Solar Cooking

I wrote a story a few months ago about a Solar Cookoff that was held here.I thought it was awesome to cook something using only the power of the sun. I always try my best to save energy and recycle so this was something I wanted to do to save even more energy. We have plenty of sunshine and so it was a perfect project.

I made my own solar oven the next weekend. Two cardboard boxes, newspaper, plexiglass and lots of tape and foil. It took me a day to make this thing and less than $10. I gathered supplies from all over town and had fun using a ruler and math to build something with my own hands. This, coming from a person who works at a desk all day...

It's not pretty but I've made oatmeal cookies, beans and Latin chicken in it. It gets to about 200 degrees, the same temperature as a slow cooker on a low setting. Just recently I made the chicken and it took all day while I was at work, the same as if it were in a slow cooker, but I didn't have to plug it in.

Beans in the solar oven.

I think this thing is great and I feel we are wasting too much of the sun's energy. It's just pounding down on every inch of the Earth and we're not doing much with it. I would have no idea how to do the math, but I didn't use any electricity to make two meals and some cookies. I plan to make more foods in the solar oven. A quick "slow cooker recipes" search brings up so many delicious ideas.

The Latin chicken, by the way, was delicious. It has black beans, red peppers, sweet potatoes, hot salsa, cilantro, lime and a few hearty spices. I served it over rice and it was great. 

The not-so-good

I write a food review every week for Pulse called Delightful Dish. It's for delightful dishes; foods that are good. I don't blast restaurants or say too many negative things. I'm not that kind of a critic. If it's not good I simply don't feature it.

After I wrote about all my personal favorite restaurants, I had to get out there and explore the other 500 restaurants in Las Cruces. I listen to what readers and my coworkers say. They tell me that they love specific items at specific restaurants and then I follow their suggestions. Most of the time they're right and these items are delicious. Then there are the other times that I've been disappointed and unsatisfied.

Here's a list, in no particular order, of restaurants and dishes that I didn't like:

Cafe A Go Go — When I walked in I stood awkwardly for someone to help me but then found a seat away from the door where I was ignored for a long time. When I placed my order for "the best thing on the menu" it took a long time. I sometimes just ask for "the best on the menu" or "the most popular menu item."  When the best thing came out it looked impressive. I believe it was some kind of Southwestern wonton with noodles or something like that. I cut the large thing in half and took a bite of ice cold, spicy stuff. It was gross. The waitress was bragging that it's all made fresh and they make it when you order. But I take a bite of this fried wonton with obviously frozen filling. Not a good mixture. What a lie. They made me the next best thing, which was a stir-fried cashew rice dish, which was very bland and not impressive at all. It tasted like something I can make at home — and I suck at making any kind of Asian food.

Pit Stop Cafe — No wonder this place is going downhill. I wrote a story about this place recently and it's a really cute place. It has that old-time, classic hot rods, rockabilly look to it. The menu is very straight forward; breakfast, Mexican food, burgers, sandwiches and other diner foods. The owner played up the pork tenderloin sandwich saying it's the only one in town and everybody loves it. When that sandwich came to me it was an over-sized, breaded pork tenderloin on a small bun. It was extremely dry and extremely bland. It didn't even taste that 'porky.' I have a feeling it was frozen and heated up because it came to my table really fast and I think a piece of meat that size cooks longer than 5 minutes. My sister ordered the hamburger and it was pretty generic and there was nothing special about it. 

Pullaro's Italian Restaurant — I ate here last fall for the first time. It was the last time. I'm not going to complain about the food. The food was good. I just don't feel comfortable paying $20 for one person to eat here. That's how much my meal was and I was still hungry when I was finished it. I realize homemade sauces take a lot of time to prepare and that noodles take a while to stuff by hand, but charging $20 for a single plate of pasta — and not even that much pasta — is too much.

Main Street Bistro — This place is out of business right now, and it's a shame because it was in a great place; right in the middle of the downtown area. I had the Hawaiian burger when it first opened and was very satisfied. I had my birthday dinner here with my friends and it was disappointing. I ordered the burger and it was good. My friends ordered from the dinner menu and the pasta was absolutely horrible. The green chile chicken Alfredo was drowning in olive oil and the noodles appeared to be old and stale. On top of that, the service was horrible. I also didn't like the look of the restaurant either. It was really dark, and as a result, a really bright white light came through the windows making it hard to see anyone sitting in front of you.

Abraham's — This place is so tacky; wood panel walls and pastel art from a time before I was born. I had green chile enchiladas and they were horrible. They tasted like enchiladas from northern New Mexico, which is why I grew up hating Mexican food in northern New Mexico. They were too spicy and the sauce was just lackluster and tasteless besides really spicy. The burger was average, I can't complain about any burger, it's impossible to mess it up. The view... This restaurant is the highest restaurant in Las Cruces. You would think it faces the Organ Mountains and that the view would be impressive. No. It's an ugly view through dirty windows of a neighboring abandoned building and the ugly roof tops of other office buildings. There's also a really creepy cartoon character on the menu. It's a skinny lion wearing a coat and no pants with a perverted smirk on his face.

And there are a few things that some restaurants do that gets under my skin:
• I hate it when they post crappy, greasy and blurry photos on their Facebook pages.
• I hate cloth napkins that are so starchy, they don't pick up grease or sauce from your fingers.
• I hate really low light.
• I hate it when they install TVs and they're always tuned to sweaty, bloody sports (my boyfriend will forget I exist if there's a TV with sports on).
• I hate it when they say they have the best such-and-such in town because most likely they don't — because mostly likely they haven't eaten at every restaurant that serves this item.
• I hate restaurants that are too full of themselves (La Posta and Double Eagle. One is famous for what? The other is way too expensive to even look at. Yeah. I don't like fancy restaurants that cost $60 per person. If I won the lottery, I still wouldn't like these kinds of restaurants.).
• I don't appreciate it when restaurants don't have vegetarian options on their menu.
• I hate it when they add bacon to every other item to make it different or special. It's not special, it's gross (sorry, I don't like bacon). Bacon may work for some items but having it sneak into a dish unannounced — that wouldn't normally come with bacon — is off putting.
• I also hate Village Inn, Denny's and IHOP.

I think, generally, the food here in Las Cruces is good. I usually don't have too many complaints and I'm definitely not a picky eater. I'm pretty laid back and I appreciate the effort people put into cooking a meal for someone they don't know.