Category — Solar Cooking

Ah, Michigan! Land of lakes and surprises! Just when we thought it was safe to start thinking about of digging and planting, whammo!

Snow Day April 6, 2008

The upside is that we got a Snow Day from school. We spent the day resting and recharging, and that felt very good. The gift of a day off is always something for which to be thankful.

The last snow of the season seems to catch everyone by surprise, but we know it’s coming. When our son Will was just a baby, a friend with the same birthday told us that it always snows at least once after their birthday, which is April 4. It seemed impossible, yet 23 years have proven her statement: In Michigan at least, it always does snow at least once after April 4. The snow doesn’t always stick and very rarely does it merit a snow day, but snow is snow. And it’s here for just a little longer.

A “green” study group formed at our church last year, initially as a book study group. They have now transitioned into a group that meets monthly for a potluck and discussion. We’ve always missed the meetings for one reason or another, but today we decided to show up. The dish we planned to pass is a scaled up version of the Solar Apple Crisp. Scaling up a recipe for a solar oven still involves a lot of guesswork — for us, at least — because it tinkers with the important ratio of surface area to mass. The glory of solar cooking in a box style oven is that you really can’t over-cook many foods because the temperatures don’t get high enough to scorch — at least not in Michigan. Friends who’ve built parabolic style cookers, however, say they can easily burn food on one side before it’s cooked all the way through.

This version of Solar Apple Crisp stars a small cast of ingredients:

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Maybe energy costs are driving you to desperate measures. Maybe you’ve read some of our solar recipe reviews here, and now your stomach is rumbling. Maybe you are just the adventurous type. Whatever your motivation, you can quite easily assemble a simple solar cooker that will allow you to solar cook right away (or as soon as the sun is up).

To make your own windshield shade funnel solar cooker, you will need:

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Today was a gloriously sunny day so decided to “fire up” the ol’ box-style solar cooker while we worked around the garden.

The first round was a batch of “Solar Granola Bars” and a broccoli cheese “Solar Soufflée.” This first round cooked in roughly 3 hours (11:30 – 2:30) Janice has posted the recipe for the Granola Bars elsewhere on the site — and frankly, I think they taste a bit too good to be saddled with such a depressingly healthy name. To me, they’re some kind of brownie. The soufflée contains three eggs whipped with a bit of shredded cheese and some chopped up broccoli leftover from dinner last night. This batch also had a generous addition of fresh garlic. Coat the cooking vessel with something to keep it from sticking (a spray of Pam, a bit of olive oil, butter…) The great thing about solar eggs is that they fluff as they cook so their texture is quite wonderful.

As we were eating our eggs, our daughter tasted them and wanted some for herself so she made another batch. Since the cooker was going to be tended, I quartered a couple potatoes and halved two small onions and drizzled them with oil. These “Solar Roasted” vegetables will be a great start on hash browns for tomorrow. The really nice thing about the box cooker I built is its capacity. We could have easily had another pot in there.

It’s supposed to nice most of the weekend. I wonder what we’ll make tomorrow.

One of the occupational hazards of solar cooking in Michigan is the weather. We really can’t count on sun every day. Nor can we depend on the brightly shining morning sun to stick around for the afternoon.

The other day, I prepared my so-easy-it-makes-you-blush Salsa Chicken. This dish consists of Salsa and Chicken. First I place the chicken in the round black pan. Then I add enough salsa or a can of tomatoes with green chilies to cover it. Put the lid on. Voila! That’s it. Into the solar cooker with the pan.

A half an hour later, the sun disappeared behind some substantial clouds, where I guessed it planned to spend the rest of the day. Potatoes, onions, garlic– I could have left in the cooker to eek out whatever rays they might capture. Raw chicken, I knew however, would not fair so well. So the chicken went into the refrigerator until closer to dinnertime. I then poached the chicken– not my favorite way to cook chicken, but a pretty good save under the circumstances.

The episode reminded me that, for me, solar cooking is an adventure, not a complete necessity. The almost invisible appliances of our kitchen are easy to take for granted. Having to resort to using the stove didn’t mean less fuel for heating or cooking over a fire because of a power shortage. Solar cooking is one option for us.