Give Your Favorite Environmentalist a Solar Cooker
Who needs charcoal when you've got sunlight?
When it comes to environmental goodness, it's hard to go wrong with a solar cooker. Now, I love my barbecue as much as anyone, but we all know that, while grill cooking is less polluting than oven cooking, it still puts a good bit of smoke into the air we've all got to breathe.
It's mouthwatering smoke, to be sure, but it's still smoke--and believe it or not, in some places it's against the law to barbecue because of the smoke. The horror!
Fry Me to the Moon...
You might think that solar ovens are an expensive sort of technology compared to a barbecue pit--but you'd be wrong. Actually, a good solar set-up won't cost you any more than a decent charcoal or gas barbecue grill. And if you're really handy, you can make your own solar grill. Check this out.Some of the solar energy cooking systems in the archive above will cost you, oh, ten bucks to make from scratch (assuming, of course, you're willing to give a gift made from cardboard and tinfoil). Even the commercial versions tend to be inexpensive, though.
A Few Drawbacks
Now, we have to admit -- if you've got a buddy who lives in Seattle or some other perpetual cloudy place, a solar cooking system is about as useful as hair gel for Mr. Clean. But hey, for that cousin in San Diego or a friend in West Texas, it'll come in handy quite often.The best solar ovens are the parabolic type that focus sunlight to a point and can easily generate enough heat to burn paper (that's Fahrenheit 451, for you literary types). This is more than sufficient to do a little stir-fry or grill some burgers. The problem is that you have to constantly adjust these units.
Box ovens are best for food requiring boiling, poaching, and the like, since they can easily get hot enough to boil water but not much hotter. Panel ovens, which use adjustable panels to focus light, are a happy medium; they don't get as hot as parabolics but they do get pretty hot, and don't require constant adjustment.