Building a Panel Style Solar Cooker

With the nicer weather coming on, I figure my husband is probably going to want his windshield shade back soon. I've been using it as a solar cooker, with pretty good success, but I thought it might be fun to try out another design. So, I started scanning through the archives of http://www.solarcooking.org/, various videos on YouTube, and a couple of different solar cooking books.

I settled on the design for a panel cooker from Cooking with Sunshine by Lorraine Anderson and Rick Palkovic. It calls for a piece of cardboard that is 4 foot by 3 foot, some heavy duty aluminium foil, and a little Elmer's glue. It took a little scouting to locate a piece of cardboard that size, but with the help of family and friends, I was finally able to come up with one. Mine was actually a little bit too big, so I cut it down to size.

Unfortunately, I didn't notice until after I had done my measuring and cutting, that the yard stick I was using had four inches cut off of it (that's what comes from trying to work through a project with six little helpers, and a good dose of cold medicine). Thinking of all the work involved in finding the cardboard, I scaled down the pattern from the book by four inches, and continued. You can find patterns for making panel ovens all over the Web, but if you can get your hands on Cooking with Sunshine, their pattern is very simple and straight forward. I'm pretty sure even a middle school aged child could build one of these on their own.

Just draw out the grid lines according to the measurements given. Use the grid lines to mark off the sections that need to be cut out. Then, using heavy scissors or a box knife, cut out the marked sections.

Again, use the grid lines to mark score lines and slots. Score the lines and cut out the tabs using a box knife or scissor edge. Fold the box on the score lines, making sure the corners will fit into the slots.

Unfold the box, and lay the cardboard out flat. Tear off two sheets of heavy duty tinfoil, long enough to cover cardboard. Set these aside and prepare the glue, by diluting it half and half with water. Cover half the cardboard with glue (I found the easiest way was to dump it on, and spread it with my hands). You need to work quickly so the glue won't dry. Place one sheet of foil over the glue, dull side up. Smooth it out.

Repeat with the second half of the box. Tuck the extra foil around the back of the cardboard, and glue it in place.

Finally, refold the box, breaking through the foil at the slots. Your ready to cook! You want to set the cooker in the sun, and place a black pot on an insulator (like a brick or a piece of wood - I used a black cake pan placed upside down), and inside a turkey bag or under a glass bowl, in the middle of the cooker.

It was 3:00 in the afternoon when I finished my oven, which is a little late for good sun here, but I wanted to try it out. I went with s'mores, because that's the easiest solar test food I know. I also placed an oven thermometer in the pan. The temperature reached 250 degrees Fahrenheit within 15 minutes, and the s'mores were melty and delicious within the a half an hour. I can't wait to let the kids try it out in the full sun of the middle of day.

It's great to be a homeschooler!

Peach Crisp in a Solar Oven

How do you make a peach crisp in the solar oven? Exactly the same way you do in a regular oven, except you put it outside to bake.

Mix up your normal crisp or cobbler recipe. Here's our favorite:

1 large can of peaches, undrained
3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup oats

1/3 cup butter, softened

3/4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp nutmeg

In a medium sized bowl, mix together everything except for the peaches. Pour the peaches into a lightly greased pan (we use a 9 inch round cake pan). Top with flour mixture.

For cooking in a solar oven, the pan needs to be black, or it needs to be placed inside of a black pan. We placed ours inside of a black spring form pan, and then topped it with the bottom of the next size up spring form pan. We've found this works with a number of recipes.

Then we placed our pans inside of a turkey bag. If you are using a box cooker, you wouldn't need the turkey bag. We are continuing to use a windshield shade cooker, so we needed the bag (and a cooling rack to set the pan on).

Finally, put it in the oven. The cooking time is roughly twice what it would be in an electric oven. We put ours in at 1:00 and left it until 5:30, when we were ready for dessert. That's a good deal more than twice the time, but it stayed hot that way until we wanted it.

This is one of the easier recipes to do in a solar cooker. It's a good one to try if your new to solar cooking, like us. It's handy too, because it's a nice, no mess, no fuss recipe - simple enough for younger children to handle. Just remember, the pan and the crisp will be hot when you take them out of the oven. Don't forget the potholders.

Serve with whip cream, or maybe some coffee can ice cream.

It's great to be a homeschooler!

Kick The Can/Coffee Can Ice Cream

Are you looking for a way to combine P.E., craft, and a snack time? Why not make some ice cream while playing a game of soccer? Making ice cream inside a coffee can is one of those old ideas that never grows old.

