Eat to beat the heat?

[Alchemist]

Forgot to add that when at work no matter what one is eating EAT IT IN THE WALK IN!!

[BeeZee]

it was hotter than FORK in the wine country today (and this weekend)... so, i resorted to firing up the grill at 9pm last night and grilled off a flank steak marinated in olive oil, s&p, garlic & parsley and a bunch of chicken breasts marinated in tj's mole sauce.

i didn't even think of eating them last night... but they sure tasted great in salads today 

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Yep, that's our strategy, grill tons of chicken breasts and veggies and keep in fridge with salad fixin's. Also have hoummous and taboule on hand for vegetarian dinner.

[christine007]

I never remembing seeing a regional weather map like I saw on sunday morning, the entire U.S. is ninety or better! Whoa , global warming.

I'm living on cottage cheese, tuna, slices of vegetables from mly garden, home pickled beets and hard boiled eggs.

Keeping whole wheat pita bread in the house for easy sandwiches.

and, of course, sweet ice tea, because this ohio girl is more than a little bit country.

Have not found the courage to stand over my Webber grill in this heat.

[gini]

I hear rumors it might hit 100 in Boston, MA.

I'm in the non-appliance-usage category. Instead, I like to assemble: Caprese salad, beans in vinaigrette, watermelon and feta salad, pate and cheese from Formaggio Kitchen and bread from Clear Flour.

[jsolomon]

Forgot to add that when at work no matter what one is eating EAT IT IN THE WALK IN!!

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[miladyinsanity]

There is this theory that if you eat hot things in hot weather, you'll feel better. It sort of makes sense to me.

[CaliPoutine]

I'm originally from California, so any humidity really really bothers me. Yesterday it was over 105f( with the humidex).

To make matters worse, last night was our Community Kitchen planning meeting. I'm the coordinator so I plan what we will cook on Thursday night. Who could even think of cooking stews, lasagnas, etc in this heat.

But, you can't freeze salads so we had to come up with something, but I said if less than 5ppl show, I'm cancelling this months kitchen.

No go as 5 ppl showed up.

so, we're cooking on Thursday, thankfully only 2 things need to be oven baked.

Oh and for dinner I had subway( gross I know, but it was either than or Mcdonald's or KFC). I wasnt cooking and the pickings are slim here in small town Ontario.

[enidjane]

Yes, yes, welcome to the special hell that I live in 5 months of the year. We crank the air-conditioning, ignore the weather, and cook whatever the hell we want.

[Jaymes]

I eat a lot of salads when it's this hot. And ya'll, I don't know about California, but here it is HOT.

[Toliver]

I forgot to mention one easy thing to do when the weather is hot is to buy one of those pre-cooked rotisserie chickens they sell in the grocery stores.

By the time I get my groceries home, the still-warm chicken can be easily deboned by hand (I find it more difficult to remove all the meat if the chicken is cold or has been refrigerated). I get just about every shred of meat off that sucker and the carcass can be frozen for making stock when the weather is cooler.

Then you can use the chicken meat for multiple meals for everything from tacos, burritos, wraps, salads, sandwiches, and so on.

It's a real time-saver.

[cajungirl]

Well, it isn't normal here (San Jose), but when I got home yesterday, my patio registered 102 in the shade. Though I'm originally from New Orleans, I'm just not used to it anymore. Sooooo...lots of ice cold watermelon, a salad Nicoise and sherbet last night. Tonight, salad with cold grilled chicken atop, more watermelon and I may make ice cream or a peach sorbet! But, NO real cooking!

[cajungirl]

Oh yeah, I forgot...I have no air conditioning. We don't need it here in the bay area.... (at least not normally)

Edited July 18, 2006 by cajungirl (log)

[cakewalk]

Mmmojitos!

Ah!

(And some guacamole.)

[ludja]

Oh yeah, I forgot...I have no air conditioning.  We don't need it here in the bay area.... (at least not normally)

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I forgot to mention that as well...

