WIAW 171 – It’s Hot
Well – it’s July…
We finally decided that we could put the comforter away safely… Now, of course, it is 90°F!
The CSA is in full swing. Not at all as much as we’ll get in two months, but it’s early, yet… and we have the first cucumbers, corn, tomatoes… even tiny young broccoli and cauliflower! And herbs galore…
Including red basil, which reminded of of the first year we did it, and had purple basil. Which I brightly used in a cream sauce. Let me tell you, lavender sauce (over beige whole wheat pasta, yet!) does not look, um, particularly appetizing… we do indeed taste with our eyes. (It smelled amazing, and once we got past the looks, tasted delicious. But I’m not doing that again.)
I forgot to take a picture of breakfast, but I had taken a picture of a batch of blueberry corn muffins the day before, so that will have to do. I ate the last two with a protein shake and coffee. Well – I can do better than that… The tricky part of protein shakes, for me, is finding unsweetened, unflavored ones, that are gluten free (the one I used a few years ago turned out not to be!.) Oh, and in my budget… You’d think the plain ones would be cheaper, but no… See, I don’t want flavored protein powder, I want to flavor my own shake, thankyouverymuch, I’m playing now with variants on salt lassi – not everything has to be sweet! And I do enjoy cumin… So visualize, if you will, a pretty blue glass (Rich calls it that to differentiate from a purely practical though not unattractive blue glass I use for water) filled with cumin lassi and another pretty blue glass (I’m so lucky!) of cold brewed iced coffee. Lovely start to a hot morning.
Salad, of course, for lunch. Tomatoes! Cucumbers! Ham and hard cooked egg, oil and vinegar dressing made with a blend of those herbs. Rice cakes finished everything off – I have to expand my bread options. Which means that, heat or no, I need to bake… I’m not quite happy with any gluten free bread I’ve baked yet (though they are all vastly more to my taste than any commercial one I’ve had – they’re mushy, and I don’t like mushy (pardon me, fluffy) bread. Ah, well…
I hadn’t planned an All White Dinner – which I suppose is just as well, since of course my version is the All Beige Dinner. Dark chicken, brown rice, and I have no idea how the cauliflower came out beige but clearly it got the memo and wanted to match! I’d done a big batch of chicken legs in the slow cooker, there was leftover rice, and I steamed the cauliflower – so easy! They were two adorable individual baby heads, and just had to be cooked and served whole. I’d been busy all day, and threw dinner together in no time – and no matter how boring it looks, it was tasty (and I didn’t have to spend time in a hot kitchen!)
We’re dancing by ourselves, today – no one is throwing a party today (and who can blame them? It’s a lot of work, and fewer people come all the time. Ah, well…) For now, at least, I plan to continue these anyway – I think they’re fun!
What’s your favorite meal on a hot day?
