apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I'm all for quick, light meals but if it gets hot enough, eating out someplace with AC sounds divine. Or ice cream. Or maybe a smoothie full of delicious frozen fruit. Or if it's REALLY hot, screw food, I'm going to go die on the nearest piece of cold flooring.

Well, I cook every night, but I think my normal food is generally pretty light by most people's standard.

It's currently 49 degrees in Seattle :(

Seriously though, I will make a lot of salads. If we want meat, it only takes 10 minutes to cook a chicken breast. Tossed with cilantro, garlic, and lime, then stored in the fridge until dinnertime, it makes a great salad topping with minimal heat.

It's 98 in DC. My favorite meals when it's hot are cold soba noodles or somen noodles with dipping sauce and cold firm tofu, cubed, and topped with scallions, bonita (dried fish) flakes, and soy sauce. I make the dipping sauce from scratch, but you can easily find it in jars in any asian grocery store.

Cold noodles - like sesame or peanut noodles, or a pasta salad. Salads are great, or fruit and yogurt. It's 90 here in VT, and we had 101cookbooks Sushi Bowl last night, with leftovers straight from the fridge for lunch.

I had to go out on Sunday to get fresh veggies, just so I could eat something that wasn't hot. I made a curried quinoa salad from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, which really hit the spot.

I am sad that it does get so unbearably hot in my kitchen in the summer-- one of my favorite veggies is chard, and since it must be cooked I just don't eat it when it's in season, in the summer.

i am mostly eating a lot of fruit, salad, and nuts - things that don't need to be cooked. i did cook up some chicken sausage for sandwiches last night, but kept it pretty simple overall to avoid bursting into flames.

over the weekend, i mostly ate cold sandwiches and fruit. last night i quickly stir-fried some veggies (brocolli, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, red pepper, onion), then left the house to go to the supermarket while they cooled. when i got back, i tossed the stir-fry with leftover quinoa, added rice wine vinegar and spices, and put over some lettuce. and there was enough leftovers that i don't have to cook tonight.

We've got a big green egg, so that's what I bake in during the summer. Two nights ago when it was 90F I baked a nice quiche and a rhubarb pie on it without getting the house all hot. Super handy.

http://www.biggreenegg.com/

I'll cook in hot weather, but it is things that can be cooked on a stovetop. I'm not turning on the oven.

Last night I just made a "pizza" -- I had a half-full jar of home-canned tomatoes in the fridge that needed using up, I had fresh oregano, I had garlic, I had a flat bread and I had shredded mozzarella. I crushed the leftover tomatoes, cooked it down with chopped oregano and garlic, spread it on the pita, spread cheese on it, 5 minutes in the toaster oven and voila.