Lou and Wendi are Successful at Baking in Solar Oven!!!

Hi Michelle,

Just want to let you know our SunOven got it's first test trial on Sunday and passed with flying colors.

Wanting to try something fairly simple, a chocolate cake mix seemed a good choice.  The only changes to the box recipe was substituting melted butter for the oil and using the brownie pan that came with the oven. Even with the wind flapping the reflectors around some and me not moving the oven to follow the sun, the cake baked in about an hour with the oven hovering about 275 degrees. It was very moist and perfectly done. Wendi and I can't wait to use it again.

Here are some suggestions gained from using it the first time:

- Make sure to remove blue plastic protective film off the reflectors. This took me about 10-15
 minutes as it's hard to get off and you need to be careful not to scratch the reflective surfaces.
- Mount the "levitator" (the free hanging shelf that holds the pans) before you pre-heat the oven.
  (Don't ask how I know this... )
-  Use oven mitts or gloves- the sides of the cooking box get very hot and are narrow.
  (Again, don't ask how I know this... )
-  The cooking box is narrow and the sides of the "levitator" block the ends of the pans so its
   easier to place and remove the pans by grabbing the front and back sides.
-  The leveling leg is a bit tricky to figure out the first time. The key is to push in the button,
   then twist the leg a bit, pull it down to the height you want and turn the butting back into the
   hole. (My description takes longer to read than it takes to adjust the leg- play with it as it's
   easy to figure it out.)

The SunOven website has some good videos which are also on the CD that comes with the oven.

Finally, if anyone didn't order pans or need more, they are just standard 11"x7" brownie pans and 9 1/4" x 5 1/4" x 2 3/4" loaf pans. The ones with the oven are made by Wilton but any good brand should work. They available at most good cooking stores and I've seen the at Kitchen Collection at the Anthem Outlets and Michaels- just make sure the are heavy gauge metal so they will good evenly.

Anyway, Wendi and I are looking forward to trying out more dishes and teaching the kids how to use it. Thank you for all of your great work and enthusiasm for your calling- we appreciate all you are doing.  You have motivated us to go through all of our food storage and emergency preparedness items as we work on combining our households.

Lou Anderson