Mealtimes have their own rhythm in our house during the summer months. Its sooo nice not to have to be anywhere every morning. (I've actually slept past 8 o'clock once this summer, very rare). I'm not one to spend too much time in the kitchen, but I do enjoy my own moments of cooking a good meal and fancy myself an acceptable cook. And getting to do more of this kind of thing right now makes me really happy.
Breakfast has a much slower pace and I love having the time to make homemade pancakes with chocolate chip smiles, freshly baked biscuits with honey and just blended fruit smoothies (with a little cod liver and fish oils added in, shhhhhhhh!). Lunch can often turn into an afternoon tea sort of meal (at least our own loose version), with a hodgepodge of fruits and vegetables (our current favorites are red bell pepper, cucumbers, and sugar snap peas) sliced up, a little cheese, bread, usually under the shade of the umbrella on the patio.
I make Emma her favorite steamed vanilla milk (which is really just lowfat milk, a dribble of vanilla syrup, a minute in the microwave, and a spin with the aerolatte which I'm told makes it more special.) Ian prefers a cold version of this and me, well do you really have to ask? Coffee from the trusty old Italian stovetop espresso maker. See, that's the great thing about northwest summers. At their peak, you can still enjoy a warm drink outside and not feel like you're going to die from heat.
The cooler summer afternoons usually get me in the mood to make chocolate chip cookies (the only sweet treat we keep in the house on a regular basis) or some kind of bread (which is made in a bread machine, which is almost too easy if you want to cook). There are a couple of great looking, simple recipes for tea biscuits and cupcakes in Jane Cumberbatch's Pure Style Outside that I'd like to try sometime. And because I insist that we eat our dinner as a family, after Peter's home from work, the kids get some sort of healthy fortifying snack late afternoon to keep them from "starving" if they need it. The dinner hour officially starts with the grill preheating at around 5:30, and usually involves some sort of meat and a salad, almost every evening, varying only the components that go in. Although I'm not much for pasta these days, again, Jane has a version that looks like a good summer option.
We often end the week with homemade vanilla ice cream after dinner. I've never been able to do a good custard base and gave up trying when I found this simple recipe that comes with most ice cream makers (my neighbor pointed this out and I trust her culinary opinions almost more than anyone's). I can put it together in 5 minutes...really, the kids can do it...and it can churn in the ice cream maker while we're eating dinner.
Vanilla ice cream base:
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Dissolve sugar into milk buy stirring thoroughly, then add vanilla and cream. Pour into ice cream maker and start machine. I churn mine between 25-35 minutes, depending on how hot the day is.
If we're feeling crazy, we sub in mint extract for vanilla, or add semi-sweet chocolate chips (put in during the last minute of the churning). People, its heaven, pure heaven. It makes a pint, I guess, which is the size of ours makes.
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I'm doing a little summer cleaning on the blog, and you may notice I've added a book list back to my side bar. I took this off months ago, to de-clutter a bit, but since I think its really fun to see what others are reading, I put it back on. Frankly, enjoying craft and decorating books are what you'll find me doing during any spare time I have these days. Matter of fact, I'm settling into bed tonight reading Summer: A Users Guide.
Summer, you're going by too fast for me.