[Dave Weinstein]

I went a long time not thinking about "summer cooking" as a special thing.

When I lived in Austin, I had air conditioning, and big power bills.

When I lived in Denver, the temperature dropped like a stone after the sun went down.

When I lived in Virginia, I had air conditioning, and big power bills.

When I lived in North Carolina, I had air conditioning and massive power bills.

Now that I live in Washington, I have no air conditioning, and very reasonable power bills. But when it gets hot (which it is slated to do again this weekend), it's time for alternatives.

We had a house session during the last unpleasant weekend in late June, and in the afternoon, in direct sun, I'm busy frying homemade sausage in a cast iron skillet...

[Kouign Aman]

High (for the locale) humidity and heat, no a/c. We're on a roll with

Caprese, cold meats, pate, cheese, pickles, olives, ice water, bread, crackers. Corn on the cob. Assorted veggies, nuked, served cold. Lettuce salads topped with whatever and dressed on a whim (asian-influenced dressings "feel" cooler). Home-made icecream*. Anyone who turns on the oven will be shot on sight. The toaster oven may be used in limited quantities, preferably while placed outdoors. There is unlimited microwave use.

*I've heard that technically icecream is lousy warm weather food as it generates more heat in digestion (calorie content) than it cools, but the illusion holds for us.

[Jennifer Brizzi]

I've been instructed by the non-cook in the family to desist from using the oven or even boiling water for pasta or blanching veggies, for the duration of the heat wave. So last night we ate leftover grilled chicken from my sister's Bastille Day party, leftover Italian potato and green bean salad from Sunday night, then two salads I made just for last night's dinner: one with pink beans, diced jicama, scallions, cilantro, lots of garlic and Penzey's chili powder, the other of julienned raw baby zucchini with a dressing of garlic, full-fat yogurt and lemon juice with fresh mint, basil and parsley. For dessert ripe canteloupe with blueberries.

Tonight I'm going to brave standing over the Weber and grill the pork chops I thawed out (the Sweet and Garlicky ones from Raichlen's BBQ Bible), and I'll also sweat over the stove steaming jasmine rice and sauteeing assorted summer squashes. By then I may be dreaming of takeout, but I do actually enjoy the heat when I can get to take breaks from it.

Do you think garlic has a cooling effect?

[Reefpimp]

Yes, yes, welcome to the special hell that I live in 5 months of the year.  We crank the air-conditioning, ignore the weather, and cook whatever the hell we want.

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Well, I can't ignore the weather; I work construction. We like to say that we "build our own shade" but it wasn't much succor until I rigged up an evaporative-cooling system with a garden hose, some misting nozzles,and a 48" barn fan. It helps.

I don't eat much during the day but after work, a full-cold shower (growndwater here seems to run about 68* F) followed by a bowl of gazpacho washed down with a supercooled lawnmower beer really helps. I also switch from my Sealy to a MegaLoMart brand air mattress, and that can be pretty nice. I like it best when I wake up chilly in the middle of the night. Sometimes when I come in after a day of driving screws and bangin' nails, I swear I can hear the A/C bog down as it takes on the strain....

I've noticed the same thing about garlic. Too, I reckon if I eat lots of garlic, and make sure the other guys are eating bananas, then the mosquitos will bother them and not me.

[suzilightning]

no ac - just fans upstairs and dehumidifiers downstairs. luckily the farmer's market this weekend had some good stuff so all kinds of salad makings, some raw milk cheddar cheese, fresh peaches and raspberries, local corn(in the microwave). i don't sleep well in the heat so i'm up early and cook whatever i need to - elbows or farfalle for pasta salad, chicken breasts, hanger steak and one morning i was sitting outside and hot smoking salmon at 630 am in my pjs.

soy yoghurt, fruit, now that the tomatoes are in bbt's (basil, bacon and tomato), for johnnybird a peach kuken with vanilla toffuti... and carafes of coffee and tea in the fridge.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

I'm also in the Bay Area, but in the part of the Bay Area where a/c is essential during the summer.

