The cookies are in the "oven". They went in at 3:00 exactly at 163 degrees farenheit. I didn't take the temp of the dough (if this were a true experiment I would have becasue I'm sure that makes a difference) but thinking about that, I opted for cookie mix so the ingredients were all room temp except the one egg. The cookie tray is aluminum and I used aluminum foil which was 73 degrees farenheit before going out into the car and the probe registered the tray at 122 after about 5 seconds in the car.

So, thus far, what does it tell us? 1. It's HOT outside! 2. It's even HOTTER inside the car! 3. Sometimes I can be a real geek when it comes to science.

I was thinking about putting a tray in hubby's car. My car is white with a light grey interior. Hubby's car is black with a black interior.

I'm planning on checking the cookies at 3:30. I'll post pictures after the entire experiment is done. I did buy two packages of cookies. Caroline is SO excited about cooking them in the car, but moreso because she gets to have cookies! So I bought an extra package  in case these don't work.

4:30
Okay, little one is sooooo anxious for the cookies that I have decided to pull them now. She's on the verge of tears thinking that I'm not going to let her have any of them. After all, an hour and a half is alifetime, expecially for cookies. So, the "oven" temp still holding at 145. Cookies looked slightly drier on top/ Get them inside and the pan was HOT. The cookies too sfot to do anything with yet, so they cool for a little bit. Finally, I was able to remove one and well, not quite done. So I heat up the real oven and bake for 10 minutes at 400 and that was all it needed.

At this time, we put in batch two, this time on a dark cookie sheet. Since we had some cookies now to tide over little one, these could stay in the "oven" longer. And boy did they.

5:30
Checked on the cookies, "oven" temp up to 150. They have spread out some, but still look wet.

7:30
Okay, I feel asleep and forgot about the cookies. Since my oven probe/timer was being used out at the car, I didn't have a timer in the house to remind me to check up on them. So, when I woke and got dinner, I remembered the cookies. Ran outside and the "oven" temp is down to 105. The light was just starting to fade. The pan was quite got and they looked slightly dry. But like the others, they were still a little too gooey to be called done. So in the real oven for 10 minutes at 400 and voila, perfect cookies.

Conclusion
I think it is possible to actually bake cookies on the dashboard, but the temps have to be right and the amount of time has to be right. I suspect it would take approx 3 hours to bake them properly with quite a bit of cool down time.  I also suspect that the outside temp does need to be higher then 90 degrees. Today the temp was right at 91 and the inside car tmp never made it past 160. If I had done the cookies back when we were in the 100 and higher temps, I think it would have worked out great.

But it was fun, and we got 2 dozen cookies out of it with minimal heating of the real kitchen. It gave way to a nice little educational talk with Caroline about heat waves, energy, light, convection, differnces between surface temps and air temps, conduction of heat in metal. Not that she knows all there is to know about these things-she is 4.5 years old, but at least it was an introduction and she did tell Grandmom that the sun's energy baked cookies in the car. So, she understood some.

All in all, not a bad experiment. The next time we have 100 degree weather, I'm going to try again.

I'll post pictures after I get them downloaded from the camera AND fix the pixel size size so Xanga will accept them. There are alot of pictures.

okay, so it's been about a year since last I picked up my foil and lunged. I'm happy to say that I didn't forget all of it. Kind of like riding the proverbial bike. I'm rusty and went back to some of my original bad habits, but all in all, not too bad...but by the time i got home..my legs were aching....badly.

Sat on the couch for a little bit--bad idea....my legs were so stiff I was wondering if I would be able to make it upstairs. Cobbled up the stairs..took some ibuprofen...I hope this means I'm just in bad shape and the muscles just need to "re-learn". or does it mean I'm getting too old? I hope not...how old is too old??hmmm

Well, tomorrow is going to be interesting....

Bit busy right now, but when May hits, I should have a bit more time.... I have lots of pictures of the kiddies and how they have grown, more stories about Rupert the Wonder dog...and our newest pet, Honey the amazing(pooing) hamster.

