Favorite hot weather meals...

[K Frame]

When I was a kid I lived in an old Victorian house with no central AC. We had an AC in the kitchen and Mom and Dad had an AC in their bedroom, but that was it.

Because of that, we had a LOT of cold evening meals in the summer -- pasta salads, chicken or tuna salad, straight salad, even jello salads filled with vegetables, olives (yuk!), chicken, etc.

Anyway, despite the jello hell, some of that rubbed off on me and when it's really hot and humid I'll often make either cucumbers with curried chicken salad or I'll take a nice, vine ripe tomato, cut out the center, and stuff it with chicken or tuna salad.

One of the hardest things about living in metro Washington, DC, is not being able to consistently get really good farm fresh produce. It's fairly easy to get decent cucumbers, sweet corn is iffy, and tomatoes and stone fruits? Yeah, no.

Anyway, when it gets really hot and humid, do you make any changes to your diet to deal with it?

[Kingcreek]

BLTs, or anything on the BBQ grill. Frequent salads.
I like chili in hot weather just as much as winter.

[Ben]

I don't really eat dinner regardless, but for the midday meal, when it's hot I lean towards stuff like cold turkey sandwiches, or make some quick tacos or something. Or occasionally hit the local burger joint. I seem to eat take-out more when it's hot than when it's cold. In the Winter I'll make the burger at home. On a hot Summer day, I'll run to the burger joint for a pastrami burger and chocolate-huckleberry milkshake. 

[JTHunter]

Single use chicken salad kits from Aldi's, PB&J, various lunchmeats & cheese sandwiches, cottage cheese, LOTS of iced tea, ice cream, ice water, etc.
Almost nothing cooked that day but I do batches of hard-boiled eggs.  Most are for breakfast with a chunk of hard cheeses (CoJack, extra sharp cheddar, swiss, Monteray Jack, etc.), raw fruits and veggies as a part of supper (usu. carrots & radishes, sometimes celery, even less frequently cauliflower & broccoli).

[Perd Hapley]

BLTs, or anything on the BBQ grill. Frequent salads.
I like chili in hot weather just as much as winter.

I don't understand why grilling is more of a summer than a winter thing.

[Ben]

I don't understand why grilling is more of a summer than a winter thing.

In coastal CA, I grilled all year long. Here, I'm not super jazzed about grilling when it's 15deg out. 

[K Frame]

I've grilled in the winter quite often over the years, but winters here in the mid-Atlantic aren't particularly harsh most of the time.

[Brad Johnson]

Because of that, we had a LOT of cold evening meals in the summer -- pasta salads, chicken or tuna salad, straight salad, even jello salads filled with vegetables, olives (yuk!), chicken, etc.

Anyway, despite the jello hell, ...

https://youtu.be/sCqtQeOugYc?si=-O5wsH9MCkNcZh6Q

and for more gelatin-laden favorites...

https://youtu.be/63staOnDwv4?si=KS7BPdDyCWMOME_g

Brad

[K Frame]

https://youtu.be/sCqtQeOugYc?si=-O5wsH9MCkNcZh6Q

and for more gelatin-laden favorites...

https://youtu.be/63staOnDwv4?si=KS7BPdDyCWMOME_g

Brad

Trust me, I've watched ALL of those! Some of them I've eaten, thanks to Mom and blazing hot summers in Central Pennsylvania. Nothing like a bunch of shredded cabbage, celery, (olives... YUK!) and tuna encased in a block of lime jello with Miracle Whip dressing to give you nightmares for the rest of your life.

The ones I didn't mind at all were the ones with fruit cocktail in them. Those were good.


Oh, the cottage cheese one? Not all that bad. Not all that great, but on a really HOT summer evening? Workable.

The Spaghetti Ohs one?

That HAD to have been a joke when someone came up with that. Or a double dog dare.

[Kingcreek]

I don't understand why grilling is more of a summer than a winter thing.

I grill year round but a lot more in the summer. it’s more enjoyable to tend to the smoker or grill when it’s not -10 with a 40 mph wind.

[Perd Hapley]

I grill year round but a lot more in the summer. it’s more enjoyable to tend to the smoker or grill when it’s not -10 with a 40 mph wind.

OK, but isn't it more relaxing to be next to a fire when it's l, say, 20 degrees with a gentle breeze, rather than 92 degrees?

[K Frame]

I'm thinking I'm making this one this weekend...

Holy crap this looks good. Except for the red onion. Raw onion tends to absolutely tear me up.

https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a42939128/chickpea-salad-recipe/

[Ben]

I'm thinking I'm making this one this weekend...

Holy crap this looks good. Except for the red onion. Raw onion tends to absolutely tear me up.

https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a42939128/chickpea-salad-recipe/

That looks good. I will take the red onions off your hands and double them in mine. 

[K Frame]

I'll put them in an envelop and send them to you.

[HankB]

I don't understand why grilling is more of a summer than a winter thing.

Living now in Central Texas it's rare that grilling is off the table year round for anything other than a rainstorm. I tend to not make items like kugelis indoors when it's hot outside as turning the oven on for over an hour just places an additional burden on the A/C.

[zxcvbob]

I pan-fried a bunch of chicken thighs early in the morning when it was still cool.  Just a few at a time so not to crowd the pan  (I boned and skinned them, made stock from the scraps)  Put one skin in the skillet with the thighs to render some fat for them to cook in.  I've been eating them with some low-carb flour tortillas, grated cheese, sour cream, and a pico de gallo I make with diced fresh tomatoes and dried chipotle peppers (the dark "morita" kind) 

And lately I've been switching from good beer to iced tea or Hamm's, so sometimes even ice water.  I tend to forget that I liked iced tea 😂

A couple of times this year when it was hot, I made a whole meal out of watermelon.

[Boomhauer]

I cook on our Blackstone year round. Keep it in the garage and wheel it out just outside of the door.

On the hottest days I eat cereal for dinner. I don’t work outside daily anymore so summer isn’t the ball of suck it used to be.

[Ben]

With 100+ temps all week, my Sunday midday dinner today is a brown sugar and maple glazed ham steak, frozen fire roasted veggies, and instant mashed potatoes. Ham steak done in the countertop convection oven, veggies in a pan, milk for the taters in the microwave. Total cook time 10 minutes and no heat build up in the kitchen. 

[K Frame]

I love my induction burner for summer use. The thing is absolutely brilliant.

I also use my toaster oven, but not nearly as much in the kitchen.

I've toyed with the idea of getting an outdoor griddle of some type, but that went by the wayside when I blew my knee out.

When I retire and get settled where ever I'm going to land, I'll seriously consider getting a griddle then.

[K Frame]

I've made the chick pea salad several times now. And it's absolutely fantastic.

Had it for dinner the last two nights.

What I've done, though, is made a big bowl of the base -- chick peas, cucumbers, and green peppers.

Then, when I'm ready for dinner, I'll halve a bunch of cherry tomatoes, cube up a bunch of feta, and and a small, ripe avocado, and put all that and a bunch of the base into a bowl.

Then drizzle on the lemon & olive oil dressing, dress with a bit more salt and pepper, and chow down.

I have just enough left for dinner tonight.

But tonight, I'm going to sear some shrimp and add to it.

[K Frame]

Damn, I'm almost addicted to this salad.

Making it again.

It's absolutely fantastic. And a great way of boosting my veggie intake.

[Bogie]

Favorite hot weather meal:
 
Something I didn't have to cook myself in a dark arctic-AC bar, with a cold draft beer in a frosted mug.