Topic this week: How does our routines change during the Summer?
As resident foodie here, that is a big change during the warmer months: food. Soups and stews, casseroles and roasts are just too warming and heavy for the hot weather. We lean more towards quicker entrées cooked on the stovetop, by panfrying and sautéing, or salads.
There is a seafood pasta salad that is a staple here, as well as vegetable pasta salads, potato salad and slaws, (cole and spinach). Tuna or salmon salad gets stuffed into tomatoes on beds of lettuce. If roasting HAS to be done, them out comes the big slow-cooker for the job, as pot roasts and roast pork. My neighbor taught me to do turkey breast in a slow cooker. (They don’t brown, but they are moist and delicious) .
I have a wall oven that heats a good portion of the house when it is on, which is great in cold weather or on a chilly morning or evening, but there is no way I am letting it duke it out with the air conditioner. The only one who will get K-O’ed will be me, when the electric bill comes in!
I take advantage of this feature and warm the house while baking and freezing come cakes and cookies to eat in the warm months…no one goes without a homemade birthday cake just because it’s hot.
Although I no longer leave the house to work, I do run the grandson to school many mornings and have him and/or my granddaughters often after school. That runs my schedule during the year, but in the Summer, well, I am under no real time constraints. My grandson goes away sometimes to visit relatives and always to Scout camp, often the granddaughters go away with my son, their father. Either way, I have the girls more for longer hours, but the time is more leisurely. Except for shopping; it is so much easier to stop by the store(s) right after I drop the boy off at school…trying to find the time during the Summer is tougher.
I live in the Eastern time zone, but I am near the Central zone border, therefore it stays light quite late. It’s easier physically and psychologically to run out to shop at 7 or 8 PM while it is still light, (and warm), than it is when it is the same time, but cold and dark, in the Winter months.
I am not a late sleeper, but oh, that 6 AM alarm is not missed in the Summer! The trade-off of long, light Summer evenings is late, dark, (and cold), Winter mornings! It is not difficult to get up in a bright morning, so much better than being forced awake and out of a nice, warm bed into the cold and dark. Often I could sleep later, but I don’t want to. The light welcomes me along with the singing birds. Let me tell you, the line in “My Old Kentucky Home” is perfect: The birds make music all the day.
Really.
And I get yardwork done. The yard is completely neglected by me in the Winter.
I don’t get to do much traveling but over the last few years, I have gotten to see relatives on both sides of the family that I had not seen since I was a child…sometimes for more than 50 years! And that is where I’ll be next week, at a family reunion. But I will set up my post beforehand.
How about you? Any thoughts on this post?
Angela Schroeder
Patricia Kiyono
Elaine Cantrell
Jeff Salter
Joselyn
Tonette Joyce
Four Foxes, One Hound 
that wall oven sounds like it serves the purpose of the old pot-bellied stove — cook the meals and heat the area around it.
I grew up in a house with a large kitchen space. Our gas range and oven was on the north wall (other side was my brother’s bedroom). Along the west wall were the sink and counters and two large windows, one of which had an enormous window fan which drew the hot kitchen air OUT.
(an exhaust fan, though I did not know it by that name at the time).
It was well designed for warm weather.
In cold weather, it was our collection place to get warm.
BTW, I don’t think I could face a 6:00 a.m. alarm very often anymore. It’s difficult enough for me to get up at 7:00 on Sundays.
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`Only my grandson could get me up at 6 anymore, Jeff!
I think I want the kitchen you grew up in.My work area here is way too small for me…it was almost a deal-breaker when I went to buy a house, but I was pretty desperate at the time.
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Your oven sounds wonderful for cooler months. I never would have thought to bake some cookies and cakes and freeze them. My kids call my dad and ask him to bake their stuff, (except for cake). I know he does a lot more baking in the cooler months as well. Seems the only time he bakes in the summer months is if one of his grandkids is sick and requests something.
The grocery shopping is so much easier without kids around. I agree with you on that.
I hope you have a wonderful time at your reunion.
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Thank you,Angie,I will have a great time, I am sure. Some of the cousins I only met a few years ago and some I had not seem since I was a kid.Although our parents’ generation had a number of problems,I have to say I truly like all of the cousins that come, (and their spouses). I am very pleased that they are all very nice people.
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I never thought about the food angle of summer routines – probably because hubby does the cooking and my job is to eat what he cooks. He loves to use his gas grill, so he had a gas line hooked up directly to it so that we don’t have to keep refilling the tank. He’s done veggies and even fruit on the grill, too. Last week he bought a stovetop smoker so we’ve been eating a lot of smoked meat this week. I love pasta salads, too. The slow-cooker turkey breast sounds delicious!
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A former Fox told me that I could make any topic into something about food, Patty! I have tried to cool it a bit, but it is so affected by routine that it would be impossible not to mention it this time! Your hubby sounds like a smart fella…and if I were closer, I’d drop in for a sample!
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