Alternate Cooking Methods

          One of our goals this past year has been to learn alternate cooking methods.  Sure, we have a propane cook stove in the RV and a propane camp stove but both rely on propane.  This is a concern as we live in an area that is prone to being cut off.  Avalanches, roads sliding off the mountain, wild fire, bridge failures (we have very old bridges and a lot of them) etc, all can disrupt propane deliveries.  Hence our concern as we like to be able to eat on a regular basis.  Storing food isn’t enough, we need to be able to prepare it as well. 

          Last year we purchased a solar oven.  Originally we intended to make one but then we attended a presentation by the owner of Sun Oven.  They can be found at www.sunoven.com.  This company is great and their product is wonderful.  My husband carefully looked it all over and decided that this was far better than any of the designs we’d looked at because of the rubber seal.  The guarantee is fantastic: 3 meals a day, every day for 15 years.  Can’t beat that!  So we purchased one and have enjoyed learning to use it.  The only caveat is Don’t use it in the wind!  We lost a good beef stew that way and had a little cleaning up to perform.  We are working on a tie-down system of some kind that isn’t too hard and makes sense. 

          There are different ways of using it.  You can track the sun and keep the temperature close to or at regular oven temp or you can position it where the sun will be generally within a time frame and let it go like a slow cooker.  Either way has produced great results for us.  It is also the best herb dryer that I’ve found.  It is fast (so don’t leave it too long) and the herbs retain their color (and their vitality) better. 

          For the 4^th of July we cooked an apple pie.  This was a first for us.  My brother and sister-in-law had canned the apple pie filling and we were waiting for the perfect day and reason and by golly, the 4^th was it.  I left it for two hours and rode to town and came back to a beautiful apple pie!  And it was good!!  Can’t get better than that and the best part was: no heat in the RV and no monetary outlay for fuel.  Free fuel!!!!  Yeah, gotta love that!

          For cloudy days, we have a Rocket Stove that my husband made.  We made Sloppy Joes for dinner that night and that came out great as well.  I’ll detail that adventure another time.  We also do open fire cooking in a fire ring; sort of Dutch Oven type cooking. I’ll write more about that later.  In the meantime, start thinking about what alternative cooking methods you need. 

                                                                   Baking beautifully

                                                                       Proud result!