Turkey and Muffins, For Now and Later

I knew I was forgetting something when I went to bed last night. As soon as I turned off the light it hit me, my blog! Oh well, at least I didn't forget to cook something in my Sun Oven or worse, forget to eat it. It was another batch of BBQ turkey thighs. Some for dinner and some to freeze. This time I brined the meat for about an hour in a solution of two tablespoons kosher salt, one tablespoon sugar, 1/4 cup liquid smoke, and two cups water. It cooked about two hours in the Sun Oven and was fall off the bone tender.

Today it was another batch of blueberry muffins. They went straight from the Sun Oven to the freezer (after cooling of course) and hopefully Martin will enjoy them while I'm away. I'm a little doubtful that he'll actually heat up any of the other things I've prepared, but the muffins just need to be taken out of the freezer. Left at room temperature they'll be ready to eat in under 30 minutes, less if they are placed outside in the 100º + Arizona heat.

Blown Away by the Solar Cook Off in Bisbee

  Friday morning I made myself a cup of solar cooked oatmeal and we hit the road for the three and a half hour drive to Bisbee. Why only one cup of oatmeal? Because it's the only food I know of that Martin will not eat under any circumstances. That, paired with the fact that we don't usually don't get up at the same time means at breakfast time it's every man for himself in our household.

  Bisbee is in Southeastern Arizona and if you ever get a chance to go there you're sure to have a good time. We got in at lunch time so we headed straight to Dot's Diner for a burger and sadly no pie. We wanted to stay in one of the Airstreams at the adjacent Shady Dell but they were sold out months in advance. Fortunately there are plenty of charming choices for accommodation in the area and we found a room at The Jonquil.

In the evening we watched the Bisbee Copper Kings play the Tucson Yard Dogs at Warren Ballpark, the oldest ballpark in the U.S. 

This is the third year I've attended the solar cook off in Bisbee, but the first time I've participated. It was here, two years ago that I first saw a Sun Oven and not long after I purchased one for myself. Once again I had two ovens with me, but since this was only a half day event I planned on making fewer dishes than at last month's potluck in Tucson. One oven was to be dedicated to baking. The second oven was for chicken and rice. Things did not go according to my plan.

  I got up early. Prepared the two pans of raspberry cookies, mixed the muffins, and after much debate, decided on the smaller black pot for the chicken and rice - my first mistake. Leaving the slightly larger cast iron dutch oven back at the hotel we headed out to the farmer's market where the solar cook off is held. 

  While Martin set up the Sun Ovens, I spooned the muffin batter into the pan. Once they were in the oven I turned my attention to the chicken. Not wanting to bring a raw chicken all the way from Phoenix I'd bought one at the local grocery store. It was a lot more expensive than what I'm used to, but I just assumed that was because we were in a small town. 

  When I tried to fit the darn thing in my smaller pot I realized it was a much bigger chicken than I normally buy, that explained the higher price, but there was no way I was going to get the chicken and the rice into one pot. 

  Martin had to run back to the hotel to retrieve the dutch oven. I'd have to cook them separately and wouldn't be able to start the rice until I'd finished baking the muffins and the cookies. 

  As Martin rushed off to the hotel, I headed back to check on the muffins. Only to find Valerie, the coordinator, trying to salvage what she could, my Sun Oven had blown over. Oh, that's right, I hadn't mentioned the 45 mph wind gusts. Not your ideal outdoor cooking weather. Somehow we managed to get the batter, or at least most of it, back in the muffin cups. Now I was even more behind schedule. 

  Wind is a much bigger factor in Bisbee than here in the Phoenix area and many of the local Sun Oven users have reinforced their ovens with bungee cords and now mine has been too. 

  Miraculously the muffins came out o.k. even if they didn't look too pretty. As soon as they were ready I popped in the raspberry bar cookies. The wind still had not let up and was causing problems in more way than one. No one's oven was getting past 300º even with constant refocusing. The wind was kicking up so much dust that the sun rays could not get through in full force. 

