Sun Oven Chronicles: A Few Fails...

Despite how it may seem, I've had a few fails in the sun oven too.  

There is this claim that the sun oven won't burn your food and your food will turn out more moist than in a traditional oven because of its "nondrying heat".  It also claims you can cook multiple layers of cookies because of its "even heating".  I of course enjoy proving people wrong found it my duty to challenge such claims.  

Test 1)

Roasted carrots.  Roasted carrots are soooo good.  However, they can dry out really easily (at least I seem to dry them out often) and so I thought I would try peeling and cutting a carrot and just sticking it in there and see what happens.  You can KINDA see their reflection in the top reflector, but it totally fogged up and I forgot to take an after shot (which wasn't much to look at...).  (and it was so long ago now, I have no idea how long I left them in for.... I would guess less than an hour.)

Basically, without olive oil, and at such low temperatures (350, when normally I roast at 425) they totally did dry out and weren't yet as soft as I would consider to be done.

 Ok. that WAS kind of unfair, since that's not how I would normally roast a carrot, exactly...

Test 2)
The accessory kit contains three stackable racks that you can use to bake or dehydrate three layers at a time, to make maximal use of the small oven and supposedly works because of the "even heating".

I made some oatmeal pumpkin cranberry cookies and froze the dough into balls (a phenomenon I have seen plenty online, but have yet to try myself) so that we would have easy-to-access, cookies on demand.  (kind of a dangerous thing, now that I'm writing it out...)  So I got out two of the racks, and put 4 frozen dough balls on each layer.  I can't remember how long I baked them for, but I know the recipe says 12 minutes and it was much longer than that.  At least 30 minutes.

 They look good right?  I brought them in for a comparison and after eating them I quickly realized two things: 1) the bottom rack was not cooked as well as the top and 2) both layers weren't really done yet.

Unfortunately, I don't think this test can be considered conclusive yet because I have since tried baking them in a regular oven and they also came out looking done, but the middles were still so mushy that if you tried to grab one off the cookie sheet, the middle would be left behind.

Boo.  Me thinks this test is to be continued...

Now about burning food...

Test 3)
This next test, I feel is also a bit unfair, BUT they do claim that your food won't burn, right?
Sundays are very tricky right now because we have church at the dreaded time of 1pm- a.k.a. naptime.  This means that after church is a mad dash to get food into our kids' bellies and put them right to bed.  I was going to just cook chili in the sun oven while we were gone, but then I knew I'd still have to do the cornbread when we got back.  Then it occurred to me that if nothing supposedly burns in the sun oven, maybe I could cook both the cornbread and the chili in the sun oven while we're gone.  I had a Young Women's presidency meeting before church, too, so that means it would all be in there over 4 hours...  I didn't take a picture, but I put the chili in the pot and then balanced a bread pan with the cornbread on top.

Here's what came of it:

 The cornbread turned out verrrrry dark and crusty on top.  BUT, the kids still ate it and it didn't actually have a burnt taste- it just wasn't as soft and tender as usual.

The chili was fine.  Not burnt at all.

After the multi-level cookie incident, (and before I discovered that they don't work well cooked when frozen) I tried baking them again and they weren't done after my initial check, and then I kinda forgot about them... (45-ish minutes later...)

Again, they weren't "burnt" as in blackened and burnt tasting, but they were totally crispy and hard- not how I wanted to eat them...  So yes, you can over-cook things if you're a doofus, but it is harder to burn foods than a regular oven.

Recipe FAIL: Cheerio Treats

This may surprise some of you, but I have never made Rice Krispies Treats before.  I didn't even realize it until last night, when my kids (okay okay, and me too) were asking for a treat and I needed to do something quick.  For some reason, my first thought was, Rice Krispies Treats!

Since I had never made them before, I had to look up the recipe.  Funny enough, I didn't actually have any Rice Krispies cereal (or any fakey counterparts) and so I googled around to see if it was common to sub-in Cheerios instead.  (because what LDS mom doesn't have Cheerios on hand at all times?)  Turns out, I found this recipe- basically the same as the other, but with Cheerios in place of Rice Krispies.

Score.

Except...

I'm still trying not to eat dairy for Hazel, so I decided to sub out the butter for coconut oil.

