Super Easy Solar Pasta Fagioli

If you can find two tall, skinny, light weight, dark, metal pots that fit side by side in the Sun Oven snatch them up. I find this much more practical than stacking two pots when you want to cook two things at the same time. I found mine in a thrift store so unfortunately I cannot steer you to a place to purchase them.

Pasta e fagioli is a perfect example of a dish where side by side cookware comes in handy. One pot contains half a pound of mayocoba beans that were soaked overnight, drained, and put in one pot with enough water to cover them by about two inches. In the second pot is olive oil, a finely chopped onion, two finely chopped carrots, two stalks of celery also finely chopped, a minced clove, a garlic, one tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary, salt and a can of petite diced tomatoes.

I had a busy day today so I left the two pots simmering away in the Sun Oven while I went about my business. When I got home around three the beans were fully and the tomato base were fully cooked. I combined everything, including the bean's cooking liquid, into one large pot and put it back in the Sun Oven.

Now I had a dilemma. Do I finish the soup now or wait until after sundown and complete the soup on the stove? For a meal that was entirely solar cooked I'd have to puree some of the beans and add the pasta while the sun was still shining. That would have worked if we were planning on an early dinner but we still had quite a few things to do before we would eat. Cooking the pasta now to eat later was out of the question because it would have been soggy by the time we were ready to dine.

Of course I went for the better tasting option. When we were ready for dinner I pureed about two cups of the bean and vegetable mixture, returned it to the pot and brought everything to a boil - on the indoor electric stove. When the soup was boiling I added about one and a half cups of shell shaped pasta and cooked it for the time indicated on the package. When the pasta was ready, I removed the soup from the heat and seasoned it with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, chopped rosemary, freshly grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.

That's all we had for dinner - well that and a glass of wine - and we ate all of it.

Solar Baked Milk Bread

Today was a bread day. Partly because we needed bread and partly because I haven't baked any in a while. I was in the mood for white bread, not the 100% whole wheat I usually bake. Yeah, I know, whole wheat is healthier, but you can't always be 100% healthy and most of my family prefers white bread. I used a recipe from my bread machine book by Jennie Shapter. It's a milk bread. I chose this recipe because we accidently opened two cartons of milk yesterday. The only thing we normally use milk for is coffee, so one of the cartons would have gone off before we could finish it.

As usual with solar baked bread, is was delicious. Even though we had just had lunch when I took it out of the Sun Oven we immediately devoured almost half a loaf. Hopefully we'll have enough left over to make meatloaf sandwiches to bring with us when we go volunteer at the Humane Society tomorrow.

Solar Meatloaf with Mixed Veggies

Fortunately accuweather.com isn't always right. Contrary to their forecast, yesterday afternoon was sunny and today there were no showers. That meant I could make my meatloaf and avoid freezing the ground beef I had in the fridge. I no longer follow a recipe for meatloaf. I just use whatever I have on hand. To make it less calorific I always try to mix in as many vegetables as possible. Today I used a mixture of onions, carrots, zucchini, and mushrooms. After sauteing the shredded veggies in a frying pan with some olive oil, I allowed them to cool before mixing them with one pound of ground beef, a slightly beaten egg, and a slice of bread soaked in milk. For seasoning I used dried basil, mustard powder, salt, and pepper. I always line the roasting pan with a strip of tin foil; it makes it much easier to remove the loaf when it's done.

Solar Eggs Sunny Side Up

After checking the hourly forecast on accuweather.com this morning - it's usually right - I decided against the meatloaf I was planning to make today. It was already a little overcast and was supposed to get worse as the day went on. Instead of taking a day off from solar cooking I took advantage of the few hours of available sun to make some breakfast for Martin.

The sun is not my preferred method for preparing eggs, unless it's at the Annual Oatman, AZ Sidewalk Egg Fry Contest. It's too hard to get them right, it seems they always come out with the yolks overcooked, probably because of the even heat in the Sun Oven's insulated cooking chamber. Also, it takes a lot longer then cooking them in a frying pan. I don't mind the additional twenty minutes it takes to solar cook things with naturally long cooking times, like meats or stews, but with eggs it's just not very practical. I tried to speed things up, without much luck, by preheating the pan. Unfortunately this morning's sun wasn't quite strong enough. The Sun Oven's temperature hovered around 200ºf. It took almost half an hour to the cook two eggs with prosciutto and the yolks were overdone. Oh well, Martin was happy to wake up to a hot breakfast. He gets up later than me and is in charge of his own morning meal which usually consists of coffee and toast.

