Why, yes, I do have cows on my skirt.

My New Shoes

I actually got them about 2 weeks ago.  My hubs insisted that good tenny-shoes would make my knees and hips feel better.  

He says I’m not as young as I used to be and I need better shoes.  He even used the phrase, “of a certain age” when referring to my knees and hips which, as I understand it, are just about the same age as the rest of me.  What a sweetie!

Guess what!  He was right!  About the shoes, not the “certain age” thing.  I mean, he’s the one who was at the Social Security office the other day.  I don’t think that’s what I set out to write about though.

The shoes!  My knees had been hurting so much that I could barely stand to rub them myself, and I would cringe when anyone else got within bumping-my-knees distance.  Uncanny how quickly you can learn these limits when spurred on by pain.  

But here’s the deal.  The knees hardly hurt at all now.

We were watching Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End yesterday and I had my feet up, just enjoying the movie and I (out of habit) reached down to rub my knees and not only did they not hurt enough to bother with, they didn’t hurt to touch ‘em.  

The hips are a little slower with the progress, but they’re coming along, too.

I couldnt’ be happier!  I feel so much better all over!  

I’m sure some of the credit goes to having lost a little weight and getting off the vile, deceptive killer that y’all might still call sugar.  

But I am so much more energetic and I just plain feel good!

Oh, the shoes?  New Balance.  I hesitated to pay $60 for shoes, but now I know just how wise (if tactless) is my hubs!

The Solar Oven

I have no news.  We have had clouds for days and days and rain for days and days before that.  I haven’t used the solar ovens in quite a while.

“The thing is, it’s very hot these last few days.  95° during the hottest part of the day, which is the part of the day I should be cooking supper and then eating supper, nevermind I’m suffering heat stroke by that time.  So that wise, old hubs of mine says to me, “Let’s buy an oven thermometer, and find out if the solar ovens are getting hot enough to cook food, even though it’s cloudy.”  

He is rather smart.  He married me, didn’t he?

Anyway, today we are keeping a chart of times and temperatures reached in the solar oven.  If we get really ambitious we might test out the other solar oven tomorrow.  We made them almost the same except for the insulation.  In the spaces between boxes in Pete we filled it with scrap cardboard, all the way full.  In Re-Pete we used crumpled newspaper, not packed tight.  Now I’m curious.

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Watering the garden.  Love that sage.  Yummmmmmmmmm!

Solar ovens are cooking away.  My backyard smells delicious!

It’s campin’ out weather every night this week!

Target practice.  I have no idea why he’s sitting down.

But it works.

Ah, sourdough starter.  This stuff smells great!

Instead of throwing out the “extra” portion of starter I thought I’d try making some loaves and guess what, they have risen.  I’m preheating the oven as we … er… speak.  These are 100% whole wheat sourdough loaves from whole wheat starter.  

Boy, does sourdough ever take a long time to accomplish, flour all over the place, all that hand kneading.  Haven’t done that in years.  

The first time I ever made bread by hand I ’bout wore myself out just from ten minutes of kneading.  I was a wimp, and I thought I was fit.  Folks, that was almost 20 years ago.

I’m proud to say that, today, I could have kneaded that dough for an hour.  It just wasn’t a thing.  Guess I’m not as outta shape as I thought.  All this “Pioneer” training must be doin’ me some good!  Ma Ingalls, watch out!

Oh, the oven just beeped to let me know it’s ready to bake my sourdough loaves.  See ya later!

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Monday – Chili and Rice

Tuesday –  Mac & Cheese with Tuna Salad

Wednesday – Chicken Tacos

Thursday – Chilaquiles and Rice

Friday – Veggie Lasagne

These are all  recipes from the book Cooking With Sunshine and, unless we have a weather change, I’ll be cooking all of them in the solar ovens every day.  I haven’t figured a way to make cornbread in the solar ovens, but, I’ll be fiddlin’ around with that this week.

And if the forecast changes and we do have too many clouds I can just cook these same recipes in my crockpot.

The Cowboys are gonna set up the big tent and start sleepin’ in the backyard tomorrow or Tuesday night.  We don’t get a lot of rain here so they’ll be happy campers for a good while.

