It’s been in the 100s all week here and the weather people say that the weekend’s going to be even hotter. None of that matters because Al Gore is still fat.
Good morning. :)

As for coping with the heat: I can’t afford to run the A/C on a setting as cool as I would like so I’ve been keeping the shades drawn to let in less radiant energy and drinking cool water or iced tea and just hunkering down and hoping for a cooling rain.

Wonderful post. I miss the days of my children’s youth. And no grandkids yet.
I’m lucky enough to have a pool so this beautiful summer, here in CNY, has been a continuous poolapalooza. The way it works, in my small town, is that people drive by the pool (which you can see from the road), stop to say hi, we invite them to stay and, miraculously, they have their bathing suits on and towels with them.
It’s been a great summer.

Good morning.

Heh. Heat broke here. Overnight low was 60, expected high today is around 80.

I’m making ribs tomorrow. Everyone invited.

In re: cooking in the heat.

One of the mechanisms growing up was my dad would get up and fry chicken on Saturday or Sunday morning, before it got too hot, then it would be available for a couple of days right out of the refrig.

Cold fried chicken with salad is a meal.

Good morning Rayne and Margaret and everyone,

Hot and humid, supposed to break tomorrow with highs in the low eighties.

Times like this are when I am grateful for a lack of work. I simply don’t perform well for others when drenched in sweat that is getting all over the product in am supposed to be installing.

Lake Michigan surface temps are up in the seventies, but still a welcome relief. I launch my rowing boat for exercise and also swim.

I’ve done very little cooking in the heat. Even BBQ. I haven’t felt a lot like eating meat, so I’ve eaten a lot of pasta and salad.

But now that it’s a little cooler, I’m back to meat, my favorite food!

Full ribs menu includes corn on the cob (which I could eat every night during the season), sliced heirloom tomatoes, probably with a little basil scattered on top, and nectarine cobbler for dessert. The latter requires baking, but is so delicious it’s worth turning on the oven for.

Americans continue to express near-record-low confidence in newspapers and television news — with no more than 25% of Americans saying they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in either. These views have hardly budged since falling more than 10 percentage points from 2003-2007.

Gee…why do you suppose that is? Iraq war and WMD anyone? And even in light of this, the msm is doubling down on their crazy, everything is conservative point of view.

I love tomato salad and the tomatoes are now ripening. Tomatoes, basil, cukes, a green pepper, a long hot pepper, some garlic (or garlic powder), onion, salt and pepper, and a splash or two of olive oil. Serve with some crusty bread. Delish.

;o) yea poolapalooza!

That’s why frying in the morning is so good. It allows the chicken and everything else to have cooled down by nightfall and the cold fried chicken is much lighter than even ribs done outside on the grill.

We didn’t have air conditioning growing up so the cold chicken (and maybe potato salad made at the same time as the chicken) were frequent July and August meals.

(Although I do have my Mom’s copy of the “Too Hot to Cook Book” for the summer days as well)

Yep. The media really are nothing more than propagandists for corps & USG. It’s interesting that U.S. public is as aware of it as they are.

I flip through the local news in the morning to get the weather forecast. During one of the heat heat waves, the dumb blond woman sez to the dumb, perky redhead weather guy: Why are we having all this hot weather? It certainly isn’t due to global warming.

Just amazing how obvious it is.

Well, wouldn’t you know it — after writing about it being so bleeping hot last night for this morning’s publication, it’s raining freaking cats and dogs here now.

We may get a break from the heat soon.

Nuts, means I’m going to have to start cooking again.

‘Morning, all you Firepups.

Pulled the plug on my set to reduce electric use and heat. I only get occasional broadcast TV from across the big lake when the weather patterns cooperate. Fortunately I get a good idea of what is going on in the world that I need to be aware of, from this site.

I got a slew of cukes & tomatoes from my yard guy’s garden last week. I made gazpacho, which turned out delicious. Just finishing it up, after I gave a bunch away. Being single, I can cook a lot faster than I can eat.

What do you do with all the used oil?

We didn’t have air conditioning when I was growing up either, (something no sane person would do without in Houston these days), but we used to spend the heat of the day at the pool. I was extremely lucky because my dad was in the Air Force and we had an olympic sized NCO pool to use. Much less crowded than the municipal polls available. When we weren’t at the pool, is was all about staying in the shade with cool drinks.

Yeah, we have a summer rule here that the television is off from the time morning news shows end until evening news starts. Keeps the energy use and heat production down to nothing during the hottest part of the day.