Be back soon, feel free to leave a message and tell me how life is going for you in your neck of the woods.

Just having a bit of fun. C is wearing my hat and M is wearing daddy's hat.

Hang on ya'll....I'm BACK!

Yes, I have returned. I felt the need to do some blogging...and boy do I have a TON to blog about...

First things first...a picture:



The Easter bunny, playing a stuffed electric guitar like a violin. But since there was no bow....he is plucking the strings. This is what happens when your child is not exposed to rock and roll, they have no idea what a guitar is.

More pictures to come.....

Yes, we did return from the beach, slightly sunburned, but fared well. We then left again to vist my parents who just moved out of their too big and old house to a a very nice and smaller apartment. What do they like the most? The swimming pool! They don't even own bathing suits, but that is all they can talk about is the pool. They think that the lure of the pool is going ot bring us down more often...maybe..

So, now we are gearing up for another year of homeschooling and I am getting my teaching schedule organized....

I'll be back soon with pictures aplenty!

Okay, so I skipped the entire week and this is the last day before we left for home. Matthew took his nap and when he woke, we went out to camp for a picnic fellowship time. Matthew wasn't quite sure about all those people, but after a while, he wamed up and stated exploring the place on his own. He was fine as long as I was within a couple  of feet from him.


 

Some other kids found this wagon and decided to go riding in it...I was wary, a recipe for diaster...they all stopped and let me take a picture..I like how they all look so serious.

     

But they did have fun and no one got hurt. They were very careful while Matthew was with them. Then they gingerly got him out and then took aff at breakneck speed. I saw Caroline grabbing hold and her legs go flying up...then they found a little hill and of course, they had to all get in and go rolling down the hill. But, no one got hurt and they had a blast. A group photo of all of us before we left. Matthew was alittle confused because it was not me behind the camera and thus his serious face.
 
      


As we were driving back to my parents home, we saw this. Scared me to death. It was not my parents home, but the one accross the street an dup one. There had been a downpour and I thought lightening had struck and was scared that my parents would not have power or something. But it turns out, the tree was old and rotten in the center and the wind gusted up strong enough that it broke. It landed right on the power line and Mom told me the police came out and they had to turn the power off and soon after I took the picture, the power company came out and started working on the line. The people in the house are expected to have power back in about a week. I got closer up pictures of the tree and the center..it was completely hollow all the way up and th ehole in the ground that it caused was amazing. So, while we were out, we decided to walk down to the lake. The road dead ends and then a pathway opens up that goes by the lake.

   

The only reason to go down there is to feed the "ducks". Yes, they are Canada geese, but we have always called them ducks and Matthew can say duck, but not goose. We had some stale Kashi cereal and we fed the "ducks". They will now have healthy hearts and low cholesterol. Caroline was quite brave. It's hard ot tell from the ppicture, but they swarmed her at first. Then the goslings stayed with Caroline while the adults all came to me thinking I had food. They were hissing and sticking out their toungues and flapping my wings. When the food was gone and they were still acting aggressive, I hot aggressive with them and did some stomping and hissing myself to back them off. One pecked at Matthew's shoe and another one started going for my shirt....they were getting downright greedy.


      

       


Afterwards, we walked up the hill back to the house and I had to stop and photograph the plants. I love Mimosas...they smell sweet and they are so light and airy..and the blue thing (can't recall the name of it), I just love. The color is my blue and when I get a house, I'm planting a bunch in my front yard or I'm painting my house to match.



If your still reading by the end, then I've got a question. We have been asking Matthew was he calls Caroline. We point to her and he says "medoom". We can't figure out what it is supposed to be. When he says "I dee dah" it means, "I see you". But medoom? We have been calling her Caroline or sis sis or big sister...none of which sound remotely like medoom and he consistantly calls her that.  Any ideas?

Well, that's it for the last day of the visit...I'll start in on the week soon....