The Sun Oven                                                  06/18/24
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It's summer  here in middle  America. The  country is feeling  it this
week in particular, so much so  that the politicians are screaming for
an  emergency  declaration.  I  don't  know  who  around  here  is  so
unacquainted with summer that they need FEMA to have special powers to
help educate  them in  the ways  of living  with heat,  but apparently
there are some.

For me, the  sun and heat mean  it's time to get the  Sun Oven out[1].
The primary goal is to reduce heat  generated in my house, so that the
A/C doesn't have to work quite as hard,  and so we can all be a little
more comfortable. The secondary goal is to have fun.

It has been a couple years since I used the Sun Oven, for a variety of
reasons. To start out slow, I cooked  some rice in it yesterday. I did
2 cups of jasmine  rice and 2.5 cups of water.  Started a little late,
after lunch, and cooked  it in the sun for about  an hour. I foolishly
didn't check it beyond a cursory glance  out in the sun, and it wasn't
entirely done. No matter, I threw it  on the gas stovetop for a couple
minutes and it cooked perfectly.

May as well mention here that I  mostly use a black enameled steel pot
for cooking in  the Sun Oven. It's water proof,  cleans up easily, and
absorbs  heat  well. I  should  also  mention  that the  outdoor  temp
yesterday was  about 95F, with  very few  clouds; today it's  88F with
considerably more clouds, but still partly cloudy.

Today I  decided to  try some  veggies. A  large potato,  carrot, bell
pepper, celery  stalk, two garlic  cloves, and  part of an  onion, all
chopped up and placed in the pot  with a cup of water and some spices.
I cooked them for an hour and a half. They were pretty much done, so I
brought them in to sit and finish up on their own.

The pot has a steamer basket thing, so while they were cooking I mixed
up a  little loaf of  bread (a cup  of flour, a  tsp of yeast,  tsp of
sugar,  half tsp  of  salt, and  some  warm water)  and  placed it  on
parchment paper in the steamer basket to  rise. When I went out to get
the veggies I emptied them into a bowl, and dropped the steamer basket
bread in the pot to bake.

My oven temps yesterday and today were both between 250F and 300F. Not
super hot.  Those temps were just  fine for the rice  and veggies, but
they're pretty low compared to how  I usually bake bread. Even so, the
little loaf turned out very nicely after 45min. Not browned, but fully
cooked with a nice texture and not dry.

While  it  certainly takes  more  planning  an patience  than  cooking
indoors, the net effect on heat in the house  is noticeable. And, it's
fun. So it's a win-win.

[1] https://www.sunoven.com/