I go to my closet and check on the marshmallows.  I have one almost-full bag of regular marshmallows (the campfire ones) that I'm pretty sure I bought over a year ago when Iris was still living with us, that we only whipped out once to roast some (probably a grand total of 6) over a fire.  Alternatively, I had another, unopened bag of fresh, new, mini marshmallows I just got, in case we ever had another hankering to make some marshmallow-toothpick sculptures.  (because I discovered at conference that the ones we had were pretty stale and hard.  As you can see, we're not typically a marshmallow eatin' family.)

So, of course I pick the old bag of large marshmallows, so I can get rid of them.  (Jay always makes fun of me for proclaiming, "we need to get rid of this, so we're having it for dinner."  Waste not, want not!)

These powers combined resulted in a large mass of clumpy, gooey marshmallow mash that refused to melt and started browning and toasting.  I was pretty sure that wasn't supposed to happen, so I just decided that this must be as melty as it gets (although it wasn't the vision of "melting" that I had foreseen) and plopped it in with the cheerios in another bowl.

Well, it shouldn't surprise anyone that I ended up with a giant, white, gooey glob, now coated in cheerios.  So, I did what any logical person would do (oh wait.  they'd probably throw it out at this point.  waste not, want not!  carry on...) I started stretching it apart, two handed, trying to get some of the Cheerios inside the glob, hoping to make the mass a bit more homogeneous.  Satisfied that I had done my best, I quickly spread/mashed it out into a pan while nearly breaking my teeth, trying to scrape some of the hardened goo off my stirring spoon.

The Frog wanted to add his finishing touch and dumped a bunch of chocolate chips in the middle portion of the pan.  (which I quickly tried to spread around before they all melted there).  There were tons of unincorporated Cheerios left in the bowl, and for some reason I felt like they belonged with the others, so spent some time spreading those around, hoping they might stick as well.  (theyyyy didn't)

Excited by our scavenging success, we all sat around the table with our plates, awaiting our Cheerio creation...

Let's just say it was sometimes dry and crunchy (and gum-scratching), sometimes stretchy-gooey-yummy, but mostly hard and tooth-removing sticky.

After we devoured our bits of disaster (The Frog actually proclaimed it to be "fantastic", clearly excited to show off a new word he learned recently, though I know the truth, since neither child finished their portions...) I put the kids to bed (after a good tooth-brushing session) and promptly threw the rest in the trash.  (sorry, no photo)

After a bit more googling, I discovered that there are a few things that can go wrong with Rice Krispies Treats:
1) don't use margarine (and maybe coconut oil either?)
2) fresh marshmallows melt better (oops)
3) mini marshmallows melt better than campfire ones (oops)
4) browning marshmallows = bad.

Yep.  I love to bake bread.  And now pie.  I can make a roux in my sleep, yet I royally screwed up "The classic, original, no-bake dessert that is easy to make" and have still never made Rice Krispies Treats.

The end.

Recipe FAIL- Dr. Seuss Disaster Cake

Last Saturday was Dr. Seuss's birthday, and I thought it would be fun to make a crazy cake to celebrate.  (plus, I've been having cake withdrawals since I went off dairy and I wanted to try making dairy free frosting...)

Turns out, some brands and flavors of boxed cake mixes are dairy free, so I thought I'd just use one of those, and focus my experimental energy on the frosting.  I used a Western Family yellow cake mix, and after mixing it all together, separated it into 3 bowls and dyed one reddish-orange, dyed one green, and one blue (leaving the original yellow color in the mixing bowl).  Then I poured the yellow and red into one 6" cake pan, and the blue and green into the other.  I thought using 6" cake pan would make it extra tall and funny-looking... kinda Dr. Seussy, right?

Le Sigh.

I guess I didn't Pam & flour my pans well enough because neither one came out very cleanly, and almost ALL of the yellow part of the yellow/red cake got stuck in.  Oh well, I thought.  Nothing a little frosting couldn't fix, right?

On to the frosting...  I should preface this with the fact that I never use a recipe when I make butter cream frosting... Just a stick of butter, at room temp, a smidge of milk, a tich of vanilla, and add powdered sugar until the consistency is good.  easy peasy.  So I thought I'd do the same, but sub all the dairy ingredients for non-dairy ones.

