Friday, July 16, 2010

Dog Day Blahs

It's official. We are experiencing the dog days of summer when the heat and humidity make you seek out the coolest places. Unfortunately my kitchen does not qualify and laboring over a hot stove to cook a meal that we really don't appreciate because we're all craving something light and refreshing.

My mother-in-law used to make a cold soup for summer evenings. Taking a loaf or two of day old bread, cubing it and pouring cold milk over it. She would then add several cups of what ever fruit was in season. Set it on the table and expected everyone to either eat it or go hungry.

As a young bride it was one of the most disturbing meals I had ever been served.

My husband still likes it but we don't want to have to buy a cart load of milk every time we go grocery shopping and I still wouldn't want to eat it.

I am trying to find some easy summery recipes that would relieve my time in the kitchen. If you have any summer time favorites let me know. .......  As long as it's not a cold soup.

22 comments:

  1. G'day sweet JC ~
    I take rotini cooked
    Add cut up green onions
    cut up olives
    cut up ham, pepperoni or whatever meat you would like
    sprinkle with 4 cheese (I think it is Mexican 4 cheese but any cheese will do)
    sprinkle lightly with parmesan/romano
    SLATHER Kraft Zesty Italian salad dressing

    Mix, chill & serve

    I could eat this day & night.

    Have a lovely weekend ~
    TTFN~ Hugs, Marydon

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  2. Taco salad is our go-to meal on the hottest of days.

    Spread refried beans on the bottom of a casserole dish. Next, spread sour cream, then salsa, then lettuce, then tomato, then cheese. You can also add black olives and/or peppers. Serve with tortilla chips.

    Meat salads stuffed in jumbo shell pasta is good. (tuna salad, salmon salad and chicken salad work best)

    Cold ham and potato salad dinners are always nice.

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  3. i seldom heat my kitchen in the dead of summer. we grill just about everything from hamburgers to beets to squash!

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  4. Mmmm...I'm disturbed for you on that soup. Yuck. I like a nice light meal of tomato sandwiches and cold pasta salad. The only thing that heats up the kitchen is boiling the pasta noodles. The heat sure has been awful this summer. It's too hot to even go outside and stand over the grill.

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  5. We like Crab Salad with Ritz crackers in the summertime. If you try this make a lot because I think you'll like it. I posted my recipe here:
    http://dakotarecipes.blogspot.com/2008/01/crab-salad.html

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  6. the recipes posted so far sound delicious! I use my crock pot a lot during the summer.

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  7. We eat lots of different sandwiches during the summer and grilled iced shrimp. If you want the recipe I'd be happy to email it to you.

    That soup sounds gaggingly dreadful I really don't blame you for not having it on your menu, but then on second thought if your husband likes it so well it could always serve as a diet aid you you ever need one. Ha Ha!

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  8. Oh My! Not appetizing at all. In fact I can't imagine how anyone could invent that in the first place!
    Our favourite for summer is rice paper wraps and the children would love to help with this one. Soak a rice paper round for a few seconds then fill with shredded carrot, bean sprouts, small green leaf, rice noodle and finely shredded cooked chicken if you want meat or chopped peanuts if you don't. Then wrap in a neat parcel and dip in a sauce made from soy and lime/lemon juice as you eat them. It's a great recipe for children to embrace their fresh raw vegetables too without it being "another boring salad"

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  9. You've got some great ideas here ~ but please tell me you've got a/c in that new house! Our kitchen is the furthest room away from the unit which is downstairs (?) and we bought a window a/c unit for the kitchen window a few years back and it's been a lifesaver. It also gets the afternoon sun so it's on mostly in the afternoons and it makes making supper much less stressful - for me of course, the others just come when called. ha ha

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  10. Oh my goodness, I think I would have had to excuse myself from the table on being served that. Makes my yet-to-have-breakfast tummy turn!

    My most helpful small appliance during this kind of weather is a countertop convection/infrared oven. I can cook not only meals but even desserts and bake cookies.

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  11. Oh my word...I'm still giggling over your comment, "As a young bride it was one of the most disturbing meals I had ever been served." Disturbing indeed!

    We usually stick to summer salads, fruit, tuna/chicken salad and green smoothies. I make a bunch of hamburger patties at once in the oven and freeze them. When I want to add something heavier to my salad (like beef), I take out a patty and heat it up in the microwave.

