Ingredients

If you have air conditioning, your energy bills are bound to skyrocket during the sweltering summer months. 

It'll probably be so hot outside that you'll never want to leave your home, and so cold in the frigid artificial air of your home that you'll even want to throw on a few sweaters.

But you can ease the pressure of your mind-blowingly large A/C bill by reducing the amount of energy you use in the kitchen. 

Here's a novel way to save energy: Cook your food on the sidewalk. 

Well, only if where you live is as hot as Arizona, that is. 

It's so hot right now in Arizona that the National Weather Service has published an Excessive Heat Warning for the next three days. 

What are the impacts of this heat wave, according to the National Weather Service? “A major increase in the potential for heat related illness and even death.” Great.

The temperature highs range from 108 to 118 degrees Fahrenheit. Definitely not "light jacket" weather. More like "wear nothing and roll around in a tub of ice" weather. 

But Americans, being the innovative and optimistic people that we are, have taken advantage of the oppressing heat by conducting fun food experiments.

At 1 p.m. on June 20, Phoenix New Times reporter Antonia Farzan took a frozen Safeway mini cheese pizza out into the newsroom’s parking lot to see if it would cook itself.

The pizza was left lying on a sheet of aluminum foil in an empty parking space in 113 degree heat. Twenty-five minutes and three extra degrees later, the pizza had thawed, according to Munchies. By 3 p.m., the cheese had melted but the crust was quite soggy.

Still, that doesn't mean the cheesy little parking-lot pizza went to waste. Quite the contrary. A few staffers ate it, and one even noted that he or she couldn't even “taste the pollution,” according to Munchies.

But the Safeway pizza isn’t the only food item getting its time in the sun this summer.

Remember the fried chicken sandwich that was supposed to be launched into space?

Well, yep that happened. After the KFC "Zinger 1 Mission" was postponed partly due to the heat in Arizona, the zesty sandwich was finally launched into the stratosphere this morning, according to Munchies.  

If the Arizona heat can slow down something as important as a chicken sandwich's trip to space, imagine what it can do to the rest of us. 

Stay cool, Arizonans, stay cool.

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If you have air conditioning, your energy bills are bound to skyrocket during the sweltering summer months. 

It'll probably be so hot outside that you'll never want to leave your home, and so cold in the frigid artificial air of your home that you'll even want to throw on a few sweaters.

But you can ease the pressure of your mind-blowingly large A/C bill by reducing the amount of energy you use in the kitchen. 

Here's a novel way to save energy: Cook your food on the sidewalk. 

Well, only if where you live is as hot as Arizona, that is. 

It's so hot right now in Arizona that the National Weather Service has published an Excessive Heat Warning for the next three days. 

What are the impacts of this heat wave, according to the National Weather Service? “A major increase in the potential for heat related illness and even death.” Great.

The temperature highs range from 108 to 118 degrees Fahrenheit. Definitely not "light jacket" weather. More like "wear nothing and roll around in a tub of ice" weather. 

But Americans, being the innovative and optimistic people that we are, have taken advantage of the oppressing heat by conducting fun food experiments.

At 1 p.m. on June 20, Phoenix New Times reporter Antonia Farzan took a frozen Safeway mini cheese pizza out into the newsroom’s parking lot to see if it would cook itself.

The pizza was left lying on a sheet of aluminum foil in an empty parking space in 113 degree heat. Twenty-five minutes and three extra degrees later, the pizza had thawed, according to Munchies. By 3 p.m., the cheese had melted but the crust was quite soggy.

Still, that doesn't mean the cheesy little parking-lot pizza went to waste. Quite the contrary. A few staffers ate it, and one even noted that he or she couldn't even “taste the pollution,” according to Munchies.

But the Safeway pizza isn’t the only food item getting its time in the sun this summer.

Remember the fried chicken sandwich that was supposed to be launched into space?

Well, yep that happened. After the KFC "Zinger 1 Mission" was postponed partly due to the heat in Arizona, the zesty sandwich was finally launched into the stratosphere this morning, according to Munchies.  

If the Arizona heat can slow down something as important as a chicken sandwich's trip to space, imagine what it can do to the rest of us. 

Stay cool, Arizonans, stay cool.

Arizona Is So Hot, You Can Cook On The Sidewalk (Photo)

If you have air conditioning, your energy bills are bound to skyrocket during the sweltering summer months. 

It'll probably be so hot outside that you'll never want to leave your home, and so cold in the frigid artificial air of your home that you'll even want to throw on a few sweaters.

But you can ease the pressure of your mind-blowingly large A/C bill by reducing the amount of energy you use in the kitchen. 

Here's a novel way to save energy: Cook your food on the sidewalk. 

Well, only if where you live is as hot as Arizona, that is. 

It's so hot right now in Arizona that the National Weather Service has published an Excessive Heat Warning for the next three days. 

What are the impacts of this heat wave, according to the National Weather Service? “A major increase in the potential for heat related illness and even death.” Great.

The temperature highs range from 108 to 118 degrees Fahrenheit. Definitely not "light jacket" weather. More like "wear nothing and roll around in a tub of ice" weather. 

But Americans, being the innovative and optimistic people that we are, have taken advantage of the oppressing heat by conducting fun food experiments.

At 1 p.m. on June 20, Phoenix New Times reporter Antonia Farzan took a frozen Safeway mini cheese pizza out into the newsroom’s parking lot to see if it would cook itself.

The pizza was left lying on a sheet of aluminum foil in an empty parking space in 113 degree heat. Twenty-five minutes and three extra degrees later, the pizza had thawed, according to Munchies. By 3 p.m., the cheese had melted but the crust was quite soggy.

Still, that doesn't mean the cheesy little parking-lot pizza went to waste. Quite the contrary. A few staffers ate it, and one even noted that he or she couldn't even “taste the pollution,” according to Munchies.

But the Safeway pizza isn’t the only food item getting its time in the sun this summer.

Remember the fried chicken sandwich that was supposed to be launched into space?

Well, yep that happened. After the KFC "Zinger 1 Mission" was postponed partly due to the heat in Arizona, the zesty sandwich was finally launched into the stratosphere this morning, according to Munchies.  

If the Arizona heat can slow down something as important as a chicken sandwich's trip to space, imagine what it can do to the rest of us. 

Stay cool, Arizonans, stay cool.