Solar Dinner with a Side of Sadness

Just before I left for San Diego our foster kitties came down with the sniffles. Upper respiratory infections are all too common in shelter cats. Adult cats recover quickly with a round of antibiotics, but for a ten day old kitten it's a serious matter. While I was away the kitten stopped nursing. Martin had to feed him with an eye dropper. I took over when I got back on Sunday evening, getting up every two hours to feed the little guy.

Needless to say I was exhausted on Monday. It was a less than ideal day for solar cooking. The sky was overcast but enough sun was getting through to cast a good shadow. I didn't have the energy to go to the market. I had a butternut squash in the fridge. I cut it in half, drizzled it with some olive oil, and put it in a covered roasting pan with a little water. I figured I'd mash it up and serve it with whatever I decided to make for dinner. In the meantime I continued feeding the ailing kitten every two hours. Come dinnertime I had no desire to prepare anything to go with the squash. Martin went to Trader Joe's to pick up a couple of frozen pizzas.

This morning, after another night of getting up every two hours to care for the kitten, it was obvious that he was not doing well. We brought him to the Humane Society clinic where our fears were confirmed. It was time to let him go.

Somehow I managed to muster up the energy to get a chicken going in the Sun Oven. On days like these getting any solar cooking done is daunting enough, coming up with a new recipe is pretty much out of the question. Thankfully I can turn to the tried and true "Chicken with Two Lemons". Combined with a risotto made with yesterday's butternut squash it made a decent meal. A perfect meal would have required some kind of green vegetable and a glass of wine, but it would have been close to impossible to enjoy a perfect meal today.

R.I.P. sweet kitten

A Double Batch of Solar Split Pea Soup

We're having yesterday's solar braised lamb shanks for dinner tonight so today's solar cooking project will also be consumed at a later date. Martin will be fending for himself the next few days. I'm going to San Diego for a weekend with my favorite fitness instructor, Cathe Fiedrich. The last time I went to one of her events I left Martin with three days worth of meals ready to put in the Sun Oven so I wouldn't miss any days of my blog. That was way too much work. Since then I've decided that if I'm out of town the blog goes on hiatus. Luckily Martin (unlike me) doesn't mind eating the same thing, two, or even three, days in a row. With this nice pot of solar cooked split pea soup and a few pizzas in the freezer he should be o.k. until I get back on Sunday.

Once again I used my six quart black enamel pot. To fit it in the Sun Oven you have to remove the leveling tray and place a rack or a trivet on the floor of the cooking chamber to allow for air flow.

Luscious Solar Braised Lamb Shanks

When I started experimenting with solar cooking a few years ago I found it a little annoying that I had to invest in new cookware. I'd spent years accumulating a rather impressive collection of high quality cast iron pots and pans. Like many, I thought that they were not suitable for solar cooking. You can imagine how delighted I was to discover that they can in fact be used with a Sun Oven.

Today's dish started indoors in the dutch oven. I sliced an onion and sauteed it in some olive oil until it began it was golden. Then I stirred in about a tablespoon of chopped, fresh rosemary and two cloves of chopped garlic.  In the meantime I browned the lamb shanks, which I'd seasoned with salt and pepper, and coated in flour, in a separate pan. When they were browned I transfered them to a plate and poured about half a cup of dry red wine in the pan, brought it to a boil, stirring to loosen any brown bits. I added that to the onions in the dutch oven. Then I added about a cup of beef broth, a bay leaf, and the lamb shanks. At this point I transfered the covered dutch oven to the Sun Oven.

For the rest of the day I went about my business while the lamb shanks slowly braised to perfection. By mid afternoon they were fall off the bone tender. Unfortunately I'll have to wait until tomorrow to taste them. It's Martin's night out and it was too nice of a meal to eat alone.

Solar Vegetarian Chili Goes Wild

Today I made a big pot of sweet potato chili. I started with the beans. After soaking them overnight I put them in the Sun Oven first thing in the morning. While they were cooking I chopped the onion and sweet potato. I'd guess it was about half a pound of beans. When they were ready the bean-to-sweet potato ratio seemed a little off, so I decided to use two sweet potatoes. That meant I needed to use two cans of stewed tomatoes. Now I needed a bigger pot. A six quart pot is about the biggest you can fit in a Sun Oven and to do so you need to remove the leveling tray. Anytime you cook without the leveling tray you need to put something on the floor of the oven chamber to allow for air flow, a trivet or something like that.

