Ramblings on the Camp Chef Outdoor Propane Oven

The Camp Chef Out Door Propane Oven

Camp Chef Oven with lid up and oven door open.


The Oven Burner.

One of the two stove top burners.

This is a review of the Camp Chef Outdoor Propane Oven. I am not an expert chef but I am no stranger in the Kitchen. This review will not cover the stove top burners as my intentions were to test the baking abilities of the oven part.

My overall impressions of the CC oven are that it is a well built unit and it is very efficient in its use of propane.

My main purpose in acquiring the CC oven was to have an alternate means of baking bread and other items if and when the commercial power is down. If you are setup to make bread when the power is on and have no way of doing so when the power goes out for whatever reason, you are severely limited in what you can do with those bulk grains.

I followed a great recipe for your basic whole wheat bread from http://www.simplylivingsmart.com/ that has become a family favorite. My wife and I decided to hedge our bets by making one loaf in the CC oven and the other two in the regular electric oven.

First of all for those of you that have never cooked with a camp style propane oven, you must monitor the temperature closely. The CC oven comes with a oven thermometer and that is your only indication of the actual temperature inside the oven. I was trying to maintain a temp of 350 deg F since that is what the recipe called for. Once I lit the oven (it has piezo electric ignitors) I decided to go with the HIGH setting to preheat. After the temp got to around 250 F I turned it to MID and at 300F I turned it to LOW. I probably could have turned it to LOW after the temp climbed to 250F and it would have climbed slowly to 350F. Once at 350F I had to open the oven door every 5 minutes or so to drop the the temp back down. I did this to familiarize myself with the oven characterisitics. Once the loaf of bread was placed in the oven the temp pretty much stayed on 350F with the lowest setting on the knob with very few adjustments.

After 40 minutes I had a loaf of bread that was a little darker on the bottom than I like but it will be a simple matter of adjusting the cooking times to get it perfect!

Some things of note about the CC oven:

First of all I had to turn my bread pan (10"X4.5"X3") sideways as if not placed perfectly on the wire racks it can turn sideways. Not a big deal but something to be aware of. A bigger pan could easily overcome this.

I used a one pound propane tank (this is located on the back) to bake with. Which IMHO seems to be adequate for my baking needs. I DO plan on adding the bulk tank adapter for use with twenty pound or larger tanks for use during extended power outages or a lengthy SHTF scenario.

Inside Oven Dimensions are 10"Wx16"Lx8"H, Oven Burner is 3500 BTU's

Overall Dimensions are 12"Wx21"Lx16"H weight 35 pounds.

Range Burners 5300 BTU's.

Overall I think this is a great item for using emergency food, using in a small cabin, boat or motor home. I find that it really fits a need in my Preparedness plans.

I hope you found this review helpful. Thanks for reading!

Later,

ZombieAxe

(ZA)

Getting ready to bake.

In goes the bread!

Out comes the finished product... um um good!

Ramblings on food storage...

Hopefully you are storing up preps in the event of one day, that the grocery store shelves are empty...

Katrina was a disaster that PROVED that you have to fend for your self when soceity breaks down...

Having your own food storage/prep items when the ballon goes up, means you will not be part of the masses scrambling to fight for the last loaf of bread. A loaf of bread doesn't last forever either...

Give a man a loaf of bread and he will eat for a day... Teach a man to make his own bread and he will hunger no more! I don't like hunger so I learn the things I need to do, to keep my family and I fed!

Lets look @ what it takes to make bread WTSHTF...

First of all you need wheat. A lot of it, if you want a lot of bread. Wheat stores well so it makes it handy to keep on hand. To store it use 5 gallon buckets, mylar bags, and O2 absorbers.

You will also need a recipe and an ingredients list, those other ingredients you will also want to store in bulk.

To turn wheat into flour, you will need a grain mill. An electric one is nice, but a hand operated one is better for when the power fails... I prefer both...

Once you have followed your recipe, you need to bake it... If the lights are out and the oven don't work, you will need another source to bake it. We like this offering from Walmart: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7857646

There are tons of other things you need to store besides the ingredients to make bread, but making your own bread makes alot of food more enjoyable... Without bread, a PB&J sandwich is just a mess!!!

Another thing, don't wait until the SHTF until you begin to make your bread, do it NOW!!! There is nothing better than HOMEMADE bread... Nice knowing you are only eating the stuff you put in the bread and not all that other junk that keeps it "FRESHER".

IOW store the foods you eat everyday and you will NEVER have to throw out good food gone bad...

There is alot of stuff you need to bake your own bread... acquire it now, learn how to use it and incorporate it, into your daily food routine!!!

Same goes for any food or prep item!

Later,
ZombieAxe

Long Hiatus...

I have been a bad blogger... it was be almost a year since my last entry...

A lot of things have happened since that last entry. I lost my Grandmother to a short fight to cancer. One of my star up and coming female German Shepherds puppy was poisoned by some antifreeze and had to be put to sleep...

Of course in life things always happen for a reason and we peon little human beings will never be able to fully comprehend the reason... To paraphrase that slogan, "Life Happens".

Not all of it has been bad, but deaths of loved ones have a way of dimming the rest of life's many blessings...

The new addition to the family will be having his first birthday soon and it is a pure joy to interact with. The older sibling is truly an angel (but don't most parents think that way about their children???).

Also have been updating some of my work skills, by taking evening classes. After succesful completion of the class 6 0f the 8 students qualified by independent testing to get a higher paying job should one come open. So it is nice to have options.

Also I have taken several preparedness related courses http://www.readyfortheworst.com/ (Rawles Gets You Ready of the SurvivalBlog fame). Received some training with Skywarn for learning about spotting severe weather. As you can see I have been very busy...

