Week 31 - Cooking Substitutions (Cornmeal and Powdered Sugar), Purchase Staple Items

Week 31 - June 30 

Cooking Substitutions

Make your own cornmeal by grinding popcorn, dried dent corn (field corn) or dried flint corn (Indian corn) in a fine powder.

Make your own powdered sugar by putting 1 Cup of granulated sugar and 2 Tbsp of cornstarch in a blender and process on high until powdery.  The cornstarch is not necessary, but keeps it soft and fluffy if it is to be stored for a while.  1 Cup of granulated sugar makes 1 cup of powdered sugar.

Home food storage: Purchase one month’s worth of a staple item such as wheat, flour, sugar, rice, beans, or pasta.

Week 30 - Purchase Solar Lights, Purchase Staple Items

Week 30 - June 23
Purchase inexpensive solar lights.  I bought mine for 97¢.  They can be brought into the house at night and put back into the yard during the day.  Stand them up in a water bottle.  We set up several around the house the week we went without power instead of using our night lights.

Here is one of the lights I have.  I leave the pointed section in the ground (along with all the dirt).  I did add a couple inches of water to the bottle to make them more stable when we used them our week without power.  You can also put small rocks or dirt in the bottom of the bottle.

Home Food Storage: Purchase one months worth of a staple item such as wheat, flour, sugar, rice, beans, or pasta.

Week 29 - Keep Practicing With Your Cookers, Purchase Staple Items

Week 30 - June16
Keep practicing cooking with the various cookers you have made.

Home Food Storage - Purchase one month's worth of a staple item such as wheat, flour, sugar, rice, beans, or pasta.

Week 28 - Practice With Your Cookers, Purchase Staple Items

Week 28 - June 9
Practice cooking with the various cookers you have made.

Home Food Storage: Purchase one month's worth of a staple item such as wheat, flour, rice, beans, or pasta.

Week 27 Practice Solar Cooking, Purchase Staple Items

Week 27 - June 2

Practice solar cooking.
The best time of day to use your solar cooker is between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.  Set your solar cooker in the sun 30 to 60 minutes before you want to use it, so it can preheat.
When cooking with a solar cooker the shadow should be directly behind the cooker.
Adjust the foil covered lid so that reflects the sun into the cooker.  Adjust the cooker every 30 minutes so that is is facing the sun and the shadow is directly behind the cooker.  Adjust the lid also.
Baked food will not brown like in a regular oven, but they will turn hard if baked too long.
Don't open your oven until you really think the food inside is done.

I make chocolate chip cookies in my pizza oven last week.  It took about 45 minutes to bake each batch.  I could tell they were done when the cookie dough no longer spread out and they no longer had a glossy look.  Even after that I let them bake longer and firm up.  The first ones were gooey on the bottom.  The second ones were gooey on the bottom and hard on the top.  The cooked about 1 hour.  The third batch was the best after raising the cooking tray.  They were all eaten as fast at they cooled enough to be picked up.  So I guess that means they weren't too bad.  Or maybe it was just the 4 males between 18 and 22 (they eat anything and everything at that age).

See Week 23- Pizza Box Oven for details about changes I make for easier/better cooking.

Home food storage: Purchase a month’s worth of one staple item such as wheat, flour, sugar, rice, beans, or pasta.