And as you said, we already know a lot from reading this site. What we don’t know won’t hurt us — like the latest developments in some celebrity engagement/wedding/divorce, or the most recent “news” about Missing White Girl Version #5281.

It’s interesting that U.S. public is as aware of it as they are.

Yeah. I’ve been saying for years how stupid especially the dead tree newspapers are to be doubling down on the wingnuttery while wringing their hands and wondering why nobody was reading them anymore. It’s like they all decided in the late nineties and early 2000s to follow the conservative talk radio model and they are too stupid or too unimaginative to change their ways back to journalism and away from tabloid propaganda. Still I was surprised, (and gratified), that so many in the public at large are now hip to their bullsh*t.

Ditto, and yum,

Curing a hundred or so pounds of my garlic presently. It was so wet prior to harvest, I had to dig it a bit early as the wrappers were beginning to disintegrate on some of it.

Hi All! Our heat broke last night, too. The fan is enough this morning, thank goodness. When it is really too hot, like last night, an icy foot bath is our relief. One dish pan full of ice and cold water brings my body temp down in 15 minutes.
Our son is home for the weekend –Rayne, almost like the past teen gatherings (but now almost 30). Still, wonderful to see these teens turn into adults.

Growing up it always got saved but that was in the time when coffee and Crisco and such came in cans rather than cardboard. We always had containers of various types of grease on the stove (one for bacon, one for crisco from frying chicken, one for lard) – Dad would pour the grease through a strainer and pretty much leave it on the stove.

Nowadays, I let it cool down and usually go ahead and toss it as I don’t have any containers for storage anymore. Not as environmentally friendly as I’d like although the other option is to let the oil/grease cool then store in tupperware or something like.

Steven Hill in his book Europe’s Promise makes a big deal out of how many newspapers there still are in Europe, of many political stripes, and how much the public still reads there. It is true that you gain a much deeper understanding of events from reading than from watching TV.

reply to nonquixote:

That is impressive. All the same kind or different varieties? What is the size of your plot? More garden or just garlic?

Congratulations.

But how do you toss it?

I eat only a little bacon, and save the grease in the refrigerator to use to cook eggs. But I wouldn’t reuse oil often enough to warrant saving it.

It’s interesting that “Dr” Laura is being roundly condemned for being racist, (even though Ed Schultz talk radio buddy was defending her last night *gag*), but nobody is pointing out that the reason she hasn’t been on television in a decade is because she’s a raging homophobe. She used to make Maggie Gallagher look sane. After a brief but intense organized boycott of her advertizers, she was relegated to the early morning hours, sandwiched between infomercials about home gyms and house flipping. I only bring this up because it seem relevant and I’m the only one who seems to remember what happened in 1998 and 99.

It is true that you gain a much deeper understanding of events from reading than from watching TV.

Very true but that becomes irrelevant when what you read is fiction or points of view masquerading as facts.

Just into the trash. I pretty much only use canola oil anymore and with chicken there’s usually paper towels to soak it up. Like I say, it’s not as environmentally friendly as I’d like but I’m not sure what my other options are.

Civilization is making a killing machine out of the Earth. It is only expressing its anger now, later comes the wrath.

That’s what I figured. I can’t allow myself to do that, much as I like fried chicken. *g*

And we’ve been trying to find cold dinners, too. One salad I’ve been making is with Trader Joes’ feta cheese, canned chick peas from Whole Foods (their brand is really nice), paper thin sliced red onion, and olive oil, white balsamic vinegar and black pepper. Mix and chill — it gets better each day.

I still use shortening in cans for some things but it’s rare. Like eCAHN, I keep bacon grease to cook some other things. Disposing of waste oil can be a pain but it goes into the trash here. The worst thing you can do with it is put it down the drain through the garbage disposal. It stops up the works at water treatment plants and the bacteria they use can’t digest it. I’ve also been known to use it as a fuel to get the fires in my fireplace to burn during the winter months but it always makes me hungry!

I’ve been taking iceberg lettuce, slivered carrots, shredded cabbage, sliced onion and diced apple and putting together a salad with those ingredients. Sometimes I’ll add cold ham and cubed cheese to it. It’s really good and no heat required.

All hardnecks, equal amounts of porcelains, rocamboles and purple stripes. 14 varieties in all.

As for impressive, it is the easiest thing to grow in the world. Put it in in October, keep it weeded and dig it.

I have several raised beds, five feet wide, never have to walk in the planting areas. About 600 to 700 square feet devoted to the garlic this season.

Wish we were getting some rain on the east coast. There were a few sprinkles yesterday, but no real rain for weeks. Our temperatures have moderated a little, though.

