Favorite Summer Time Meals

When I think about summer cooking, the first thing that comes to mind is what I don't like - and that is a hot kitchen - so no cooking pasta! I do love salads, and I could live on tomatoes.

What I've not done much of is cold soups. But I've thought that this summer I would make a conscious effort to try a few cold soups. Good question, Beth.

Last night while my husband and boys were all out, I decided to make something for dinner that I wanted (even if no one else would eat it). I made some delicious black bean patties with mango salsa. It was cool enough in the house to back them for 20 minutes in the oven but they could just as easily have been cooked on the grill (on aluminum foil) or the top of the stove.

I love pasta salads so I'll cook the pasta first thing in the morning to avoid heating the house.

It's not too hot up here yet, so we're still using the oven lots, but when it does get really hot, I am going to try to use the grill as much as possible. I often make foil packets of veggies and potatoes with some oil and herbs and grill them on the BBQ. I've been experimenting with pizza on the BBQ as well, with some good results (a pizza stone seems to work best), and I have even done fruit cobblers in a cast iron frying pan on the BBQ. Also grilled veggies straight on the grill can be very nice - pattypan squash, peppers, asparagus, all do well with a bit of oil brushed on them.

Cool soups are a great idea and something I've never tried. I'm trying to think about doing more batch cooking of soups, dips, and other things to have in the fridge for the hotter, lazier days. I do still cook pasta but lately have just been choppping fresh tomatoes and adding some olive oil, herbs, garlic etc and tossing it all together.

Summer sandwiches -- when the Jersey tomatoes are at their peak there's nothing we like better than BLT's for dinner -- often including deli chicken or turkey -- on grilled bread with maybe some avocado and basil mayonnaise. Summer is also the time when I look for new slaw and gazpacho recipes to try.

I've got plans to try some new dishes for our neighborhood 4th of July party. I'm going to make the Cheater Baked Beans from Veganomicon and the Spicy Coleslaw from pioneerwoman. I can hardly wait to try them both.