Survival Sunday 9: Heat Wave Edition

So I'd had two weeks of cooking banked, hoping that it'd get me through the heat wave. It didn't. And I've basically been banned from the kitchen for the last couple days because of company. Unfortunately, that adds up to a grumpy, recipe-less blog. I can't do that to you. Instead, I'm going to try and give some pointers on what to eat when there weather refuses to cooperate.

Picture this (though if you're anywhere in England or America, you probably don't have to right now, you've lived it):

It's hotter than the devil's crack of dawn, steamier than a runner's glasses, and all you want to do is crawl inside your fridge. What the heck do you eat when your skin is melting and your stomach has taken up gymnastics? You can eat cold foods, but those can take just as much time and heat to prepare as hot foods, leaving you both ravenous and overheated while you wait for the food to get cool. You can eat the hot foods anyway and risk getting sick. You can eat nothing and get sick from that.

She's looking for the cool air, trust me.

Cereal works. Cereal is always pretty neutral. In hotter weather, I tend towards lightly sweet cereals like Honey-Nut Cheerios (or rather, knockoff Cheerios, since I'm on a tight budget), because the light sweetness can replenish your blood glucose, the fiber keeps you regular and helps you retain water, and the protein from the milk and the grains helps keep your energy up. Cereal isn't always the easiest to keep from going stale during a high-humidity heat wave, though.

I also find that toast or just bread with peanut butter (depending on how hot it is, just then) and maybe a little cinnamon and/or sugar can hit the spot. I prefer the toast, but if it's over 80℉ at 9AM, you may want to skip the toaster if you don't have a good AC. The heat, whether residual from toasting or ambient from the overheated room, starts to melt the peanut butter into a semiliquid, which the cinnamon and/or sugar cling to. I find that the warm spice-flavor drags my mind into an Autumnal mood, where I can pretend it's actually closer to 60℉ and the leaves blowing around outside have fallen because it's that time of year and not because the heat and drought are killing the tree.

For lunch, you can go for a classic PB&J. I prefer strawberry or apple jelly over grape, but everyone has their own tastes. I can tell you from experience that pepper jelly is a major no-no with peanut butter. The flavors did not balance right for me. If you're not a peanut butter person, get out of my blog. I kid. I know the world isn't fair, and I'm not going to make your life harder by excluding you.

Basically any ingredients can be made into a sandwich. Like avocado? Slice it and plop that on a sandwich with a little mayo (can be vegan and probably should be, that stuff rocks) and maybe some paprika and cayenne for a more southwestern kick. Do you feel in an Italian mood? Find some nice mozzarella and a tomato, keep both cold until use, then slice them onto bread with a nice pesto or some fresh basil! How about a more traditional, Northeastern lunch? Grab a can of tuna (Neil Breen's favorite!) and mix it with as much or little mayonnaise as you prefer, adding some sweet pickle relish for a fun and tasty crunch - tuna salad sandwich. Don't want bread? Slap everything into a wrap!

If you're not in the mood for a sandwich, that's fine. You can always try something else, like salad. Salad's always nice & cool, since you're going to keep the bowl in the fridge. Make a big batch with your favorite leafy greens (I like a good proportion of spinach to lettuce) and maybe some thin slices of cucumber and green pepper! Enjoy it naked or with dressing - it's your house! Anyone who judges you can go outside into the heat and cry.

Dinner is always the biggest problem. The heat tends to hit its pinnacle around hear not at noon but at about 3 or 4, so right about when people in my family start considering what to make for the last meal of the day. The heat can be pretty intense, so you'll often see people go and get takeout or fast food. Not judging. Just observing. I've been craving Chinese for about a month, but that costs the dinero for the dinner-o. Bad joke.

What to do about dinner if you're stuck home, broke, and have no AC, though? You could just cycle through what I've already mentioned, but you'll get sick of tuna and Cheerios pretty quickly, I'll bet. If you're industrious, then you can get some ingredients together the night before and keep them cold in the fridge until dinner time - like hard-boiled eggs (which we'll cover, don't worry) or red-skinned potatoes (again, I'll cover this) and make either egg or potato salad (we'll cover it). You can grab some inexpensive soba noodles, boil them up really quickly, and then run them under cold water and serve them with rice, soy sauce, a little lemon juice, and some green onions for a special cool treat, but that requires boiling water, which is no fun if you have to stay in the same room with no fan or AC to keep you cool.

I'll be honest - dinner or supper is the worst meal of the day when it's hot. No one wants to cook. No one really wants to eat, no matter how hungry they are. No one wants to deal with it. The best thing to do is plan it out ahead of time and make something the night before (and I mean night, as in after it starts to cool down) and chuck it in the fridge.

Chili can be a good alternative to that, but it requires cooking. You can leave it on the counter most of the day and avoid the area like the plague.

I am absolutely giving you guys a recipe for chili. Several kinds. Just not today. Because I'm banished from the kitchen for a while.

How do you guys beat the heat and still get to eat? Tell me in the comments below! (Seriously, this feels like an echo chamber sometimes.)

But wait!

Spice of the Week!

Sign me up for that good stuff right there...

Ground mustard is a very, very potent spice. You don't need much to go a long way, and it can add a surprising depth of flavor in recipes where you wouldn't expect to find it. Basically, if it's got tomato or mayonnaise, a pinch or two of ground mustard can really zing things up! I've had it in egg salad, tuna salad, chili, even an omelet or two! It pairs really well with hot spices and salty flavors, and it's pretty good with a plain yogurt on chicken breast before breading and baking!

Basically, mustard is a fun spice, and it's good with most stuff.

Just don't eat it by the spoonful - it is really, really bitter on its own.


That's all from me this week!
Go Enjoy Something!

FC