If You Can't Stand the Heat...

I’ve said it before, but summer is my least favourite time of year.  It doesn’t help that I have my own internal furnace chugging away furiously, 24-7-365.  So, when the mercury soars, the last thing I want to do is spend time in a tortuously hot kitchen.  If only appetites dwindled along with my desire to cook!  Sadly, they don’t.  I’ve had to devise creative ways to get food on the table, while generating the least amount of indoor heat as possible.

Barbecuing is a great way to avoid heating the house.  Most everything can be cooked on the grill, whether on direct or indirect heat.  All that’s needed are a few good recipes, some heat-resistant cookware, and maybe a little shade.  Metal pans are the best option if cookware is required.  Avoid using pans with Teflon-coatings or with handles made of plastic or wood as most won’t take the high heat or open flame.  Aluminum foil is great for steam-cooking but use it over indirect heat for best results.  To limit our use of aluminum (cookware or foil,) we use parchment pouches on an old cookie sheet to steam vegetables or seafood.  Also glassware, as I discovered when baking our favourite meatloaf on the barbecue, can be dangerous...although, the explosion didn’t actually take place until I removed the loaf pan and placed it on a trivet to cool.  Cast iron and stainless steel are excellent cooking vessels and both clean up well.  Not everyone has access to a barbecue, though.  And, sometimes it’s simply too windy to enable thorough cooking, in a timely manner, on a barbecue.

Our most common way to get meals on the table in summer is to cook certain components in the early morning, when the house is coolest and there are still hours remaining to dissipate the generated heat through open, shaded windows.  Those meal components are foods like carbohydrates and proteins – generally the foods requiring the longest cooking times.

Potatoes, pasta, rice and beans we use most often in cold salads, but they can also be used to create quick, hot meals.  No matter the weather, baked or par-boiled potatoes produce the best oven (and barbecue) fries, in my opinion.  Pasta, cooked "al dente," and refrigerated, keeps for a few days and can be added to (re)heated sauces until warmed through.  Rice is probably our most versatile cook-ahead ingredient.  Aside from the stir-fry option (where pre-cooked rice is optimal,) it can be used as a base for frittatas, cold salad, and a (whole grain) breakfast “pudding.”  One idea I haven’t yet tried is to form a pizza shell by packing cooked rice (1/4-1/2 inch thick) into a pizza pan and then pre-baking it for a few minutes before adding toppings and finishing the cooking process.

Caution is required if you cook enough proteins  to last for two or three days of meals.  They must be cooked thoroughly, stored in air-tight containers, and refrigerated promptly. Instead of making a couple slices of bacon for breakfast, we roast a pan full (in the oven or on the barbecue) and then we have extra to crumble onto salads, baked potatoes, or to add a little protein to a quick veggie wrap.  We cook several chicken breasts or pork chops, or larger cuts like roasts and whole chicken, to use as salad or pizza toppings, or in stir-fries, sandwiches, fajitas and wraps.   Boiled eggs are something we keep on hand, year-round.  One hard-boiled egg, sliced, on toast, is my choice for an easy, high-protein meal before beginning morning exercise.  Those eggs also supplement cold summer salads (like potato, macaroni, and rice,) in tasty ways and, with the addition of a variety of vegetables, make those salads complete meals.

Last but not least, dessert.  The custard or syrups required to make ice cream, sorbet and frozen pops often require some cooking or boiling.  Jellied desserts (and salads) are also cooling, without the excessive calories of most frozen desserts.  With just a few minutes of morning prep, your family can enjoy these chill treats at any time of day.

 
Sweltering over a hot stove can really add sizzle to summer, and not in a good way.  Cooking certain ingredients in advance, in quantity, at the coolest time of day, dramatically lessens the amount of heat generated in the home.  Not only can you save time and heat-exhaustion, you’ll also save on air-conditioning and energy costs for the stove, oven and/or barbecue.  I like the fact that cooler meals don’t raise the body’s core temperature as much (though, this may be more imperative for women like me who “roast” without cooking anything.)  Best of all, you’ll have healthy food, fast – no need to resort to fast-food when heat overwhelms.

Noodling Around

It may or may not be thrifty, but noodling around is fun…and delicious.

If you wonder why I say pasta- or noodle-making may or may not be thrifty, I'll tell you. We buy bulk quantities of both whole-grain durum-wheat flour and all-purpose flour, and use a 50-50 mixture of these. We buy our eggs from a local farm at greatly reduced prices. And we buy bulk containers of olive oil. These key ingredients are used in such small proportions of the whole the actual cost per recipe is mere pennies. If we were to buy the usual grocery store sized products, costs would rise dramatically and be closer to parity with commercially-made dried pasta. So, for us, using products bought in bulk and at much reduced prices, achieves tremendous saving over store-bought noodles, particularly if using "fresh" pasta.

Now, some will note that "time is money" and making pasta is much more time consuming than using store-bought. This time cost decreases over time, though. The more often you make the recipe, the more familiar it becomes and the process goes much quicker. For us, taste and texture make this time well spent.

The savings achieved isn't the main reason for making home-made pasta. Sauces adhere better to home-made noodles. The boiling water doesn't foam up like it is prone to do with store-bought pastas. Home-made pastas cook much more quickly than commercial pastas, either fresh or dried. And, as a bonus, sodium content can be controlled.

But, these are all just niceties.

The main reason we make our own pasta is flavour. Flavour is king! Particularly since I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and I began working to lower it and get my weight down. If I must enforce portion controls and endure a reduced-sodium diet, I want the foods I do eat to pack a flavour punch. Pasta isn't the biggest, boldest flavour on the plate, certainly, so any boost it can get is fabulous, in my view.

We had the good fortune to inherit my mother's pasta machine, but they aren't a necessity. There are several simple shapes that can be made with a rolling pin, a paring knife and a few other common kitchen utensils. Here's a handy article by RecipeTips.com which gives measurements and instructions on cutting and shaping pasta by hand.