...just call me "Cookie"

Well, for those of you who know me- cooking has never been my forte. I pretty much have honed my microwave skills and that's about it. But things are about to change-BIG TIME! So in preparation for this big- time change, I decided that I better find some alternative cooking methods for Ethiopia. We bought a solar oven and I have been experimenting with that and having wonderful results! I baked a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread that was almost too beautiful to cut into it. (but we did! yummmy!) My next experiment was a pot roast and potatoes and carrots. I put it in at 11:30am and it was done by 4:30pm. I know it was a success because all my neighbors kept sniffing the air as they went by and asking me what was for dinner and could they stay? Tom said it was the best pot roast ever-as good as his mother's!

It's just amazing that more people don't use this method of cooking. It doesn't matter what the ambient outside temp is- there could be 3 feet of snow on the ground. It cooks by the power of the sunlight-the rays of the sun are focused like a magnifying glass onto the pot of food and it is slow cooked by the sun. No need to add any water. It never burns. No stirring needed. Just occasionally make slight adjustments to the direction of the oven in relation to the sun-rays.

The best part is you don't heat up your kitchen and you don't use any electricity or gas. A free, re-newable energy source!

I am especially excited about the implications for the women of Ethiopia. No more fetching wood for fires. No more inhaling all that smoke and soot into their lungs from daily cooking over the open fires. There is a possibility of someone opening a manufacturing facility in Ethiopia to make these ovens (at a considerably lower cost than they are now) Think of all the people they could employ in building these ovens- and the possibility of having sponsors donate money to buy ovens for the women in southern Ethiopia!

Another way of cooking is with a cast iron pot-a 'Dutch oven'. Many people who camp use these to cook-among them my relatives Pete and Karen and Duey who have introduced me to the wonders of peach cobbler and monkey bread by campfire! Dutch ovens have a flat lid and you put charcoals on the lid and a few under the pot. This was how the old-time settlers on the wagon trains heading west cooked their meals-even sourdough bread-which is my next bold venture into the world of campfire cooking! ding a ling a ling ....dinner's ready!!!