You reminded me of bread salad. Good gravy do I love bread salad.

Panzanella (Bread Salad)

Bread (day-old Italian or French, the sturdy kind)
Cucumbers, peeled and chopped into large bite-sized chunks
Tomatoes, chopped in large bite-sized chunks
Basil leaves, cut into chiffonade if fresh
Oregano leaves, chopped if fresh
Onion (use sweet white onion or a mild red, minced; scallions also work)
Garlic, one clove crushed (optional)
Extra virgin olive oil
Vinegar (use a mild vinegar like red or white wine, maybe a splash of balsamic)
Salt and black pepper to taste

Use equivalent of 2-4 slices of bread, 1-2 tomatoes and a cucumber per person. Simply toss all of this together in a large bowl and allow the tomato and cucumber juices to soak into the bread. Season with the oil and vinegar, salt and pepper as you would a tossed salad.

I like to add chunks of feta or cubes of mozzarella to this if served for dinner; you could even add chunks of grilled chicken.

If you don’t have fresh basil or oregano, you can use dry, but you might want to make an actual vinaigrette and add them to that in order to control the amount used.

I think I know what I’m going to do with this week’s bounty of cucumbers. Yum, panzanella bread salad!

Good Saturday Morning, Rayne and all the rest of youse.
I really can’t complain about the heat too much as we’ve had a fairly mild season, but the forecast is for a heat wave starting Sunday. Temps to be around 105, but considering the fact that in past summers it got to over 115, I’m still not complaining.
I stopped at the municipal pool yesterday and signed up for their morning swim aerobics starting on Monday. Woo Hoo.

Tonight I’m also making that lovely salad wtih buffalo mozzerella, tomato slices and basil (is that Caprese salad?). I’m also making a dozen deviled eggs, which we love cold, and a platter of sliced salami.

That sounds tasty, (although leave the communist tomatoes out!)

Wow! I’m so impressed! I try to buy fresh garlic all the time, what a difference it makes. Sliced, slipped under the skin of chicken breasts roasted for COLD chicken salad. Yum.

I haven’t thought of deviled eggs in a while. I might have to make a batch of those to go with my next salad. Thanks. :)

I think the rain is coming, might be another 24-48 hours depending on where you are along east coast, and depending on jet stream.

I just checked my folks’ place in the upper peninsula; the temperature has definitely broken there. Wish I could be there today as it is probably a classic beach day on Lake Gitchegumee.

I’m outta here for now.

Be well everyone.

My gosh we’re a bunch of rabbit food eaters here. Still, it ought to keep the troll population down. They’d take one look, say “blech” and move on. :)

So old fashioned, always the first plate emptied!

Later eCAHN. Send some of that cool weather south!

I like deviled eggs too, but they get eaten in about half the time it takes to make them. Fried chicken sure sound good. I can’t fry some without thinking of my dad’s mom who made the best. The smell of the floured and salt and peppered pieces takes me right back to the days when we would visit the grans in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoons.

Firebunnies.

Love ‘em, love ‘em, love ‘em. I have to be extremely careful though because it’s way easy to munch down 3000 calories in no time with a plate of deviled eggs in front of me!

I like deviled eggs too, but they get eaten in about half the time it takes to make them.

Ain’t that the truth? And “firebunnies”…. LMAO!

You can make bread salad without tomatoes, just need more cucumbers. I’d add some colorful chunks of bell peppers and some chopped romaine, too.

And I think with a cuke-pepper-romaine version, I’d use a healthy amount of grated parmesan or romano cheese.

Yum. I think I might have to fix this for brunch, am suddenly very hungry!

Here’s an old favorite: Cold chicken and pickles. Include some nice tear bread and cheese of your choice and it’s a feast!

Yeah, I was thinking some fresh bell pepper instead of tomatoes. Just never could develop a taste for them, much as I’ve tried and there are very few vegetables and fruits that I don’t like. Odd, isn’t it?

That’s what happens when MrCE leaves me in front of the Cooking Channel, which I like very much!

Coming from you? Not really. (ha ha)

Ooh, and asiago cheese, too.

We’re going to a spaghetti dinner tonight. The men do all the cooking and a good friend who is a great studio musician will be playing his guitar. I learned the trick of staying late to help clean up and we get to take a batch of leftover home. No dumb bunny here.

My cooking has improved dramatically since the advent of the intertoobz. Recipes.com is a great resource and no bulky, food spattered books to lug around.

I don’t usually use recipes. I just get a bunch of stuff and then fix it. Maybe that’s not inventive enough, but it works for us.

