What to Cook when the Temps are Cooking?

It's hot!

Really hot.

Since I had a meat thermometer out the other day, I decided to check the temp in my kitchen - 95degrees

Which is just my wimpy way of explaining why there's really not much cooking going on at the moment. The heat wave and the fact that I was at a writing workshop for teachers for the past two days.

But we still have to eat.

Honestly, I'd probably rather eat a bowl of cereal -

This one was on sale for $2.99 last week. It's already one of my favorites, but load it with a pile of fresh blueberries??? Oh yum!

It's really kind of scary how many blueberries I have eaten in the past few weeks!


But man (or woman) cannot survive on cereal alone, no matter how tasty.

So I've done a few quick meals this week that gave me nutrition and taste without a lot of oven time.

The first is similar to one I've done before. I had the most amazing plum tomatoes from the farmer's market plus my basil, so what better to do than fresh pizza.

All I did for this was hollow out a loaf of Italian bread - you don't have to but I like the crust better than the doughy part.

 

I sprinkled shredded cheese and garlic powder on the bread, then added some oregano and fresh basil leave. I topped it with those luscious tomatoes.

The concoction went into the oven just long enough to melt the cheese. DIVINE.

Oh my goodness!  I could eat this stuff all day!

In fact, I made it again tonight on mini pitas instead. I left the tomatoes off one.

Fenny's hoping I'll drop a shrimp.

But last night we were in the midst of crazy storms so I was late cooking. I sure didn't feel like cooking when I had to close the kitchen windows on top of the 95 degree h


Saved by the leftovers.

I made fried haddock for my husband a week ago. Brilliant me thought I would forego my usual egg batter and try the milk soak that Ruthy described for fried onions.

Nope. Didn't work. Made a mess.

I had more of the haddock so I fried that up normally for him and saved the rest in the freezer.

So one night when I had no culinary inspiration whatsoever, I  remembered that haddock. I took it out, added some pre-cooked shrimp from COSTCO, covered with a breadcrumb topping, some lemon and butter, and stuck under the broiler for a few minutes. Soooo very good.

If it wasn't summer, I probably would have paired it with rice or noodles, but this was perfectly light just as was.



Nice things about summer -

When I'm in Maine, I love summer sunrises. But this year, stuck in the city, I'm really appeciating all the vivid summer sunsets. The camera really doesn't do the brilliant sky justice.

This doesn't even begin to capture the colors, but I took it through my window so not too bad,

 

 

 

 

 

Sunrise in Maine.