Hot cuisine - what's for dinner?
5Another heat wave here, temps above 100° until Thursday.
We have a/c, but only run it when the humidity is really high and you can’t even breathe. Our electric cost here is probably one of the highest in the nation, it cost ten dollars a day to run the a/c, so we really try not to. Our company is a home based company that includes manufacturing (welding, grinding, drilling, fans to keep the shop not so miserable) and we have to be careful we don’t go over our top tier or the cost of energy skyrockets. The shop easily uses 25% to 35% of the total energy we use. So…no air conditioning.
It doesn’t help that the kitchen is on the west side of the house and takes the brunt of the daytime heat.
Tired of samiches or fast food, I made dinner yesterday, started yesterday morning. Swiss steak in the crock pot. Dredged the meat pieces in seasoned flour, browned on both sides, removed, sauteed sliced onion and bell pepper until limp (the veggies, not me), mixed a couple of cans of diced tomatoes with Worcestershire sauce.
Meat, tomato mix, veggies, more tomatoes, the third piece of meat (the crock pot is small, a two quarter), tomatoes, the rest of the veggies and the rest of the tomato mixture. House smelled pretty darned good. Then I used the Instant Pot for the mashed potatoes.
By the time I got the meal to the table I was dripping with sweat. Damn it. That was the whole purpose of preparing the way I did. No stove, no oven…meal was good, but just damn.
How do you cope with cooking in the summer?
- 13 comments, 39 replies
- Comment
Not sure how into Korean food you are but this is fairly easy: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/naengmyeon. you can skip the ice if you chill down the broth beforehand. It’s fairly expandable, throw in a sliced egg, or some left over meat, cucumber etc. If you have a asian store near you, you can buy packs cheap that do most of the work for you. Also you could try if you make it ahead of time Gazpatcho. That’s cool as well.
@Targaryen
Good ideas.
I’d try it, but my husband doesn’t care for Asian food. He has no idea what he’s missing.
@Targaryen I LOVE Maangchi! We make kimchi using her recipe and tons of other meals from her cookbook and youtube channel.
Salad. No cooking required.
@narfcake Always good.
@narfcake
But what about the chicken pieces?
@PlacidPenguin
@cinoclav
Well that works.
@narfcake This. Lots of salads, an occasional grill session, but mostly salads and sammiches.
Yesterday’s lunch. It ain’t a Bento box, but it’s all I could muster together at 6AM:
@narfcake You don’t win friends with salad.
@Limewater
Friends? Who needs friends?
@cinoclav @PlacidPenguin @lisaviolet
We’ve been using the turkey fryer outside to make 2 chickens + vege all at once. Lasts thru a couple weeks of salads, sandwiches, & assorted leftovers.
/image Big Easy fryer
@narfcake @ruouttaurmind That salad would feed me for two days.
@mfladd
Smaller than it looks in the pic though. The container is 6”x6”, and about 3” tall, barely half full, mostly lettuce. 2oz each turkey and honey ham, one small egg, two slices of cheese. It’s a decent portion for lunch, but not what I’d consider a big lunch. It was surprisingly tasty though. 
@ruouttaurmind Do you buy your salad dressing in those convenient packs? How much are they?
@therealjrn No, those were included with a to-go salad I picked up for lunch last week. I used V&O for that one and had these left in the fridge. I have seen them at either Costco or Sams before though. Oh, wait, I think it was actually Smart & Final.
@ruouttaurmind Thanks! I haven’t looked anywhere for them. They sell them for 25 cents each extra at this one place I go to–too pricey for me.
I found these on Sam’s web site. I’ve never seen these.
@therealjrn there is a bbq joint/steakhouse near me that does fried onion and jalapeno strips as an appetizer and fried jalapenos are pretty good. I bet those French’s aren’t bad. Maybe time to spice up the green bean casserole next Thanksgiving.
@djslack Great idea!
@therealjrn I have a bag of those at home right now. They’re utterly delicious.
@djslack @therealjrn They sell them at Costco.
