This thread is getting SO interesting! Can we get this man some space food to go with the unit?

OK, your travelling kit should have the little burner, the cooler, a cast iron skillet, some poking/turning utensils, a small cookpot with a lid, a knife/fork/spoon and paper plates. You can also use plastic cutlery and cups to minimise washing up. A metal coffee pot or small kettle for tea and hot water. Extra propane canisters. Small plastic tablecloth if you'll be dining at rest stops, to cover the picnic table. PAPER TOWELS ARE VERY IMPORTANT ALSO.

Does anyone have step by step instructions for frying steak? I'll try, here goes:

1. light stove (carefully!)
2. place skillet on flame
3. put enough oil or butter in there to coat the bottom nicely
4. place steak in pan and jiggle around a bit
5. when it starts to sizzle, turn it over
6. repeat step 5 until done
7. remove skillet from flame
8. extinguish stove
9. place steak (hopefully cooked now) onto plate
10. enjoy steak!

If you want fried onions and/or mushrooms with that, cut up a fresh onion and/or mushrooms (you need a knife to do this) and sizzle it in the oil or butter before you put in the steak. Wait till the onion bits are brown and getting a bit crispy. Then throw the steak in with the onion bits and smoosh it all around and turn it repeatedly every couple of minutes until cooked. This will give the steak a nice oniony flavour.

Also try some finely chopped garlic if you like garlic. Take some tinned stringbeans or mushrooms along - they're good in a pinch if you can't find fresh produce to make salads with. Just dump them in the little pot and put them on the stove, keep an eye on them, they warm up fast. When they're hot, drain off the liquid and eat with the meat.

You can also cut up the steak into strips and do it like a stirfry. This will make the meat cook a lot more quickly and will absorb the flavours better.

(Goodness me, I gave up beef in 1983, but this is making me very hungry for some cow!)

Try it out before you leave home so you get the hang of it, do it outside so you don't burn down the house. On the road you can have tailgate dinners. Out on the prairie, with your coffee warming in a pot on your coleman flame. You'll be like a cowboy out on the open range.

After dinner, if you've been clever and used paper plates, there won't be anything to wash but the skillet. Cast iron can just be wiped down, as it likes to have a patina to keep it from rusting. When we used to go camping my mom would just rinse it in a creek and scrub it with a little sand. (Although this was long before the days of high coliform counts, so you might want to just use some warm water and a scrubber when you get to the motel or a rest stop).