More Fun In The Sun: Peanut Butter Cookies

So I happened to have a ready to go bag of peanut butter cookie mix in my cupboard (not a common occurrence in my house) and thought it would be fun to having a baking day with my girls. So we set the SUN OVEN out in the sun for some preheating and then got to work in the kitchen.

{Note to self: Ready made cookie mixes are food storage friendly.} 🙂

The girls had such fun adding in the ingredients (they love to crack the eggs… and then I get to pick out any shells from said eggs :)), mixing the dough, tasting… I mean testing… the dough to make sure it was just right, forming the balls (although I had to help with this part) and then smooshing the cookies to make the pretty (or not-so-pretty) crisscross pattern in the tops.

Then it was into the SUN OVEN for some cooking.

I wasn’t quite sure how long the cookies would need (the package said about 12 minutes) and after 15, I wasn’t thinking they were quite done yet. So I left them for a bit longer… lost a little track of time… and kinda sorta overcooked the first batch. Whoops. But the second batch was a much better success. I went ahead and took them out after 15 minutes regardless of the fact that they still looked a little soft and they set up nicely as they cooled. Perfect.

Can you tell which ones I overcooked? My bad. 😀

National Preparedness Month

September is National Preparedness Month, and this couldn’t come at a better time than with the US East Coast in disaster mode from Hurricane Irene. If you’re fortunate enough to be spared from the catastrophe there, please take the time this month to get your homes in order so that you are prepared in the event of a disaster in your area!

Here are some ideas of things you can do:

• Review and update your family’s Evacuation Plans (remember there are three different kinds: 5-second, 5-minute, and 5-hour)
• Begin or update your 72-Hour Kits
• Begin or update your First Aid Kits
• Evaluate your food storage plan. If you’ve reached a lull in your momentum, adjust your plan and start again with new enthusiasm 🙂
• Check the status and do an inventory of your food storage. How’s it coming along?
• Plant a late summer/early fall garden

Also, being National Preparedness Month, many preparedness companies are having some great sales on some great items. So check out our sponsors (on the side bar) and shop around for some of your favorite food storage/preparedness items, or take this opportunity to invest in something you’ve been wanting to!

AND, in honor of preparedness month, Food Storage And Beyond is offering an AMAZING deal of our own! You can get the GLOBAL SUN OVEN plus two 3-quart roasting pots, one set of loaf pans (so two pans), one set of cookie/brownie pans (again, two pans), AND a water pasteurizer indicator, PLUS a CD of over 80 SUN OVEN recipes… ALL FOR ONLY $280 (plus FREE SHIPPING!!!) (Click HERE for additional information on these items.) This offer is only good through the month of September, and you must contact me directly (and reference SUN OVEN Bundle in the subject line) to place this order (as opposed to ordering online through this site). Don’t miss out!! This is a phenomenal deal the company is allowing us to extend to you for this month! (Actual retail on this bundle is over $350 (not to mention the free shipping)!) Just think of all the people on the east coast without power who wish they had a way to cook something right now! Don’t be stuck in that situation! Let’s get prepared!

Alright! We’ve got a whole month to do a whole lot of good, so let’s hop to it! 😀
Good Luck in all your preparations, Everyone!

Cookin’ In The Sun: Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Well, the temperatures have been beyond pathetic here in southeast Texas. We are just melting! And with all this heat, I have not been feeling very inclined to cook/bake anything that would require me to turn on the oven. And then… I got my SUN OVEN! I have been so excited to start using this baby! The first thing I decided to make in my SUN OVEN was some delicious cinnamon swirl bread. Don’t ask me why… I’m not sure I’ve ever even made cinnamon swirl bread before. But that was what I wanted to make. I didn’t even have a recipe for it, so I just kinda made one up. Well, actually I converted my easy dinner roll recipe (which can be used for cinnamon rolls) into the bread for my cinnamon bread. After making the dough and letting it rise, I rolled it out, spread on some melted butter, sprinkled on some brown sugar and cinnamon, rolled it into a loaf shape, and into the pans they went. {Side note: I used the loaf pans that I had ordered with my oven, and they’re a little larger than the pyrex ones I’m used to, so I probably should have doubled, or at least one and a halved the recipe. But that’s just hindsight talkin’.} I let the bread rise a second time while in the pans, and while that was going on, I stuck the SUN OVEN out in the sun to ‘preheat’.

