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

Golden Brown Chicken from the Sun Oven

Today turned out to be a beautiful clear and sunny day, perfect for solar cooking, despite the forecast for partly cloudy skies. Because of that forecast I wanted to make something that could easily be transfered inside. Chicken with Two Lemons fit the bill perfectly. Today I made it without rice. I wanted to serve it with roast potatoes tonight and a risotto tomorrow. I don't think there's enough leftover for another dinner for two so I'll have to come up with a different plan. Tonight's dinner was delicious.

The days are already starting to get noticeably longer. I left the chicken in the Sun Oven until 5 p.m. It was still warm when dinner was ready. Tomorrow's forecast calls for a full day of sunshine. I may make another attempt at solar baked pane all'olio.

Chicken for Dinner

Chicken is probably the best way to make a good first impression with solar cooking. I made my tried and true chicken with two lemons over brown rice for our guests tonight. As usual the meat was fall off the bone tender and the rice was creamy and full of flavor. They said it was the best chicken they'd ever eaten.

Hot Solar Cooked Meals After Sundown

With Paul of Sun Ovens Int. in town doing demonstrations I'm learning a lot of new solar cooking tricks. My favorite is one that will allow us to return to having a warm dinner from the sun oven after sundown. Sun Ovens Int. is strongly committed to promoting solar cooking in nations where the primary fuel sources are wood and coal. Due to the amount of smoke inhalation during cooking, respiratory diseases are all too common among the women and children in these areas, and deforestation for fire wood is an underlying cause of many violent conflicts. Solar cooking could play a vital role in improving the lives of millions of people throughout the world. So what has this got to do with eating later in the day? Well, the people at Sun Ovens Int. realized that to reap the benefits of solar cooking the ovens must actually be used. In most of the world people consume their evening meal much later than we do in the U.S. It does no good to have a perfectly prepared solar cooked meal ready at 5p.m. if it is cold by dinnertime. The people at Sun Ovens Int. knew there was nothing they could do to change the dinning habits of entire countries, they had to find a way to keep the food warm until people were ready to consume it. Enter the Global Sun Oven. Unlike any other solar cooker on the market, the airtight chamber of the Sun Oven will keep food at a safe and desirable temperature for hours after sundown, as long as the glass door is not opened. This was the best news I'd had all week. Since I started my blog we had been having dinner earlier and earlier, to the point that I would get hungry again before bedtime. Now, I am happy to report, we will go back to dining around 7p.m with a hot meal straight out of the Sun Oven and hopefully those late evening snacks will be a thing of the past.

Tonight's dinner is Chicken and Rice. It's my favorite Chicken with Two Lemons but I cooked some brown rice along with it in the same pot. The juices of the chicken flavor the rice. Since the chicken will release so many juices you will need a lot less water. I used 1 cup of rice and 2/3 cup of water.

Solar Cooking Chicken

Today I made Chicken with Two Lemons again. This recipe is definitely a solar cooking keeper. The chicken comes out very moist with a slight hint of lemon. It was ready by early afternoon so I had time to slice up a couple of beets and roast them in the solar oven too. I served it with risotto and kale.

Sun Oven Chicken with Two Lemons

This recipe is from my favorite Italian cookbook, "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" by Marcella Hazan. It's so easy. All you do is take two lemons, poke them all over with a sharp knife and stuff them in the chicken. I put the chicken in the solar oven around noon and when I got home at 4:00 it was ready. I'll use the juices to make a risotto to serve with it. This is how solar cooking should be, easy, stress free and no hot oven making my A.C. go into overdrive.

Marcella’s Chicken with Two Lemons

I adapted this recipe from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

A 3 to 4 pound chicken

Salt

Pepper

2 small lemons

Trim excess fat from chicken and wash inside and out under cold water. Pat Chicken dry with paper towels. Sprinkle salt a pepper all over chicken and into its cavity.

Wash and dry lemons. Soften the lemons by rolling them on the counter as you press down with the palm of your hand. Pierce lemons all over with a sturdy toothpick or trussing needle.

Put both lemons in the chicken’s cavity. Place chicken, breast side up, in a lightweight metal roasting pan. Cover and place in pre-heated solar oven.

Allow 25 to 30 minutes cooking time per pound.

Carve or cut into pieces to serve spooning cooking juices over each serving.