Orange You Glad You Had A Bit Of Sun?

by Joyce
(UT)

Orange Rolls in the Sun Oven up in the mountains

I went to Fish lake high up in our UT mountains last weekend for a family reunion.
It has been an early and cloudy monsoon season for us this year. And that weekend was forecast to be very stormy in the Southwest Corner where I live right on the border with AZ.
Nevertheless, since Fish Lake is a bit North and East of us, I prepared to solar cook and crossed my fingers.
Sat. Morning proved to be beautiful and sunny but I could see clouds building on the edges of the mountain so I hurried to get the cookers out to preheat.
If you put a log, or rock, right in front of your GSO and tip it forward to rest on it, pointed at the sun, you can preheat your oven even earlier than the usual 8:30- 9:00 and it heats much faster so about 7:40 I set it out and by 8:00 was heated to 300 degrees. I prepared some oranges by halving them and pulling out the sections. then I put in each orange 1/2 a Pillsbury orange roll. When the oven was heated to 350 which took till about 8:20, I put the pan full in the oven and baked until brown. Took them out and by 9;00 when everyone else was up and dressed finally we had extremely yummy orange rolls, Scotch Eggs and Orange sections.
When the puffy clouds rolled over, it was like someone was throwing giant cotton balls a few at a time and the wind sent them scurrying away pretty fast so I was able to get Brownies and cookies cooked also before the reunion dinner at 4.
Unfortunately, during our dinner, towards the end it rained and poured and sent us scurrying. But I jumped under the plastic table cover with my plate and finished eating! Not gonna let a little rain ruin my solar cooked desserts!!!!!



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Ah, the joys of solar cooking in the Southwest during summer monsoon season.
Glad to hear that you still had a productive day of cooking though.

7:30 AM!!.
I don't think I've ever started quite that early. I think 8:00 AM is my earliest start.

Nathan
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