Hi, all.
While I wait for my condo on Cape Cod (with the lovely kitchen I completely made over for myself) to sell, I am in a temporary rental just south of Santa Fe. The ingredients here are lovely. Santa Fe has one of the best Farmers Markets anywhere, even in winter.
Here's the catch: my rental has a miserable old electric stovetop with only three working burners (one large, two small). It is accompanied by an inconsistent, uneven electric oven. Oh, joy.
So here's the challenge. If you had to survive a year with miserable cooking apparatus, what would you make? So far long-simmered things have worked out best: fresh green chile sauces for enchiladas (which then cook unevenly in the oven), chile stew, posole, and that sort of thing. Uncooked salads are also just fine. That's going to get old in a hurry, though.
Using outdoor grills is tricky because of extreme fire danger in my area. One spark astray can burn thousands of acres. Any ideas for other not-too-pricey cooking equipment that will help? If I put a grill pan over the miserable electric elements, will anything good come off it? Help!
Creative ideas welcomed with gratitude.