Now that summer is here, what are your favorite recipes for fast,
easy and cool meals?

74 responses total.

I will kill for Seva's Gespacho (sp?) recipie.  I've never been able
to reproduce it.  Oh, and their Tahini Salad Dressing.

This time of year what I like best is a tuna melt with a bowl of Campbells.

with this heat, the melt part is easy ........
  
reminds me, I have some tuna flopping around in a can somewhere .......

A plate full of corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes, and cucumber wedges.

Anyone have any wonderful ideas, more ways to consume more fruits and
vegetables [besides just tossed salads and fruit salads]??  Any ideas,
recipes would be greatly appreciated...  Thanks!  :-)

I like a pita sandwich stuffed with sprouts, cucumber, tomato, green and/or
black olives, and some ranch dressing.

Salade Nicoise with a wedge of fresh bread from the Great Harvest.
Cold berry soup with a dollop of yoghurt or sour cream.
Barbeque Chicken and Corn on the Cob (locally grown, of course.)
A BIG FAT Sandwich from Zingermans in their back yard!
Scuse me, I'm hungry now.

What is Salade Nicoise?  And do you have a recipe for berry soup you
can share??

Hi denise!  Salade Nicoise consists mainly of lettuce, string beans, cold
cut up new potatoes (skin on), black olives, chunks of tuna, (and I add, not
knowing or caring if its authentic) slices of red onions, anchovy strips,
cubed hard boild eggs (when I throw cholesteral caution to the winds).  Then
you douse the whole thing with an oil (olive for purists) and vinegar
(balsamatic. . er. .balsamic) and serve with a fresh chunk torn off a french or
sour dough bread.  Oh yea, I also add wedges of tomato.

The berry soup I make is a variation from the Moosewood Cookbook.  From
memory. . .A quart of OJ mixed with two cups of any mixture of sour cream,
yogurt (I use vanilla) or buttermilk, dashes of cinamon, a few tablespoons
of fresh lemon juice, honey to taste.  Then, I scrunch up a quart or so
of any fresh berries or combination of same in my blender.  Mix the berries
in with the OJ mixture, taste (adding what you think it needs) and then
let it chill for a few hours.  Serve with a "dollop" of yogurt or sourcream.
Um mmmm, delicious on a hot night.

Hmm, does anyone have any good gazpacho soup recipes, other cold 
soups recipes, or new ideas for salads? [Fruit and /or veggie]

Thanks!

Corn, only an hour or less from picking, on the cob.  No butter.  Just 5-6
ears of CORN!!!!!!

ahh, but if you're gonna have corn, y might as well soak it in beutter!  :)

We have been cooking up a pot of potatoes in the late evening, when it starts
to cool off, and eating it all the next day, to avoid having to cook when it
is hot.  Or cold rice or millet.  For breakfast, rather than heating the
kitchen with oatmeal.  I am getting tired of cold potatoes - any other ideas
of things that don't need cooking (or can be precooked), are locally grown
and organic, and vegan?  And not refined, or cooked by someone else.  This
is getting difficult, I am looking forward to the corn season, and the
tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers....  Last time I was at the
market still just lettuce, spinach and kale.  But we have raspberries and
strawberries ripe now, and some bush cherries. And mulberries, and black
raspberries, and juneberries, and wild amaranth and onion tops and chives (to
put in the beans along with last year's tomatoes).  When will the first corn
be ripe this year?

This year the raspberries and juneberries are later, and there is still not
too much at the market.  Peas in the pod, beet greens, chinese cabbage, and
some greenhouse tomatoes and zucchini and cucumbers,  We are experimenting
with freezing mulberries, which are pretty fragile and bland but maybe we can
combinethem with dried apricots for tang.

resp:12  nah-- what Scott is referring to in resp:11 is that if you 
pick maize like that, you'll be eating more sugar, less starch.  Much 
sweeter.

I enjoy cooking it in the husk over coals as opposed to boiling.  Full 
husk, mind you-- once the husk has been burnt, your cob is done.

resp:13  I've never seen wild amaranth.

re: gazpacho all over the place, I'd love to make it, but I understand 
it's expensive.  Anyway, I enjoy falfel in pita bread with tomato, 
cucumber, sprouts, and tiki sauce.

Anything about a BBQ is wonderful.  I'm looking forward to one on the 
12th for my gaming group.

