Week 26 - Turn Any Metal Container into a Barbeque, Purchase Aluminum Foil

Week 26 – May 26

Turn any metal container into a barbecue.  Wagons, wheelbarrows, and small trashcans can be used for cooking in.  Put dirt in the bottom, line with foil and top with hot coals.  Use clean shovels covered with foil as cooking dishes.  Clean metal rakes without handles make mini grills.  Be creative and learn to cook outdoors with what you have.

Home food storage: Purchase aluminum foil.

Week 25 - Build a Solar Box Oven, Purchase Boxed or Bottled Drinks

Week 25 – May 19

Build a Solar Box Oven

Home food storage: Purchase boxed or bottled drinks
 

How to Make a Solar Box Oven

This took three boxes.

The large box is 20" x 16" and is 12" deep.  Try to keep your large box that size or smaller.  Too big of a box will not be able to get hot enough and hold the heat needed to cook in.  The smaller box is 16" x 12" by 10" deep. Carefully cut lid/flaps off of the smaller box.  Try to keep the edges straight.

There is a gap in the bottom of my smaller box that needs to be filled in.

 

I cut a strip from the top flap and filled the gap.  I was surprised to see that the picture matched.

Cut the lid flaps you removed into two inch squares.  Glue the squares together into stacks that are just slightly under two inches thick.  Glue the stacks to the bottom of the inner box. These will be the legs to hold the inner box when it is placed inside the larger box.  Place this box inside the bigger box and make sure the top edges of each box are even.  Adjust legs as needed.  Make sure the center of the box has enough legs to support a pot full of food.

Crinkle newspaper and fill in the gaps around the legs.

Turn the box over and place in the larger box.  Center as best as possible and finish crinkling up newspaper and tucking it into the remaining gaps around the legs and add crinkled paper until the space between the boxes is filled.

Now measure to see if your inner box is centered.  If it is or isn't use that measurement between the boxes and draw a line on the first flap of your outer box.  Draw a second line about 3/8" away from the first line.  The second line will be closer to the loose edge of the flap. Score the lines with a box cutter.

Press that narrow section between the scored lines down.  I used a pencil with a broken lead.  This will make folding easier.

Measure the gap between the inside of the larger box and the inside of the small box on the left and right side and cut off that distance on each edges of the flap to the scored line.  Fold the flap closed and glue the narrow section to the inside of the smaller box.  Do this with the three remaining flaps.

Your box will look like this when done.

From the third box bottom flaps I cut pieces of cardboard that were about six inches wide and the length of the four sides of my Snyder's box.  I scored the center the same as did in the instructions above.  Make sure these flaps are wide enough to cover the top edges of your oven.

Here is the inside of the finished lid from the pieces above and I also used the pieces that I cut off the the Snyder's box flap edges to create this lid.  I forgot to take this picture while making it.  After the frame of the this lid is made cut a large oven cooking bag big enough to cover the opening and glue it to the outside of the lid.  I used both layers of the bag.  I only had to shorten the bag.  The width was perfect.  I did glue the cut edge of the bag closed.

My longest strips of cardboard were not quite as long as the longest edges on my Snyder's box.

Here is another messy corner.  I created the lid while holding the cardboard piece on the box oven.  It was not easy, but I have a tight fitting lid and that is what really matter.

Next I took the front of that third box and 2 inches of the top flap and cut a piece big enough to cover most of the oven lid. The window of the lid needs to be covered.

Glue the 2 inch piece of the flap to the lid along the back edge.  Match the fold line to the window edge opening.  Cover the new outer lid with foil and glue to the back side of the lid/flap.

Here is the outside of the foil covered lid.

Here is the inside of the foil covered lid. Your oven is now ready to use.

Week 24 - Windshield Solar Oven, Purchase Drinking Water

Week 24 – May 12

Windshield Shade Solar Funnel Cooker

Lay the sunshade out with the notched side toward you and the shiny side up. 

Cut the Velcro into three pieces, each about 2 inches long.

Hand sew one half of each piece, evenly spaced, onto the edge to the left of the notch; sew the matching half of each piece onto the underneath size to the right of the notch, so that they fit together when the two sides are brought together to form a funnel.

Note: Can be sew on a sewing machine with a long stitch length the normal length will cause the reflective material to tear out.

Press the Velcro pieces together, and set the funnel on top of a bucket or a round or rectangular plastic wastebasket.

Place a black pot on top of a small cake rack, placed inside a plastic baking bag.  This is placed inside the funnel, so that the rack rests on the top edges of the bucket or wastebasket.

Since the sunshade material is soft and flexible, the rack is necessary to support the pot.  It also allows the sun’s rays to shine down under the pot and reflect on all sides.