If memory serves correctly, the oven only got up to about 300º F that day, but I stuck the bread in and let it bake for probably close to 1 hour. Bread doesn’t really “brown” in a solar oven, but it did actually turn slightly golden, so I went ahead and pulled it out.

It’s a little tricky (at least for me- since I’m a beginner) to tell when the bread is really done or not, but they looked good, so I let them cool a bit and then turned them out onto a wire cooling rack. And let me tell you… they smelled heavenly!

We went ahead and sliced a loaf up, slathered on a little butter, and oh. my. goodness. It was delicious. Hubby came home from work and had a slice and couldn’t believe that I had made that in the SUN OVEN. He was beyond impressed. (We’re feeling quite a bit more confident about how well we’d fare in an emergency without electricity!) 😀 I’d have to say that for my first experience using a solar oven, this was a definite win!! 🙂 And I’m already thinking of what else I can cook up- without having to heat up my kitchen! 😉
Hope you’re all stayin’ cool!

Feature Friday: Our New Baby!

This is our new baby: the SUN OVEN! It is SO cool! We’re so excited to welcome it into our home and make it a part of our lives. 🙂 I am going to LOVE not having to heat up the kitchen so much anymore during this blasted heat. This bad boy can cook basically anything I would cook in the oven as well as anything I would cook on the stove (aside from doing any sort of sautéing or frying up food). I’m so excited to start using it! I’ll keep you posted with some of our fun solar cooking adventures.
Anyway… just wanted to introduce our new little one. 😀

Our New Baby…

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Baby’s First Bath…

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All clean and ready to play!

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Welcome to the family! 🙂

Want one too?! Check out the information HERE!

BIG NEWS! Introducing the Sun Oven!

Hey y’all! I have got some BIG NEWS for you today. I have made the decision (after giving it a lot of thought) to start becoming a distributor for some of the products I really believe in. Why? Not because I need more work to do (heaven’s sakes!!), but because I realized that by doing so, I can pass on some really great savings to you! My number one goal with this site is to help get myself and others prepared. So if I can help by getting you some great rates on some great products, then I’m happy to use this site to do so. Check out the products below, and just know that I will almost always have some sort of fabulous deal going on! It’s just my way of saying ‘Thanks for being a Food Storage & Beyond reader‘. 🙂

So without further ado, I am happy to introduce to you the GLOBAL SUN OVEN®!! This bad boy is so cool! I am so excited to start my inventory off with this product. It is a top of the line, fabulous quality, solar oven. (I’ve wanted one ever since I started my preparedness efforts and learned about solar cooking!) A solar oven is perfect not only for an emergency when you’ve got no electricity (and thereby no oven to cook in), but just for some everyday fun as well: Plan a picnic and cook your dinner at the park; Keep your A/C bills low in the summer and cook outdoors; Never worry about whether or not you’ve got enough fuel or charcoal stored up to be able to cook in an emergency; The list goes on and on!

To learn more about a SUN OVEN® and make a purchase, click on my new ‘SHOP‘ feature up in the Navigation Bar. You can also check out different cooking accessories available (which will ship FREE with the purchase of your oven- although the oven does not ship free).
The cooking accessories are designed to complement the solar oven cooking. When using a solar oven, it is best not to cook with shiny pots and pans (like stainless steel) because they reflect the heat back out of the oven, making it difficult to bring the solar oven up to higher temperatures. Dark, thin-walled pots and pans work better for allowing faster heating and cooking of the food by absorbing and keeping the heat in. So don’t forget to check those out and purchase them in conjunction with your SUN OVEN® to take advantage of their chance to ship free!

AND I am even more happy to announce that I will be offering a fabulous Introductory Price for the launch of this product on my site!! The SUN OVEN® retails for $299, but from now through the end of the year (2010) I will be offering it for $225!!
Can we say ‘Christmas Present’?! 🙂

I will start doing some video tutorials in the near future and offering recipes designed for solar oven cooking to help us all learn more and more about the solar cooking world.

And one last note: I am entirely new to the whole e-commerce world. I’ve tried to get everything set up as customer friendly as possible, as well as trying to make sure there are no kinks in the system. However, please be patient with me and please let me know if you run into any problems or have any suggestions.
Thank you for your patience and Happy Prepping!