Solar cooking pre-Earl

Looking at the Weather Channel’s tropical Atlantic satellite map with all those paisley things swirling around in the water gives me the willies.

I’m lazy and don’t want to lug the potted plants inside, twist the swing off its hinges, pry the window boxes (particularly gorgeous right now filled with pink phlox) from the house.

Really, I just want to go to the beach and read a book all stretched out and oiled up in the sun.

In the midst of all that, I’ll be unfolding my tattered, battered and still functional solar cooker.

Then, tonight me and the Baby Girl will be feasting on pork cooked right on my deck without any electricity or any fear of dying from salmonella or triginosis or whatever death sentence humans face from consuming uncooked pork.

I’ll probably put a little side of cooked carrots out there, too.

I (of very little crafty skill) made a perfectly functional solar cooker from cardboard and aluminum foil and school glue right on my kitchen floor a couple of years ago. (It looks somewhat like the one in the picture here.) Some hurricane or another was bearing down upon us, so I thought it would be fun to see if I really could cook on my deck and not die.

My guide was a book, “Cooking with Sunshine,” which I just realize that I misplaced or something (Hellooooooo Georgiana up there in Maine, did I lend you that book? You might need it too, tho!), but I totally recall how to do this.

So I’m off to the grocery store to get my pork. I’ll keep you posted on the progress throughout the day.

Cuz you know, an epicure has gotta eat. And eat well. No matter the weather!

*NOTE: This post originally broadcast in September 2008.

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