Winter Dishes In Summer

Just because the warm weather is here, doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your favorite winter dishes.Cook them with a lighter hand . Go easy on the sauces and gravy. You can have the same good stuff now that you munched on in December.



We all love meat and gravy during the colder months and why not. We need those hearty hot roast beef or turkey sandwiches to get us through snow shoveling or holiday shopping. Eat one of those now and you'll pass out. Yet who hasn't craved one when the temps hit the nineties? You can make a lighter one, substituting the heavy roue based gravy with au jus (the French for with juice) and serve on a flayed pita or even a very thin slice of bread. You don't get all the heaviness this way, just the taste. Creamed veggies are also a winter staple. Yet somehow creamed cauliflower or lima beans aren't too yummy when you're sweltering in shorts. Turn these into steamed salads dressed with a cool ranch dressing. The taste is zippier even than and is great accompanying kabobs or steaks. You can also have your baked potato but wrap it in foil and bake it on th e grill. Add some herbed low fat sour cream or even creme fraiche as opposed to butter and American cheese.



Some winter desserts can be lightened up to suit winter tastes. A German BlackForest cake can be a chocolate Bundt cake with the middle filled with fresh picked pitted cherries and whipped cream. Bake airy meringues instead of the traditional cold weather chocolate chips and gingerbread. For some dash add cinnamon or dip them in chocolate. Even those rich and warm lattes can be made into cooling almost frozen drinks (check ou the Dunkin Donuts ones that taste like coffee shakes).


Have all your favorite winter foods now. Just "summerize" them so that they're light and not heavy. That way you'll enjoy them all year round.