Winter Cooking

Yesterday was very cold but mostly sunny with mid day high temp at 23 degrees. I set my oven out at 9a.m. when the temperature was only 9 degrees F. My oven reached 300 degrees even in the cold. I cooked a pot of beans for supper. I had presoaked them, then I cheated a little and brought them up to boiling before putting them in the oven. I took off and went shopping for a time and let them just cook. They were cooked by later afternoon, I then added seasonings and let them cook some more (in the house since it was too late in the day for any more sun). *See recipe below. (All ingredients from my food storage.) You can use any dried (or canned, if in a hurry) beans. I used a mixture of 1/2 c. each of Red Kidney, Black, Pink, and Pinto beans. We liked the mixture.

The colder temperature, along with the boiling liquid in the pot, created quite a bit of condensation on the oven glass. To cure that, I just ventilated it a bit by placing a Popsicle stick between the glass and the rubber gasket. This probably takes a little bit of the heat out of the oven, but not nearly as much as the fog on the window blocking the sun out.

Simply Delicious Beans
5 c. soaked, cooked beans, drained. (About 2 c. dried)
2-3 c. water
2 T. dried onion
1 1/2 t. beef bullion
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. ground cumin
1/8 t. pepper
Pinch of ground ginger
Pinch of garlic powder

Combine all ingredients; bring to a boil. Simmer, covered 20-30 minutes. Serves 4-5
Variation 1: Add carrots or any other vegetable. If dehydrated, add additional water to rehydrate.
Variation 2: Add 1 t. honey and 1 c. salsa. Serve over rice.
*Recipe from the book "Emergency Food in a Nutshell"

Note: Soak beans (3 c. water to 1 c. beans) over night. Drain, add fresh water for cooking. OR: Bring water and beans to boil. Boil 2 min. then turn off. Soak for 2 hours. Cook in fresh water. Discarding soaking and cooking water helps to reduce the gas digesting beans causes. Eating them with rice makes a complete protein and helps with the gas also.

SUN OVEN Cooking Indoors

Some folks have asked whether you can use the SUN OVEN indoors or not. Well, here is your answer! Yes, it does work. Not as well as outside, but it works.

I have a South facing picture window in my living room. This time of year we get lots of sun coming through the window, so I decided to try it out. I set up one oven outside and one oven inside to compare. My front window has 2 panes of glass, plus a storm window with 2 panes of glass, some of which I believe is low-E.

The results? Even though the outside temperature was cold (around 40 degrees), the outside oven heated up faster and hotter than the one inside. I got about 300 degrees outside compared to 250-270 degrees inside. Not bad indoors, still hot enough for a slow cook. I put some cookies in and they cooked fine. It took them longer (almost twice as long) at the lower temperature.

Another good option: My garage also faces South. When I open up the garage door, I get about 6-8 feet of sunshine on the garage floor. I moved the car and set the oven up in the garage. This works well to protect the oven if the wind is blowing some outside.

Try your oven out for winter cooking. I'm finding things take a little longer because; (1) the sun is furthur away in the winter (make sure you adjust the leg all the way up to tilt the oven as the sun is also lower on the horizon), (2) there seems to be more haze in the atmosphere especially if we are experiencing an inversion.

Also the day is much shorter so plan carefully to get your food cooked before you lose the sun.

At the Fair

Fourth day of the fair. Had some clouds all day which eliminated any cooking. A little rain later in the day. Traffic was slower today.

Good Time at the Fair

Having a great time at the fair! The Sun Oven population continues to grow. I've met lots of wonderful people from inside and outside the great state of Utah. Hi to you all. Thanks for visiting my booth and welcome to my blog. Keep cooking, the sun's energy is free and totally green. Gotta go for another great fair day.

Meet Me At The Fair

I will be at the Utah State Fair Sept. 10th to the 14th with The Homeland Security's "Be Ready Utah" group. September is national preparedness month. Come check it out. (The fair runs through the 20th, so make sure you come early or you will miss us.)

Cooking, Cooking, Cooking

The beginning of June I challenged myself to use my Sun Oven and cook something every day we had sufficient sun. Since then we have only had three days where the weather was cloudy or rainy with not enough sun to cook. Some days started out cloudy and wet, but cleared enough to bring out the oven. Some days I was only able to cook a little, some days more. I've cooked everything from Turkey Dinner to cookies; baked potatoes and hard-cooked eggs for potato salad, rhubarb pie, batches of zucchini bread, casseroles, and warming up the leftovers. I even bottled apricots and tomatoes then sun dried some zucchini, kiwi, pineapple, tomatoes, and mushrooms.

Part of my goal was to not use my house oven at all during the summer. I have only had to turn it on once when I was baking pizza outside and we lost the sun. My pizza was only half baked and could not finish, so I had to bring it inside to finish it up. My kitchen has stayed cool this summer which has saved on our cooling bill. That's a good thing.

History

About three years ago I started investigating using the sun for outdoor cooking, mostly as an emergency source. I made my first solar oven using a Styrofoam cooler and aluminum foil. I placed a black cookie pan in the bottom and covered it with a piece of glass. It worked. I was able to bake potatoes and cook a roast in slow time.

I knew my primitive little cooker could be greatly improved upon, as it had some definite limitations. As I continued to gather information, I came across the Global Sun Oven. I was intrigued and eventually bought one. And I am glad I did! This little wonder has proven to be all it claims to be. I have had a blast cooking all kinds of things. Now it's to the point where if on a sunny day I don't have my oven out and cooking something, I feel like I am wasting the sun energy. That's the conservationist side of me.