I should be able to hang all of the laundry (clothes, towels & sheets) and totally neglect my electric dryer all week.

Here’s your shorcut back to Menu Plan Monday.

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I’m still having so much fun learning how to cook with my homemade solar ovens.  This is the most cooking fun I’ve had in a good while.  I still can’t hardly believe it’s possible to cook for free.  

Yesterday I made Chile Rellenos in one oven and a Carrot, Squash, Chocolate Cake in the other.  They both came out fabulous.  The cake was kinda more like brownies than cake, but I’m not complaining, and neither is anyone else.

Today I made dinner rolls and Lentil Stew.  The rolls came out great.  

Dinner Rolls

• 1¼ cup water
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 3¼ cups bread flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1½ tsp salt
• 2¼ tsp yeast

I used my Regal bread machine on dough cycle.  This made 16 rolls.

I read that you are supposed to bake ‘em with the lid on, so I put ‘em in the dutch oven and popped the lid on and let ‘em rise that way just sittin’ on the table out back in the sun for about 20 minutes, then I put ‘em into the solar oven for about 3 hours.  I took the lid off of the pot for about the last hour, but I don’t know how much that mattered.  This is so easy, and so flexible.  Seems kinda hard to ruin food as long as there is sunshine.

The Lentil Stew cooked way faster than I thought it would.  I gave it a jump-start by heating the water to boiling before adding it to the pot.  I’m sure that, as our solar cooking season progresses I’ll be able to skip that step.  

I just threw some ingredients into the pot, not following a recipe.  I’ll list the ingredients here for ya.

Solar Lentil Stew

• 1 lb lentils, rinsed
• 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
• 2 carrots, grated
• ½ onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ tsp thyme, dried
• 2 handfuls barley, sorry, maybe ½ cup
• boiling water

I added enough boiling water to cover with about ¼ above the ingredients.  Then I set the covered  pot into the solar cooker and adjusted the reflector.  After about 2 hours I checked it and found it needed some more water.  I added about 1 ½ cups boiling water, gave it a stir and replaced the lid and cooked for about another hour and a half.

I know you can’t see it, but there is steam rolling off of that stew.  Such fabulous aromas coming from my backyard lately!

So, there ya go.  ’Bout the same as cooking in the house, on the stove, just took longer and needed less of my attention.  Oh yeah, and it didn’t heat up my house or cost anything to cook it!!!  Super Solar Supper!!!

Y’all need to let me know what I should try in the solar oven.  Cyndi said bread and I’m on it.  Lois said Chili Pie or Cheeseburger Pie,  I’m working out a recipe for that.  What else?

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I am excited to announce we now have our second solar oven.  Y’all aren’t much on the guessing the name, though.

Pete was constructed following plans like these.

Re-Pete was constructed following these plans.

Now that we have done both we will build our next one like Pete, only because it was easier.  They both take the same materials and so cost the same to make.  I think they both took about the same amount of time to construct, too.

I figure I’ll need three.  One for the meat, one for the veggies and rice or taters, one for the dessert or bread.   If I like the way the bread bakes in the solar oven I’ll need a fourth, just for our daily bread.  Not a problem though.  The materials for this project are super cheap and the man power gets paid with room and board.

My capricious weather-caster was right.

And if your weather-caster’s name is something besides Steve, Mike, Bob or Bill I will personally bake you some brownies next time I come to your house.  These guys are Mike (L) and Steve (R) and they were right, today.

I mean, when you change your forcast a few times in one day you’re bound to get it right at some point, huh?  Anyway, shortly after we put the chicken in the solar oven my sky clouded up and the sunshine was intermittent through the ideal solar cooker hours (10 a.m. thru 3 p.m.), so I just put that dutch oven in my indoor electric oven.  Remember solar cooker lesson #63:  Have a back up plan.  No worries.  Summer will be here soon enough.  And then we will have sunshine enough to cook every day, all day.  And this year I’m ready!

I’m taking orders.  What would you like to have me cook in the solar oven?  Here’s the link to the recipe page.  Is there something you are curious to see cooked in the solar oven?  Or something you hope will cook well in the solar oven?

