Throwback Thursday: Perfect Summer Meals

How has your summer been so far?  Has it been treating you well?  Ours has not been as warm as I would like, but it's still been pleasant.  I always love being able to leave the doors and windows open at night, listen to the crickets and go barefoot.

Along with summer comes a preference for lighter, cooler and less intensive meals.  We tend to eat a lot more salads, sandwiches and simple dinners of fruits, cheeses and charcuterie - like this simple meal I posted recently. Ice cream becomes the King of desserts and we really enjoy small, home-assembled Ice Cream Sandwiches.

I wish I could say that we spend our time outdoors, swimming (which we do love), gardening, hiking and camping, but to be perfectly honest, I spend most of my spare time working indoors on recipes, blog posts and videos or gaming with my friends.  Aside from the occasional trip (by occasional, I mean yearly or maybe every other year) to the ocean to hang out on the beach flying kites, we tend to be real homebodies.



With summer already starting to wind down here (it's only 9:00 pm right now, and it's already been dark for about an hour!), I thought this would be a good time to share with you some of our favorite meals for hot weather - some might even say perfect summer meals.
 
Nacho salads are a quick, refreshing meal for warmer temperatures.  Simply layer your favorite filling onto a bed of tortilla chips...



...and pile on a bunch of crunchy, iceberg lettuce, olives, green onions, tomatoes, cheese and sour cream.



Sandwiches are a great choice for hot weather and if you are among the many who rely on their grills in summer, you can grill up a variety of great sandwich fixins from steak, to chicken, to seafood or veggies - the choices are truly endless.  This one is a Bolillo roll filled with steak, sauteed mushrooms, onions and bell peppers and sprinkled with Feta:



...and this sandwich built on a Pretzel Bun with lemon-garlic mayo, turkey, provolone and spinach - YUM!

This Asian Noodle Salad is perfect for a potluck or pool party - or add some grilled chicken to it and enjoy it as a refreshing meal.



I've made this Orzo Salad with either chicken or shrimp, it's always a winner for BBQ's...



...and you certainly can't go wrong with a simple, green salad topped with grilled shrimp or Spaghetti with Lemon-Garlic Shrimp which cooks up in minutes.



What are your strategies for beating the heat?  We're off to the ocean next week, so no posts for a bit, but I'll be sure to return rested, relaxed and ready to bring you more recipes and cooking tips.  Until next time - stay cool!

Quick Fix: Spaghetti with Lemon Garlic Shrimp

Today's recipe is not only a Quick Fix, it's also what I call a Friday Night Fix - and it's one of my favorite things to make when I find myself home alone on a Friday night when Steven's playing poker with the guys.  It's comforting, satisfying and super quick to make.  It's great hot or cold too so it's a multi-seasonal dish.  Grill the shrimp outdoors in the summer, if you like!  You can make this dish start to finish in just a little more time than it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta.

This is a very versatile recipe.  You can easily use more pasta and shrimp to prepare more servings and it would be a lovely addition for a small dinner party - reduce the portions and serve it as a first course to keep it simple and affordable.  Steven doesn't really care to eat shrimp, so if I make it when he's home, I simply put half of the pasta in a dish for him and top it with a bit more Extra Virgin Olive Oil, some fresh cracked pepper and some Parmesan cheese - delicious!

Spaghetti with Lemon Garlic Shrimp

serves 1-2

4 oz Spaghetti

8 oz EZ Peel Shrimp (I like a lot of shrimp)

1 Lemon

1 Clove Garlic

1 TBLS Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Ciao!

Ina Garten's Roasted Shrimp & Orzo Salad

I picked up a new recipe recently while watching an episode of the Barefoot Contessa.  About a week ago, I decided to try the recipe for the first time - just off the top of my head.  I managed to just about duplicate it, but I did make one minor change.  The recipe was for Roasted Shrimp and Orzo salad and called for cucumbers, amongst the other ingredients.  Rather than purchasing cucs, I decided to use some zucchini I already had on hand and - and this is the inspired part - I had my husband grill the zucchini.  Steven said the zucchini really made the salad - it was his favorite part.  It's a really tasty dish & can be treated as a salad or a side dish.  We've eaten it cold so far, but I'm sure it would be tasty warm too. 

Here's the link to the recipe - try it, it's so delicious that when I decided to take it to the family reunion for my potluck contribution, he said I should but a warning on it that eating it may cause "orgasm" - yes, he really said that!  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/roasted-shrimp-and-orzo-recipe/index.html

The weather has been fairly hot here lately (for the Pacific Northwest anyway), and I haven't really wanted to heat up the house by turning on the oven, so I did cook the shrimp in my cast iron skillet - they were delicious, but I've tried Ina's oven roasting method too - and they are especally yummy prepared that way.

It's really best to prepare a day in advance, we both thought it was at it's best the next day and it's held up well enough for us to pack it in our lunches for a couple days following.