Solar Brewed Hong Kong Style Milk Tea Part 2

Solar Brewed Black Tea (Sun Tea) Temperature Test

After solar brewing some tea the other day, we were curious to find out how hot the sun tea could actually get on a sunnier and hotter day. This test was done on a sunny, 90 F, scattered clouds to partly cloudy day. We filled the 2 qt. glass storage jar with tea bags and water and placed it on the Hot Pot reflector.

Solar Brewed Hong Kong Style Milk Tea

Solar Brewed English Tea

Here are a couple of helpful sites on how to make sun tea.

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Brew_Sun_Tea
http://www.howcast.com/videos/125052-How-To-Make-Sun-Tea

Solar Baked Bananas

Try this recipe

http://www.recipetips.com/recipe-cards/t--2099/baked-bananas.asp

or this recipe

http://www.recipezaar.com/African-Dessert-173242

Solar baked on a partly cloudy sky, mid-80s. It rained the rest of the day.

Solar Cooked Hawaiian Kalua Pork

This is our solar cooked version of Kalua Pork. We just couldn't believe how great this Kalua Pork dish turned out. Outside temperature: 93 F, clear sky .

Solar Cooked Moroccan Egg Salad Sandwich Hold the Mayo

SunshineCooking Online Cookbook

This is a link to our online cookbook of solar cooking recipes:

http://www.recipezaar.com/member/1334439

The recipes will post soon!

Solar Cooked Thai Tofu Red Curry with Vegetables

On the day that we started cooking this dish, it was predicted to be very cloudy and to rain all day. Suprisingly, the sun actually came out for a few hours. We didn't want all that sunshine to go to waste, so we put together a quick & easy dish. Unfortunately, we didn't get continuous sunshine. As a result, the dish cooked very slowly. We managed to cook it about 3/4ths of the way before the clouds moved in. We packed up our solar cooker, refrigerated the dish, and finished solar cooking it the next day. It only needed just 1 hour of continuous sunshine to completely cook.

Solar Roasted Garlic

Solar Roasted Potatoes

Solar Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Solar Cooked Garlic & Rosemary Potatoes

Solar Cooked Russian Yaichnitsa Eggs

Solar Cooked Roasted Tomatoes & Onions Pasta

Solar Cooked Penne Pasta

Solar Cooked Buttermilk Cornbread

We solar cooked this cornbread using a glass trifle bowl, dark saucepan (with the handle removed), car sunshade, & glass pan lid. This was also a recipe experiment using buttermilk pancake mix (add water only) and cornmeal to make a shortcut cornbread.

Solar Cooked Aranygaluska Hungarian Coffeecake Monkey Bread

You may try a similar recipe here

http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/ShowRecipe.aspx?Rid=12327

Solar Cooked Quesadilla

We had about 2 hours of sunshine cooking before the clouds rolled in. Next time, when the weather is better, we will probably let it solar cook for another 30 minutes until the tortilla is toasted a bit more and browned.

Solar Cooked Eggs and Bacon Mini Frittata

Solar Cooked Chicken and Onions BBQ Pan Pizza

Solar Cooked Coconut Macaroons

If you would like to try a similar recipe

http://www.recipezaar.com/Really-Easy-Macaroons-202699

Solar Cooked Strawberry Crisp

Our daughter, who isn't really a strawberry pie fan, actually liked this!

Try a similar recipe here
http://www.recipezaar.com/Strawberry-Crisp-141856

Makeshift Solar Cooker 4

We just want to show that it is possible to solar cook by
using a few items you may already have around the house.

Solar Cooked Filipino Pork Baby Back Ribs Guisantes

Our solar cooked version of this Filipino dish. We omitted the peas because our daughter is not a big fan of them...yet. We solar cooked it from 11am-3pm and had it for dinner.