I am also taking orders on ovens.  Want one and don’t have time or inclination to build it yourself?  Tex and I will build you one.  Haven’t decided on a price yet.  Interested?

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This is a much better outlook for solar cooking than what I saw last evening.

Solar cooking lesson #47:  Just go outside and look at the sky.

Solar cooking lesson #63:  Have a back up plan.

It’s 9:45 a.m. cst and I just started dinner.  Feels odd, but, anything new and different feels odd.

The solar cooker spent the night in the garage.  I really don’t know where else to store it.  Tex carried it out to my backyard kitchen.  We opened the reflector and propped it at the best angle.

I came inside and got out the black, enamelware, dutch oven, opened a package of chicken, dumped it into the pot, carried the pot out to the solar oven, and when I opened the oven I felt the drip pan (aka an old, dark, cookie tray), that baby was HOT! Less than five minutes had elapsed! That totally floats my boat!  (I really wanted to say it melts my butter but, that was yesterday.)

So, even though it is not yet 10 a.m. and it’s only 66°F in my backyard, I am cooking chicken without wood, or charcoal, or natural gas, or electricity, or whatever other kind of costly fuel you can think of.  I am loving this!  Free energy!  And it’s not making my house uncomfortably warm in the afternoon.  And it’s just so ever-lovin’-nifty-thrifty-unique-homeschooly!

Here’s a pic of Sally Mae’s solar oven.  Ain’t that sweet?

I’ll post about the eating of the bird later or tomorrow.

Today’s project is the construction of solar cooker #2.  I think I’ll name the first one Pete.  Any guesses what I wanna call this next one?

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I am:

• making some mistakes (do I dare identify with Thomas Edison?)
• learning lots about solar cooking
• teaching science without even trying
• very tired after a day of experimentation, while regular life continues at it’s normal pace no matter what kind of cool projects have my attention.

Supper in the solar cooker flopped, but I know why, and that almost makes it ok.  I started the potatoes and carrots too late in the day and I should just use my enamelware black dutch ovens instead of covering things with foil and tucking black cloths over and around it.

So, at 6 p.m. cst I was bringing my half baked food into the hot, hot house (it got to 93° today) to cook on my stove top.  It all worked out and we had a delicious dinner followed by our solar brownies which were a big hit.

Live and learn.  I know about 40 times as much about solar cookers today as I did 2 days ago, so I feel alright about today’s supper.  Tomorrow is a brand new day.  (Maybe I should identify with Scarlet O’Hara or Lil Orphan Annie.)

Solar chicken tomorrow, but I’m starting it before lunch!

These guys are gonna stand guard and defend our food or melt tryin’.

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Success!!!

The brownies are baked!  

And I burnt my fingers a little after getting them out of the solar cooker, yes I was using a hot pad, but when I set the pan down on top of some black cloths I had sitting there on my table in my backyard kitchen the brownie pan started to slide off of the cloth stack a little and I instinctively reached for it.  I know, you would think I have cooking instincts that tell me not to grab a pan of freshly baked brownies with my bare hands, but, not when I am outside, standing at a folding table in my backyard having some doubts about the validity of my project!  Yeah, the doubts ended right then and there with my singed finger tips.  And no, not the same hand as the Ukelele finger tips.  Other hand!   I have 2 hurting hands, so now I really can’t do dishes!

I’m not really a brownie baker, I don’t like the sticky, gooey factor.  I never can tell when they are done.  Same with the solar oven brownies.  Pretty sure I over-cooked ‘em.  They were in the cooker for about 1½ hours.

Next is the supper.  I see an additional solar oven in our future, ‘cuz I loaded it up with potatoes for baking and a bread pan full of sliced carrots, and I just don’t know if I can fit the Bratwurst in later when it’s time.   I guess I could just lay them on the tray in between the potatoes if I wanna.

I wrapped the taters in foil and laid a black cloth over the tray of ‘em.  The carrots also have foil over the pan and a black cloth draped over that.

I kinda chickened out at the grocery store and bought smoked/cooked Bratwurst, so they don’t need to be in the solar oven nearly as long as if I had to actually cook them, and considering the crowded conditions in the solar cooker right now, maybe that was a good decision after all.  