Long story short, I used a combination of coconut cream and Earth Balance Soy Spread, instead of butter (but the soy spread was not at room temp...) and I think I accidentally added too much coconut milk.  I could NOT get the frosting to have a thick enough consistency and had to add way too much powdered sugar.  The frosting tasted almost like pure sugar and so I stopped.

I started frosting the cake (which was ever so slightly still warm. BIG mistake) and it soon became obvious that the cake with a large chunk missing from its bottom was not going to stay put!  The frosting acted like more of a lubricant and the two layers were just sliding all over the place.  I decided to stick some BBQ skewers into the two layers to hold them in place, and put the cake in the cold garage to set-up before I finished frosting it.  Next time I went to check on the cake, it looked like this.

 Oh well.  I tried to cut up a piece as nice as I could so I could get a feel for what it WOULD have looked like had I not been so impatient and used a recipe for frosting.

It did taste ok, but the frosting was too sweet for Jay and I.  I have never failed so miserably on a cake before.  (except maybe that time I tried angel food cake 3 times and it fell apart while cooling all. 3. times.)

Recipe Fail: I Did the Impossible

Burnt a crock-pot recipe I've made a gazillion times.

YES, I forgot to turn it to low before we left for church like I had planned.

YES, I halved the recipe for the first time ever.

YES, it took a LOT of work to get this scraped out and cleaned up.

YES, we had PBJ instead.

Recipe FAIL, Carmel Apples

It wasn't my fault.

Really.

When you hear the whole story, you will immediately be able to deduce that the mistake was in my trusting a faulty recipe. Allow me to explain...

The tale began innocently. I had a plethora of delicious apples comfortably resting on a blanket of colorful leaves on my back lawn. Meanwhile, a recipe for carmel apples from Cooking Light Magazine comfortably rested on my sparkling, speckled, kitchen counter.

Fate? I think not.

Jay was having friends over for game night and I thought it might be fun to try the new recipe. Having never made carmel before, and certainly not a "healthy" version, I had no idea of the peril involved.

Of course, I had to start them before dinner, so the carmel layer could be done cooling by the time I wanted to experiment with my own additional layers (white chocolate & cinnamon/sugar is my traditional favorite). All was going according to plan, until...

Once all ingredients are mixed together, you are supposed to let the concoction boil for 45 minutes (did you catch that? FORTY-FIVE minutes) until it reaches 235 degrees Fahrenheit. At least, that's what the recipe said.

So, there I was, happily getting my hamburger preparations underway while waiting for my golden bubbly goodness to reach the required temperature. I was just about to throw the burgers on the grill, and I double checked my thermometer rigging to see how much progress we were making.

The temperature read 234.5 degrees.

I probably should have known better, BUT and it had only been boiling for 15 minutes. "Gee," I thought, "that last half a degree must be super tricky, if it's going to take 30 minutes to get there." And outside I go (in the cold) to put the perfectly formed patties on a heated grill. I come right back inside and what's this I smell?

BURNING!

I run to the stove, and notice the temperature is now 244 and my beautiful carmel color is now the color of hopelessness and wasted energy. I frantically take it off the stove and hope that maybe some stirring could fix the problem? Perhaps the new deep color is only on the surface?!

Alas, no.

And I quickly recognized that this sticky concoction was slowly turning into a rock. Terrified of transforming my pan into an oversized paperweight, I rushed to the garbage to dispose of the molten lava. The longer it had to cool, the harder I had to scrape to get it off the pan, off the spatula, off my fingers. Finally, satisfied that I should be able to safely hide the remainder of the evidence down the drain, I squirted some soap in the pan and began filling it with hot water in the sink. Disappointed, I watched the happy frothing rapidly increase and slide down the outside of the pan when it hit me.

THE BURGERS!

I ran outside, hoping to save our dinner, but sadly, all 4 patties had been severely charred.

Emotionally exhausted, psychologically dejected, and totally disheartened, I served the crunchy burgers for dinner anyway. Jay was a trooper and ate it with out grimacing all while convincing me to persevere. He offered to do dishes so I could run to the store and replenish my carmel ingredients.

Round two.