The funnel can be tilted in the direction of the sun.  A stick placed across from one side of the funnel to the other helps to stabilize it in windy weather.

Home food storage: Purchase drinking water

Week 23 - Pizza Box Oven, Purchase Powdered Drink Mix

Week 23 – May 5

Build a pizza box oven. Acquire an unused pizza box of any size.  If the box is flat, put it together and close the lid.  Mark a line one inch in from all of the lid edges.  Cut open along the line on the front and two sides to create a flap.  Gently fold the flap back on the uncut line.  Line the inside of the flap with foil wrapping it to the outside.  Secure with tape.  Open the lid and line the bottom of the pizza box with black construction paper. Close the lid and roll newspaper 1” to 1 ½ “ thick.  Fit it into the inside edges and corners of the box.  Open the lid and secure the newspaper rolls in place as needed.  Do not tape to the lid.  Cut a piece of plastic wrap a little larger than the hole created from the flap.  Tape to one edge on the inside of the box.  Stretch the plastic wrap tight and tape the other three edges.  Close the box and cover the outside of the hole the same way as you did the inside.  Your oven is now ready to use.

Home food storage: purchase powdered drink mix

How to Build a Pizza Box Oven

Acquire an unused pizza box of any size.  If the box is flat, put it together and close the lid.  Mark a line one inch in from all of the lid edges  This box was so large that I made my line two inches in from all of the lid edges.

Cut open along the line on the front and two sides to create a flap.  Gently fold the flap back on the uncut line. I found it easier to fold back by using my box cutter and scoring the back line.

Line the inside of the flap with foil wrapping it to the outside.  Secure with tape.  I used hot glue to hold my foil in place.

Open the lid and line the bottom of the pizza box with black construction paper. Close the lid and roll newspaper 1” to 1 ½ “ thick.  Fit it into the inside edges and corners of the box.  Open the lid and secure the newspaper rolls in place as needed.  Do not tape to the lid.  Since my lid was cut two inches from the box edge I needed newspaper rolls that were two inches thick.  I found it easiest to roll about six layers of paper then lay that roll on another four to six layers of paper and roll again until I got the thickness I needed.  I folded the stack of newspaper edge over about 1/2 inch or less to help me get the roll started.  The shorter sections were folded  lengthwise in halves and thirds as needed and then rolled.  I hot glued the rolls of paper closed when they were the size needed and put glue on the bottom edge of the box and slid the roll in through the lid opening.  You can glue the newspaper rolls in place with the lid open, but make sure you leave a space for the lid flaps to fit between the rolls and the box.  Also from experience I learned that the loose edges of the paper rolls need to be on the bottom of the box.

Cut a piece of plastic wrap a little larger than the hole created from the flap.  Tape to one edge on the inside of the box.  Stretch the plastic wrap tight and tape the other three edges.  Close the box and cover the outside of the hole the same way as you did the inside.  I used a clear oven cooking bag instead of plastic wrap.  I hot glued one layer to the inside and one layer to the outside of the box.  When gluing the back edge of the oven bag on the outside carefully glue it to the inside bag since there is no other place to secure it to, because of the foil lined flap. 

NOTE:  All instructions I read called for plastic wrap, but I used a large oven baking bag.

Here is the completed box.  I will let you know if the hot glue withstands the heat when I use it.  June 1, 2013 was baking day and the hot glue didn't even soften.  Hooray!

NOTE:  While making chocolate chip cookies June 1, I realize that my oven needed some modifications and so did the way the cookies were cooked.

Here is the first batch of cookies into the oven.  They took about 45 minutes to cook and were still really gooey on the bottom.

This worked fine for the first batch.  Then the wind came up and kept blowing the lid up, so the stick would fall and the lid closed.  After about 10 times of that I knew I needed a better way.  I remembered reading something so I gave it a try.

I cut two long strips of cardboard and hot glued one to the box and the other to the lid.  I also cut a long piece of tie-wire and folded it into a "Z" shape.

Here is how the box looks with the wire holding it open.  Stick one short end of the wire into the slots of the cardboard as needed.  The second batch of cookies cooked for 1 hour, but they were hard on top and gooey on the bottom.  Time for another modification.

I cut four squares of cardboard to set under the edge of the pan, so that air could get under and help cook the bottom of the cookies.

Here is what the pan looked like for baking the third and last batch of cookies.  The last 5 pictures were taken several days after the baking experiment.  My house had 8 visitors at the time I was baking and the cookies got eaten as fast as they were put on a baking rack to cool.

NOTE:  You will need a hot pad to remove the baking tray from the solar cooker.

NOTE:  You can find solar cooking instructions on June 2, 2013 post.
NOTE:  On June 8, I baked cookies again and put an oven thermometer in the box and the temperature was 230 degrees the entire time.