Make Your Own Pot Cozy

(Thank you, Two Bears!)

If you want to buy a cozy made fro
reflectix (SP) be my guest.

If money is tight, and who'se money is not tight these days?

Go to the dollar store and buy one of those cheap Mylar sun shades for a car.

First measure the diameter of the pot and cut three round discs the size of the pot. The easiest way would be to set the pot on the sun shade and use a felt tip pen like Paper Mate Flair, Sharpie, etc then cut the discs s little outside the lines because the tighter the fit the longer the food will stay hot.

Next roll the sunshade around the cook pot, and cut the shade to length, and use a good sticky tape and tape the cozy together.

Next tape the bottom disc to the bottom of the pot cozy,

Next step cut the length of the cozy 1/2 an inch longer than the pot. You will want to have extra room for a lid for the pot, and the two other discs.

Mylar reflects between 80 and 90% of the heat back inside the pot.

Now the lid for the pot. If you have a side cut can opener you can cut the lid off the can of soup or stew, and VOILA a lid for your pot. Of course glue a twist tie to the lid so you will not burn your fingers.

Speaking of burning fingers; exactly how does one move a boiling pot of rice or soup into the cozy without third degree burns? Well there is the commercial way and the CHEAP way. ;-)

Commercial way buy a pot lifter on eBay or Wal-Mart.

Cheap way lift the piping hot pot of food with a Silicone bracelet that has broken, or a small piece of an inner tube. GSI provides a silicone pot lifter with the GSI Minimalist pot. You can see it on eBay if you want to get creative and make something similar.

After the pot is in the cozy, place the lid on the pot, then put the two discs of Mylar in the top of the cozy.

If the temperature is very cold and you do not have insulated shoes or boots. You can cut a sheet of sun shade the size of your foot and place it under the shoe liner. This will really block the cold that comes though the soles of your shoes. I used that trick when I lived in Ellensburg Washington from 2004-2010.

Nui aloha.

Two Bears