Cool Cooking On Hot Days

 Hardly anyone will want to be in a hot kitchen after being in one for three months. Then it's summer - when roasting or sauteing anything can be a chore. The best bet? Cool dishes for a hot summer. These are lifesavers and just make lunch and dinner easier.

One of the chillest and tastiest is gazpacho. This Spanish classic is an easy make, especially if you follow Susan Lewis Solamont's, the former Ambassador to Spain's wife recipe for it. It's blitzing a cucumber, tomatoes, onions and garlic with olive oil and red wine vinegar. It's a wonderful dinner , especially when served with crusty sliced boules drizzled with olive oil.It's also good leftover for lunch the next day. Vichyssoise is another example of a chill soup. This is  a creamy leek and potato soup introduced in 1917 at the Ritz-Carlton to cool off diners. You can make chef Louis Diat's original recipe that calls for Yukon Gold potatoes, leeks and onions. It can be made vegan with subbing in vegetable broth for chicken and almond milk and coconut cream for regular milk and whole cream. If you don't want soup, then think salad.  Salad Nicoise is a lush salad with sliced hard boiled eggs, tuna, green beans and tomatoes along with black olives on a bed of Boston lettuce . You can add radishes for crunch and bite and the traditional Dijon mustard based vinaigrette too. Another crowd pleaser is Cobb salad, rich with bacon, avocado slices and chicken breasts.along with a variety of different greens like Boston lettuce, watercress and frisee.

Pasta may not be what you want on a hot afternoon but a pasta salad is another thing. Try an Italian style one with precooked pasta.Barilla brands has a wide variety of noodles that have been already boiled. Just open a packet and mix with slices of summer sausage and sliced cherry tomatoes. Throw in some chopped black olives and parsley for a hearty but cool dinner. Precooked pasta with salsa cruda is another temperature cooling dish on a hot night. The sauce is easy to make. It's just cut ripe tomatoes mixed with olive oil, thyme and basil. Some recipes call for a tablespoon or two of balsamic vinegar but you can also use red wine if you want to. Add some sliced Italian bread to sop up the sauce. Veggie tacos made with an array of fresh produce is a great week night meal. Sliced tomatoes along with julienned peppers and carrots make the filling. You can also add celery and any kind of lettuce for crunch and color. Top with salsa, guacamole and/or sour cream for extra richness. Hummus is an easy no cook dip that works well as a meal with pita wedges. Put in some hot pepper flakes or black olives for more flavor.

It's summer and it's time for cool,tasty meals. Don't go crazy cooking hot food in a hot kitchen. You've been doing such for months. Chill with chill meals.

Meals To Go - In A Jar?

A hearty and healthy meal on the go is a a rarity, However it doesn't have to be - thanks to Mason Jars. Mason Jars??? Yes, there is an interesting new cookbook that has all sorts of recipes that involves using these classic containers to make meals. They're great for office and school lunches as well as for picnics.

Tanya Linton, a lifestyle writer and television wrote  150 Best Meals In A Jar.(Robert Rose Press) thanks to her passion for making them. It's an innovative idea because  Mason jars make great containers. Mostly crafty gift givers use them at Christmas to fill with ingredients for soup, cookies and/or hot cocoa. Yet they can be used for so much more and  don't come with any of the health concerns of plastic containers. She includes a thorough explanation of how to scrupulously cook foods and prep produce  because even the slightest  mistake can cause food poisoning, There is even a guide for layering ingredients for both Mason jar salads and Mason jar meals. She also recommends subbing in one ingredient if you don't have the one needed. The book is divided into different sections. There is the breakfast one, a huge one devoted to all sorts of salads from veggie to surf and turf., along with one for dressings .Ms. Linton also includes the trendy rice bowls along with hearty meals and finishes up with desserts.It's a nice variety for those wanting to go from simple salads to more complicated dishes.

Home chefs will love the variety of different recipes. There are the breakfast ones that include an overnight oatmeal one that  will "cook" the grain along with a trail mix and a chocolate ricotta spread. There are some great soup recipes such as the fun pizza soup which has all the pie ingredients plus chicken broth.. There's also chicken soup n the jar, the perfect gift for a sick friend.Ms. Linton's specialty is salads and she shines in all the recipes she gives for them. There are ones that features just veggies such as kale and quinoa salad with a citrus dressing  and the triple berry spinach salad with lemon poppy seed dressing.  The meat ones feature the famed Cobb  salad with  homemade ranch dressing and the classic salad Nicoise, complete with tuna, olives and hard boiled eggs. The salads and dressings are separate so home chefs can mix and match them.I love the rice bowl and layered meal Mason jar recipes. These are full dinners in a jar.Home chefs can make a layered turkey dinner or lasagna, There is the polenta Bolognese and a shepherd's pie with lamb. The rice bowls feature a tasty Santa Fe style complete with avocado , black beans and hot sauce and fried egg rice bowl , a tribute to the Korean dish bibimbap. Finish with a jarred dessert of banana s'mores or brownies smothered in chocolates and the raspberry soaked pretty macaroon pavlova.

150 Best Meals In A Jar is a great cookbook for home chefs who want to make hearty and tasty meals on the go. It shows how to take the humble Mason Jar and turn it into a container for a salad, lasagna or even a sweet treat. It's fun and innovative way to cook.