  My cookies were baking, but they were taking longer than usual. There was little chance the rice would be ready by 1 p.m. I tried anyway. I put the dutch oven with the rice in the Sun Oven around 11:30, but between the lower temperature and the heavy cast iron pot that takes longer to heat up it was nowhere near done by mealtime. At least the chicken came out o.k.

  Even with the wind and all the mishaps I had a wonderful time. The people were great and all the food was delicious. I'm already looking forward to next year. 

More One Point Blueberry Muffins

I was in the mood for baking, just not for having anything too tempting around to pig out on. The good thing about muffins is after enjoying a few, they can be wrapped up, frozen, and put out of sight. They're the same kind of muffins I made a few days ago, using Kodiak Cakes Flapjack Mix. I meant to add some cinnamon this time, but forgot, so I sprinkled a little on top before popping them in the Sun Oven. It was a nice touch. I really like having muffins in the freezer. It's so easy to grab one on your way out the door, put it on the dashboard to defrost, and in no time you'll have a nice treat to enjoy on the road.

Amazing Two Point Solar Muffins

If you know anything about the Weight Watchers point system then you know that most muffins are more points than they're worth. The low-fat blueberry muffin that a well known chain restaurant inexplicably offers as a choice with its entrees - I mean who eats a sweet muffin with dinner? - is eleven points; over half of my daily point allowance. I don't even want to know how many points the regular muffins come out to. And as hard as I tried to modify numerous recipes, the best I'd achieved without resorting to artificial sweeteners, weird reduced fat products, or muffins so small that you'd just wind up eating more than one, was three points per muffin. But today, on a day when I really didn't feel like doing any kind of solar cooking, I found a recipe for blueberry muffins that have only two points and used real ingredients. The trick? Kodiak Cakes  Flapjack and Waffle Mix. I used the recipe on their website for low fat blueberry muffins and used Weight Watchers online tools to calculate the points. Their recipe does not specify how many muffins it yields, but I got fourteen standard sized muffins out of it.

Solar Cooking All Day Long

We were going to go to yard sales this morning, but opted to sleep in. It turned out to be a busy day for the Sun Oven. To start off I made a batch of pumpkin muffins. I found the recipe on epicurious.com. I chose it because not only did it call for buttermilk - I had some that was about to go off and wanted to use it up - but I had all the other ingredients on hand too. The muffins were done by mid morning. They were pretty good. Only problem is now I have leftover pumpkin that was more expensive than the buttermilk. I see a batch of pumpkin chili in the near future.

By now it was lunchtime. Martin never says no to eggs, so I put one of the muffin tins back to work. I took the picture before cooking the eggs. It's easier to see the pancetta lining that way. I remembered to set the timer and after twenty minutes in the Sun Oven they were ready.

There were still plenty of hours of sun left for what was originally the only thing I was planing on solar cooking today; BBQ Chicken thighs. Just take some boneless, skinless thighs, trim the excess fat, rub them with a BBQ spice mixture, place them in a dark pot, sprinkle them with liquid smoke, cover and cook them in the Sun Oven for an hour or so. When they're done, shred them using two forks, mix with BBQ sauce and serve. It makes a nice lighter alternative to pulled pork.

Solar Cooking Weekend Update

After my saltless bread baking disaster on Friday, what did I chose to make in the Sun Oven yesterday? You guessed it, more baking. Banana Coconut Muffins to be exact. This is the second time I've made them using a recipe from epicurious.com. This time to lighten them up a bit I cut the butter called for in half and substituted buttermilk for the rest. I also used a mixture of white and whole wheat flours and only half a cup of sugar. To be sure I didn't forget anything important, like the baking powder, I lined up all the ingredients in order and double checked each one. It took about forty five minutes to bake them to golden perfection in the Sun Oven. To reward ourselves for the many things we accomplished around the house yesterday, we enjoyed a couple of them with a nice cup of tea. The rest I froze for future treats.

This morning I roasted some sweet potatoes for a vegetarian shepherd's pie I'll be making tomorrow. I forgot to take a picture but I'm sure you know what they look like. Then I made a salmon loaf using a recipe from "The Healthy Slow Cooker". The recipes in this book are excellent and easily adapted for solar cooking. It's the second time I've made this too and I didn't make any major changes.



