I'm a Firecracker Queen!

See my crown? I'm the featured Firecracker Queen of the Week on Jules Cohn's A Little Bite of Life blog! You can find the interview here. I hope you'll visit, leave some comment love, and take some time to discover a really unique blog with heavy focus on how to make your own blogs better! Have a great day! And, thank you, Jules.

P.S. I feel soooooo bad. [sniff, sniff] Some of you are telling me that Blogger says the page doesn't exist. When I clicked on the link, the same thing happened to me. I re-entered and tested the link. It worked. I hope you don't have any more trouble. It does work if you copy and paste it into your address bar. Or, you can go directly to the blog, A Little Bite of Life, and it will take you the current post. From there, you just have to scroll down to the May 24th entry! Sorry. Blogger been giving me fits these past few weeks, too.

Announcing the Winners of my 100 Followers Giveaway!

Congratulations! We have five WINNERS to my 100 Followers Giveaway! A special thank you to all of you who have visited and decided to stay to discover more about solar cooking for mainstream cooks. Entries were given a number and all numbers placed in a deep basket. Late last night, my sister was asked to pick five numbers from the basket, held high above her head.  These five winners were sent an email notice, as well, so that I could send them their copy of A Month of SUNdays - Solar Cooking at Home. It's not only a cookbook for solar chefs, every recipe works equally as well in conventional ovens.

The winners have been placed in chronological order. Congratulations!



Entry #6 - Ruby from Ruby's Musings

Entry #8 - Dilli, a follower from Georgia

Entry #11 - txazlady from The Solar Cooker - An Adventure in Solar Cooking

Entry #14 - Christine from Write-Brained 

Entry #16 - Nicole from Destination Unknown 

I hope all of you will continue the journey of mainstream solar cooking with me. I love your comments and so look forward to your visits. Have a great day, now!

100 Visible Followers - Means It's Give-away Time!

What a wonderful surprise! Here I was, going about my business, and then looked over at my followers thingy and -- OMG -- I've reached 100. And, the counter has again returned to zero, but, this time, you're going to see my invention, a solar oven for the mainstream cook, the SolarChief(R) Isn't it pretty! Many more details will follow -- this is just a sneak peek for you wonderful people who have been patient and following me lo these many months.

Never thought I'd get to 100 followers; honest. Just wanted to add recipes, tips and techniques to folks that were solar cooking, using my cookbook "A Month of SUNdays -- Solar Cooking at Home" and continue to share that great experience. Solar cooking is still very much a niche in America but we're growing strong trying to use less fossil fuel energy and put some money back in our pockets.
Book II is almost ready for publication and my SolarChief(R) solar oven will be debuting on May 28th at the Midtown Market on the Commons in the North Hills Shopping Center, Raleigh NC! That's my new 'home' for sales through November 19. A beautiful shopping mall and I'll be there every other weekend from 8am until Noon. Phew! What a month. 

100. That's a magic number; right? And that means I should find a way to celebrate with you. A little give-away, perhaps? I'd love for it to be diamonds, Blahnik shoes, Gucci bags, but that just isn't in my budget and I've already given away 35 cars (just a joke, to see if you were paying attention! 8-)  But, what I can do is give five of you a free copy of my cookbook -- a great beginner's way of discovering solar cooking for yourself!
If you would like to participate, leave me some comment love on this post and let me know why you would like to be a winner besides discovering the joys of solar cooking. Or, if you already are solar cooking, what do you like best about it? Comments will be numbered and on May 24th, at 11:55p.m., the five (5) winning comment numbers will be drawn and on May 25th, the winners will be announced in the Winners post, as well as notified by email. Good luck, to all of you! And, thank you for being followers!

First Harvest May 2011

Nothing is prettier than your first bountiful harvest! .

L-R: Swiss Chard, Lettuces, Spring Onions, Broccoli Heads & Leaves

I didn't take a picture of it, but this is one of those double-wide baskets with a big curved handle that has totally disappeared under this bounty. The broccoli headed up beautifully, this year, because we had quite a few cool days BUT -- and, this may be the real reason -- I planted everything a month, earlier, to see if I couldn't beat the heat that made everything try to go to seed. The lettuces had already started to bolt because of the 80-degree days we've had in the past few weeks, but the leaves were still prime. Spring onions are just starting to bulb, but I usually leave them in ground through the year and just take harvest for the meal.

Versatile Blogger Award - OMG!

Blogger almost lost this post! Had to go Facebook to recopy the balance of this, but I've lost all my comments. Goldarn-it!... Anyway, it's back and hope that's the end of the Blogger Boo-Boos.

***Blush!*** I've been given the above award from Chile Chews, a blogger I've been following since almost day one of my own blogging journey. This is the goto lady for wonderful posts on her adventures and insistence of living a self-sustaining lifestyle and how to accomplish it. I'm still delighted that she follows me, because I'm an omnivore and most of my recipes would have to be rebuilt to suit her vegan tastes, but she hangs in there. I think what I like about her best is that she isn't in your face about her beliefs -- she just does.