Tomorrow I'll be out all day and the forecast is for thick cloud cover. I guess there won't be any more solar cooking going on until Wednesday.

Solar Baked Banana Coconut Muffins for Breakfast

I finally got to sleep in this morning. When I woke up I was in the mood for something special for breakfast. Before getting out of bed I used the epicurious app on my iPod touch to look for a recipe. I wanted to make some kind of baked french toast but quickly realized I didn't have the right ingredients on hand. I did have two over ripe bananas. It came down to a toss up between these Banana Coconut Muffins and Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins. Much as I love chocolate I decided to go with the healthier option. I also only used 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup canned pumpkin instead of the 1/2 butter the recipe called for. Once again I tried to pay attention to the baking time. They were ready in under an hour, I'd say about 45 minutes.

Two Days of Solar Cooking - One Blog Entry.

Once again I was too tired post an update yesterday. I had a very busy day. I taught my first two, yes two, solar cooking classes in one day. I was very nervous beforehand, in fact, when Brent (the owner of the store where the classes were held) considered canceling it due to rain forecast, I was almost relieved. Luckily he didn't. The weather cleared up and both classes went very well. We had two Sun Ovens set up, one with rice and beans and the other with the most amazing 16 grain bread made by Kristi. If you live in the Phoenix metro area, I highly recommend you check out Brent and Kristi's store, FoodWise. It's located at 395 E. Warner in Chandler. Kristi holds weekly cooking and bread baking classes that are free. I will definitely be attending some of them in the near future. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so I don't have any pictures of my big day. Also, despite spending the entire afternoon solar baking bread and solar cooking beans and rice, I had nothing prepared for dinner. Matin and I went to one of our favorite local spots, Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert. By the time we got home I was exhausted.

Today I wasn't feeling very creative. We got up early to go to yard sales and by mid morning I still hadn't decided what to put in the Sun Oven. For inspiration we stopped at Trader Joe's on our way home. I found a ready to cook turkey breast with cranberry stuffing. Perfect, all I had to do was take it out of the packaging a stick in the Sun Oven, in a pot of course.

The instructions said to bake in a 350ºF oven for 20 - 30 minutes per pound. The thing about solar cooking times is that they depend a lot on the type of pot used, the quality of the sun, and how often you refocus the Sun Oven. The other thing is cooking times don't really matter. Since the food won't overcook or burn it's almost impossible to ruin it. But since I'd done nothing more than take the turkey out of the package I figured the least I could do was pay attention to the cooking time. It weighed 2.5lb. I put it in the Sun Oven at 11:45. I remembered to use my probe thermometer and at 1:15 it had reached 180ºF. It was ready.

I'm generally not very fond of these types of convenience foods. Somehow the flavors are never quite right and this was no exception. The stuffing was just so so and the meat was a little dry. I actually think it might have been better if I'd have cooked it at a lower heat with some kind of liquid, like white wine, for additional flavor. In any case, I was starving so I was happy to have it for lunch.

Sun Oven Chicken, Rice, and Turnip

Yesterday's corned beef was a big success. It was noticeably moister than the non solar cooked one my cousin made. I'm almost sorry there weren't any leftovers for Reuben Sandwiches.

Today's solar cooking project couldn't have been easier. I made chicken thighs on a bed of brown rice and turnips. Martin prefers chicken cooked on its own, but he wasn't home for dinner tonight and I like the convenience of a one pot meal. I didn't even make anything green to go with it.

Here's the recipe.

1 cup brown rice
1 cup water
1 turnip, peeled and cut into cubes
6 chicken thighs
Salt
Pepper

Put rice, water, and turnip into the pot. Trim excess fat from the chicken thighs and place on top of rice. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and place pot in the preheated Sun Oven. Cooking time will vary depending on the quality of the sun, how often you refocus the Sun Oven, and the type of pot used. Mine was ready in just under two hours.

Solar St. Patrick's Day

One thing I like about holidays is that there is generally some kind of traditional food associated with them. That makes it easy do decide what to cook in the Sun Oven. Unfortunately, I'm not crazy about many of those foods. Corned beef is no exception. Luckily it's only once a year and I'm sure there will be plenty of other things to eat at my cousin's place. She invited us over, in fact, she even supplied the corned beef. For some unknown reason she had it in her car when she was here on Sunday. I know I'll be tired when we get home so I'm updating my blog early.

