Warming food and water on blaze king princess insert

[cr0]

Power outage recently had us wanting to warm food on our wood stove insert, a Blaze King Princess 29. We've had this insert for 3 winters now and it's been great. We chose this insert for its high quality, efficiency, and broad top surface. We keep a small stoneware pot with water on top to add some humidity. Being a catalytic converter stove, the top is not easy to boil water on but it works, and when the stove is ripping and a pot of water is on top toward the center it does get boiling.

Is there a decent way to warm food on this insert? The top is still too narrow for a small baking sheet or something like that, there's only about 5" between the lip of the stove and the hood over the fan exhaust opening. I'm also wary of damaging the paint, not something I want to redo anytime soon, though maybe minor scratches aren't a big deal (I don't care too much about aesthetics but it's a high end stove and I want it to last as long as possible).

We thought of putting a fire brick or two on top, so there's a stationary surface elevated above the hood over the fan exhaust. Also buffers food/pans from direct heat of the stove's top. I heard some suggestions to get a cast iron potato cooker or panini pan that we could put on top of the stove.

Any other ideas, or input I should be aware of? I realize this is not conventional or convenient, just asking for the odd times we want to try it (as with power outages).

 

[gthomas785]

Would something like this be useful?

Handi-Foil 11" x 4" Oblong Aluminum Danish/Cake Bakery Pan 1" Deep

 

[Highbeam]

This is your excuse to buy a Coleman camp stove. It’s actually made for cooking without power.

 

[moresnow]

This is your excuse to buy a Coleman camp stove. It’s actually made for cooking without power.

Just ran up to the Wait Mart and grabbed a new Coleman yesterday. $59.99
Same idea on humidifiers. Plug in a cheapy from the same place and save your stove finish/appearance. My opinion.

 

[Highbeam]

Just ran up to the Wait Mart and grabbed a new Coleman yesterday. $59.99
Same idea on humidifiers. Plug in a cheapy from the same place and save your stove finish/appearance. My opinion.

There are other cooking options. Used coleman stoves, gas barbecues with side burners, jet boil cook stoves, RV stoves, etc. Smaller and cheaper things. Even just running your electric house range on a generator which is actually pretty easy and not terribly energy intensive until you fire up the oven.

I happen to have and regularly test a dual fuel coleman unleaded/white gas cookstove. Works great for coffee, or whatever you want to cook on a range top any time of year. Good to test these things because I had to replace the pump plunger after owning it for 30 years. Date stamped 95 on the bottom!

 

[gthomas785]

There are other cooking options. Used coleman stoves, gas barbecues with side burners, jet boil cook stoves, RV stoves, etc. Smaller and cheaper things. Even just running your electric house range on a generator which is actually pretty easy and not terribly energy intensive until you fire up the oven.

I happen to have and regularly test a dual fuel coleman unleaded/white gas cookstove. Works great for coffee, or whatever you want to cook on a range top any time of year. Good to test these things because I had to replace the pump plunger after owning it for 30 years. Date stamped 95 on the bottom!

Yet this is another piece of equipment to keep and maintain and go digging for in the dark when the power goes out. Whereas the wood stove is right there and probably already hot..