Summer Food

I'm sitting here finding myself with a bit of time (please don't jinx myself!).  Louise fell asleep on the couch while I took a quick shower and Felix is still napping, 51 minutes until we need to leave to get Ainsley.  Let's see!

I get so antsy sometimes in the afternoons.  As much as I love nap time it can be hard when I can't do exactly what I want with that time because of quiet sleeping people.  So I guess I'm thinking about summer food, because why the heck not.

I'm remembering my groove from last summer fondly.  Lots of marinated things to grill (inside or out), with sides I make in bulk to eat throughout the week (ooh, calico beans, potato and pasta salads).  I think my new favorite this year may be this lentil salad I just made from Moosewood, thanks to a recommendation.  I can't believe I've had that recipe sitting in my cabinet all these years and had yet to make it.  Yum!

I'm trying to think of some dairy light meals, mainly because Ian is thinking it's irritating his stomach and because I think I rely too heavily on cheese sometimes for protein in meat free meals.

We'll always have eggs, frittatas, in tomato sauce, over easy over hashes.  We love zucchini pancakes.   Ooh that reminds me that I need to order more of my favorite penzys spice for those.

I think I'm in the market for a new cookbook.  We ate at a friends house recently and they raved about this one.

Last year I also remember loving the crock pot.  It doesn't heat the house up quite so much, but summery crock pot dishes are tricky to find (plus, how many chicken tacos can I really make?)

I'm learning to take this cooking thing a week, even a day or two at a time.  While I prefer to be pretty rigid with planning, mainly so I don't have to go to the store so much I do kind of enjoy sporadicly made delicious food.  We are lucky to live within walking distance to a couple of good groceries and honestly it can be nice to fill a morning up with a walk there and back to get a few extra things.

Can I also just mention how thankful I am for this mild cooler spring and start to summer?  Our little house heats up so quickly and it makes cooking that much harder.  We have central air (thank goodness!) but even so, the SUN in that afternoon kitchen.  Oh my.  Today I am thankful for cool breezes, summer food ideas and lots of time to figure it all out.

Happy summer cooking!  And please share if you have a summer favorite go to.  I'm always in need of help with that!