I pretty much followed the instructions on the package for roasting it. I know, not very creative. All I did was take it out of the plastic, put it in a covered black roasting pan, sprinkle the seasoning package over it, and put it in the Sun Oven. I didn't bother wrapping it in foil as the instructions stated. If I make another one next year, and I probably will - I'm a sucker for tradition - I'll try to remember to put it fat side up. The top layer looks a little dry.

Focaccia in the Sun

Sunday was the first time we'd ever invited so many people to our house. I am not used to planning a menu for such a large crowd and wound up with a lot of extra food. Who knew that when you are offering a wide variety of choices you don't need a full dinner sized portion of each dish for every person? For appetizers I made four pizzas and still had enough dough left over to make these three focaccia today.

I kept things very simple, seasoning them with just kosher salt and olive oil. The sun was out in full force and they browned nicely. Focaccia gets stale pretty quickly so I froze most of it. Now I have to figure out what to do with all the other leftovers - and tomorrow we are going to my cousin's place for St. Patrick's day where there will be even more food.

Post Pi Day Pasta and Split Pea Soup from the Sun Oven

Our Pi Day get together was a success. We had enough food to feed an army and I forgot to take a picture of it. When everyone had gone home I was also too tired to update my blog. The solar cooked dishes were the two panfortes, the blueberry pie, and pulled pork that I made in the Sun Oven yesterday. That was only the beginning of the feast. Pretty much everyone brought a dish, most of which fit the Pi theme. We had two banquet tables covered in food. Needless to say, preparing more food was the last thing I wanted to do when I got up this morning. Somehow I managed to get a pot of split pea soup going. Not very exciting, pretty much my go to dish on days like today. I really wanted to make something new to blog about, but I didn't have the energy to come up with anything. 

Well, today was my lucky day. Right about the time I was taking the soup out of the Sun Oven I got a call from April. We were introduced to each other by Paul Munsen of Sun Ovens International. She is about to launch a Sun Oven rental business that sounds very promising. In the course of our conversation she told my how she cooks pasta in a Sun Oven, something I thought could not be done. Here's how she does it, just take equal parts of water and pasta and a little oil, put everything in a  dark lightweight pot and in no time you'll have pasta "al dente". I was amazed at the results. I didn't have any sauce on hand and no desire to make any so we ate it with butter and parmesan cheese. 

Pie for Pi Day

Tomorrow is March 14. Also known as Pi Day. I'm not really that much into math, but I'll take any excuse I can find to eat pie. This year I'm even getting my friends in on the action. We'll be celebrating at our house with this solar baked blueberry pie and other goodies. I even made the pie crust from scratch using Martha Stewart's all butter recipe.

I'll admit that for a moment I considered baking it inside. I'd put so much work into it that I didn't want to run any risks. But it was a beautiful sunny morning and the Sun Oven was already up to 350º degrees so I went for it. About two hours later I had a fragrant, golden, steaming hot pie cooling on the window sill. And the best thing about solar baked pie? I don't know about you but whenever I bake pie the filling always bubbles over making a terrible mess in the oven. Well today was no exception, the only difference, the Sun Oven is so easy to clean Martin took care of it!

More Panforte for Pi Day

Yes, another panforte. It was supposed to be for our upcoming Pi Day party this Sunday. As you can see we couldn't wait until then to taste it. It will probably be the last one for a while. Candied fruit, one of the key ingredients, is seasonal. Even the one local supermarket that carried it year round no longer does so. That's the bad news. The good news they had some in clearance for only .69¢.

Tomorrow, Sat. March 13th, I will be at a Sun Oven demonstration held by the president of Sun Ovens International, Paul Munsen. The address is Tempe South Stake House, 1111 E. Knox Rd. It starts at 2:30 p.m and is about an hour long. It's in the parking lot; you can't miss it. Stop by and say hello if you're in the neighborhood. They are not selling Sun Ovens there, but Paul can put you in touch with a local dealer if you are interested.

Red Lentil Stew

No new and exciting solar cooking today. I made another pot of curried red lentil stew.  I meant to cook the rice in the Sun Oven too. There was plenty of sunshine and time, but I got sidetracked. The Arizona Humane Society called and asked if I could foster a mother cat and her kitten. By the time I got back from picking them up it was too late for any additional solar cooking.


Mother and kitten are resting nicely. They will both be up for adoption when the little one is big enough.

More Solar Chicken

I chose a good time to send the computer to the shop. It's been cloudy and rainy since Saturday. The sun was back today but who knew how long it would last? That's one reason I chose chicken thighs; they cook up pretty fast.