Try this similar recipe
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/pork-guisantes-filipino-pork-and-peas-recipe/index.html

Solar Cooked Apple Crostata

Solar Cooked Easy Five Layer Cookie Bar Triangles

Solar Baked Pumpkin Bread with Pecans

Try this similar recipe
http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=29569

Solar Cooked Corn Mexican Style Elote

Try this recipe
http://www.simplefoodie.com/recipes/elote.htm

Our Makeshift Solar Cooker

Solar Cooked French Style Cherry Clafouti Pudding

Try a similar recipe here
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1875853

Solar Cooked Vietnamese Pork and Eggs Thit Heo Kho

This is our solar cooked version of this Vietnamese dish.
You may try this similar recipe
http://bunnyfoodfoo.blogspot.com/2007/03/recipe-thit-heo-kho-braised-pork-w-eggs.html

Solar Cooked Spanish Lentil Soup Sopa de Lentejas

You may try this recipe
http://spanishfood.about.com/od/soupssalads/r/sopalentejas.htm

Solar Cooked Hot & Spicy Korean Chicken with Jalapeños, Potatoes, & Carrots (Dakdoritang)

Partly cloudy, High-80s, & breezy



You may try using this recipe
http://www.trifood.com/dakdoritang.html

Solar Cooked Italian Style Wedding Soup with Meatballs

This is our solar cooked version and shortcut recipe of the Italian Wedding Soup. It was ready in about 4 hours. high-80s, breezy, & partly cloudy.

Solar Cooked Banana Bread

This is our solar baked version of the banana bread. Partly-cloudy, Temperature high-80s, & a bit windy.


We think that this is the best banana bread recipe
Banana Bread with Pecans by Tyler Florence http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/banana-bread-with-pecans-recipe/index.html

It Sure Isn't Delivery. It's Solar Cooked Pepperoni Pizza!

Our first solar pizza!


While solar cooking this pizza, the power in our home actually went out.
We thought that it was great that we weren't cooking it in the oven.

Solar Cooker Temperature Test

Solar Cooked Minestrone Soup

This was our attempt at solar cooking Minestrone Soup for a total of 4 hours. Cloudless, blue sky. Temperature High-80s.

Solar Cooked Chicken Yummy Curry

Cloudless blue sky, Temperature mid-80s
We solar cooked our chicken yummy curry recipe for a total of 2 hours & 30 minutes

Solar Cooked Rice Pilaf with Red Onions and Thyme

Cloudless sky, Temperature in the mid-80s


You may try using this recipe
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/rice-pilaf-with-thyme

Solar Cooked Rice Krispies Treats

French Brioche Solar Baked Bread

You may try using Ina Garten's recipe
http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/2292/mini-brioche-rolls
I halved the recipe for the solar cooker.

Solar Cooked Chocolate Chip Cookies

Homemade Solar Oven Cooker

My husband put this solar oven together using:
1 large storage jar glass with cover ---- $13.00
1 black, glazed ceramic jar ----$10.00
white nylon strings ( for sling)
A small car sunshade( we already happened to have)
We've spent only an extra $23.00 to make this homemade solar oven.

Solar Baked Carrot Cake

Partly cloudy sky, Temp in the mid-80s This cake was solar baked for about 1 hour 45 minutes. I am amazed at how it turned out.

If you'd like to try it, you may use Paula Deen's recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/grandma-hiers-carrot-cake-recipe/index.html
Just halve the recipe to make the solar carrot cake.

Solar Cooked Pinto Beans

1st time solar cooking my pinto beans recipe

Solar Baked Sweet Potato

Our New Solar Cooker

If you would like to learn more about how it works

http://www.she-inc.org/hotpot-1.php

Solar Baked Eggs

This is our 1st attempt @ testing our new solar cooker. We preheated it for 10 minutes then added the room temperature eggs into the pot. We started around 8 a.m. and solar baked them for 1 hour and 20 minutes. The weather was sunny and partly cloudy. The temperature was in the mid-80s.

Solar Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies were baked using the power of the sun, a car sunshade, dark round pan, oven bag, and a twistie tie.




Our first introduction to solar cooking as a family really started when our daughter (she's the one in the video who's mostly putting our recipe together) did solar cooking chocolate chip cookies for a Science project in elementary school. The very first video above is similar to that school project . Since our daughter loves to cook, she chose (and with our encouragement) a project that had something to do with food. She was actually awarded 2nd place for it. We didn't really get into serious solar cooking until we ordered a HotPot solar cooker in May 2009 (It has inspired us ever since to create our own makeshift solar cookers). It's Summer 2009 and now is the best time to test it and solar cook. So far we have been successful with it. We not only get to solar cook as a family and spend some quality time, but solar cooking also has been fun & educational for us. We now find ourselves feeling disappointed when it's a cloudy day.