Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Solar cooking sweet and sour chicken

To day I cooked another batch of chicken. Again I put 5 skilnless quarters in the oven bag.
Then I mixed 1 cup of vinager with 1 cup of brown sugar and disolved it..
Pour in the bag, mix ,and it will coat the chicken


I put the chicken in the 12 in dutch oven @11:30.
I set the Sunpower Cooker about an hour ahead of the sun, then readjust 2 hrs later.
At 2 oclock the chicken was done, but I left it on until 4.
It was difficult to take the chicken out of the bag because it fell apart.
This is really hard to mess up. Put some salt in the mixture and you have a really nice meal

I use what is on hand. Most of my recipies come from what I have in my food storage.
How about cooking a pot of beans? Or baking bread to go with beans?
Stay tuned to find out
Norman

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Solar cooking the easy way

Hi my name is Norman Jones and I would like to talk about how easy it is to cook with a solar cooker.

My favorite pot to use is a 12 in.cast iron dutch oven. I prefer Lodge because the cast is always perfect. This means the lid fits the oven. The reason I like the 12 in. is it will cook for about 6 people . You can, of course, cook for one if you want. Once you get your oven seasoned you really want to keep it that way, so I use oven baking bags. After cooking you will have some moisture in the bottom of the oven. Just pour it out and wipe it dry. Your seasoned oven is like when you started and no clean up!

The solar cooker that I like the best is the "Sunpower Cooker". It is made right here in the USA. It is the perfect size for a family of 4 to 6. Each type of solar cooker has it's own advantages, and disadvantages, but this one fries, bakes, and boils. It is like having a single stove top burner on medium heat. I just can't say enough on how I love this cooker. ( I have tried many.)

Now for a simple recipe just to let you know how easy this can be;
Put 5 or 6 skinless chicken quarters in the oven bag. Empty 2 packets of dry Italian dressing mix, usually I use the packets, and a 1//2 cup of packed brown sugar. Make sure all chicken quarters are covered. Put the bag tie on the bag. Don't  over tighten, you want hot air to escape. Place on the solar cooker and cook for 4 to 6 hrs and the chicken will just fall right off the bone. It really is that simple. My wife just loves when I cook.

Next week I will post some pictures.

So long for now,

Norman Jones