I was bored with all my usual chicken recipes so it was off the epicurious.com where I found this little gem, Sweet and Sour Chicken Thighs with Carrots. I cut the recipe in half but only made one modification, no water. That just may be rule number one of solar cooking - use less liquid. Well, maybe not rule one, but it's definitely in the top ten. Oh, and I lied about the one modification. I didn't use any parsley or cilantro either. I don't like cilantro and forgot the parsley.

It was ready by 1:00 p.m. so we had it for lunch. All of it. I was hoping there'd be some left over for my dinner - it's Martin's night out - but no such luck.

Solar Short Rib Shepherd's Pie

My computer is going into the shop today for some repairs so this is actually the before picture. The shepherd's pie is currently in the Sun Oven. I don't anticipate any problems. It's another warm, sunny day; perfect for solar cooking.

I usually improvise when making Shepherd's Pie. For today's version I used some left over short rib meat that I had in the freezer. I also usually sautee whatever mixture of vegetables I have on hand. Today I used onions, leeks, carrots, parsnip, and frozen peas. For some additional flavor I add about half a packet of brown gravy mix to the meat and vegetable filling.

I don't know how long my computer is going to be held hostage by the people at Apple. It may be a few days until my next blog update.

Panforte al Cioccolato

Days like today are exactly what Arizona weather is famous for. Clear, warm, and sunny. I could have been solar cooking all day. Instead I made another panforte which was done after only thirty minutes in the Sun Oven. This time I made the variation with chocolate. I know, we haven't even finished the apple cake from Monday and here I am solar baking more sweets. Well, like the first panforte, this one is for a special occasion. We haven't even tasted it yet. I'm hosting my first annual pi day celebration on March 14th and I wanted to get a head start on the preparations. Panforte will stay fresh for weeks if stored properly, but I'll have to hide it if I want it to stay intact that long.

When the panforte was done it seemed a shame to let the remaining hours of sunshine to go to waste. Dinner was already taken care of, I had some red lentil curry in the freezer. All I need was some rice to go with it. There was plenty of time and sun to solar cook that too.

Sun's Back. Time for Cake.

You would think with this crazy weather we've been having I would get moving on a sunny morning like today. But no, for some reason I seem to think that I still live in Arizona, where a sunny morning means a sunny afternoon followed by a sunny week. Because of this silly notion I didn't get anything in the Sun Oven until almost noon. Once again I used a mix. I didn't have another chocolate one - sniff, sniff, - so I went with this "healthier" apple cake from Canterbury Natural's The result was better than Friday's (which wound up in the trash can) but it was touch and go towards the end. With about ten minutes to go the cloud cover started to build . The Sun Oven temperature dropped slightly. Luckily today, unlike on Friday, I was home - ready to transfer everything inside if needed. In the end the Sun Oven came through and we were able to enjoy a nice piece of solar baked cake for our afternoon snack.

Solar Cake Disaster

Rummaging around in my cupboards yesterday I found this snowflake cake pan. Like most of my cookware I got it at a thrift store and like most of my bakeware I rarely use it.

The morning skies were clear. I decided to ignore Accuweather.com's forecast of increasing clouds throughout the day. I wanted to bake a chocolate cake. I thought I could accent the snowflakes with powdered sugar to make a very pretty cake. I had a few early morning errands to run so I got a late start.

Luckily I used a mix. Like I've said many times in this blog I'm not much of a baker. I had everything ready for the Sun Oven by 11:30. The sun was still shining in full force. Fifteen minutes later there was a thin layer of clouds. Nothing too drastic. The Sun Oven temperature had dropped a little but I wasn't worried yet. Over the course of the next few hours the cloud cover slowly increased. By two o'clock it was completely overcast. I'm not sure if I could have salvaged it by transferring it to the indoor oven. The thought didn't even cross my mind. I thought it was at worst just a little under cooked. I was wrong.

Maybe I should submit it to cakewrecks.com.

Eggplant Focaccia and BBQ Pork Ribs

The days are getting longer which means more solar cooking possibilities. Today I had enough time to bake focaccia in the morning before getting some BBQ pork ribs going for dinner. You can't tell by the picture, but this time the focaccia did brown. I remembered to mist the Sun Oven with water. I think that helped.

BBQ ribs are easy. Just toss them in a spice rub and sprinkle a little liquid smoke over them. After a few hours in the Sun Oven they will be fall off the bone tender.

