Product Description

The essential resource for cooking mouthwatering meals outdoors using the sun’s rays—featuring 150 delicious and healthful recipes
What could be more entertaining and magical than putting food in a box outdoors on a sunny day and enjoying a delicious fully-cooked meal just a few hours later? Solar cooking—which uses the sun’s rays as the sole heat source—has been around for centuries and can be done just about anyplace where there’s sun. Not only is it completely safe and simple, but it also saves money on fuel, limits time spent preparing meals, and is kind to the environment—plus the results are healthy, flavorful, and satisfying.

Whether you’re new to solar cooking or have been doing it for years, Cooking with Sunshine is your definitive guide to making a variety of tasty sun-cooked meals. Solar cooking experts Lorraine Anderson and Rick Palkovic provide everything you need to get cooking, including:

• Clear explanations of how solar cooking works and its benefits over traditional methods
• Instructions for building your own solar cooker using inexpensive, easy-to-find materials—and information on where to buy a ready-made solar cooker
• A selection of fun and super-easy recipes to get you started
• A wide variety of recipes for main dishes, accompaniments, and desserts for both vegetarian and omnivorous diets
• Creative menu ideas for special diets, tastes, and occasions
. . . and much more!
So what are you waiting for? It’s time to cook with sunshine!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #199849 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781569243008
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

About the Author
Lorraine Anderson is a freelance writer and editor with a special interest in encouraging a reciprocal relationship with nature. Her books include Sisters of the Earth: Women’s Prose and Poetry About Nature, Literature and the Environment: A Reader on Nature and Culture (with Scott Slovic and John P. O'Grady), and At Home on This Earth: Two Centuries of U.S. Women’s Nature Writing (with Thomas Edwards). She lives in Corvallis, Oregon. Rick Palkovic is an electrical engineer and technical writer. He lives in Davis, California.

Customer Reviews

This is the reference I paid money for...
I usually preview my books by borrowing them from the library to see if they are worth buying. This is one that I chose for my personal collection.

I also checked out "Cooking with the Sun" (by Halacy and Halacy), which had some good introductory information and interesting-looking recipes. However, as soon as I got to the list of supplies needed for actually building their solar oven (plywood, fiberglass insulation, 1/16" thick aluminum or iron sheets, double-strength window glass, etc.) I gave up. My tools are limited to hammers and screwdrivers, and I didn't even know what some of the required items were, much less what to do with them.

This book, by contrast, has wonderful, step-by-step, illustrated directions on how to make a solar oven (box cooker) using simple stuff I have at home (cardboard boxes, newspaper, aluminum foil, turkey oven-roasting bag, Elmer's glue, etc.). There are also simple-looking directions for making a reflective-panel cooker.

I love how this book caters to the average Joe (or Josephine) who wants to cook with solar but doesn't want to spend a bundle to get started. The book gives lots of recommendations for improvising inexpensive options in cookware, explaining what works best and what doesn't work so well (and why!). For example, two dark 9" cake pans held together with large binder clamps (those things used in offices to hold large quantities of paper together) can work just as well as an expensive enameled dutch oven.

Start Cooking with Sunshine!
I must say this book is a real gem. It is small but contains some good information. Half the book is information on solar cooking and it even tells you how to build two simple solar cookers from things you probably have around the house or can get cheap. The other half of the book contains recipes for cooking with your solar cooker. Excluding the recipes, the book can be read in a few hours at most. After which you will know enough to be able to build your own solar cooker and be cooking in no time. The book also gives sources for buying a cooker should you really want to do so.

I built a panel cooker in about an hour or two following the easy instructions. The next day I cooked a meal with it using a recipe I modified a bit to work with the cooker. It turned out better than I thought it would to be honest. I have cooked several dishes using the cooker now and everything has turned out great. I personally find the food to be of better quality than the typical high heat cooking usually done on stoves and ovens.

Most recipes can be adapted to be cooked with sunshine so you are not limited to what is provided in the book. As the book says a general rule is a conventional recipe will take about twice as long to cook in the solar cooker. I found this to be about true, though it might take just a little longer but doubling the time seems to be about right.

If you are interested in learning how to build a solar cooker and start cooking with one then I recommend getting this book. It keeps things pretty simple and easy while still giving you the information you need to start cooking good meals with free energy from the sun.

Far From Frying An Egg On the Sidewalk
The idea of cooking with solar energy is new to me, but since I've been so impressed by previous publications by Lorraine Anderson, I decided to give the book a whirl and order it. The 150 easy recipes include a tantalizing tomato bisque soup, a unique Ozark pudding, and a to-die-for Boppin' John (traditional New Year's Day dinner down South). Using the free and clean energy of the sun will appeal to anyone hoping to be more environmentally responsible. Not only do Anderson and Palkovic teach neonates like me how to construct a solar oven (out of tin foil, cardboard, newspapers, and glass!), but the book also lists places where I can order such ovens. As for me, I'll be taking the solar cooker and a copy of Cooking with Sunshine to the Mississippi River beaches this summer. Bon appetit.