Later,
ZombieAxe

Ramblings on the best internet website for cool gear you may have never heard of...

I have always loved analog watches and a few months ago, I was in the market for a new watch. My trusty Luminox was having a hard time staying on my wrist due to faulty watch pins and I was growing weary of constant repairs.



I was researching the Marathon T-SAR which is an quartz version of self winding Marathon G-SAR. In my ignorance, I figured that self winding watches were a thing of the past (other than the Seiko Kinetic and Citizen Eco-Drives which are different movements). Like I said it was an ignorant assumption due to lack of knowledge of the watch world. I really liked the T-SAR but the self winding automatic movement of the G-SAR really intrigued me as I had never had one.



For those of you not familiar with the Marathon Watch company they are currently the only TRITIUM illuminated watches issued by the US Government. I really like government issue stuff and this watch is one of the best built watches I have ever had the honor of wearing!



Trying to find out about the G-SAR was a little daunting. I read of its existence on a watch fourm and saw the mention of http://www.countycomm.com/ . I quickly surfed my way over there and found that they had some Marathon G-SARs in stock. I ordered it and in 2 days it had arrived via UPS. Great service and awesome watches!!!



The story might have ended there, but as I was looking around their website, I found out that the watches were the most highest priced things on their website (still the cheapest place for them on the web). As I looked at all County Comm had for sale, I noticed that there were MANY items that I never knew existed and they were very inexpensive. Also some of these items are great for your bug out gear!



I would like to comment on some of my favorites I have purchased:

These little jewels carry 4 AA or 4 CR123A batteries. I purchased the CR123A verisons for my tactical light as it is always nice to carry a few extra Lithiums so you will not be in the dark. Great idea and a good design. IMHO these make the SureFire Spare Carriers obsolete *IF* you carry one of the newer LED lights.

This is a good start for a bug out bag (BOB). Mine is used more for a "Tactical Toolbag". In other words it is a BOB for my weapons and any items that I would use in a self defense situation. Spare mags, batteries, cleaning tools, small survival kit, etc. It has served me very well in this role for some time. Keep the big items in the center and the smaller items in the outer pockets for ready access. Later in another entry I will delve into BOB's.

This has to be one of the best button cell LEDs on the market! Plenty bright enough and with its rotating clip it makes it quite handy. From hat bills, to watch bands to belt loops it stays handy. My nephew took one on a Scouting trip and used it for over a week. Needless to say... I had to buy another for he "forgot to give it back". Kids love them and so do adults!!! It doesn't have the momentary switch like the Photon Micro-light, but instead has a on/off slide switch that is plenty good enough. I mean button cell LEDs are not really supposed to be "tactical" are they??? Momentary is what I want on my tactical flashlight not my button cell LED...



A Zippo lighter is a very reliable lighter, as long as you keep it fueled and dry. The peanut lighter solves most of these problems. It is very compact (under 2 inches) and the fuel does not evaporate.It also seems to be water tight (swimming in the pool for an hour with it on purpose didn't seem to hurt it)! This is a great fire starting option for your BOB as well as your other methods. If you smoke (I don't) it will become your best friend. CC also has other lighters and fire starting options for your BOB as well!!!

Here is a tool kit for your BOB that offer big tool performance in a TINY package! Heck it is handy to carry in your pocket. Carry one in your pocket at Children's Birthday Parties and Christmas (for adding batteries to kid's toys) and you will be a hero. Doesn't take up much room, but is a lifesaver when you need it.



A Widgy Bar is a small prying tool that comes in very handy when you need to pry up molding, pull small nails, pry up the corner of a wood box (think ammo crate). I carry the micro-Widgy on my keychain and have used it several times for small prying jobs. If you work in a field that requires you to use tools, then this will come in handy someday. I don't use mine everyday, but when I do, I am glad I had it with me.

There are many things at County Comm that deserve mention here, but I write this as a primer to see what they have to offer. Some things you may find very handy for your BOB and in my expereince EVERYDAY use! I am in NO way connected with County Comm other than being a very satisfied customer. Now if I could only afford the Marathon C-SAR... 73

Later,
ZA

PS So you don't have to scroll up to the top of the page to get the link here it is again: www.countycomm.com

Ramblings on Fatherhood...

I can remember how I used to not want to be a Father many years ago. I figured it was something that I would screw up and the responsibilty was too great. The concept of marriage didn’t bother me when I married my wife (I look at that as a life long deal) as I knew what I was getting into. But raising a child… now that is something that was SCARY to me…
I tried to delay as long as I could so my wife and I could do some traveling and have fun… but her biological clock was ticking and I was running out of excuses…

It seemed as if we couldn’t have offspring for we tried many different times when I was willing to accept my fate… but after 5 years of trying, in a hotel on Waikkiki Beach that EPT had a plus in the window. Well I was getting excited but quite unsure of how I was gonna become a Father… Then 9 months later out popped the most beautiful little infant in the world. I realized in retrospect that as a child grows, so does the father.

Luckily for us the Almighty doesn’t give us full grown kids, but babies. Both the Father and Mother are infants as well in learning how to cope with their new bundle of joy. As the child grows, so does the parenting if you want to actually do it.

I think the world needs more TRUE Mothers and Fathers, those that put their children’s interest and well being ahead of theirs. Sometimes you don’t want to deal with having to interact with your children, but that attention means more to them than ANYTHING else you can do for them!

Just this week I added (with mostly Mrs. ZA’s and God’s help) another beautiful, perfect child to this planet.

I have come a long way from being that reluctant Dad, but realize that many Fathers to be have the same anxeity and same doubts as to their parenting ability. That seems to me, the way that all Fathers start out, and the ones who truly love their children will grow into some pretty awesome Fathers!!!

God Bless and 73!

Later,
ZombieAxe