Beat Down the Heat with Summer Cooking

Sandi Richard, three time award-winning host of Fixing Dinner on Food Network and Life Network, author of the best-selling series, Cooking for the Rushed, reveals her summer cooking secrets with you.

Summer is at our doorstep and along with it a bazillion ways to decorate the yard, grill your food, plant your garden…well, you know! I thought I would approach my summer jargon a little differently.

As a meal planner, I’ve observed families for years and how each season has its own set of eating challenges. In the fall, kids are going back to school or maybe an adult is going back to school. In the winter there’s Christmas shopping and the holidays. In the spring there are the endless concerts, exams and whole new set of sports. Ahhh, then finally there is summer. We’re wooed with a million pictures of how summer should look. The breezy décor of blues and greens, the abundance of fruits and veggies… Hmmm, why then (more than any other time of year) do we eat OUT? It’s true! And I know why, – it’s just too darn hot to heat up the house after working all day. Your shirt stuck to the driver’s seat long before the air conditioning kicked in and you sat in traffic. Finally home, you peel off your clothes, jump into shorts – who wants to heat the house up now? You’ve been grilling for weeks and quite frankly you need a change. Before you know it, you’re in a line up at a fast food joint, in a lovely air conditioned restaurant or on a patio.

I want to help you out of this rut. The BBQ isn’t the only way to keep the house cool.  There are many other ways. For anyone who has followed my methods in Getting Ya’ Through the Summer, they say family eating has never been easier.

Let’s deal with the BBQ
If you have a BBQ, fine, if you’re buying a new one, for goodness sakes get one with the side burner. I’ve talked to more people who tell me they never use it. I do everything on that thing, from breakfast porridge and eggs to boiling ribs. Once you think of it as a tool, you’ll use it all the time. When you’re grilling, cook your rice, couscous or potatoes alongside. It changes the menu so that you’re not always eating baked potatoes, which tends to happen when grilling a lot.

Use your BBQ as an oven
Bake chicken or lasagne in the BBQ. One way is to place your pan on a couple of cookie sheets or a grill buddy from Alcan. You can also use heavy duty foil. You prevent the bottom from cooking too fast and also create a convection effect as the heat moves around the pans to create more even cooking. I can honestly say I use my BBQ in the summer as an oven more than a grill. We only grill a couple of times a week because I know it’s not good to be eating charred food regularly. It’s fine though when you change the cooking method. We even cook our breakfast muffins on the BBQ. There’s something about sitting on the deck first thing Saturday morning with a coffee and muffins in the BBQ. I’ve included a recipe Ron and I developed. The base batter stores in the fridge for weeks. We make ‘em fresh on Saturday’s and change them with different berries or nuts.

If you don’t own a slow cooker, buy one!
We think of a slow cooker as a fall or winter appliance, oh contraire my little lovey doveys… The slow cooker doesn’t heat up the house. You can have great soups, stews, meat dishes or goulash cooking all day. When you get home, the house smells great and all you need to do is toss a nice salad and pull out a few buns. With salads that are washed and bagged these days, they take 5.8 seconds to make. (I’m just playing with your mind, but you know what I mean.) Throw a few nuts and fruit on the salad and you’ll feel like you’re eating at your favourite bistro.

At least once a week use meats that are cooked. Cooked roasters you buy at a grocery store deli are the best for summer. You can also use canned crab, salmon or tuna. Tuna casserole done on the BBQ served with a veggie or a nice salad is awesome on the deck. Crab cakes are one of my favourites and they taste absolutely amazing on the BBQ. Pick up a flat griddle meant for the BBQ. The smoky flavour will make your crab cakes the ones people want to eat.

Cut a head of Romaine lettuce in half leaving the core intact. Submerge each half in a big bowl of salted water and swish it around to release any sand from the base. Give it a good shake over the sink then lay it on the cut side over towels for a minute or so to drain remaining water. Remove the not-so-pretty stuff off the outer layer. Flip them over and brush the flat side with a tiny bit of olive oil. Grill flat side down at a low temp. Toss some precooked chicken with a little Cajun seasoning and warm it for a minute in the microwave. Remove the lettuce from the grill and put it flat side up on the plates. Drizzle with Caesar dressing, sprinkle with bacon bits, croutons and the warm chicken. The lettuce becomes slightly wilted and a little charred on the outside. The whole salad tastes a little smoky! YUUUUUUMMM!!!

Last but not least, meal plan
Plan meals that are quick to stir-fry when the weather is cool or rainy. With the windows partly open, the sound of rain and a delicious stir-fry, you don’t mind that you can’t eat it on the deck.
If you’re single, plan some things in advance for the upcoming week. If you’re a couple or have a family get everyone involved in meal picking.  It really takes the pressure off the shopper. Then rotate all of these methods through the week and you’ll enjoy eating at home like never before.

Bon appetit!

Go to www.cookingfortherushed.com to learn more about Sandi, her meal planning and books.

Sandi and Ron’s Summer Morning Muffins Prep Time: 20 minutes • Eating Time: 40 minutes Ingredients 2 tsp vinegar 2 cups 1% milk 1 cup canola oil 2 cups brown sugar 2 eggs 1 Tbsp molasses 1 cup white flour 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour 2 tsp baking soda 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 cup oat bran 1/2 cup bran 1/2 cup cracked wheat 2 Tbsp flax seed 1/2 cup frozen or fresh fruit per 6 muffins Optional; granola, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, nuts…the sky is the limit. Instructions The night before, stir vinegar into 2 cups of milk. Let stand to sour milk. Meanwhile, blend brown sugar into the oil in a large mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer or a spoon and a good strong arm, until smooth. Stir in eggs one at a time. Stir in molasses. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt onto a large piece of waxed paper.  Alternate blending dry ingredients, into the batter, with the soured milk a bit at a time. Always start with dry and end with dry. Stir in the oat bran, bran, cracked wheat and flax seeds. Cover and store in the fridge until you are ready to make fresh.     When you are ready to bake your muffins, pre-heat BBQ or oven to 350ºF (for the BBQ heat both sides at low, that usually does it) Scoop out enough batter to make the muffins you want. Gently stir in frozen or fresh fruit a bit at a time. (You don’t want to water down the batter with too much fruit or the muffins won’t cook properly) Scoop into muffin tins with paper liners or sprayed with cooking spray. Top with a little granola, quick oats, flax seed or our favorite, pumpkin seeds. It gives them that nice bistro look. Bake in pre-heated oven or BBQ until toothpick comes clean, approx 20-25 minutes.  H&L