Solar Cooked Pot O' Beans

Both yesterday and today I had to leave home early. Both days I woke up to gray skies. The forecast for both days was rain. Yesterday I chose to believe that forecast and left home without putting anything in the Sun Oven. But this is Arizona and by 9 a.m. there wasn't a cloud in sight, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. By the time I got home I had missed my solar cooking window of opportunity. Clouds were starting to roll in and by evening we had heavy showers.

Today I chose to go a different route. Once again I had to leave home early and, unlike yesterday, I wouldn't be home until late afternoon. I didn't want to put a lot of work into something that might just sit in a cold Sun Oven all day, and I really didn't want to risk something like meat that might spoil. I figured beans were my best bet. Even if it did stay cloudy all day I could still cook them on the stove when I got home and if the sun did come out I could use the cooked beans to make some soup. In the end we had another typical sunny Arizona day - the forecast still says it's going to rain - and I came home to a perfectly cooked pot of beans.