Its really really hot right now, even though its about 10 pm, the air is as still as can be and the humidity is about as high as it gets.

Summer is not really I time that I want to be cooking anything at all, unless the end result is a cool and refreshing as a long cool glass of lemonade.

Fresh fruit, interesting fresh salads, simple, barbecued fish is about as complex as my taste and cooking gets in the summer if it has anything to do with me.

I have passion fruit in  my garden, that are waiting for the perfect vanilla ice cream to accompany, and it seems like I have found the perfect recipe on Sugarlaws

courtesy of kendiala,

the only thing is - this recipe calls for an Ice-cream maker, which is something my folks had way back when in the eighties, but I don’t have one, and since deserts aren’t really my thing in the kitchen, I don’t even know where I would be able to get hold of one.

Does anyone know how I could make this perfect Vanilla Icecream without the Icecream maker?

We have our usual supermarket weekly run, and usually get everything we are going to need for that week having to do very little extra shopping. I find it cheaper this way, and usually use the same ingredients from week to week. For the most part, at this point in life there is not a whole lot of very exotic cooking going on around here - quick good and healthy are my guides for cooking, with my insane schedule.

The one thing that does vary though, are the vegetables, seasonally. We often shop according to what is in season (more me than my husband) which more often than not affects the price of the ingredients.

Anyway, some weeks are very low cooking weeks, just for the lack of time - and cooked veggies are usually the first thing kicked of the cook list - Salad is a must with every meal in our house, and I try to have a well balanced meal - so often it just makes sense to save time on the veggies.

The problem is, come shopping list time - what do I do with the sad looking veggies in my fridge to avoid having to transfer them respectfully to the trash?

In the winter this is a complete no brainer (and it hardly ever happens, to tell you the truth) I just chuck them all into a huge pot and make delicious chunky country soup. It gets so hot in the summer though, that that is not an option. Just the thought of eating soup makes me boiling hot.

Sometimes I will make anti pasti with what ever is in the fridge, but low cooking weeks don’t just happen  because I have excess time, usually they happen when I am extremely busy or preoccupied, and I forget to start diner on time - so anti pasti is out.

80 Breakfasts suggests roasting, crushing and freezing to be used at a later date… I could see some great quiches happening in that way.

photo credit creative commons license alasam

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you would already know that I love perssimons. I aldo had never used them in cooking, utill I made this discovery, unlocking a whole new persimmon realm in our kitchen.

Since we are all about peaches and cream now, or soon will be, due to the impending summer heat, I was a little sad that I couldn’t try out this fabulous recipe for Persimmon bread immediately, but would have to wait for a while, through the insane heat that is just around the corner, all the way till October, to be able to try it.

It sounds, and looks a little like bannana bread, sweet and dense and Yummy.

How annoying - I just finished writing a long and lovely post only to delete it with great gusto …

You know how sometimes something seems like a complete novelty to you, and then it turns out you had in fact previously run in to it under totally different circumstances.

I have just had one of those discoveries. After reading a very interesting post on cooking with tea and Smoked Egg Salad (using tea to brown the eggs), I was all a wonder at the fact that I had never heard of using tea in cooking, let alone  in this kind of eggy context. As I started writing the previous post that I later deleted by mistake, I realized that this was not the first time that I have heard of eggs done in tea.

courtesy of omerka

I have an Israeli friend who taught me how to make a slow Cooking, traditional stew called chamin which is made in several variations, usually using beef, potatoes, barley, beans and or rice. It is started on Friday evening, before the Sabbath, and cooked on a hotplate or in a very low heat oven, till Saturday lunchtime, this way allowing for a hot meal at mid day, without breaking the rules of Sabbath, and cooking.

Often, whole eggs in the shells are added to this, stew, and they turn into a rich brown over night. Because there could be a health hazard in eating slow cooked eggs, some people cook them regularly, in boiling water, with tea in it, thus browning them. once they are cooked, they are left in the tea and in the morning added to the stew.

photo credit creative commons license rachel is

Its funny how many variations can be for the same dish.

Pasta with broccoli is a great favorite in our house. I usually start making the pasta and at the same time stir fry some garlic (usually 5-4 cloves) till aromatic, and then I add the broccoli a drop of water and some cream, and let it thicken a bit while the pasta is cooking. Once the pasta is done, I combine everything together and serve.

the problem with this method, is in order to have enough liquid for the broccoli to cook in, you need to double the cream quantity, or use less broccoli (and we love our broccoli).

Stone soup just posted a great recipe for Broccoli Pasta with Pine nuts that sound wonderful.

Of course the pine nuts give the dish additional flavor, but what I liked most about her dish was that you add the broccoli to the pasta a few minutes before the pasta is done… and then you combine the broccoli with the sauce. It solves my problem perfectly.