The drying room (part of my garage) is heaven. Sights and smells and sampling the raw product. I’ve been sorting the bulbs for size, bigger bulbs/cloves being set aside for next year’s crop.

bgrothus, Myself and another gardener plant at this property and between the two of us we have basil, dill, cilantro, lettuces, spinach, tomato, cucs, sweet corn, squash, beans, cabbage, peppers, carrots, potatoes, etc. Oh and I tend some heirloom variety raspberries.

I’m a former lover of Cook’s Illustrated, paper version. Now, too lazy to read and cook from it (and it is the best magazine ever for cooking) I love Everyday Food. A tiny paper mag from Martha Stewart, it serves all our cooking needs and is great to tuck into a pocket. I love this publication.

Well, it’s Saturday morning and my chores aren’t going to do themselves and Kuroneko absolutely refuses to do anything but meow at me when I try to get her involved. Have a good day everyone and stay cool! :)

Do you have a food stand?

Yeah, I’ve been known to do that as well. When something works though, I post it online and other people can use it. Except for my chili and jalapeno cornbread. I could tell you those recipe’s but then I’d have to kill you….

I like tomato tartare: pull out the seeds from tomatoes and cut them into small dice, 1/4 inch or less. Do the same with a firm goat cheese, or fresh mozzarella. Cut up a bunch of basil into small dice. Mix together with some olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Leave in the refrigerator for an hour or so, until it gets firm. Mold it in small ramekins or use a quarter cup measuring cup. Garnish with a basil leaf.

The better the tomato, the better the dish.

Oh that sounds like mine, but much better looking and less water. I’ll do it tonight! How are you, and are you back in France?

No, but we each have extended families in the area that are more than happy to come and pick fresh veggies.

The raspberries are really appreciated around Christmas, my shopping is done.

Good Morning….Way OT:
AOL has a poll on Obama’s support for the mosque; take a guess. 88% against his position….Yikes.

That is wonderful. I love food, and I love super fresh ingredients even better.

Here’s a nice, cool one: Cube some cold chicken and boil an egg and cube it. Add diced onion, relish, diced apple, olive oil mayo and yellow or grey mustard. Mix it all together, (if you add the egg last it won’t be mush by the time you’re done. I like to add some pecan pieces also when I have fresh ones. Put it all in a bowl and top with some seasoned black pepper and let chill for an hour or so. Makes great sandwiches or right out of the bowl chicken salad.

Yeah well, only wingers are silly enough to pay attention to AOL anymore. For conservatives, ancient internetz is still the best internetz….

How very la de da of you. I use apples in my chicken salad too, but I use walnuts instead of pecans. It’s tey yummy.

O, I hope you’re right….I didn’t expect his position to be favored, but I was shocked at that number. Thanks.

I remember a summer I spent in Indiana with relatives. We would go out at dusk and pick corn right off the stalk and bring it in, shuck it, clean it, boil it and eat it. Nothing better than corn that fresh IMO.

Add some grapes. I love chicken salad with apples, walnuts, pecans and grapes.

Oh, and maybe some hulled pistachios and golden raisins.

But, it’s just so easy to blame the Muslims, doncha know? Ramadan started on Wednesay but at least this year my sister will be drinking vitamin water during the day and having a single banana for lunch. Now I don’t have to worry about her so much.

Yeah but I’m a Texas girl. Walnuts instead of pecans here is virtually heresy. I don’t wanna be burned at the stake. ;)

Thank you. I had forgotten about the grapes. The first time my son saw me putting the apples in, he thought I was weird. But, he tried it and liked it. I’m still weird, though.

Ah ha! I get it now. And, no reason to give anyone more fuel.

I know aol is waaaaaaay conservative! I used aol at the time the W was first installed as prez. I tried to warn those morons at the old aol chat rooms that the idiot was going to attack Iraq back in 1999 when he was running and the ridicule I endured was almost legendary. Nothing has changed there to the best of my knowledge.

Yep. Who needs the stress? :)

I do not often look at the polls, but am interested in this topic. Your POV is helpful.

Look at a few more of them. They are all conservative, all the time. Those online polls aren’t scientific at the best of times and AOL’s sample is tilted so heavily conservative anyway that it renders them all the way down into the junk category.

I also heard that you gals from Texas use white onions in your potato salad. Is that true? I think the different regional aspects of cooking is interesting.

We just plugged in the radio in the corn patch to deter raccoons and such. rock 103 or something for the overnight.

Maybe an Obama speech would be a better choice.

This one does!

