Solar Cooking Principle #1- poster

I offer this poster free for anyone who wants to teach solar cooking to others. The graphics are very simple, so I don't mind if you would like to use this as a template and create your own poster.
I do ask that you keep my copyright statement on the page, if you use this poster.

SAMFA Eco Fair 2008 - conclusion

We had a wonderful turn out for this fair; and to my delight, there were lots of folks who had already heard of solar cooking, but they didn't have enough information to seriously consider doing this on a full scale.

I had several Girl Scout leaders who were so excited to see this in such a large operation, or some had seen this done at training seminars but in really small cookers. All the scout leaders were already planning how to incorporate this into their meetings. Some of the leaders were even considering having me come to do seminars for them.

Several home school families were there and thrilled with the science that could be taught from the soda bottle pasteurization unit. One 10 year old boy had already tried to build a solar oven, but did not achieve the temperatures he knew should be there... so I talked to him and his parents on ways to improve his cookers and ovens.

Of course, there were folks who were stunned at the notion, and amazed at the fact I saved between $50-$75 a month off my electric bill this summer just by cooking outside.

Yes, it was a truly wonderful day, and I had a great time. I will do this again next year at the Eco Fair, and any other opportunity I get.

SAMFA Eco Fair 2008 part 2

I cooked my lunch (left over calzone from eating out the night before) in the roaster oven. It is behind the twin steel bowls, so you can't see it in this photo.

I just had water or thermometers in all the other cookers, before lunch. Trying to carry a bunch of food and then carry that hot food home was not something I wanted to do that day.

After lunch, I did cook half strips of bacon in the roaster oven and the twin steel bowls. That was a big hit! The Roaster oven stayed between 225F and 250F, so the bacon would get done in 15-20 minutes. The roaster kept its heat even with my opening it every 20 minutes to pull cooked bacon out and put new in. Oh, I used camping plates for the cooking vessel in these cookers.

Unfortunately, they had me at the top of a slope, so my cookers were not level, and I was too distracted to take this into account. The Cookit variation didn't get the water hot until after lunch, when normally this takes only 90 minutes to get 3 liters of fluids to 150F. Towards the end of the day, it got that 3 liters of water almost to boiling.

The little panel cooker in the front of this photo is based on David Delaney's soda bottle water pasteurizer. Instead of a soda can, I used what I had on hand... a small bottle that contained Starbucks Frappacino, inside a thin cotton black sock. That worked beautifully! The top of the glass bottle was nestled inside the top of the soda bottle, so that I could remove the lid from the 2 liter bottle, pop a thermometer in to measure the temp of the water in the glass bottle, and not loose a lot of heat. This worked so well, that I might consider working with this more to create a water distillation type of unit. (Our city water contains half a ton of minerals, calcium, and salts that my body does not like. I drink lots of distilled or purified bottled water.)

What surprised me was the windshield shade funnel on its side... that kept 8 oz of water (in a camping cup) right at 200F for most of the day! Yes, that isn't much water, but needless to say... I will be using this more at home! It did tip over several times on the grass, so eventually, I set it on the 4 wheel dolly and that worked great. This cooker worked perfect on the slope, so now I know to secure it to a supporting board and lift the end of the board up to mimic the incline of the slope of the hill at the art museum. At 31degrees latitude, this works better laying down, where it works better sitting up like a funnel/cone at other latitudes.

I kept a camping cup of coffee on the table under a glass lid, and this kept the coffee hot for as long as it took to drink it!

SAMFA Eco Fair 2008

Saturday was the 2nd annual San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts Eco Fair and Family Fun Day.

I was there to promote Solar Cooking and the class I would be hosting the next weekend through Angelo State University's Continuing Studies Division.

The day was absolutely perfect! Clear skies, nice and cool (below 80F) until late in the afternoon.

I took these cookers with me:
My twin steel bowls with windshield shade
My shiny roaster oven with windshield shade
A third windshield shade shaped into a funnel, but set on its side
A CooKit variation made from 2 Pecan Sandies case boxes
A small box corner panel cooker with David Delaney's Soda Bottle water pasturizer

As an afterthought, my husband sent his 'Bass Fish' Thermometer with me... that is on the 4 wheel dolly in the back ground (top left corner).

The 'sandwich' sign stand had my posters on the 3 basic principles of Solar Cooking (you can find these in other posts) and a collection of photographs of different types of cookers.

I was busy talking to folks, so I only got pictures at the beginning of the day, before anyone was there.

Another Glorious Day!

I put the oven out at 1pm to heat up.

30 minutes later, I put in a new recipe: Whole Wheat & Wheat Germ Orange Cranberry coffee cake.

After it had been in the oven 1 hour, I turned the pan around, so that the front would get browning from the reflector.

At 4 pm, I snapped this shot and pulled it out.

Yes, it seems over done, but with the whole wheat flour and raw wheat germ, the recipe needed to cook longer to toast these ingredients.

Yes, it was quite yummy.

OH, and I am having much better luck with batter recipes, if I use parchment paper, instead of cooking spray, to prevent sticking.

Frozen to simmering in 2.5 hours

I've been fighting migraines for over a week now, and haven't felt like cooking much. Between the pharmacy switching one of my meds to a different generic and the hurricanes and cold fronts blowing through... I've been a zombie for a week.

I bought some frozen dinners this week, just to have some instant food in the house, when I don't have energy to actually cook. Today was absolutely perfect for solar cooking... no wind, no clouds, a very comfortable mid 80's air temp.

At 1: 30pm I put my roaster oven in the sun to heat; 30 minutes later, I got my food ready.

I grabbed my new Stansport Black Granite bowl (a bit of a disappointment, since it only holds one quart). Dumped a frozen Marie Calendar's Chicken Pot Pie into the bowl, put a glass lid on it and put that into the roaster oven. I readjusted the oven a couple of time through the cooking stage... the oven topped at almost 300F.

At 4pm, the roaster lid was completely covered in condensation, so I pulled the lid off and wiped it down; checked the inter temp of the pie (200 and simmering). I left the lid to the bowl off, and put it all back into the sun for a while to let the crust get crispy... I may have waited too long for that, but it looks beautiful!

OH, removing the roaster lid, dropped the interior temp by 50 degrees... gotta learn to not do that very much.

Added the next day: I left the pie in there for about 30 minutes longer, without the lid on the pot. The soft and gooey crust got beautifully crisp in that short time.

Yes, I will do this again! Effortless meals are a blessing when you don't feel like cooking.

Rainy Day Blahs and Future Plans

With the hurricanes in the gulf, we've had a very mild summer... for us, that is.

Instead of having 45 days straight of triple digit temperatures, we've had only a handful... which makes for a pleasant summer, but not so good for solar cooking. Maybe I should have taken this up (for the second time) sooner!

The news I have for now is that I will be offering a class on solar cooking through our local university's continuing education department.

And I will be doing demos at our local Eco Fair in October.

I am still waiting on a Stansport 8" granite/enamel bowl... since the retailer didn't have three in stock. I'll keep everyone posted on how well this works... as soon as I receive it.