Gaspacho is cheap in the summer.
Layer in a blender or food processor, bottom to top:

Red onion               1 small
Garlic                  2 cloves
Green pepper            1 small
Cucumber, peeled        1 medium
Tomato                  3
Salt                    1 tsp (or less)
Pepper                  some
Chicken stock           1/4 C
Basil leaves            1 fresh

This grinds onions and garlic but leaves green pepper in larger
chunks.  Much better if left for 24 hours.

None of the above ingredients other than basil are yet available at the
market except greenhouse grown tomato and cucumber.  I will wai, and continue
being inventive with peas and Chinese cabbage and very small homegrown
carrots.

The Gaspacho recipe was given to me by Bob Parnes, an historic figure in
computing.  

In all the grocery stores I use, the ingredients are available.  Most of them
are shipped from parts of the country that are further south than Michigan,
and are not greenhouse-grown vegetables.  Most of the ingredients are on sale
at reduced prices on a regular basis.  For everyone but Sindi they are cheap
and readily available.  

Sindi prefers not to buy food that has been shipped from out of state when
there is local food available to buy.  We freeze or dry seasonal foods for
use in the winter, which helps keep the local farmers in business.
I got the impression that most food was shipped from California even in the
middle of the summer when it is available locally.

Depends on where you shop.  We shop at Hiller's, Whole Foods, People's Food
Co-op and Merchant of Vino all of which buy local when available.

So what is available there now that is locally grown?  Today we froze a lot
of snap peas that I got from someone who had sold all her other vegetables
and wanted to go home so marked the price down and thanked me for buying all
9 pints of them.  Three minutes microwave for a large covered glass bowl, dunk
in cold water for a few minutes, ziplock back, suck air out with a straw, seal
and freeze.  Last week it was mustard greens.

resp:16  Whatabout the olive oil?  It's a must!

I suppose you could substitute olive oil for the chicken stock.  Or just
add it to taste.

Yeah.. because.. isn't gazpacho good ol' sopa fria espanola?  The 
Spaniards love olive oil.. my mother has a Spanish recipe book that 
called for American fruit salad to be drenched in it.

Hm.  I'd thought Gazpacho was more Latin American than Spanish.  Then again,
the recipe I've got uses olive oil too.  I don't suppose it matters much where
it's from, as long as it tastes good.

Last night I made something sort of like enchiladas.  Microwaved onions
(refrigerated since this winter, sprouting), garlic (the good parts, local),
a few inches of a large parsnip (pulled this spring), a can of tomato sauce
(from Evelyn's Boutique, very local), some frozen tortillas from Kroger's (not
terribly local but they were in the freezer), dried tofu and dried shiitake
mushrooms (from a store north of the river, semilocal).  Cook the first three
ingredients, then add the rest, and fresh local snap peas at the end. 
Substitute for just about anything but the sauce maybe.  Good cold too.

I love things that are good cold this time of year!

Root beer, watermelon, ice cream, berry pies, lemonade..

Yup, I love all of those things :) 

But, a lot of things one wouldnt think of as being good cold actually 
are very good cold. *shrug*

Things like baked chicken, cooked veggies, rice, etc. 

Japanese and Korean cold summer noodles.

Yep, baked chicken, cooked veggies (like broccoli with an Italian-style 
dressing like Cheese Fantastico!), and rice; but also pizza, pork n 
beans, baked beans...

I forgot potato salad, jello, green salad, sweet dinner rolls, pasta 
salad, etc.

resp:31  Not sure if I've ever had, but it sounds delicious..

   Raw vegetables are good cold.  Most cooked vegetables are icky when
cold.

heh, well, cold cooked broccoli with that Italian-style dressing 
(*like* Cheese Fantastico!) is great.  Not especially fond of it 
otherwise.

Haha. I am weird that way. I dont really like raw broccoli (although I 
dont hate it so I'll eat it) but I like cooked broccoli that has gone 
cold. I like it better than hot cooked broccoli. 

To revive an old item (to anyone that's reading):

We tried out a watermelon gazpacho recipe in last Friday's Life-- it was
fab!

I'll post it if anyone's interested.

I'd like that recipe!  Thanks.

Last night I grilled lemon and thyme marinated chicken thighs and served 
it with, again, grilled corn on the cob.  I wanted to put some broccoli 
with it but steaming it felt, well, boring.  So I sprinkled it with a 
couple of tablespoons of water, drizzled on a teaspoon or two of toasted 
sesame oil, and seasoned with salt and pepper.  The broccoli was then 
sealed in a foil packet and tossed on the hot grill for maybe 4 minutes on 
each side. Man, did it work.  

I'll be right over.  Sounds awesome. :)

Yeah, that sounds really great. I've been trying to come up with some
more creative ways of serving veggies.

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