I didn't post yesterday but I did get some solar cooking done despite waking up to an overcast sky. Just before I had to leave for the day the clouds started to break. I figured I could throw some rice and lentils in the Sun Oven to get a head start on dinner. It turned out to be a mostly cloudy day, but there was enough sun to do the job. Only problem was by the time I got home I was tired and not in the mood for boring old rice and lentils. I put everything in the fridge and made myself a nice bowl of pasta.

Solar Baked "Pane Sciocco"

I woke up to clear skies and no bread. If I hurried I could have some freshly baked bread in time for lunch. I hauled the bread machine out of the pantry and got started. I showered and had breakfast while it was busy making the dough. Around noon I took two beautiful golden loaves out of the Sun Oven. As usual I could not resist cutting myself a slice and slathering it with butter. I bit into it and immediately realized I had forgot the salt. That's the last time I try to do any baking before my morning coffee.

Needless to say it was pretty bland, but all was not lost. True Tuscan bread, known as "pane sciocco" bread is made without salt. Because of that many Tuscan dishes are very salty. Saltless Tuscan bread is perfect for making "pane condito" (seasoned bread). It's easy to make. Just rub some sliced bread (day old is even better) with a clove of garlic and some tomatoes cut in half. Chop up a few more tomatoes and spread them out over the slices. Drizzle olive oil over everything. Dust with oregano and SALT! Let it sit for at least thirty minutes and enjoy.

Solar Salmon Loaf

Once again I was a little hesitant to do any solar cooking today. The morning sky was partly cloudy and the forecast was for increasing clouds throughout the day. In the end I decided to go for it. Once again, despite the on again off again sunshine, the Sun Oven delivered.

I've been looking for a recipe that uses canned salmon that could be adapted for solar cooking for months. So imagine my excitement when Martin picked up a slow cooker cookbook at a yard sale that included a recipe for salmon loaf. The book, "The Healthy Slow Cooker", is one of the best of it's kind. There are a number of recipes I want to try - unlike most cookbooks that only have one or two enticing dishes. The turkey thighs from a couple of days ago were also inspired by one of its recipes.

On a scale of one to ten I'd give the salmon loaf a seven. It makes an excellent weeknight dinner, but I probably wouldn't serve to guests. I'd also play with the seasoning to personalize it a bit. It's a basic loaf recipe, sauteed onions, celery, and mushroom are seasoned with dried tarragon. Beat three eggs with some lemon juice, add two cans of salmon, bread crumbs, and the vegetable mixture. Form a loaf. Put that in an oval shaped roasting pan lined with aluminum foil. Cover it and place it in the Sun Oven. I served it with tzatziki (store bought), a salad, rice, and a glass of wine.

Solar Bolognese Sauce

I didn't really need to make anything for dinner tonight. It was Martin's boys night out and I had plenty of leftovers in the fridge. Since bolognese sauce, like beef stew, is better the next day I decided to make some for tomorrow's dinner. I planned on heating up the leftovers for my dinner.

The sauce simmered in the Sun Oven all day. Normally, bolognese sauce is cooked at the laziest simmer, uncovered, for at least three hours. I've tried leaving it uncovered in the Sun Oven, but it started to burn. If left covered it was watery. To adapt it to solar cooking I covered it with the lid slightly ajar and put a small knife between the glass door and the gasket of the Sun Oven allowing the steam to escape.

As you can see from the picture, I was unable to wait until tomorrow to have some. Instead of heating up the boring leftovers I made some pasta for my dinner. The only thing missing was a nice glass of wine.

Solar Turkey Thighs

A perfect day for solar cooking. Picked up some turkey thighs at the grocery store yesterday. Cooked them in the Sun Oven today. Enjoyed them for dinner on our patio with some brussels sprouts and a nice loaf of crusty bread from a local bakery.

The recipe is very simple. Just saute some thinly sliced leeks in a heavy cast iron pot with a little olive oil for about five minutes, add a couple cloves of chopped garlic and a sprig of fresh thyme. After a minute or so add a tablespoon of flour. Then a half a cup of white wine. Bring it to a boil, add two skinless, bone-in turkey thighs and transfer the pot to the Sun Oven. A few hours later you'll have fall off the bone tender meat and a nicely flavored sauce. Add a green vegetable, some potatoes, rice, or bread, and you've got dinner.

