Sunny Spuds and Hotpot Dogs

by Christa Upton
(South Dakota)

Recipe Seven with the Solar Hot Pot

Sunny Spuds and Hotpot Dogs

Prep:

4 medium potatoes (wash and pierce)
olive oil—rub on potatoes
1 garlic clove—cut in half lengthwise and rub cut side on potatoes

9:30 am—Arrange oil-rubbed potatoes in the Hot Pot. My hubby hates hot dogs, so I made a little ‘potato stand’ out of foil to set his potato on and keep it up off the bottom and away from the hot dogs. (smile)



Then I stood there looking at the garlic and thinking it would be cool to “roast” it. So in it went, with a little olive oil.

picture of 3 potatoes with garlic in center (below)

Now we’re all set:


Cover, set up facing the sun, set timer for 60 minutes.

Ooo—we had a slow start—big, persistent cloud over the sun. But we got a little steam, and we’ll keep hoping for more sun.

10:30 am—adjust to sun, set timer for 60 minutes.

11:30 am—I was going to check the potatoes and add the hot dogs at this point, but I’m going to let the potatoes go an hour longer before opening the lid or adding the dogs because of the slow start. Adjust to sun and set timer for one hour.

12:30 pm—Again, we were going to continue with the step below (“Next,”) but right around 12:30, a big cloud covered the sun. So we decided to conserve heat by keeping the Pot closed and trying to wait for the cloud to go away....

Next, quickly poke biggest potato to see how it’s coming along. If “fairly” soft, quickly grab that garlic out and toss in 4 fully-cooked hot dogs (meaning that the hot dogs are labeled fully cooked from the store and only need to warm, not cook raw meat through).

We like Oscar Meyer Selects—all natural hot dogs (no chemicals).

Adjust to sun, set timer for 60 minutes.

Prep side dishes/extras for meal. Ideas:

tossed green salad
Cole slaw
raw veggies and dip
fruit salad
sliced watermelon
corn-on-the-cob
soup
baked beans—from what I remember, there is a very yummy-looking recipe for solar cooked baked beans somewhere on this website. It would be cool to have two solar cookers and do beans at the same time as the potatoes and hot dogs!
hot dog buns
condiments

Gather toppings for potatoes. Ideas:

cheese
butter
sour cream
salsa
chopped onion or chives
parsley
that yummy garlic, if you roasted it like I did.

1:30—check potatoes by poking. If not done, check every 30 minutes. (Food should be okay to leave until 2:30, but after that, eat or finish with higher heat source.)

Okay, that’s the recipe if you want to try what we were planning.... (Adjust times if you have more sun, etc.) But real life..... (smile)

Around 1:20, it started raining. (Drat!) So we sheltered the Hot Pot and looked at the sky—more clouds.

BUT at 1:30, the potatoes and garlic were beautifully done! So we cut the hot dogs in half lengthwise to give them a better chance and threw them in to see if they would warm a bit with just the residual heat. We left them 30 minutes (zero sun!), and let’s put it this way (“glass half full”)—at least they weren’t icy cold! LOL