It's going to be in the 90s today so I'm making what we call a cold plate.
By writersedge
@writersedge (22563)
United States
June 20, 2012 6:53am CST
So far, I have hard cooked eggs (also known as hard boiled, just don't tell my old Home Ec Teacher that) that I will probably serve deviled (just means slice the egg in half, take the yoke out and add mayo and spice if I want, stir and put back into the egg), and I'm putting on pasta for pasta salad. We have Bush's Grilling Beans, tonight's flavor will be black bean fiesta. I will also have a salad of greens, that should be enough for tonight. I prefer Grandma Brown's baked beans, but thre is only one flavor and this heat spell is going to go on for a long time.
I may go buy some cottage cheese and a can of pineapple, one of peaches, and one of pears. That way each day we can have a different flavor of fruit with our cottage cheese. I wish my husband liked yogurt, I'd be adding it onto his plate, but cottage cheese and fruit are a stretch for him. I don't want to push it tooo much. If I do the cottage cheese today, then the flavor will be all thru for tomorrow.
He doesn't like 3 bean salad or potato salad. He makes a great potato salad with olive oil and lemon juice or apple cider vinegar and lots of other stuff in it, but he doesn't like it. I like potato salad, esp. with a little bit of mustard in with the mayo.
So what cold food do you like for a hot day?
3 people like this
12 responses
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
22 Jun 12
during the heat wave we ended up bbqing stuff. one day we had burgers, another we had steak and baked potatoes, that sort of thing. i would like to have cottage cheese but not potato salad or bean salad. the deviled eggs sound really good. maybe next time. i cooked some noodles earlier in the spring and put them in the freezer and maybe will make some chicken salad with them for the next heat wave.
2 people like this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
22 Jun 12
It was 97 degrees yesterday and 95 the day before with 90 plus percent humidity and the news said that's over 100 degrees F when combined. We were under heat wave warnings. No way I was doing hamburger, steak, and baked potatoes. Just heating the water for pasta in the early AM when it was in the 80s was a hardship. That heat stayed in the kitchen and made it harder for the refrigerator to work. Basically, people were told to get near an air conditioner and stay there. We only have one in our bedroom. Going outdoors was like walking into an oven. There is no way we were going to barbecue. Esp. my husband who was working in a subway car factory, think heated tin can. They don't shut the place down until there are temps over 100. One time there was a cloud that turned into condensed fog from the floor up and they had to shut the place down with the temps at 104 F and 100% humidity.
When we say cold plate here, we mean cold plate. Yesterday, I took someone's advice and bought previously cut watermelon and I had canned baked beans and tuna salad. Italian ice for desert and nuts for snacks.
The noodles in the freezer sound like a terrific idea for next time. Chicken salad will be good later on for the next one. So those are two really good ideas.
1 person likes this
@pergammano (7682)
• Canada
20 Jun 12
It's my time of the year..to enjoy some of my favourite "chilled soups"...Cucumber/Yoghurt with dill, a slice of 9 grain bread and some tzaziki...or (I am blessed where I live)...Seafood Salad, of course with fresh garden goodies! Cold Chicken wraps...the list goes on! For me, one of the easiest times to have a meal!
2 people like this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
20 Jun 12
It would be for me,too. But my husband doesn't like yogurt. He eats sandwiches every day all the time for lunch at work so he doesn't want them for supper. He's not a seafood person. He'll eat tuna and I can make a tuna salad for one of the offerings on a cold plate. There's an idea.
1 person likes this
@peavey (16936)
• United States
20 Jun 12
I like to have a chef salad when it's hot. I cube cheese and cut up cold chicken or luncheon meat or whatever I have on hand, then cut up lots of fresh vegetables, chop a couple of boiled eggs and add sunflower seeds.
I eat a lot of sandwiches when it's hot, though. If I feel really ambitious, I'll get something started in the solar oven.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
20 Jun 12
The chef salad with cheese and cold chicken sounds good. My husband eats sandwiches every day for work. So I could have one and that would be a treat for me, but that would make two meals a day of sanwiches and he's already pretty sandwiched-out. Every day the sandwiches have luncheon meat unless he gets sick of it and has peanut butter and jam for a while.
