I started this post this morning early and kept getting interrupted so I’ll just finish it and post it late.
Yesterday despite the house being 80 degrees when we woke up, I got the tomatoes skinned and in jars, did the canning outside on the Camp Chef. I got 6 quarts and 1 pint.
I water bathed them and that took 85 minutes of boiling . . outside!
The potatoes were baked in the solar oven. Vince grilled the steaks outside. For dinner, it was baked potatoes, steak and I sauteed okra, asparagus, zucchini, carrots and onions. The okra and asparagus were from the garden.
The a/c guy was gone by 11 a.m. and it took til after 7 p.m. before the upstairs got down to 72. I kept saying “I don’t think it’s working!” but Vince said – the beds are hot, the sofa is hot, the carpet is hot, all the hot air from downstairs is rising .. it just takes time!” I’m not so sure about that.
Additions:
I did a blog post yesterday about the pre-orders from Needlework Expo. I still haven’t seen Teresa Kogut’s new stuff so once I see that, I’m probably done.
Cooking:
The only thing I did cooking related was getting the tomatoes canned, making the veggies for dinner and sticking the potatoes in the solar oven. I’ve made up for it today!
Videos I Watched:
Little Yellow House Crafts #67
Little Yellow House Crafts #68
Not sure how I got so far behind on those. I was sure it had been just a couple of weeks since I watched her but youtube says #67 was from three months ago. I don’t know! There’s still a #69 I haven’t watched.
Stitching:
I worked on Away We Ride while canning, cooking, making dog food and whatever else I did yesterday. I did a blog post last night about my progress on Away We Ride.
Plans for Today:
Back to working on A Changed World. The Mennonite guy will be here early and he’ll have his grandson. I will see if they brought their lunch and, if not, I’ll fix lunch for them.
Since the day is more than half over, I’ll just include all this in tomorrow’s “Tomorrow in Review” post.
Teri says
I’m curious about your solar oven. How long did it take to bake the potatoes? Does it have to be super hot or just sunny?
Thanks.
Judy Laquidara says
Yesterday was cloudy. We’d have sun for a few hours, then clouds for a few minutes. The minute the sun is covered by clouds, the temp drops way down. That’s not so great for bread but for potatoes or roasting a chicken (so long as the temp doesn’t drop too low and stay low), it’s not a problem. The potatoes were in the oven probably four hours and the temp mostly stayed around 300 so I knew they needed extra time but that’s why I put them in early. It does take a bit of planning and thinking ahead.
I would get almost the exact same results if it was 30 degrees outside, so long as the sun was shining. I love that no matter how hot it is inside the oven, once things are done, I can fold it up and carry it back inside. Nothing on the outside gets even warm.