No oven? No problem! Use a coffeemaker.

You probably have all the equipment you need to cook a complete meal right there in your dorm room. That's right, your coffeemaker. It's no longer just for coffee anymore, kids!

At least, that's what Peter Mazonson would like you to believe. Mazonson targeted his book Cooking without a Kitchen: The Coffeemaker Cookbook at frequent travelers and hotel-dwellers, but he might as well have had college students in mind.

The coffeemaker, it seems, is an amazing appliance: For Mazonson, it essentially functions as a small, underpowered hot plate as well as a steamer. You can stick your veggies in the filter as you run water through the machine or melt cheese and chocolate in the glass decanter, which "is now your warming and melting area." Options are endless.

So are advantages: "There's almost no clean up with a coffeemaker [.] you wind up with healthy food if you're not heating lard in the glass decanter, and it's more fun and novel than a microwave," Mazonson tells us.

However, he does note, "Some misguided people may think you're weird for cooking in a coffeemaker." Seems like a valid perception.

But don't let that concern you. You're a college student, your resources are limited, and well, the coffeemaker is there. So give some of Mazonson's recipes a try.

First, a few tips: Use a filter when you place anything into the filter basket. Also, don't run anything aside from water through the machine or you may wind up with an unusual chemical byproduct and a broken coffeemaker. Keep in mind that the average machine heats water to 175 degrees Fahrenheit through the filter and 140 degrees at the base, but yours may be different. Test and adjust accordingly.

Finally, if you don't want your coffee to taste like fish, clean out your machine when you're finished. Scrub it out with soap and water or, run vinegar through the machine, rinse, and follow with a full load of water.

Pasta

Run full load of water through coffeemaker until it fills glass decanter. While water is heating, rinse pasta 4-5 times in a bowl to remove excess starch. Place pasta in glass decanter. Stir briefly and allow to sit for 5-6 minutes. Rinse pasta again, then place into filter. Run 8 cups of water through the filter, and sample to make sure pasta is cooked adequately.

To heat sauce, pour into glass decanter and heat for approximately 1/2 hour.

Note: the whole elaborate rinsing process is necessary to remove excess starch, since the pasta will be steamed instead of boiled.

Vegetables

Fill filter with vegetable of choice. Run 4-10 cups of water through coffeemaker to cook lighter vegetables, such as squashes, corn and broccoli; 15 cups for medium-weight vegetables such as onions and carrots; and 30 cups for dense foods like potatoes and beans.

Fish steaks

Steaks should be approximately 3/4 inches thick to ensure even cooking. Place steak in filter and run 10 cups of water through the coffeemaker. Flip steak, and run another 10 cups of water through machine.

Chocolate Fondue

Ingredients:

5 2.6 oz. dark chocolate candy bars, broken into small pieces

1 cup of whipping cream

2 bananas, sliced

1 apple, sliced

1 basket of strawberries, whole

Pour cream in glass decanter and heat for 15 minutes. Add broken candy bars to cream and heat for 10 minutes. Stir to create a smooth, rich sauce. Heat for an additional 5 minutes, then remove decanter from heat source. Spear fruit with forks and dip in chocolate sauce to coat. Serves three.

Cinnamon Coffee

Ingredients:

2 tbsp ground coffee

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 cinnamon sticks

Put coffee and cinnamon in filter. Place brown sugar and cinnamon sticks in glass decanter. Pour 4 cups of water through filter. Let stand 20 minutes. Garnish with whipped cream, if desired. Serves two.

Recipes courtesy of MCB publications, copyright 1999. To order Cooking Without a Kitchen, call 1-800-816-7622.