Solar Smores Part 2

by James Wampler
(Shelbyville, Ky. USA)

After the smores in the park the other day, I wondered if the smore dip could be made without packing up a solar cooker (it is hard to get more convenient than a foldable panel cooker, but I'm all about reduction if possible)

My mini-experiment was just to see if I left the bowl out in the yard for a while...would it reach temperatures high enough to melt the chocolate and marshmallows?

I put the bowl out in the grass for a little over an hour (1:03) and got a less than desirable result. The chocolate had softened, but there wasnt very much action going on.

I placed the bowl set up back inside the ASSC and let it sit for 20-25 minutes. Perfection! My house-mates enjoyed dipping graham crackers into the dip. It is a great (and much less messy!) way to enjoy a smore!

No doubt the increased amount of sunlight making it to the cooking set-up sped up the warming time, as did the fact that heat was able to soak into the black trays from *underneath* the cooking area. It allows the dishes to absorb light from many different direction as opposed to one.

I'm putting this dip in my "easy go-to's" section. It is easy to have chocolate chips, marshmallows and graham crackers stored away for the next sunny day that friends will be around.

I am the womens JV soccer coach this upcoming season at school, and one of the assistant coaches (a mother of one of the players) has asked if we could cook snacks for the players to consume after the games are over :) Will keep everyone posted!