Cooking with the Sun

July 10, 2009 by Debbie.

John says he remembers the old saying “Now you’re cooking with gas!” but I don’t. Course we didn’t have natural nor propane gas when we were growing up nor did I know anyone else that did so that’s only natural I wouldn’t have heard the expression before. Same as “a shot in the arm”. First time I heard that I thought the person speaking was referring to drugs and not just a boost - maybe it came from the old time B-12 shots women frequently got.  Regardless, both expressions were unfamiliar to me. Just as unfamiliar as cooking with the sun could be to you so here’s an example of baking with no energy cost.

First is to prepare whatever is to be baked/roasted. In this case, it’s a Mexican casserole for our supper.  Notice that it’s in a dark pan that will hold and not reflect the heat.

I set the oven up on this cabinet to keep the nosy dogs from burning their noses on it, sniffing at our supper, wanting to share, “please, huh, mom, please, just a bite? ouch! it bit me!” This is also an area protected from the wind which will deflect a lot of the heat when it bounces the reflector panels around. Closed, the sun oven is easy to haul around; some people even take it in the car/truck for picnics.

I usually let the oven preheat without the food in it. The temps will go to 300+ during the hottest part of the day so I usually bake 1:00-3:00 while the sun is at it’s Texas fiercest.

You can see how neatly the panels fold away so the food can be placed in the oven. Just be careful to not blind yourself with the panels reflecting the sun light while folding them away.

Since I forgot to take a picture of the final product you will have to take my word for it being delicous, hot through with melted and not scorched cheese on top. That’s one of the best things about the sun oven, food doesn’t burn.

If you want to make your own sun oven, it’s cheap and easy using a cardboard box and roll of heavy duty foil. Google sun ovens and you’ll find a wealth of info as well as some great recipes. Sun ovens work in the North, too, but somehow it seems to well justify the sun and high temps here in Texas for me!

Snake update - #7 got his head blown off by John (my hero) last weekend or so. I had a friend who said her snake went up a tree……… well, dummy me, I thought that would be neat to see so I asked God about seeing it ’sometime’. It is neat but it’s even neater to see John shoot it’s head off as it slithers overhead in the branches. Yes, it was full of eggs. I thought it had swallowed one of my ceramic eggs so we had to cut it open to get it out. Wish I’d thought to skin it and try it’s meat out for the dogs. Don’t ever play with prayer. It works.

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