The solar oven is really getting hot this afternoon.  Next time I am at the store I’ll buy an oven thermometer so I can see just how hot it’s getting.

I must say, I look at cardboard boxes and shade with new eyes now.

Ooops!  That’s not a solar oven, that’s the solar clothes dryer!

If we have sun tomorrow I think I will cook some chicken.  

I wonder if AlGore has a bunch of solar ovens?  Hmmm…  

Here’s a site that has plans for making a solar box cooker very similar to the one we built.  They have all the info on tons of different ways to construct solar cookers, and lots of recipes you may want to try.

So what do ya think?  Is this a project your family might enjoy and benefit from?

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OK, it’s 9:30 a.m., 64°F, very cloudy.  Sounds crazy, but the solar oven is supposed to work anyway.  It’s all about uv rays and infra-red light.  

So, this morning I am considering making brownies.  

I put my solar oven on a big table out in my yard, now we will refer to that part of the yard as my outdoor kitchen.  I had to explain this to my 3 littles since the solar oven had hardly been outside for 5 minutes before it felt the assault of a soccer ball.

So, anyway, I put the drip pan in postition and set my brownie pan on it and had Hank set a stick of butter in the pan.  Then we put the lid on and positioned the reflector and snapped a pic and came indoors to read that I had forgotten the bit about the black covering being influential in convincing the uv light to stick around as infra-red.

So back out we go to put a cookie tray over top of the brownie pan (still only containing a stick of butter) and wrap the whole tray/pan apparatus in an old black t-shirt.

Assuming the butter melts in the next  hour or so I will be adding the rest of the ingredients and making brownies, and then we will all grin real hard!

Solar Oven Brownies

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, unbeaten
• 2/3 cup unbleached flour
• ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ¼ tsp sea salt

1. Melt butter in a black pan in the solar oven for 30 minutes.
2. Stir in the remaining ingredients.
3. Grease your 8 inch square brownie pan and spread the batter in the pan.
4. Put the brownie pan in the solar oven and prop the lid very slightly to let the steam escape.
5. Bake for an hour or so.  Let the brownies cool and cut into squares.

The ideal time of day for solar cooking is from 10 a.m. till 3 p.m. but since we are a little latitudinally challenged I think we can extend that somewhat.  This period is all about trial and error.

On a totally different subject~

I got my poor old Ukelele out the other day, having decided I should practice up a bit, since it’s been a while.  Rowdy asked me, “Do you know how to play that?”  That Cowboy is almost 11 years old and has no memory of hearing me sing and play the Uke.  Shocked I was, hmm?  (sometimes I have to invoke a little Yoda-speak just for emphasis)  But, I have been faithfully practicing every evening when the littles are freshly abed, kinda feelin’ a little Pa Ingalls-esque, only ukelele-style instead of  fiddle-style (yes, I love Kung Fu Panda).  I wonder if Pa Ingalls ever felt like someone implanted pebbles under the skin of his finger-tips.  Man, do mine ever hurt!  

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I used the plans in the book Cooking with Sunshine by Lorraine Anderson and Rick Palkovic.

The supply list is simple.

• 2 boxes (one large, one smaller)
• lots of scrap cardboard
• lots of aluminum foil
• newspaper for insulation (we used cardboard)
• white glue and an old paint brush
• pane of window glass OR Turkey sized Oven Bag
• wire clothes hanger and a stick to prop the reflector open
• dark cookie tray for a drip pan

In some of the photos it looks like we are just sitting there holding cardboard… um… yeah…. just holding it together while the glue dries…good times!

The book has very detailed instructions on just how build a solar oven, and lots of recipes.

We spent about 4 hours putting it all together.

Tomorrow we cook using no electricity or charcoal or even wood.  I’ll be making  our supper in the solar oven.

I’ll be posting lots more info about this.  I’m very excited!  I’ll be happy to answer your questions about the construction of , the use of, and the reasons for wanting to cook with a solar cooker.

Here’s my weather forecast.  Lots of clouds, but I’m hoping it’ll be bright enough to cook anyway.   If not, well, we can cook indoors and try again on Friday.

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