I have a screened back porch with its own lights and outlets. I replaced a ceiling light with a nice low-profile ceiling fan. I can plug in a steamer, slow cooker, or pressure cooker out there and just let the fan blow the heat away. There’s nothing that says all cooking must be done in the kitchen.
@stardate820926 Is that Walter White? I don’t remember that scene. Cute!
@moonhat @stardate820926 Yeah, I think he went to visit his wife after she’d kicked him out and the pizza didn’t get him in the door.
Reservations in an air conditioned restaurant.
Grill.
Or, cook a lot at once and microwave it over the next several days. That way, you only have to heat up your kitchen once.
@Limewater This works well for me. I grill up 12 or 15 chicken breasts, then freeze them. One breast will make a hearty sandwich, or two salads. I take one out of the freezer and leave it in the fridge overnight. By suppertime it’s defrosted and ready to warm up, or slice up and add to a salad.
I made Thai coconut curry for dinner this evening. I’m making chicken picatta tomorrow night. And it was 108 at 7pm last night.
@moondrake Coconut curry - YUM!
@moondrake we had watermelon, jalapeno chips and sour cream tonight.
@lisaviolet @mfladd. Here’s the result of the chicken picatta experiment this evening.
I was lazy, blackened Mahi Mahi on a fake everything bagel.
You people are way more ambitious than I ever am with cooking. Anybody need a tax dependent? I’ll do dishes without complaint and without putting dirty pots and pans away or hide them in the oven…
Instapot. It cooks quickly and only nominally heats the house. Lots of asian flash fried dishes. Basically anything I can cook in just a few minutes.
@evilstan60 That’s what I used for the mashed potatoes. It’s just that the kitchen is on the west side of the house. We have a thermometer outside on that side (we actually have eight different thermometers around the yard and house) and the past few days, it’s been well over 100°. The ceiling fan is set at high and it still doesn’t dissipate the heat.
And he won’t eat Asian dishes. I don’t know why, he just won’t.
@lisaviolet try crack chicken in the instapot.
2lbs of chicken breast
1 packet of ranch dressing seasoning
8oz cream cheese
1/2 C water (or broth)
1 C your favorite hard liquor
put everything in. instapot on high pressure for 60 minutes. use the hard liquor to make your drink(s) of choice while it cooks. quick release the steam. take chicken out and shred. use a whisk to stir the gloriously cheesy liquid around and break up any clumps of cream cheese. put chicken back in and stir that shit around. throw the result on a bun and top with whatever you want. eat.
note: this stuff tastes even better the next day.
@carl669 That sounds really good. I’m writing it down.
@lisaviolet edit first step to “put everything in except the hard liquor”
@carl669 @lisaviolet that sounds really good- I’ll have to try it! 60 minutes seems like a long time for the IP though. How many breasts is 2 pounds? 2? 10? I am not good at figuring that kind of thing out. Say, one of those Costco chicken boobs. What do you think?
@moonhat
<How many breasts is 2 pounds?>
depends how big your breasts are.
@lisaviolet oops… forgot one thing. add in 1 C shredded cheddar cheese and mix it in with the liquid/sauce at the end before stirring the chicken back in.
@carl669 @moonhat And the Costco chicken breasts are frozen. I’m sure sixty minutes will be plenty of time for cooking, I’d cook frozen breasts for DaNiece (a kitty who had some issues last year and she would eat the chicken) and it took twenty minutes of cooking time until it was shreddable.
Almost anything can be cooked outdoors if you have an extension cord, a crock pot, and a hot plate.
A grill is nice to have, too. Propane may be cheaper than electricity.
@2many2no Depending on the length of the extension cord, possibly FREE electricity!
@2many2no But it’s hot out there! lol!
@lisaviolet That’s why you use the slow-cooker, so you don’t have to watch the pot. Back when the only places that had air conditioning were bars and grocery stores, back porch cooking was a summer way of life.
/image Nesco
@2many2no the main meal was in a crock pot.
Pasta salad.
Papa Murphy’s.