Cooking Over the Wood Heater

With Electric bills going up along with everything else we have decided to do most of our cooking on our wood heater. We heat the house with wood that has fallen, been cut by others due to housing issues, or that have been pushed down by the farmer around us.

Hubby was cooking out side over wood heat until it got about 20 degrees out side. Then we just took off the top of our wood heater and used the fire box to cook with. You can boil food if you cover the pots. Hubby fries chicken on it. I have not seen to much it can't do.

 Here is the picture of the wood box. The top of the stove is up against the wall behind the stove.

 Here is the front view. The wood door and the ash pan door.

 Here is a grille cheese sandwich that I made on it. I use my regular cook ware on it. But you have to be careful about the handles getting hot. Always use a hot pad before picking up any pans.

Here is hubby's dinner cooking. He uses cast iron to cook beans, stews, and fry food.  There is chicken frying under the cast iron skillet lid, The other three pots are Allen's Green Beans with potatoes, potatoes and tea. I made gravy for dinner on here too. We are working on a box to go on top to bake in.

We cut our electric bill while everyone else went up $100 to $200.  We have been heating with free wood and not turning on the electric stove at all unless it is to bake bread.

We passed on our idea to my friend over at Reduce Foot Prints. She does the Change The World Wednesday challenge. She post a small project each Wednesday that if everyone would get on board it would make a big impact.

We are working on a solar oven. Hubby built it today but it clouded up and there is snow in the forecast for the next week. We hope to test it soon and I will post pics and results.

Do you have any different ways to cook with out electricity that you would like to share? Please feel free to leave your comments.