So are you making grilled cheese in the solar oven?
So I might cook some chicken in the AM if it's cool enough and make that this week. Thanks and take care.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
21 Jun 12
So what's cooking in the solar oven?
Today the great outdoors was an oven. I opened the door after noon and it was like getting hit with the air from a blast furnace. The humidity was absolutely horrible.
@much2say (56057)
• Los Angeles, California
21 Jun 12
We're feeling those summer days now . . . it's nice to not make meals that doesn't require heating up the kitchen! Sometimes we will have salad with avocado and mango - and whatever meat leftover there is (like chicken or pork slices) - best with French dressing. Sometimes we will have somen - super thin Japanese noodles that are dipped in a cold soy sauce type broth - and with it serve edamame (those green soy bean pods). I love taco salad nights . . . just cut up lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, green onion, cheese . . . make taco meat and heat up a can of refried beans or black beans . . . let everyone make up their own salad with salsa on top. Honestly, I love eating, so I can eat any food (even hot) on a hot day!!
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
21 Jun 12
taco salad night sounds good. Maybe I could either do just beans and veggies with cheese or cook the hamburger in the AM before it gets hot some day. I think mangos would be good, too. No leftover meat right now. I wish I had some.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
22 Jun 12
Thank goodness it's so much cooler with a breeze today. I so love shrimp.
@randylovesdar (4932)
• United States
21 Jun 12
I would make pasta salad, macaroni salad, potato salad. On Father's Day I made fruit kabobs (chopped up different kinds of fruits and added them on wooden sticks). I keep a lot of fruits and vegetables in the house because the weather is hot. I also make sandwiches.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
21 Jun 12
I like the idea of fruit kabobs, they sould like fun.
@toniganzon (72535)
• Philippines
21 Jun 12
During the summer we love to eat what's called "halo-halo." If i were to translate it literally into English it is mix-mix! It's a dessert that everybody loves to eat in the summer. Sometimes we just have it for a snack too. It's crushed eyes with milk, sugar, fruits, coconut jelly, beans, coconut meat, topped with leche flan and ice cream!
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
21 Jun 12
Eyes? Do you mean ice, I hope?
Wow! That's like many deserts in one. The dish for that must be huge.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
22 Jun 12
Glad it was ice, you freaked me out for a second. When I read the rest, I thought you meant ice. Phew!I've heard of people eating fish eyes, but the didn't sound like a desert item with the rest.
@toniganzon (72535)
• Philippines
21 Jun 12
Sorry for that my bad, was texting a friend about eyes didn't notice that's what i've written on here too. It's ice of course. The dish is not that huge, the fruit added comes in small portions only.1 person likes this
@wiccania (3360)
• United States
20 Jun 12
When we do a cold plate for dinner, I usually go for a veggie tray that people can pick and choose what they like from. As a general rule the tray will have celery, carrots, broccoli, cucumbers and mushrooms but sometimes we add peppers, scallions, radishes and cherry or grape tomatoes. In addition to that, there's usually devilled eggs, potato salad, sometimes pasta salad, fresh salsa with tortilla chips and some kind of meat. For the meat, it's often either sliced lunch meat or leftover ham or turkey, if we have it, served cold.
This summer, I'd like to add gazpacho to that, I think it'll be a nice addition and something different. I'm pretty sure my family has never had gazpacho.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
21 Jun 12
Wow! That's huge! It sounds like a buffet. I want to go to your place. The veggie tray sounds like a great idea. I like potato salad and he likes pasta.
Not sure if he would like gazpacho. He can be a pain about trying new things.
