Book excerpt: Judy Alter cooks in a four-by-six kitchen where zoning laws forbid built-ins but allow anything that plugs in. She cooks with a hot plate, a toaster oven, and a large refrigerator/freezer. Given these limitations, she has developed a new approach to food, one that she says lets her get in touch with the food itself. By choice, she does not have an Insta-Pot, an air-fryer, a microwave. Her menu choices are dictated by her cooking facilities-and she loves it. She shares her tiny kitchen tips and recipes, developed over the past couple of years, in Gourmet on a Hot Plate.Alter is the author of three previous cookbooks: Cooking My Way through Life with Kids and Books, Texas is Chili Country, and Extraordinary Texas Chefs, and a contributor to Bake, Love, Write and We'd Rather Be Writing. Her recipe for Doris' Casserole has been included in so many books it's almost an American classic by now.