    It's great for an impromptu taco salad...on a bed of tortilla chips add lettuce, tomatoes, onions, beef, cheese, frozen corn, canned black beans, salsa and you've got a great meal! Not a lot of cookin' goin' on here (:

    Michele
    XOXO

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  12. I really like vegetable salads, and sanwiches.

    a recipe I have been really wanting to try is salmon stuffed tomatos, it's a cold dish and it's healthy too!

    I loved it when I was a kid my grandma would make fried chicken serve it cold-and we'd all go for a pic nic at the river, where everyone could swim and stay cool for the entire day. It was so fun!

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  13. That is definitely an interesting meal! Great blog! :)

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  14. Thanks for this post :-) I've had to get used to the Amish food a lot and it has been strange for me. This sounds like one of the first meals I had with the family I stayed with...I tried so hard to eat it all but I just couldn't. :) 7 years later and I'm still not used to it all yet...except Haystack and Whoppie Pies those are 2 "Amish" type foods I now LOVE! :) ~Kate

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  15. I love using my crockpot year round.
    Today I cooked some ribs in it.
    I pre-cooked the ribs about 15 minutes under the broiler, then put a sauce in the crockpot adding the ribs last. After 8 hours, just before serving, I heated some corn and made baked potatoes in the microwave. I didn't cook all day and the house stayed cool.

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  16. My grandparents did something very similar with cake (instead of bread) and fruit for dessert. It always came *after* a real meal, though. Usually fried fish (outside)!

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  17. Yuck...I've eaten cold soup. Once. I don't plan to eat it again. I didn't sound good, but I hoped for the best anyway. {shudder}.
    (Interestingly enough, it was from an Amish cookbook...after reading an Amish story (Carrie Bender) that mentioned it, we found it in a cookbook and my curiousty got the best of me...)

    Anyway, I like to serve 'dinner salads'. Steak salads, chicken salads, taco salads...they're light but filling. You can serve it all cold, or with the meat hot, thus melting the cheese. Lots of salad veggies, maybe some French fries, hard boiled eggs...Mmmmm. Tacos are another one that doesn't heat up the kitchen too much and isn't very heavy to eat on a muggy day. Hoagies/Subs/Grinders, (name varies depending on your location) can be made with anything...leftovers, lunchmeat, tuna-type salads. I like sloppy joes or BBQ sandwiches served w/chips, Grilled Cheese sandwiches with a macaroni salad and pickled beets, anything on the grill. Breakfast for dinner can be fun, and usually only uses the stove top (bacon, eggs, pancakes and fruit) If you're light eaters (we're not, usually), a nice fruit salad with cottage cheese might do the trick. The possibilities are endless, use your imagination! Happy eating!!

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  18. Oohh the cold soup does not sound appetizing at all.
    I think a sandwich with fruit would be better as a fast and easy meal :D

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  19. I don't know if you drink cold, sweet tea or not, but one alternative I like is cold, sweet peppermint tea. I just brew it to the strength I like, then sweeten and refridgerate it. If you don't have a peppermint plant right now, you can buy peppermint-only tea bags in most grocery stores in the "special tea" section with all the littler tea boxes. I'm also experimenting with brewing peppermint into my iced tea. It's pretty refreshing with a meal. (Though none of this will really help the hot kitchen problem.)

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  20. A bread and milk soup doesn't sound appetizing to me, either. I like salads in the summer. Anything to avoid heating up the house with oven cooking.

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  21. I like pasta primavera. Your stove is on for awhile but it is so good. Cook your pasta, then cook all the fresh vegetables you like is small bite size pieces, onions, broccoli, squash, mushrooms, garlic, peppers,tomatoes, etc. take it out and deglaze the pan with chicken broth and add some half and half or cream. Then add the vegetables back in, salt and pepper, then the pasta, maybe some of the pasta water and some fresh basil. tAKES THE STOVE BUT NOT FOR LONG.Yummy!

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  22. tomatoes stuffed with tuna or chicken salad

    lettuce with slices of fresh tomato,cottage cheese with fruit, add cold turkey, ham or roast beef slices, or cooked chilled shrimp. It's a great supper!

    One of my favorite summer sandwiches is a pita bread, cut in half, with the pockets filled with shredded lettuce,small tomato chunks and shrimp salad...or other salads made from ham,turkey, chicken or tuna.

    We do a lot of grilling in summer months with many raw vegs and dressing to dip them in.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment. I love hearing your thoughts.