May I suggest Alcohol. Can be burned indoors with very little ventilation, then look into getting a alcohol stove, very easy to operate and will serve the purposes for which you outlined. may I recommend this site. http://zenstoves.net/. there are a couple of commercial manufactures of alcohol stove on the market, Tania and Virgo coming to mind.
http://www.trangia.se/english/
http://www.vargooutdoors.com/index.html
The fuel can be bought at Home depot,service Stations,paint stores and Wal-Mart to name a few.

I rented a boat once that had an alcohol stove - like the old camp stoves with white gas, the kind you pump up pressure for.

Alcohol is not as hot as gasoline when it burns, so it takes a little longer to bring stuff to a boil, etc.

And the flames are invisible. The invisible part can be a problem if you don't expect to burn your hand when you put it over the burner.

I've been told that alcohol stoves on boats were the preferred stove fuel because neither leaking fuel nor vapor could cause an explosion if ignited.

I don't recall this advantage being mentioned if you intend to store a couple of gallons. It might be the best choice, regardless of other considerations, if your storage facilities do not lend themselves to storing things that could leak and go BOOM at the worst possible time.

The vapor could probably explode and the liquid will definitely burn vigorously. The main advantage of alcohol is that the vapors are lighter than air and will dissipate upward instead of collecting in the bilges of the vessel where they can become a time bomb, a characteristic of nearly all other fuels. Even a very small amount of gasoline can destroy or seriously damage a vessel if it collects in a small space.

I understand the flames will become visible if you add a small amount (10%) of water to the alcohol. I have never tried this.

You can mix superfine popcorn salt (about half a teaspoon per cup) into the alcohol and it will burn orange. Regular table salt doesn't dissolve very well in it.

It seems I heard that you can add borax (Twenty Mule Team borax from the laundry section is 11% borax) for some kind of color, but I don't remember what color, or if there were negative reasons not to do it.

This sounds like Blast's department to me!

Sue

Sue, it turns yellow green!! its pretty cool, heres a link for some fun!! Coloring Fire!!!

Thanks for the links, Al.

Some of those fire colorants look fun, but I don't think want to burn most of those in my kitchen.

Potassium chloride is that no-salt salt for food seasoning. PURPLE!

FINALLY a use for some of those stupid fir cones!

Sue

I agree!! Although i would rather burn those pesky gum balls!!! If only fires were allowed in G.C.!!