In the
summertime humans by nature are more active and therefore need more substantial
meals to have the energy to do all we want to.
It is also a
time when more foods are preserved in one way or another in millions of
homes. All of this cooking requires heat
and heat is the enemy in the summer.
Today, June
25, 2012, the high is suppose to be 106 degrees. In June!
What are August and September going to be like? Record air conditioning bills are
expected. Cooking adds heat to the
inside of the house and cranks the air conditioner even more.
So as the
summer rolls on here in hot and humid Oklahoma expect to see more and more cold
foods and outdoor cooking on this blog.
However, don’t think by outdoor cooking I mean simply charcoaling. No I use a modern version of the old time
summer kitchens by moving my electric cooking appliances, and the heat they put
out, outside!
I am hoping
to have a homemade solar oven soon, so be prepared for that adventure. You will see the beginning of the Summer Kitchen cooking with this post.
The main
protein item for this week is chicken leg quarters. Alas the ones I purchased were not on sale,
but at $.78 a pound they are still a decent buy. I purchase them in a 10# bag, then once we
have them home we either cook them all up right then if all the meals are using
cooked chicken, or we package them up in two leg quarter packages. This week it was package and freeze.
We find that
for most meals two leg quarters will feed the three adults in our family nicely
with proper side dishes. These are labeled and frozen until needed.
So here is
our menu for the week:
BREAKFAST OPPORTUNITIES
Raisin Bran
Grapenuts
Oatmeal
Farina
Multigrain cereal
Strawberry Breeze juice
Peaches
Dried fruit
LUNCH OPPORTUNITIES
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches
Jarred Salad
Leftovers
DINNERS WEEK 2—CHICKEN
LEG QUARTERS
Day 1
Baked chicken leg quarters
Cranberry Sauce
Baked Potatoes
Baked Sweet potatoes
Green beans
COMMENTS:
I can hear
some of you screaming now, baked chicken, baked stuffing, baked potatoes, baked
sweet potatoes and a baked cake? Woman
are you NUTS? It’s 106 degrees
outside! But remember I’m using my Summer Kitchen. In
this case I am using my turkey roaster and placing it securely in the sunroom
out of harm’s way.
And I’m
doing it in layers. I make use of the
heating pans I have for my turkey roaster oven by putting the cake in the
bottom of the roaster in a 9 x 13 pan.
The potatoes are foil wrapped and on the bottom of the roaster, next to
the cake. Using my heating pans to hold
the stuffing with the chicken leg quarters on top of that.
The trick is
all cook at near the same temperature.
You preheat the oven and then fill it.
With it being outside there is no cooking heat in the kitchen on this
hot summer day. Plus, you don’t need to
stay with it. Just set a timer in the
cool house with you so you will remember to get the cake out of the oven when it’s
done as it cooks faster than the other foods.
I start it all at the same time and just remove things as they finish.
If you don't have a turkey roaster, use your toaster oven and microwave to cook this meal outside and cut your cooling bill.
I baked
extra potatoes to use in the potato salad the next day.
If you like
sun tea you could even make your tea outdoors.
My family does not care for sun tea. But I know many folks that do.
Dinner Day 2
Fish Sticks
Potato Salad
Cole Slaw
Wacky
Cake
Iced tea
COMMENTS:
To beat the
heat for this meal I use the toaster oven in the sunroom for baking both the
biscuits and the fish sticks.
DAY 3
Fried
Bologna
Macaroni ‘n
Cheese
Green Beans
Cucumber and
Onion Salad
Peanut
Butter/Chocolate Chip cookies
Tea
COMMENTS:
I know it’s a southern thing, but fried bologna is good
folks. When my husband got the slicer
going he sliced half of the chub thick and the rest thin. Then a few of the thick slices were fried and
then cut in cubes to serve of up with my friend Kay’s BBQ Sauce. It took me years to get the recipe from her,
and I am so glad I did. Kay has gone on
to her reward, but I have fond memories of her every time I make this sauce.
Warning the recipe makes a huge amount, around 5 quarts
worth. Generally I’ll put a jar in the
fridge, and the rest I’ll either can or freeze for future use. When I can it I use the pressure canner due
to the butter in it. Some have told me
it could probably be water bath canned safely, because of the ketchup acidity,
but I prefer I not take the chance.
Once you open a jar be sure and refrigerate any
leftovers.
My beat the heat strategy for this meal was to cook the
BBQ sauce in my large crockpot, and to fry the bologna quickly in the
house. I could have used the electric
skillet in the sunroom. But that would
have required me being out in the heat to do it. I figure the short time it takes to fry
bologna wouldn’t be worth me suffering in the heat. I also cheated and did the bringing of the
water to boil for the blue box Mac ‘n Cheese in the house, but because I have
an electric stove I was able to turn the burner off as soon as the macaroni was
added to the boiling water and the residual heat cooked the pasta perfectly.
The cookies were cooked in the toaster oven in the
sunroom.
DAY 4
Jarred salad
Wacky Cake or cookies
Tea
COMMENTS:
Cook the chicken
leg quarters in the crockpot in your summer kitchen and you have a filling meal
without ever heating up the kitchen.
This recipe combines two Master Mixes to make an entirely separate meal.
DAY 5
Spaghetti
and Meatballs
Jarred salad
Garlic toast
Tea
Peach
cobbler
COMMENTS:
If you own
an electric skillet hit the summer kitchen and use it to make this dish. Use your rice cooker or a small crockpot to
cook your spaghetti noodles. OR use the
same method I used for cooking the macaroni the day before.
The peaches
for this meal were purchased as “seconds” at our local feed store. I got a bag full for $2.50 and they’ve been
delicious, but it’s time to finish them up.
So into the cobbler they went.
The cobbler crust was simply Stir ‘n Roll biscuit dough with some sugar
and cinnamon added in to a thin version of the biscuit dough that was dropped
on the hot syrup from my prepping the peaches and then baked until golden brown
in the toaster oven.
DAY 6
Refried
beans
Jarred Salad
with Chipotle Ranch Dressing
Cinnamon
Sugar Flour Tortilla Chips
Tea
COMMENTS:
The first
time I ever heard of fish tacos I was a young sahm watching soap operas and one
man on the soap was complaining his wife had served him tuna tacos for dinner
the night before. At the time I gagged
at the thought of any fish in a taco.
Fast forward
through the years and I heard more and more about fish tacos of all sorts. Then one weekend, back when we were still
eating out, we were at Long John Silver’s and they were giving away free fish
tacos. I thought “why not?” I was hooked!
Not long
after that Taco Bueno started carrying them too. While one makes them with shredded cabbage on
them the other uses shredded lettuce. One uses corn tortillas, the other uses
flour tortillas. Either way they are
truly good. They are something I’ve come
to miss since we’ve stopped eating out.
So why not make them at home? I
developed the recipe and was VERY pleased with the outcome. I hope you will like them too.
DAY 7
Pancakes
Milk
COMMENTS:
We love
going to that very famous pancake house for pancakes and waffles, just like
everyone else. One of our favorite parts
of the meal is the large variety of flavored pancake syrups. But why spend the money for so much money for
a meal you can make for pennies on the dollar at home in just a few minutes?
As you can
see you can easily do Summer Kitchen cooking and help keep your home cooler
with just a little pre-planning.
Jan who
REALLY wants a solar cooker and
dehydrator in OK
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