I recently received a call from Jackie Harsha asking if I would be interested in seeing a solar cooking demonstration. Living in the Phoenix area, the thought of having the sun do some of the work for me sounded great.
On a winter day here (temperature was in the high 60’s) with a very light dusting of clouds, we set out to bake a cake. We set up the solar oven in the yard, pointed it towards the sun and let it heat up. Within about 5 minutes the temperature was about 275°. She mixed up a oatmeal banana orange quick bread, put it into a regular baking pan and started the baking process. Much to my amazement, the cake was done in about 45 minutes. The whole yard smelled inviting from this yummy quick bread.
While the cake was baking we began talking about the ins and outs of cooking via solar energy. As you can imagine, where you live plays a role in how well this works. Here in Phoenix, it’s perfect with our sunny weather, but it might not work as well if you live in Seattle or other cloudy/rainy places. Very windy days are not great for solar cooking either. But today’s weather was pretty nice. She rated it a B+ for solar cooking since there were some clouds in the sky.
So now we made a dessert. What else can we make? The resounding answer was ‘just about anything’. In her cookbook, Jackie has recipes for appetizers, main and side dishes as well as desserts. When discussing how to convert existing recipes to use in a solar oven, she stated that solar ovens tend to work similarly to crockpots (not by time as much as cooking method).
While the cake was baking we began talking about the types of solar ovens available as well as the ins and outs of cooking via solar energy.
Get our recipe at Orange Banana Oatmeal Bread
For more information on Jackie or to order her solar cooking cookbook, go to www.heavensentfood.com
For other articles and recipes see Mesa Food Examiner
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