5 Recipes for when it’s too hot to cook
Aug 8, 2011 Appetizers, Beef, Chicken, Dips and Spreads, Food Things, Mexican, Salads, Snacks
Well, it’s officially been the hottest summer in Oklahoma since before I was born. Brian, Hurley and I are surviving, thankful for a working air conditioner and lots of iced tea. Hurley runs around outside after the sun goes down, and sometimes spends half the night outside playing. Brian’s routine hasn’t changed much, and since the grass hasn’t been growing because of the drought he hasn’t had to go outside and mow the lawn. I’ve pretty much given up on running with Hurley until the weather gets back down to highs in the 90′s, but other than those things the main thing that the heat as been affecting is dinner.
The stove and oven put off enough heat in 30 minutes to make life miserable for the evening. I’m sure we aren’t the only ones with this problem. I should have posted this a few weeks ago at the beginning of this long, hot string, but I’m sure there are still plenty of hot days ahead.
Here are some of my favorite recipes for when it’s too hot to cook. These recipes require no grilling, stove, or oven. Now you should have no excuse to go out to eat every night.
1. Sandwiches are a great choice, and this one is one of my favorites. This is a Roast Beef Sandwich with Cranberries that I wrote about a few years ago, but you can easily substitute the roast beef for turkey and it works very well. All ingredients are cold and refreshing.
(photo courtesy of Bon Appetit)
2. This Wild Arugula Salad looks amazing, and if you use store bought croutons you don’t have to use your oven at all.
3. The third recipe I have is Summer Rolls with Peanut Sauce from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters Cookbook. These are presented as an appetizer in restaurants, but I think you’ll find that a few of these are quite substantial as a meal, and they are so good for you. Sorry I don’t have a picture, but just read the recipe and you’ll see how wonderful these are.
4. This might be my favorite recipe from this last year, and even though I’ve made it at least 8 times I don’t have a single picture of it anywhere. There could be two reasons for this. #1, I generally am so excited to eat it once it’s done that I forget to take a picture before it’s gone, or #2, I decide not to take a picture because it’s sort of ugly. I can’t ever get it to bring a good presentation, but the combination of flavors is so amazing that I promise you won’t be disappointed. This recipe uses a slow-cooker, which doesn’t generate a lot of heat but produces a wonderful meal.
Slow Cooked Chicken with Tomatillos, Potatoes, Jalapenos, and Fresh Herbs from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Everyday
Ingredients:
1 medium white onion, cut into 1/4 inch thick rounds
salt
4 medium (about 1 pound) red-skinned or Yukon gold potatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (1.5-2 lbs)
1 cup (loosely packed) cilantro leaves or 1/3 cup (loosely packed) fresh epazote leaves
1 1/4 pounds tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/4 cup slicked canned pickled jalapenos
2 tbs jalapeno pickling juiceDirections
Spread the onion over the bottom of a slow-cooker. Sprinkle with salt. Continue with layers of the potato slices, chicken thighs, cilantro, and then tomatillos, sprinkling salt evenly over each layer before moving on to the next. Scatter the jalapeno slickes over everything, then drizzle with the picking juice. Cover and slow-cook on high for 6 hours. Serve in bowls and sprinkle with cilantro.
5. Guacamole is probably my favorite no-cook food. I know it’s an appetizer, but use it as the base on tostadas and you’re on your way to a delicious no-cook meal. Tostadas are a great way to clean out the fridge of any leftover taco meat, chorizo, or baked chicken. Sprinkle on some cheese, sour cream, salas, and guacamole, or whatever else you have in your fridge. I generally like tostadas with a base of black beans, and you can microwave those for a minute or two and spread them on the tostada before topping.
I hope everyone stays cool, whether you’re in Oklahoma or somewhere else fantastic. For now, I’ll keep drinking lots of iced tea and dreaming about moving to Alaska.
Classic and Inspiring Tortilla Soup
Jan 10, 2010 Chicken, Food Things, Mexican, Soups
This week I made some inspiring Tortilla soup. We’ll get to that in a minute.
I started this blog because I love to write. Writing is something I’ve always loved to do, and over the years I’ve filled up countless journals and started a few different blogs. I’ve learned different things through each different blog. When I started my first blog at Mindsay I was writing for me. I wasn’t very good at writing for an audience at all, and I really wasn’t that creative. It was my first attempt at blogging when all I had done was journal my whole life. After about a year, a friend of mine designed a site for me and I got my own domain, and everything changed. Suddenly I was getting comments and all of my friends and family were reading and participating in the things I was writing about. We played games, I did silly things, wrote about my life, posted some fun pictures, and relationships grew because of my blog. I was able to keep in touch with friends who had moved away by sharing my life on my blog and letting them participate in it. It was great. Then, as we got older, the silliness seemed to get less flattering, or maybe I just started be get more serious, and the blog sort of fizzled out. I was sad about it for a while, and sort of mourned the loss of my 3 year blog about my life.
I knew the next blog I started should have a twist. I didn’t want to just write about my life anymore, I wanted to write about something so I could learn more about it. When you dedicate your writing to something you want to learn about you become a better writer and also better at the topic you choose. If I had to become good at something, I definitely wanted it to be cooking. I love to cook, and although I’ve never had any formal training I feel like I can hold my own in the kitchen. I thought that blogging about cooking might help me learn a few things, try some creative recipes I wouldn’t normally try, and inspire me to connect with a new group of people who love food and love to try new recipes.
I quickly realized that everyone loves food, and that this blog is something that most of my family and friends visit every now and then. I’m so glad that they do, because it really does make me feel connected with them when I can’t see them every day. I love looking at Google Analytics and seeing that 5 people in Chicago, 4 people in Dallas, 2 people in California, 1 person in Oregon, 3 people in Colorado, and 20 people in Oklahoma all visited my site yesterday. I can guess who some of those people are, and it makes me feel closer to them and like they know a little more about me. It’s really a wonderful feeling. Read the rest of this entry »
Make-your-husband-better Chicken Noodle Soup and how to chop an onion
Oct 20, 2009 Chicken, Food Things, Healthy, Soups, Tips and Tricks, Yummy
Yesterday Brian woke up with a sore throat and told me that he just knew he was getting sick. After I thought about the extremely busy week ahead, had an internal and extremely brief panic attack, and quickly calmed down, I thought about what I could do to make him feel better. Our kitchen is filled with leftover football food and ice cream, not exactly immune-boosting types of food. I thought I should probably make him something soothing and healthy, and of course the first thing that came to mind was chicken noodle soup.
I had never made chicken noodle soup before, but I was determined. I browsed through some recipes online, called my mom, and came up with what sounded like a good compilation of the advice that I received. I stuck closely to Bon Appetit’s Old Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup with a few changes. I left out the mushrooms, added extra pasta and vegetables, and cooked the chicken a little longer than they suggested. It all worked great and we ended up with a recipe that we both really liked and I think made Brian feel a little bit better.