Here's how I made it:

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 stalks celery, finely chopped
8 oz mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp dried tarragon
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 egg (the original called for three but I found that to be too much)
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 can (14.5 oz) salmon, including bones and liquid, skin removed
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
3/4 cup bread crumbs

In as skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, celery and mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally until celery is tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in tarragon and pepper and cook for about 1 minute. Remove from heat and set aside.

Drain salmon, reserving liquid, and remove skin. In a large bowl beat egg with lemon juice. Add salmon and mash with a fork. Add reserved mushroom mixture, parsley, breadcrumbs and enough salmon liquid to obtain the right consistency.

Line an oval lidded roasting pan with a piece of foil. Lightly coat foil and pan with cooking spray. Shape salmon mixture into a loaf and place on the foil strip.

Cover and place in Sun Oven.

Today, mine was done in under two hours.

Solar Baked Banana Coconut Muffins for Breakfast

I finally got to sleep in this morning. When I woke up I was in the mood for something special for breakfast. Before getting out of bed I used the epicurious app on my iPod touch to look for a recipe. I wanted to make some kind of baked french toast but quickly realized I didn't have the right ingredients on hand. I did have two over ripe bananas. It came down to a toss up between these Banana Coconut Muffins and Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins. Much as I love chocolate I decided to go with the healthier option. I also only used 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup canned pumpkin instead of the 1/2 butter the recipe called for. Once again I tried to pay attention to the baking time. They were ready in under an hour, I'd say about 45 minutes.

A Busy Day of Solar Cooking

It was a beautiful sunny day and I was able to make the most of it. I put the Sun Oven out first thing so it would be ready to go as early as possible. For starters Martin had a Trader Joe's chocolate croissant. He remembered to take it out of the freezer before going to bed last night and it was deliciously golden brown in time for his (late) breakfast.

Next up were the pumpkin muffins, and this time no mix! I made them entirely from scratch using a recipe I found at allrecipes.com. With a little bit of creativity I managed to fit two muffin pans in the Sun Oven at once. Who knew that canning jar rings could be so versatile? Even though I cut the recipe in half it still yielded two dozen muffins, but with only two muffin pans I had to bake two batches. I froze most of them. It's a good recipe, low in fat, and the muffins were moist and tasty. I used a little less sugar than called for and they and would cut back even more next time.

Finally we have a batch of BBQ chicken legs. They're easy to prepare and cook quickly. I'll have a few for dinner while Martin is out with the boys.

Going into my sixth month I'm still amazed at how much I can get out of this small, odd looking, little appliance and the power of the sun.

Solar Cooking on a Lazy Sunday

It's days like today that mixes were invented for. I was pretty exhausted this morning. After spending five hours in the sun at the preparedness fair yesterday, I went to the Arizona Humane Society to fill out some paperwork for volunteering, then we went out to dinner with some friends. So this morning I headed to my pantry for an apple spice bread mix from Trader Joe's to make muffins. I even got to use more of my cast iron muffin pans. This time, to make things easier, I chose pans that fit in the Sun Oven without removing the leveling tray. The muffins were ready in time for breakfast, a rather late breakfast, but like the title says, it's a lazy Sunday.

Solar Muffins In Time for Breakfast

Depending how you look at it I got either an early or late start today. I put a batch of muffins in the Sun Oven at 9 a.m. I showered while they were baking and had a warm muffin for breakfast. I used a mix from Trader Joe's. These muffins were much better than the last ones I made and at only 150 calories each a pretty good deal all around.

Solar Baked Bran Muffins

I finally made it home around 10:00 a.m. After a weekend of very little sleep, six intense workout sessions with Cathe Friedrich and a little too much wine last night, major solar cooking projects were out of the question. I whipped up a batch of bran muffins using a Hodgson Mill mix. I put them in the solar oven when I got home and took a nap while they were baking, something you would not be able to do with a conventional oven.