Last night we had a pasta salad with chicken with nice cold watermelon for dessert.

For tonight, I'll probably do sirloin steaks on the Foreman grill, with another cold pasta salad and some kind of fresh veggie.

[jsolomon]

Tonight I'm frying chicken.

Outside, though. If I do it inside, the dogs go nuts.

[ThatGrrl]

I live in a two-story apartment, with an upstairs kitchen. So I come home each day to a sweltering kitchen a good ten degrees warmer than the thermostat, HELPFULLY located on the first floor, would indicate. But I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for cooling the entire vacant apartment, all day, just to have a livable temp upstairs, when I come home. Sucks, regardless. Particularly when my fair city of Charlottesville, VA is clocking in at 97 degrees at 5 in the afternoon (105, heat index).

Much obliged to all the no-cook options. I find that I crave cold, leftovers I'd normally heat. And not the usual options, such as pizza. Odd stuff. Like leftover Thai food. Weird, but there you go.

[racheld]

I left the HOTTTTT South to move here for the weather, and it's been 90's for a week here!!! (So we went to Sunny Tennessee for the weekend---another story).

Last night we had lemon/pepper red snapper on the grill, with leftover fried rice DD made whilst we were gone---several tomatoes from the garden for salad.

Right now, there's a morning-simmered wild rice salad in the fridge, with chives, pimientos, slivered water chestnuts, baby peas, thyme, soy and a drop of sesame oil. The tiniest of the green beans, blanched whole in salted water, shocked, and tossed in a rice vinegar/sugar/black mustard seed vinaigrette, with soft Northern beans, sliced Vidalias, a chopped tomato and green peppers from the garden.

Chicken paillards are soaking in a yoghurt/salt mixture, and will go on the grill PSSSST PSSST for just a minute. Fresh crusty baguettes from DD's bakery.

Lots of lemony iced tea. All INDOORS.

ETA: Welcome, ThatGrrl---your avatar shows that you haven't changed a BIT!!

Do you still wear those little twinkly Piccolinos?

And I used to have a kitchen Just. Like. That. I so badly wanted to cut a hole in the back wall and put in an exhaust fan. A really big one.

Edited July 18, 2006 by racheld (log)

[ThatGrrl]

Thanks, racheld! I try to keep up my image. Actually, I went for a number of years with Marlo's trademark "flip" haircut, hence the nickname. The cut is gone, but the name remains. And the go go boots only come out of retirement at Halloween. Heh.

What I would GIVE for an exhaust fan for my kitchen, in addition to the standard, obviously inadequate for the purposes, over-the-stove one. Anyone who designs a southern apartment with a second floor kitchen should be forced to cook in it, during the summer.

[LindsayAnn]

I eat tons of popcicle type treats. I love Whole Fruit Bars, Bomb Pops (also knows as Firecracker bars...you know the Red, White and Blue Bars which are flavored Cherry, Lemon Ice and Blue Rasberry and so refreshing!), Minute Maid Fruit Bars (which have tons of Vitamin C, and Come with grape, oranage and cherry and are fruity delicious!).

I also Love Ice Cream of course, and just picked up a gallon of mint chocolate chip, you know the white icecream that is mint flavored with the black dark chocolate shavings in it

I freeze fruit too, usaully bananas and grapes...both are wonderful to munch on frozen and even better when they just start to thaw a bit.

I also love making smoothies. I blend whatever is around, frozen fruit with fresh fruit, juice and once in a while yogurt..and if I am only using fresh fruit I add ice. My favorite combo is Watermelon/Orange or Cantelope/watermelon. The melon textures make for wonderful smoothies...its the crispness and large water content of these fruits that work so nicely. Also, banana also works with strawberries or bluwberries or oranges too! MMMM GOOD