Using stoves and ovens, we can cook foods like meat, vegetables, beans, rice, bread and fruit in just about any way. We can bake, stew, steam, fry and braise. Using a solar cooker, we can do the same things, but by using sunlight instead of gas or electricity.

Sunlight isn't hot in and of itself. It's just radiation, or light waves -- basically energy generated by fluctuating electric and magnetic fields. It feels warm on your skin, but that's because of what happens when those light waves hit the molecules in your skin. This interaction is similar to the concept that makes one form of solar cooker, the box cooker, generate high temperatures from sunlight.

The box cooker is a simple type of solar cooker. At maybe 3 to 5 feet (1 to 1.5 meters) across, it's essentially a sun-powered oven -- an enclosed box that heats up and seals in that heat. At its most basic, the box cooker consists of an open-topped box that's black on the inside, and a piece of glass or transparent plastic that sits on top. It often also has several reflectors (flat, metallic or mirrored surfaces) positioned outside the box to collect and direct additional sunlight onto the glass.

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