Solar Roasted Beets

Beets are not one of my favorite vegetables. They're messy and take a long time to cook.  The store bought pre-cooked ones are just so so, and I don't even want to try the canned ones. They just don't seem to be worth all the hassle. But I like to include as wide a selection of vegetables as possible in my diet so every now and then I give them another try. Roasting a few on a day when there's nothing else going on in the Sun Oven may just be the best way to deal with them. The texture and flavor is better than any other beets I've had and the mess was kept to a minimum.

To roast beets in the Sun Oven I wrapped them in tin foil and placed them in a dark enamel pot. I focused the Sun Oven towards the midday sun before leaving for work this morning. When I got home they were fully cooked. After peeling and slicing them I seasoned them with olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. To complete our dinner I made mashed potatoes, and steamed carrots and peas to mix in with the reheated stew I solar cooked on Sunday.

Solar Soup and Sandwich

Just a simple pot of split pea soup today. We had it with grilled cheese sandwiches for a light dinner. Tomorrow is another busy day. I'll be leaving before the sun is up and won't be back until late afternoon. We'll have the beef stew from yesterday for dinner. I'm going to take advantage of the forecasted full day of sunshine to roast some beets.

Solar Cooking on a Busy Day

It seems our days of predictable sunshine are back. As busy as I was today I still managed to get some solar cooking done, even if we didn't eat any of it. This morning I put a pot of beef stew in the Sun Oven before going to volunteer at the Arizona Humane Society. It was cooked to perfection by the time I got home around three. Like most stew it's better the next day, so I put it in the fridge and it was off to my cousin's for dinner. We'll be enjoying it later in the week with some steamed carrots and peas.

The panforte was a great success. I think it may become my signature dessert.

Solar Panforte di Siena

I'm pleased to report that the Sun Oven may just be the perfect vehicle for panforte. I can't believe how easy it is to make. This specialty of Siena is so hard to find in the U.S.  I saw some once at Whole Foods, but it was ridiculously expensive - even by Whole Foods standards. I never thought it would be possible to make at home.

Technically it is not fully solar cooked. A mixture of honey and sugar is brought to a boil and mixed with the other ingredients before baking it at 300ºf. I'm not sure which took longer, bringing the sugars to boil or baking it in the Sun Oven for thirty minutes. In any case, the end result seems to be pretty good. I say seems to be because we haven't tasted it yet. I'm bringing it to dinner at my cousin's place tomorrow.

After reading countless recipes I settled for one that I found at whatscookingamerica.net. I chose it because it didn't use cocoa; I wanted to make the more traditional panforte margherita. Even though I have yet to taste this I'm very excited about the potential of this recipe. By mixing in different nuts, dried fruits, and spices the variations are endless.

If you do make the plunge and decide to make some yourself, keep in mind that it is extremely rich. A tiny bit goes a long way. Luckily, if properly stored, it will stay fresh for weeks.

Return of the Sun Oven

The Sun Oven is back in business. I was home all day today. The sun was shining. We were out of bread. Baking a couple of loaves seemed to be a no brainer. By midday we were enjoying hot, fresh, 100% whole wheat bread - too bad we didn't have any butter. The only downside to solar baked bread is, it's so good that we are almost out of bread again.

The forecast for the rest of the week is very favorable for solar cooking. After scouring the internet for a recipe I plan on making Panforte tomorrow. It's a traditional Italian cake from Siena. I've never made it before, in fact I don't know anyone who has ever made it, but I miss it so much that I'm willing to take a stab at it.

Variable Weather Puts Solar Cooking on Hold

I have to leave home very early almost every day this week. It looks like my next solar cooking day will be Friday. The weather is just too unpredictable to feel confident leaving the Sun Oven unattended. When our normal weather of sun, sun, and more sun returns I will go back to the stick a pot in the Sun Oven and go off for the day style of solar cooking, until then I prefer to only cook on days when I'm around to supervise.

More Indian Stew

Last Monday's red lentil stew was so good I made another batch today. This time I used fresh ginger, I didn't have any on hand last week. The end result was really not that different. Whether you use fresh or ground ginger you wind up with a very tasty, satisfying, vegetarian meal that tastes even better the next day.

This weeks forecast once again predicts partly cloudy skies most days with a chance of rain on Wednesday. I'm learning that it is possible to solar cook even with intervals of no sun, but I like the cloudless days of summer better. This on again off again sun light is starting to drive me a little crazy.

Super Bowl Snacks from the Sun Oven

It was not a very good day for solar cooking. The morning started out nice enough, clear skies with very few clouds on the horizon. I mistakenly thought I could put off cooking the chicken legs until the afternoon so they'd be ready right around kick-off time.