Items needed:

1 3lb coffee can (we used a plastic canister) w/lid

1 1lb coffee can ( we used a slightly smaller canister) w/lid

duct tape

10 cups of ice - more or less

1 1/2 cups of ice cream salt - also called rock salt.

1 pint of heavy cream (we doubled the recipe, and used whole milk instead of cream)

1/3 cup sugar

4 tablespoons instant pudding mix - whatever flavor you prefer

(we found this recipe at http://www.kaboose.com/)

Clean and dry the two coffee cans. Then, mix together the milk, sugar, and pudding mix.

Pour the mixture into the smaller can. Secure the lid with a couple of strips of duct tape.

Place a layer of ice and salt in the bottom of larger coffee can. Then set the smaller can in, making sure there is room left to cover it in ice, and still fit the lid onto the larger can. Finish layering the ice and salt around the smaller can until it is completely surrounded and covered with ice.

Place the lid on the larger can, and secure it with a couple more strips of duct tape, and you're ready to play. If you opt to use a plastic container, remember to roll it gently, as plastic gets brittle when cold, and will crack easily.

Kick, or roll the can around the yard for 10 to 20 minutes. Then open the cans to stir the contents of the smaller can, and replace melted ice in the larger. Reseal the cans, and continue to roll them for another 10 to 20 minutes. Discard the salty ice. Rinse off the smaller can, and pat it dry. Place the small can in the freezer for a few hours to allow the ice cream to harden, or dig in and eat it as a soft serve.

This is a lot of fun, and a good work out too (no guilt in eating dessert tonight)!

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Night At The Museum History Unit - Ahkmenrah and Mummies for Dinner

We finished up our history unit today, based on the film Night At The Museum. Our final character was Ahkmenrah. He is a completely fictional character, but like Jedediah and Octavius, represents a time period, more than a specific person. So, we watched 5000 Years of Wonders: Ancient Egypt from Netflix, to familiarize ourselves with the time period.

The tombs and monuments of ancient Egypt are a series of puzzles buried in the sand. We found some puzzles of our own at www.show.me.uk/games/games.html, The Egyptian Mummy Game, and The Egyptian Tomb Adventure. These are fast paced, interactive, and informative. We even learned what those giant jackals in the movie are supposed to represent.

I pulled out the communion glasses, so the kids could try their hand at a little pyramid building (you could use any number of building toys instead of communion glasses). While they played, I put together crescent mummy dogs for dinner - www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/ShowRecipe.aspx?rid=16015.

All that is left now, is to hang our completed timeline, and add the pictures of the characters in their proper places in time. I printed out pictures from the movie, that I found online, to use for this. It's unknown what many of the actual people the characters from the movie are based on, looked like anyway, including Sacagawea, Christopher Columbus and Attila the Hun. So, I figured we'd stick with the film maker's version.

With that, our history unit will be complete, and just in time too. The sequel will be out this weekend. But, I think we'll wait for the DVD. We've had just about enough history for the present!

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Dandelion Flower Cookies

We had a few extra dandelion flowers left over after making our dandelion syrup, and so we decided to try our hand at some floral cookie making. I picked a random recipe online - no one seems to be crediting it, so I don't know where it came from originally.

Dandelion Flower Cookies

1/2 cup oil

1/2 honey (or dandelion syrup)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

1 cup dry oatmeal

1/2 cup dandelion florets (that's just the yellow part of the flower)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (most recipes say 375 degrees, but I found this to be a little high). Cream together the oil, honey, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in the flour, oatmeal, and florets. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes.

I suppose, I would be remiss, not to give the usual warning about dandelion harvesting. You'll want to make sure your dandelions have not been sprayed by herbicide, or are too near a road where they could be soaking in exhaust fumes, and you might want to consider dog traffic, too. The whole flower is edible, but the green parts can be quite bitter (this is an extreme understatement).

These cookies were alright. I found them a little bland, and dare I say it - healthy tasting. The little florets added a pleasing visual appeal, and made me think more of lavender scones, than weeds in my garden. I think these could be served very nicely at a ladies tea, maybe with some lemon curd to the side.

If you're looking for something with a little more kid appeal you might try this recipe from http://www.fairygardens.com/colorbook/cookiesdandilion.html. It uses sugar, instead of honey, and suggests adding mini M&Ms. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks promising. Who knows, if they're good, it might get the kids interested in weeding the yard.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Garbage Bag Balloon - The Solar Saga Continues

The sun returned today, and we were ready with our solar tetroon. You can look back a few posts if you want to see how we built it. Solar balloons provide a lot of fun for a very small expense. Our balloon was made out of four cheapy cheap garbage bags, some scotch tape, and a spool of thread.