Again, things are going smoothly. Sugar, water, corn syrup, nicely dissolved. Slowly adding the half & half, vanilla and salt. Things appear to be going well.

211 degrees.

This time, I hover.

214 degrees.

I'm a helicopter, waiting, watching for a potential rescue.

212.

Did I just read that right?

211.

WHAT?!!

209.

NOOOOOOOOOO!

I give up.

Apple on a stick? Anyone?

Recipe Fail, Part II: glass is not a secret ingredient

So, as I mentioned earlier, I made Jay's mom's famous Pineapple Upside-Down cake for his Jay's Birthday this week. The very first instruction states:
"In large square corningware pan, melt 8 Tbls butter (1 stick)"

Simple enough, right? After that you are to:
"Stir in: 2 c brown sugar
Continue to stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves"

Ah, oh, ok. So if this is over low heat, I can just put this right on the stove, right? Okay, okay... so I don't own any shmancy Corningware. Big deal. Pyrex is where it's at, fo sho.

So I put my glass pyrex pan on the stove with the stick of butter on low. Meanwhile I start measuring out the dry ingredients. I turn around, finished, and the butter is only about 1/3 melted.

I'm on a schedule here people! The Frog plays contentedly by himself for only so long! How 'bout I turn it up a little? Yeah, a 4 oughtta do it...

Now I measure the wet ingredients. I turn around to check on the butter and

BLAM!
BANG!
POW!
CRASH!
ZOT!!
(anyone else watch the old Batman?
The tights one?)

My beautiful pyrex dish literally exploded all over the kitchen!! Big shards, little shards, tiny microscopic shards you cannot see but can only feel digging into your feet when you walk. Not only that, but these were greasy shards. *shudder*

Did I mention, they got all over the kitchen?

Needless to say, I decided to play it safe for round two and melt and mix in a pan. It's true that some of the buttery, sugary goodness was probably marooned in the pan after transfer, but we all know now that

Glass Pyrex pan + stove = disaster

Recipe FAIL, Part I

I decided to start a new, on-going series called "Recipe Fail". Being a scientist at heart, I cannot help but experiment with pretty much everything I ever make, especially food.

I always claim to follow recipes, website/document or cookbook open as evidence, but on very rare occasions does that actually occur (as my husband often laments). I'm on a quest to make healthy food that actually tastes good, which means that I almost never follow a recipe completely - whether it be removing fat or sugar or adding fiber or veggies. And then there are those times when I just really want to make X, but don't exactly have all the ingredients called for, but I have others I would REALLY like to use up. (We don't want them to go bad, do we?) As you can imagine, this often results in, let's just say "interesting" concoctions that I would choose not to replicate later.

And this happens a lot.

So, I figure, even if I run out of blogging material, I'll always have this to fall back on.

Without further ado, I begin my Recipe FAIL by recalling a very infamous time from my youth.... The first recipe FAIL I can recollect:

Back in the day, everyday after high school, I would come home and make a snack which was always one of four things:
1) 2 chicken chimichangas (from Costco)
2) 4 pieces of toast with butter and jam (usually my grandma's strawberry jam)
3) macaroni and cheese from the box (I always ate exactly half* and saved the other half for Eve to eat when she got home)
4) a package of graham crackers and milk (for dipping)

Which thing I made mostly depended on what was available, my mood, or the weather.

One particularly unmemorable day, I decided to make "The Mac", and as I always do, I put the noodles in the boiling water, set the timer for 7 minutes (no more, no less) measured out the 1/4 c butter, and started to measure the 1/4 c milk when.. OH NO!! WE ARE OUT OF MILK!!

Panic ensues.

The noodles were already boiling! What was I going to do? I frantically searched the refrigerator for something dairy to use as substitute. Cottage cheese? No. Yogurt? maaaaybe... and then it hit! One of my most favorite dairy products was sitting innocently in the freezer. Waiting for me to call on it for help. Indeed, we had vanilla ice cream. It's made from milk, right? They're both white, right?

It sounded like a great idea at the time.

Needless to say, that was a complete Recipe FAIL.

In summary:

Milk != Vanilla Ice Cream.


*except that one time when I was really mad at her. I can't remember why I was mad, but I remember that to spite her I ate the entire box of Mac myself. I felt very sick after.