Wow. You carry that in your canoe!? How? Canoes are little. I not sure I've got that much metal in my kitchen. I mean, it's a small kitchen, but... Wow.

Actually, the stoves haven't come all that far. I don't think. This is just a slight modification to what my grandfather taught me when I was little. I've moved some things about because he used cardboard and wax buddyburners, but he used the drill on the stove and finished them up with a round file the same way I do. It was an evolution on what he used to use that he made with a church key (hobo stoves), and the native peoples he worked with (Liberia, Thailand and Philippines) used them to great effect. But I can see how it could be done badly with too small/few/large/many airholes, cans that are too small, and just overloading the poor things.

I appologize for snarling earlier. I remember when my brother was on a canoe trip with some friends and everyone was amazed at how little his 50 pound pack was. The same pack I was shaking my head at and thinking he was overpacking. And car campers are a source of eternal giggles for me.

That, and I've seen a lot of "real" gear fail, while home built stuff takes the licking and not only ticks, comes back for more. I used a can stand like that with a succession of soda can stoves (retired in favor of trangias), a grease pot, aluminum foil, a chunk of hardware cloth and an ammo can BBQ for a summer to cook most of my meals while living in the dorm and working for the college.

For a PFD like you are describing, I'd be thinking something like the 14oz Nalgene, with a washed and burned out vegetable can or a cut down aluminum energy drink bottle for a mini-pot around the bottom in the pouch. I'd probably also stash a mini holder and a couple of tablets. I'm also am in a place where you can die of hypothermia in June if it is raining. :P

Just one warning. If you get into making your own gear, you start taking a tape measure to the grocery store and getting odd looks.