Maybe an Obama speech would be a better choice.

It would deter me.

There are modified diesels that will burn used cooking oil. If you saved up five gallons of it you might find a taker for it.

My late friend Nez did that. That’s why I thought it was a Texan thing. I like purple onions and sour cream mixed in with the mayonaisse.

Sour cream sounds like a nice addition. :)

Obama deserves some credit for his statement concerning the building of the Islamic Center in NYC.

Obama didn’t have to do it and he certainly didn’t have to say it as strongly as he did.

Our Great Lakes Brewing Company runs their delivery trucks on diesel — they say that dogs sometimes chase them because they smell like french fries. Funny, that.

Actually, my mom used to do a layered potato salad with purple onions, cottage cheese and sour cream, but you’re supposed to let it chill in the fridge over night, and you know me, I have zilch patience.

Actually, I was thinking about that. There might be a few places to look for folks who are using cooking oil for biofuel.

– Call the local waste disposal authority and ask if they recycle or if they know of a recycler;
– Check Craigslist for your area to see if anyone is asking for used cooking oil;
– Post a query in Craigslist to see if anybody can tell you about recycling in your area (set up an email addy for this purpose);
– Ask your local mom-and-pop restaurant what they do with their fryer oil as they probably have to deal with the same question at scale.

Fry, baby, fry!

Your gardens sound lovely.

We have had raccoons coming in through the cat door. . .I will tell my tenant to put on the rock music, she has been out of town this weekend, and she just decided to take her chances that the raccoons would not come in to eat the cats’ food. I don’t know if the cats will like the music. . .

Yes he does but I can’t help but wonder where this was when HIR was being debated and so forth. That tells me that he doesn’t lack courage but that he’s not in business for the people.

True, Obama didn’t have to, but politically speaking he certainly needed to because Mayor Michael Bloomberg made him look very bad by being the first major political figure to take a strong position on religious freedom in support of the mosque.

Bloomberg’s speech is the one which should have been given by Obama. It also puts Bloomberg in a position where he received more national attention, and could begin to launch a moderate Republican campaign for 2012.

Well, I will agree with you that he does not lack courage.

No, Obama did not have to. In particular, he did not have to for political reasons. And, the idea that Bloomberg’s speech is a prelude to his running for President as a Republican is less than plausible.

I do agree that Bloomberg gave a courageous speech.

Thanks Rayne,

Doing a Sarah Pallin, I can see the U.P. from my front porch here, missed your big lake comment on the first read-through.

Thanks to the rest of you for the food ideas and the chit-chat. Am planting some fall greens today, (counting on global warming to extend the season) then heading to the beach with my teenager. She is inviting a few of her friends and I need to pack a snack in the cooler and dig out the umbrella.

Margaret, what is the genesis of the cat’s name? There is a Native American song that I hear on the radio regularly that has that same sound.

Less-than-plausible certainly got inches of print prior to his speech.

Talk persists of Bloomberg presidential run

How Palin Helps Bloomberg

Less-than-plausible also has supporters who are cheering a run.

You want to hide your head in the sand, knock yourself out. I’d prefer to keep a weather eye on the horizon; forewarned is forearmed.

Where are you located (in round, general terms)? I need to plan on planting fall greens, too, but I suspect I’m about 3 weeks behind you. Have chard and mache seeds waiting, think soil temps are too warm here for planting them as yet.

My parents’ place is about 47 degrees north and right on Lake Superior, should probably encourage them to put some greens in planters on their deck. The rest of their property is too shady for greens and will be covered in leaf drop in less than a month.

My point is that the speech supporting the building of the Islamic Center
in NYC was not a precursor to Bloomberg seeking the Republican nomination for President as you suggested here:

It also puts Bloomberg in a position where he received more national attention, and could begin to launch a moderate Republican campaign for 2012.[emphasis supplied]

If anything, it will not launch his bid, but make it less plausible.

As far as your suggesting I have my head in the sand, some here have suggested worse places.

No, that’s not what I suggested at all. With all the praise Bloomberg received, if he chose he could simply point to that speech and the feedback and say, “Look, the public wants and needs more of this.”

I live on the coast in southern California. We’ve had coastal fog overcast almost every morning the whole summer. The temp has been in the high 60′s at noon almost every day for the last couple of weeks. Some complain because of the ‘cold’, but many enjoy it. Had to use a blanket last evening, it was 67 in our bedroom this morning. The overcast tends to break up around noon, then we have the most beautiful weather one can imagine. There are many factors that influence the weather, with the cold ocean nearby, it’ll be interesting to see what future years bring.