We filled the balloon, using a hair dryer, and then let it rise. Our first results were not very good. The thread seemed to weigh the balloon down, and the open mouth allowed the cool wind in, reducing the lift. Finally, we decided to tie the balloon closed. This worked much better.

At first we weren't getting much more than 10-20 feet off the ground. The breeze would take the balloon out over neighbor's yards, and we would pull it back, just barely clearing our fence. We had one tense moment, when I thought the balloon was going to be stuck on our next door neighbors roof. Happily, we were able to pull it back, our thread proving stronger than I thought it would. I'm not sure if the neighbor noticed the large black pyramid drifting past his patio door or not. Maybe we'll take him a plate of cookies just in case.

Then, the breeze died down, and the balloon rose straight up. It just kept going and going. It was really marvelous. I grabbed the camera to snap a picture or two, instructing my son to watch for the end of the thread on spool. Of course, I had barely gotten my instruction out, when he yelled, "Oh, no!"

You can probably guess the rest.

It's great to be a homeschooler!

Dandelion Syrup on a Day Off

I love the flexibility of the homeschool schedule. I love the way it conforms to family life, instead of the other way around. Today was definitely one of those days.

We should have been finishing up our history unit. I had planned a reading assignment, a video, and some activities on ancient Egypt. The dinosaur mural is completed and displayed on the family room wall, but there's more to do on our Civil War quilt, and the timeline needs to be glued together and taped up.

However, all of this was halted, when my husband decided to make a quick trip to Grandma's house to pick up a piano, and agreed to let our oldest daughter tag along.

In public school, the class would simply have to continue, and the missing student would just have to catch up later. Schooling at home allows us the option of taking the day off entirely, and catching up together on Monday, or even Saturday. But what to do with a day off?

Make dandelion syrup of course!

Okay, let me preface this by telling you, that I have never (underline never) cooked a dandelion before in my life. I'm a pretty average Walmart shopping, Starbucks drinking kind of gal - or at least I would be if there were a Walmart or Starbucks anywhere in the vicinity. I'm married to an average, neighbor association loving, round-up using, meat eating kind of guy. Dandelions have not generally made it to our table except as the occasional centerpiece picked by an enthusiastic toddler.

So, how was it that I found myself at the neighbors a few doors down last night, asking if they'd sprayed their yard, and if they hadn't, would they'd mind if I helped myself to a few of their weeds? It's not a complicated story really.

• I saw a Lewis and Clark botanical display at the museum.


• I mentioned the display to my mother.


• She started to reminisce about the flowers and herbs her mother used to gather - including dandelion greens.


• I looked dandelions up online - and wow! There are a lot of uses for them.


• I noticed the neighbors had a pretty good crop going...
  

So, there I was, daughters in tow, plucking the little yellow heads from my neighbors lawn. I didn't collect too many, because I'm always a little suspicious new foods. I didn't want to end up with a giant pot of yuck. A small jar of syrup would be good enough for a sampling.

So, I brought home about a hundred flowers (give or take).

I washed them, pulled off all the yellow parts, and put them in a pan with about 1/2 cup of water.

I boiled them for one minute. The children were thrilled to be cooking flowers, but my husband was looking quite concerned.

After one minute of boiling, I removed the pan from the heat, covered it, and left it overnight.

This morning, I strained out the flowers by pouring the contents of the pan, through a clean cloth, into a bowl. And yes, I was a little concerned about the green shade of the remaining liquid.

To this liquid, I added 1/2 cup of sugar, and 2 Tbs. of tangelo juice. Most recipes call for lemon juice, but I had a tangelo, so I figured - why not?

I simmered the new mixture (the color improved once the juice and sugar were added) for 2 hours, until it was a bit frothy.

All that was left was to let it cool a little, and try it. Being a skeptic, I made a second batch, minus dandelions - just a simple syrup with a little tangelo juice, for comparison. The children conducted blindfolded taste tests (actually, keep your eyes closed, no peeking tests, because we couldn't find the bandanna). It was generally agreed, that the two syrups did taste different.

Both were sugary and delicious. Both tasted very much like honey. But the dandelion syrup, was slightly more mellow and pleasing. The children liked it well enough that they trudged down to a nearby vacant lot, buckets in hand, to bring home a fresh crop of flowers. Now, if I could just get their father to quit gagging...

It's great to be a homeschooler!