Unfortunately by noon the sky was a patchwork of enormous white clouds on a blue background. The sun came and went throughout the remainder of the day. A couple of times the Sun Oven was in the shade for so long I thought I'd have to switch to the indoor oven. I really didn't want to do that because Sun Oven cooked chicken is just so much better, especially these legs seasoned only with a spice rub and no added fat.

Right around game time it was obvious that the sun was gone for the day. The legs looked like they were cooked but just to be on the safe side I put them under the broiler for a few minutes; where I promptly burnt them. All was not lost, they were still edible if you picked off the blackened bits.

The hummus was made with the fava beans that I solar cooked yesterday. It came out a lot better than the chicken legs.

Get Ready for Some Hummus

It's hard to believe that the weather in Phoenix is still so unpredictable. Before I started this blog I thought we had non stop sunshine almost every day of the year. While it's true that we can go a whole year without needing to wear socks; clouds seem to be as common as sunshine lately. The skies were so uncertain today that the only thing I dared put it the Sun Oven was a batch of dried fava beans. The sun came and went throughout the day, but in the end I wound up with a nice pot of mush. I'll use it to make hummus for super bowl Sunday.

Solar Cooked Chicken

It was an uneventful yet successful solar cooking day. Got up, had breakfast, put a chicken in the Sun Oven, went to work, came home, took perfectly cooked chicken out of the Sun Oven, made some potatoes and greens to go with it, had dinner. If only everything was this easy.

It's my go-to recipe,  Chicken with Two Lemons. This time I also put a few fresh sage leaves under the skin for additional flavor. I didn't really notice a difference.

Solar Baked Focaccia

My first attempt at solar baked focaccia was on Sunday, but by the time the dough had finished rising the sun had vanished only to reappear after I'd baked it inside.

Today's sun was pretty much the same as yesterday's. Not full blast; just enough to get the Sun Oven up to about 250ºF. It took about an hour to fully solar bake the focaccia. I was hoping it would brown. No such luck. It was still good, despite the undercooked appearance.

Solar Cooked Indian Stew

The morning did not start out well as far as solar cooking goes. There was some decent sunshine early on, but I fretted away the time worrying whether or not I'd be called in for jury duty. I had to call at eleven to learn my fate. I was dismissed, as usual. By then I'd pretty much decided to make Curried Red-Lentil Stew with Vegetables; a recipe from epicurious.com. The only problem was the sky was now covered with clouds. They were thin and the sun was still managing to shine through, but I wanted to leave for the afternoon and was afraid the cloud cover would thicken. People often ask me how much sun is needed to use the Sun Oven and I always answer, "As long as there enough sunlight to cast a shadow you can cook with it." There was a shadow so I went for it. I'm glad I did. The stew was delicious.

I made the following changes to the original recipe: I didn't have any fresh ginger so I used ground, increased the red lentils to 1 1/2 cups, used less water,  added a peeled, chopped sweet potato in addition to the carrots, used frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry, left out the cilantro - I don't like it - and added the carrots and sweet potato at the same time as the lentils. To compensate for the less then ideal solar cooking weather I brought it to a boil before placing it in the Sun Oven.

When I'm done with this blog I may not choose unattended solar cooking on a day like today but it is nice to know that it's possible in case of an emergency or if I ever do something crazy, like go camping.

Ciambella, Grandma's Cake Goes Solar

If you read the about me section of this blog you know that I spent my formative years in Italy, where I learned to eat. It wasn't really until I moved back to the U.S. that I taught myself to cook. You'll also know that I am not much of a baker. Most Italians do not do much baking at home. Week night dessert is seldom more than fruit; bread is purchased daily from the local bakery. For special occassions they will purchase pasticcini - incredibly delicious bite sized pasteries - from a pasticceria, one of the few businesses open on Sundays. That said, the unattractive looking thing on the left is a ciambella. Most every Italian mother has a recipe for this simple cake. It's generally served to children for a midday snack or eaten for breakfast with coffee and milk.

The recipe I used is from Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Italian Cooking". I have fond memories being offered slices of ciambella by my friends mothers. Either their recipes were better than Marcella's or I did something wrong. The ingredients are flour, butter, sugar, milk, eggs, lemon peel, and baking powder. The dough had the consistency of pie crust and the finished product is something like a soft biscotti. It's a little too dense for my liking. Marcella does say it's best the day after baking, so I'll give it another chance tomorrow. I guess in a country that has a bread bakery on every corner and at least one pasticceria nearby baking is best left to the pros.