Cooking without Electricity - Sun Oven

So, my husband decided to give the sun oven a whirl with the chocolate chip cookie dough from the freezer.
8:30  set out the sun oven to preheat. 56° degrees outside
9:40  oven 315°.  We put in the cookie dough. Remember, it was from the freezer so it was cold.

9:50  oven 320° and he made some slight adjustments to better channel the sun. He's an engineer so he got a wooden block and put it under the back to angle it towards the sun a little more precisely.
10:10 the cookies were done. Perhaps a little too done, they were crispy. (The normal cooking time for this recipe is 12 minutes at 350°, these were cooked for 30 minutes, so it doesn't really take much longer in the sun oven.)

10:15 oven 330° second batch of cookies put in.
10:30 340°, the oven was adjusted slightly
10:40 time got a way from hm.(Remember, he's an engineer). He meant to take them out sooner this time, but they ended up cooking until they were crispy again.
 Good to know all of that chocolate chip cookie dough in the freezer won't go to waste after the next hurricane!

Tasty cookies!

From This to That: Sandwich Loaf

Here's another great sandwich loaf to make from your food storage. This recipe calls for potato flakes, which helps keep the loaf light. The recipe calls for butter, but I was out so I used shortening. You'll notice orange juice in these recipes from King Arthur flour. The juice is supposed to help even out the bitter flavor some whole wheat flours have. It's not necessary and I often leave it out; someone usually drinks my orange juice before I get around to making bread. This time, I froze it in ice cubes first and hid it in the freezer! Hard white wheat makes a flour with a smoother flavor and the orange juice isn't necessary.

Find the recipe for this sandwich loaf HERE.

From This to That: Pancake Mix

What can I do with my food storage? You can turn this:

Into pancake mix with this RECIPE.
These pancakes are really tasty and easy. You just mix the dry ingredients with the oil until it sticks together when you squeeze it like this

Then you store it in the freezer until you are ready to make pancakes. You add a few more ingredients

(You can also use buttermilk. In food storage terms, that would be one cup of powdered milk plus one tablespoon vinegar. The orange juice is optional.)
And, viola, you get this yummy breakfast.

Small Spaces Storage Solutions

One of the dilemmas with food storage is where to put it all. Here's an idea I ran across today while going through a catalog over lunch.

 I remember one of these in our entryway in the late 80's. It was surprising how much food storage my Mom stashed under there. Good news, they're back in style!



 ~CM

From This to That: No Knead Bread

What can I do with my food storage?
You can turn this:

 Into that:

Use the recipe found here.
The M family told me they made this bread three times! Sister M pointed out I had cut off the necessary 1 cup of water in the email I sent out. Make sure you add that! Oh, and in the picture above, I forgot the butter or oil. I'm pretty sure it didn't make it into the bread either, but it still turned out OK. Sister M used pure maple syrup and said it was great (I used molasses, but will definitely try the maple syrup.) The next time, she used brown sugar (1 Tablespoon molasses + 1 cup white sugar.) Then Brother M couldn't believe how easy it was and he made the third loaf!

The batter should be like a thick pancake batter. Here's how mine looked:

I made it in a kitchen aid, the M family used a hand mixer and I have made it with just a wooden spoon before. Super easy!