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
20 Jun 12
Yum, that sounds good. I like smoothies made with a variety of fresh fruit, veggies, and organic yogurt..But I don't have any more yogurt, so today it will be watermelon, which I can eat as a small meal..:)
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
21 Jun 12
smoothies tend to cover a lot though. For example my husband hates beets, but loves my smoothie I make with beets. You can also use something like organic almond milk instead, I just find it easier to find organic yogurt in my small town.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
22 Jun 12
On Fridays, he eats in the city, so todday I can do a smoothie. Funny, my consumer supported agriculture share this week included beats. Our co-op does a veggie sandwich with beats and green goddess dressing as welll as some other stuff (that I don't know what it is) and it is to die for.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
21 Jun 12
I'd do a smoothie in a heartbeat, my husband, I doubt it. Esp. since it ha yogurt in it. The watermelon would be a great idea. It would help boost his water intake, too. Thanks and take care.
1 person likes this
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
16 Sep 12
hi writersedge I love a potato salad with good mayo and hard
boiled eggs and pickle and celery chopped fine and some chopped green peppers too. and seafood salad with mayo and celery, chopped green peoper and chopped onion and some pickle relish
or imiation crab salad with finely chopped cabbage and really good mayo o some kind like hidden valley ranch dressing.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
17 Sep 12
We'd love all of that.
I'd have to forgo the pickles because of the salt.My husband wouldn't have to. He has low blood pressure and I have high that gets worse with salt. His is normal if he adds salt.
Those are all great ideas. I need to print this all out and keep it on file so I hae all these ideas for next year.
We had 81 days of 80 degrees or higher this year. Reached an all time high that was two days more than one year in the 1800s.
Thanks and take care.
@GreenMoo (11833)
•
20 Jun 12
It's good to see you Writersedge.
I love pasta salad and could eat it every meal time if left to my own devices. I made it for lunch today actually with leeks, sweetcorn and some chopped up cold meat from yesterday's barbecue.
I think a barbecue would probably be my first choice for a hot day, although I appreciate that it isn't cold. Next best would be pretty much anything prepared by someone else whilst I just enjoyed the sun!
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
21 Jun 12
There was no enjoying today. Humidity was in the 90% as well as the temps in the 90s farenhight(sp?). It was like a blast furnace when you went outdoors. I was in the bedroom near the air conditioner as much as possible. My husband worked all day building subway cars, inside them, think heated tin can. So no one was going to grill today. Last week, in the 70s, people grilled, this week, if people could afford it, they went to the movies or to an air conditioned restaurant. The weather service issued a dangerous heat warning and said that the humidity actually made it in the 100s.
Tomorrow is supposed to be hot, too, but the humidity is supposed to lessen at some point, I hope so.
But there are some great ideas on here like watermelon and so on. My husband could eat pasta salad all the time, too. Leeks, sweet corn and if I had leftover meat, that does sound good and different and good. Thanks and take care.
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
20 Jun 12
Here you are stating healthier food choices. When it comes to the summertime, I don't indulge too much but I do like to indulge in some ice creams and the such. I am tyring to find fruit bars that are antioxidant, I KNOW they were being carried a few months ago, but not it seems stores are either OUT of them or they just don't have them anymore :(
Anyway, I plan to make a punch of cold salads or buy them to enjoy on a hot day.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
21 Jun 12
Cold salads,premade, are really expensive here right now. Like 4.99, 5.99, etc. So a bunch of them would be really expensive in no time. Just three would be over $15. For two days, that would be over $30. At that rate, we'd go broke.
Luckily, Suddenly Salad is two for $3. right now. So one pasta one today was $1.50 plus a few pennies worth of mayo. A bag of greens at half price is about $1.50 also. There are some other great ideas on here, too. So making our own salads is the way to go right now.
There are popcycle forms where you can make your own fruit bars and lots of recipes online. I like ice cream too. But that's desert, not a meal. Fruit bars tend to be just one food group, too. But some of the recipes for them can be really good like fruit and yogurt bars where you get two food groups in.
@livingforever (29)
• United States
20 Jun 12
Watermelon, bread and feta cheese! Mmmm, love it on hot summer days.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
21 Jun 12
Watermelon sounds good. Helps with both the lack of water and the heat. My husband could do the feta cheese, too much salt for me. Love the watermelon idea, thanks and take care.
