Wonder Oven

"In the depression when times called for conserving and stretching a budget, people came up with ways to save on cooking fuel costs.  By using an insulated hay box they were able to cut down on the cost of cooking and baking foods.  Food was brought up to a boil or to a certain temperature and then placed into the hay box.  The hay box was usually a wooden box and had lots of hay stuffed on all sides of the enclosed pan that maintained the temperature.   This process of cooking worked to allow the food to retain the heat by using insulation.
Today there is even a better option to the hay box.  The Wonder Oven uses two insulated cushions inside a plastic tub.  The cushions are filled with polystyrene beads that are great at maintaining a constant temperature.  This is how you can keep things hot or keep things cold."

Alright, so I heard about this "wonder oven" from Matt's aunt. From what I understand it is a plastic container, much like Mom uses for storing Christmas and Halloween decorations. In the container is a cushion of sorts filled with polystyrene beads. To use this oven you bring your food to a boil in a pot, then quickly wrap the pot with its lid on in the cushions and seal the lid of the container. Over the next few hours the insulated heat will continue to cook the food. Looking around I've found that there are Lots of recipes available. Another great use for the oven is to keep things cold. You can put ice cream and popsicles and all sorts of great stuff in it and the insulation will keep it just as cold as when you pulled it out the freezer even on the hottest of days. I thought it might be a great addition to our list of things to have on our way to preparedness.

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