I knew it was the dog days of summer when I looked at the puppy
napping on my office floor
– and had the urge to join her. Granted, it was also Monday. And
Sunday had been busy, but that’s no excuse. The only one that seems
to fit, sometimes, is the
”
it’s-too-hot-to-think
”
excuse.
I knew it was the dog days of summer when I looked at the puppy napping on my office floor – and had the urge to join her. Granted, it was also Monday. And Sunday had been busy, but that’s no excuse. The only one that seems to fit, sometimes, is the “it’s-too-hot-to-think” excuse. Or the one my mom used to utter before sneaking off for a summer nap: “Ooh, the heat just zapped me.”
Pets seem to have the right idea when it comes to heat. They just hide out and sleep until it’s over. We humans, however, have to find ways to deal with it.
When I lived in Sacramento for a few months, I remember going from an air-conditioned office into my air-conditioned car for the short drive home from downtown Sacramento to my temporary digs in Woodland. As soon as I closed the front door, I’d rip off my pantyhose and flip on the swamp cooler. I ate dinner and watched TV in the dark – because the lights made it feel hotter. I wore more cotton than ever and hung out at an air-conditioned mall where I spent too much money, got hooked on Clinique, and bought ridiculous things – like a purple leopard dress that my girls wore for dress-up a decade later – just to avoid the heat.
I don’t think I even knew what a swamp cooler was before that summer but I got very comfy with them. Their noisy gurgling hum lulled me to sleep on top of the covers every night.
Now, I head outside around 3 a.m., looking up at the sky, trying to cool off so I can go back to sleep. Our dog pads out to meet me, sees that I’m really not doing anything interesting, sighs loudly, and stretches out full-length on the cool tile ˆ the perfect posture for the dog days of summer.
• Cool off: Make a salad for dinner. If you need something heartier, add some meat. Or cook a quick chicken breast basted with a little butter and lemon pepper. Slice it thinly, fan it out on the plate, and put a mélange of greens on the plate. Try this one …
Simple Greek Salad
4-6 cups mixed greens
1/4 cup sliced radish
1/4 cup fresh mint, minced
1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced
1/2 cup feta cheese, chopped
1/4 cup chopped black olives
Mix together all above ingredients, tossing gently. Drizzle with olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon. Season with garlic salt and pepper.
• Here’s another option, a lettuce-less salad from Lovelle Oberholzer, a 1981 finalist in the Garlic Festival Cook-Off, published in “The Garlic Lovers’ Cookbook, new edition.”
Garlic Shrimp Salad
9 cloves fresh garlic
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 to 2 lbs. large shrimp, shelled and deveined
2 large tomatoes
2 medium cucumbers
3 green onions
4 cooked artichoke hearts, halved
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon crushed sweet basil
1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed
Salt and pepper
1 ripe avocado
Peel and mince 6 cloves garlic. Melt butter in a heavy skillet. Add minced garlic and sauté over medium heat until light golden. Add shrimp and cook 2 or 3 minutes, turning continuously, just until they are pink. Remove from heat.
Break shrimp into bite-sized pieces in a large bowl and add the cooked garlic. Remove skin, seed and chop tomatoes. Peel, seed and chop cucumber.
Chop onions. Combine artichoke hearts with the other vegetables and the shrimp.
Mince remaining 3 cloves garlic and combine with oil, lemon juice, herbs, and salt and pepper to taste. Beat until blended, then pour over shrimp mixture, mixing well. Halve, remove seed and skin, and dice avocado into salad mixture. Serve in small bowls with crusty French bread and butter.
Serves 6.
• Fruit for dessert: This dessert is great served warm over some vanilla ice cream. But it’s also good cold, served next to some ice cream. Grab some fresh peaches and serve to acclaim.
Peach Cobbler
10 fresh peaches
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
Peel and slice fresh peaches. Mix with flour and sugar and put into a
9×14-inch baking pan.
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 beaten egg
1 stick butter, melted
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream
Add beaten egg to above ingredients and mix until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of peaches. Drizzle 1/2 to one stick melted butter over flour mixture. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes until topping is brown. Serve warm or cold, with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Serves 6.
• Banana rama: When your bananas start to get slightly brown, don’t delude yourself (like I do) with the idea that someone might still eat them. Just bite the bullet and put them in the freezer, ready for the following recipe from Mark Bittman.
Banana-Vanilla Shake
1 frozen ripe banana
1 cup milk
1/2 cup crushed ice
Sugar to taste
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients in a blender and whiz until smooth. Taste and
adjust seasoning by adding more vanilla or sugar as needed.
• One more hot-weather drink: To make Foamy Iced Coffee, combine one cup coffee, a teaspoon or more of sugar, and cream or milk to taste. Whirl until foamy in a blender with 1/2 cup crushed ice. This is even better with a little chocolate syrup added to the mix.
End notes: “If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.”
~ Napoleon Bonaparte
Happy cooking!
