The rest of the Iowa solar cooking

In the mornings, Dan and MaryBeth's house had good sun on the back steps (with some occasional leaf shading); in the afternoons there was good sun on the sidewalk in front of the house.  During the solar cooking,  I more or less reoriented the Haines Solar Cooker towards the sun every 30 to 75 minutes.  I never worried about tipping front to back for better alignment.

The cornbread recipe was right off the cornmeal box.  The pot had a glass cover, so I sprinkled cinnamon on top of the cornmeal batter to make it darker to absorb the light.  The cornbread was particularly moist (without sour cream or cheese).

Ratatouille is more or less an Italian mix of seasonal vegetables.  It usually has eggplant, but I did not have any, so I put in some cherry tomatoes, green pepper, zucchini, onion (mostly from the Iowa City Farmer's Market), and fresh herbs from the garden.  For good measure, I also put in some olive oil and salt. 

The vegetables softened and the flavors mixed together well.  Quite a lot of juice was released, and it did not evaporate as it might have done on the stovetop.