Letter of the day 'R'

 So first to tell you about the banner above. On June 29th, the Alist is doing a group #Flashalist Sale!! I am so excited to be including Kiser Krafts in this event! Kiser Krafts will be doing 30% off everything!! I do hope you all come and enjoy this amazing Sale!

Now the Letter 'R'...a few days ago my daughter, Little Miss, woke with letters on the mind. She looked at me and smiled, "R is for raisins, Momma." Yes, yes they are. My tired brain started to turn as I sipped my coffee. Letter 'R'...well I wonder what recipe is on the 'R' page in my favorite cook book. 

So 'R' is for Raisin-Bran Muffins. And that my friends is where the 'R' journey begins. Little Miss got excited! I told her we (WE) were going to make muffins. I gathered all the ingredients and supplies. And we started to measure and pour things together. Then I handed her the spoon for her to stir it together.

She was so happy to help. She wasn't strong enough but she gladly handed the spoon back to me. Then we lined the muffin pan. She counted each one and patted them in.

Then came the fun part; filling them up! She giggled through the whole process. Each time the batter dropped she'd say "splat". She clapped and cheered when each one was filled.

Then came the cooking and waiting...she went and played and the muffins baked.

Nice and golden brown Raisin-Bran Muffins. The house smelled amazing! It was a great day to have the Letter 'R' on the brain.

After Little Miss ate her raisin-bran muffin, she was done with the letter R. All she wanted was something yummy to eat. It was a fun experience. I can't wait until she has a fun letter like "P" for peas, potatoes, and pineapples or "I" for ice cream sundaes!!! ☺

 

Sun Baked Cookies

So this was done last summer (July 2012) but I feel it needs to be shared.

I made myself a solar-oven out of a pizza box. Yep...re-use...and save energy. It started out as an excited journey to make cookies by the heat of the sun. After all...I feel like I live on the sun at times and we had record highs this past summer. Everyone was making the joke, "You could fry an egg on the sidewalk." And I thought, "I bet I could cook cookies!" And that my friends is where it began.

Pizza box, foil, plastic, wax paper, and cookie dough. I did a bit of research through blogs and websites to get ideas on how to go about making this solar oven. I do not remember if I have a particular site I used but I know this was my end result.

Now lets go back to the beginning. I took a left over pizza box. Cut an opening in the top, taped plastic gallon size baggie to cover the opening, lined it with foil, a black piece of construction paper, and a piece of wax paper on top. I mixed up my favorite Chocolate Chip cookie recipe. YUM! Then placed the serving amounts down on wax paper on top of the foil base.

They look so yummy! I added the black piece of paper to help with collecting heat. Dark colors, black, draw and keep heat, so thought it might help with the "heating" of the oven. I closed the lid, bracing it with a random plastic straw we had in the house.

And set it out on our little porch in the direct sun. This is 10:00 am. Full sun and already at record temperatures. So now...the waiting game...stay and watch them bake?? Nope...had a new baby to take care of. So time slips by...and the sun moves...so I move the solar-oven as the cookies are still not baked.

So up on the rail they go. Rabbit, darling husband, made a joke about them falling over the edge and then he claimed birds flew off with the cookies. He was not funny. I was caring for things indoors, children, cooking lunch, cooking the rest of the cookie batter; I did not have time to worry about the solar oven falling!!! But again time slipped by and so moved the sun.

Had to move the solar-oven to the hood of our car. Now we have the neighbors attention too. It gave them something to look forward too, too. Hahaha I saw two of my neighbors go and check them to see how they were doing. It was fun to see. I know they were looking forward to trying out Sun Baked cookies too. So now we are past afternoon nap time and heading into getting geared up for evening supper. Surely, they must be cooked by now??!! So I go down to see.

Well, well, well 6:00pm...crispy outsides, brown bottoms, and they smell amazing! I think they are DONE!

Slide them out of the solar oven and onto the table...must let them cool down just a bit.

Needed to let them cool down a bit longer...but I was not waiting any longer! 10am to 6pm...the longest wait for a batch of cookies I had ever had. I tell you I remember biting into that cookie. It was oooo soooo gooood!!

So I think, if the temperatures go to record highs again this summer...I may just make Sun Baked Cookies again! See if I can do it better this time, with a shorter bake time.