Well, let´s face it: I don´t really like summer. I don´t mind being cooped up under a whirring fan in a darkended room, but I hate not being able to go out between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m.
There are millions of delicious summery foods I´d love to be eating, to make full use of the season´s bounty. But I´d rather cut off my foot than turn on the oven; my expeditions to the market are short and to the point, and have to be made when J is at hand to carry home the watermelons; and there are plenty of establishments happy to serve me icy beer and boquerones en vinagre.
So I have just one word for you, young man: "tin-opener". Summer is the time to rummage around in the cupboard and root out all those exotic jars you found at that darling little stall in the market in the pretty village. The chutney somebody gave you. The tinned fish you only bought for the cool graphics. The packet of slimy looking Oriental pickles. The tube of anchovy paste.
Bring ´em on, I say. It´s all very well to go on about fruit cobblers, clafoutis, coca, grilled fish and escalibada. The truth is, when the thermometer is in the 40ºC range, if you can slice a tomato you´re in Olympic endeavour territory, and good luck to you.
The picture is for a baking group (baking!! gasp! I just went slightly green), the Bakeanistas. Mary, of the Sour Dough blog (and check that out for great bread and new drawings at some point, too) comissioned it, and I had a lot of fun with the Wild, cool and swingin´ Sixties look.
10 comentarios:
I agree about summer -- who needs it? I've decided to try to use my slow cooker more because I can't bear to turn on the oven in this weather. By the way, I've been seeing this illustration for the Bakenistas on other blogs -- I love it!
"Don't turn on the oven" is my motto for most of the summer. Can openers or any strategy that allows a person to eat without doing that is a good one. One of my favorite meals when it gets really hot is cold cereal.
Love the picture and the assembled group looks like they're keeping nice and cool with icy cocktails. (Or perhaps I'm projecting.)
Time to get the Thermomix out & whip up some 60 second sorbets. Did apple & fennel to go with some baccala and tomato and smoked paprika to go with boquerones (based on a local restaurant dish). Freeze the canned tomatoes (blitzed in TMX) in ice cube trays and then take a few out as needed and blitz into sorbet with pimenton as needed. Watermelon chunks into the freezer & blitz for watermelon sorbet.
Our top temp today will be 12 deg -brrrr. Feels like we're in the freezer.
Love those bakenistas!
I have gone insane, and am making jam in this heat. I may be found on the kitchen tiles, dessicated, and dehydrated, in a pool of bubbling blueberries.
Oh how I wish we had summers like that here. We get a few days but that's it. I guess the grass is always greener eh?
I imagine it is as hot in Madrid as it is here in Denver--a 19 day heat wave with no end in sight! Stay cool! Wonderful recipes...thank you!
Bon dia Ximena! I so love your blogs. I completely agree with you about 11 AM to 11 PM in the summer--it's for the birds!
I am in Salt Lake City and met 3 lovely people from Barcelona in the bookstore today. Made me yearn for Catalunya!
Lydia: ah, the slow cooker. my next gadget, I bet.
Julie: cocktails seem to be the only possible thing, specially icy ones, right?
Thermomixer: we had a spate of Thx sorbets when my mother bought it, it´s left me rather shaken...
Lindy: jam! brave woman. we´ll all be jealous later
Eb: oh no you don´t. here the grass isn´t green, it´s yellow!
Rebecca: argh, yes, J always says Madrid is very like Denver, so I guess it´s true!
Jenny: thanks. Barcelona can´t be much cooler now, although the sea is so much better...But at least Madrid is dry heat, I tell myself.
I've been living off of cottage cheese and this really easy-to-make Asian salad with cole slaw, ramen, almonds, seeds, etc. I'm just craving no-hassle food! (Unfortunately due to our tomato scare here, I haven't made your delicious gazpacho yet this summer...)
But without turning on the oven, how could I eat my fav summer treat? Pipirrana- a salad of green and red peppers roasted in the oven, cooled down and finished with garlic, and nice native olive oil... try it on fried fish, or on its own. But for me it will always taste to childhood summers in Malaga.
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