When solar cooking, keep in mind that protective eyewear (sunglasses) are a really good idea. Also, if children will be nearby, remind them that this not to look at the glare.
Here’s a solar cooking video from Minnesota. Roberta roasts a chicken and bakes cornbread in her solar oven. The worst part about this is having to go outside to set it up and check it, brrr! But if she can do it on a -10 degree day, then cooking on a pleasant summer afternoon should be a piece of cake. http://youtu.be/aJ22QCAqFCc
Here’s another type of cooker, with a parabolic mirror–that made a really fast grilled cheese sandwich. http://youtu.be/aJ22QCAqFCc
We tried solar cooking for a summer a few years back. It was a neat experiment, and gave us some valuable experience. There are some good books available on the topic, too. I would have to say in general I was disappointed by how many cloudy days forced much more micromanagement of the cooking; way more fussing with cooking/baking than I am used to. It was downright frustrating sometimes, but gave a healthy perspective. From our trial, it would seem that the many videos which are available offer a best case scenario demonstration. Any good book on the topic will not hesitate to tell you clouds and rain are a realistic and significant variable… I am glad we tried it more than once to really understand how flexible we needed to be due to weather. Of course that does depend a lot on your geographical location. I would still strongly recommend solar cooking as a skill to have and to use, it’s just not as simple and reliable process as I had thought, even after reading a lot about it. Happy Cooking!
I’ve never tried solar cooking. Although I think I have a “project pattern” so mewhere for making a solar oven somewhere in one of my notebooks. That would be really fun to try sometime 🙂
thanks for the ideas. Love and hugs from Oregon, Heather 🙂