good to have around. Now that I live in a house, I use my toaster oven almost exclusively. My real oven hasnt been turned on since last Thanksgiving!

I am currently living without a kitchen due to a never-ending renovation (it's been 6 months now, don't ask) and I love to cook. My savior has been my Cuisinart countertop brick oven. I have had dinner parties using only this appliance. There are 3 models. I have the middle one with convection, but no rotisserie. It's fabulous. I can broil, roast a whole chicken, bake a pie, anything I can do in a full-size oven (but sometimes smaller). It is brick-lined and comes with a baking stone for even baking. And when (if?) the endless renovation is finally complete, the countertop oven will still be endlessly useful as a warming oven for dinner parties or a something to use in the summer when a full-size oven will heat up my apartment too much. I highly recommend it.

My folks (who also went through the Kitchen Renovation that Would Not End) highly recommended a microwave/convection oven combo. It's pricey but let them continue to cook and bake the way they normally would. If I didn't think it would overload my apartment circuits, I'd probably have one.

Another suggestion is an electric skillet. I know you can get ones large enough to make pasta and whatnot in and Target has oodles of them. And if you happen to be frying or poaching they have the added benefit of temperature controls.

I second the suggestion for a portable induction cooker. I've been using ours since we have been stoveless the past few weeks from tearing the #$%! kitchen apart (plus I normally use them during the summer in our overly-warm kitchen to cut down on the heat). Both of ours came from overstock.com. If you decide to go that path, just make sure you have magnetic cookware that can be used on an induction plate.

Electric. Teakettle.
When I lived in the dorm, it was a lifesaver - quick boiling water!

Here's a link for all apt sized appliance needs. They offer induction, ring, and cast iron hot plates: http://www.compactappliance.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Appliance-Site/default/Search-Refine?mode=grid&cgid=Appliances-Ranges_Cooktops-Countertop_Burner&sz=24&mtcpromotion=Google%3ERanges%20And%20Cooktops%3ECountertop%20Cooking%3EAd2%3EHot%20Plate&src=GOOGLEPPC&gclid=CI3TqeGwlZYCFRg6awodsQaYFA

or try this: http://www.hotplates.com/Electric-l838-c73818.html?all=1

If cost is a concern and you don't mind "make-shifty efficiency" while you settle into being in SF, you can just get a hot plate at a local CVS, Walgreens or Target for something like $20. I bought one for my college apt and still use it my art studio. (nearly 20 yrs old and still working!)

Consider going down to your local Chinatown, or other Asian market location. I saw a great number of small induction cooktops available in Hong Kong, where space is always at a premium.

We used the induction burners in culinary school and they worked well, and fast. Expensive, though.

We bought a double-burner hotplate (on Amazon) when we lived in our basement during our kitchen remodel. It was nice to be able to, say, heat a pot of water to boil pasta at the same time as we sauteed the mushrooms and sausage on the other burner.

The thing that saved our butts was very nice Cuisinart toaster-oven that's big enough to hold a 9x9 pan totally saved our butts. We even baked cupcakes in it, in a 6-well pan. They came out perfect! Here's a photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marriedwithdinner/345086953/in/set-72157594458344104

oh, also: don't discount a crockpot. there are some newish nice upscale slow-cooker cookbooks out that go beyond the usual Sally Homemaker fare.

What about a rice cooker? There was some article in the NYTIMES about cooking with a ricecooker - I think that article was in the KITCHN...somehwere!

...and, on another note, use your wall space! Put up a shelf for your microwave and reclaim your table.

I have a little DeLonghi convection toaster oven, which does almost all my baking, sweets savories and roasted meat. It was under $100 at Target, we bought it when we moved here three years ago and it is still going strong.

Hi all! Thanks for the fabulous suggestions. Full disclosure - since submitting this question, I actually had to move out of my beautiful, tiny apartment. It was a sublet and it turned out the woman I was subletting from wanted to move back into it. Since this post, though, I have moved into a similarly small apartment, and though it has a stove, it is still an incredibly tiny kitchen. (But with a full-size refrigerator!)

The article in the Times that JenPDX suggested is absolutely fantastic. Can be found here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/dining/01rice.html

In print, the photo at the top took up nearly the entire page and absolutely made me drool. I have yet to cook a single meal in the new place (I've only been there a few days), but it definitely made me want to go rice-cooker-style.

Also, I'm so inspired by everyone talking about the toaster ovens! I used to have one that I simply never used - hearing everyone's praise for them really takes me by surprise. I think we used to throw little french bread pizzas in it, and that was about it. That just may be my first move for the tiny kitchen.

In my previous apartment I had a very tiny kitchen--I loved my toaster oven and used my panini press for everything from sandwiches to fish and sausages. It worked out well and gave me options.

I watch the cooking segments on HSN and QVC once in a while because I have basic cable (broadcast plus and a handful of cable channels that are mostly ones nobody wants anyhow.) I was watching Wolfgang Puck, and thought if I ever ended up in a tiny apartment in Boston with no kitchen, it wouldn't be so bad...

They offer an induction hotplate (but you have to have the right pans - my hard anodized won't work - if you don't have any, check IKEA) and this oven. If it does what they say - watch the video - you'd be in business!

Or consider this countertop convection microwave to combine the oven and the microwave into one! (It's a space vs. money toss up. That and the GE is probably going to be better quality.) Personally, I could live without the microwave.

If you're considering a rice cooker or a slow cooker and don't know which to go with, I'd go with the slow cooker. I have 2 rice cookers, and they are really only good for cooking rice...I've tried "cooking" in them...you can't make a meal for a single person, and your fridge is def. too small for the leftovers you'd have to make!

On that note - you can make all kinds of things with the slow cooker! Polenta, oatmeal, RICE, mashed potatoes... Look for a small sized one and check out the series of cook books "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker"...