Cooking In The Car Part III

Yesterday was the first day of fall and the temperature reached 98 degrees here in Huntsville; 98 degrees – in September! I’m not sure what the heat index ended up being, but I assure you it was probably higher than 98 degrees. I wore a sleeveless dress when I should be wearing long sleeves – it’s September for crying out loud. Next week the temperature is supposed to be in the 70s. I’m not going to hold my breath.

If ya’ll pray for anything, pray for cooler weather! Well, unless you don’t want cooler weather I guess. I’m just really ready for a break from all this heat we’ve had this summer. My grass doesn’t really need to be cut, but I would like to trim it up and pull up what’s left of the tomato vines that didn’t shrivel up in the sweltering sun but I just can’t bring myself to get out in the heat and do it.

Since it was going to be yet another sweltering Alabama day yesterday, I prepared in advance and decided to try cooking in the car again. Of course after yesterday’s cooking experiment I thought to myself that I really need a thermometer to place in the car so that we would know what the temperature was throughout the day. Maybe I’ll break down and invest in one soon.

Yesterday’s experiment was at the suggestion of Erika in the comments section of Cooking in the Car Part Two. She suggested baking a potato, and that’s exactly what I did.

I had three different types of potatoes at the house, but went with the smallest, the red potato in hopes that it would actually cook. I wrapped it in some foil and placed it on the dash when I arrived at work. I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday morning, so I didn’t arrive at work until 9:45 and I left for the day at 4:00. So, the potato was in the car for a little over six hours.

When I got to the car, I was obviously anxious to see if it had cooked. I opened it up and…. Wah, wah, wah – it was still hard. It was extremely hot to the touch – quite literally a hot potato, and even had sweated some as it had a spot or two of what appeared to be water, but it hadn’t really cooked at all.

So, this third Cooking in the Car experiment was unsuccessful, leaving me with a record of 1-1-1. I’m calling the egg a tie since it cooked a tiny bit. I don’t think the car was as hot as it had been back in August when I baked the cookies and even on the day that I attempted to boil the egg. So, I might give the potato experiment another go next summer if we have a day in the 100s, which we most assuredly will.

The red potato before being placed in the hot sun.

On the dashboard of the car.

Up close and personal with the red potato

The skin is a little shriveled and it was somewhat tenderer than it was before,

but still didn't cook enough to bite into.