My submission.
Salad for 2
1/3 lbs Smoked salmon or whitefish
Lettuce
~1/3 C Dried cranberries
~1/3 C Pecans
~1/3 C Green cheese pieces
1 Apple
Apple vinegar (or other)
Olive oil (or other)
Slice apples (soak in vinegar and water to prevent browning)
wash and rip up lettuce. Add other ingredients to ones preference.
Tomato Sandwiches
Toast Good Bread. If you don’t know what good bread is ask.
Slice Garden Tomatoes that were bred to be meaty rather than juicy.
Slather Mayo on the toast to your satisfaction.
Layer the tomatoes on the toast.
Sprinkle Old Bay Seasoning or your spice of choice on the tomatoes.
Cut sandwiches into 4 triangles. Men will consider these bite sized.
Serve with chilled Sun Tea with Mint from the garden.
Dine al fresco.
My family loved to eat outside. In Pennsylvania we could make it to sunny days in October. A mild or even a warm winter day was practically a cause for celebration. It was a running joke with company present that we would be eating “al fresco” and someone would say, “leftovers, we ate al fresco all week.” Company rarely knew what al fresco meant.
2-3 tomatoes
a handful of basil
a few dashes each, olive oil and balsamic vinegar
~1/2 lb/240 g spaghetti, cooked
Dice the tomatoes (use real tomatoes, not the things in grocery stores)
mince the basil
toss tomatoes and basil with the liquids, add salt and pepper to taste
Pour this stuff over spaghetti and toss
Serve with plenty of parmesean, with some crusty bread if you like.
Similar can be done with squash instead of tomatoes (no vinegar, either), although this dish is cooked. I had this for dinner tonight, and have had probably at least once a week all summer.
I nominate Gazpacho, as given on p31 of the Moosewood Cookbook (by Mollie Katzen).
The ingredients include: tomato juice, onion, garlic, bell pepper, honey, cucumber, scallions, lemon+lime juice, wine vinegar, taragon, basil, cumin, parsley, evoo, salt, pepper, cayenne, tomatos.
Helpful hint: mince all and let sit in fridge for a day.
There’s nothing like it !
trill
We have a pot of basil growing in the garden, but I seem to be allergic to it, so I don’t want it for myself at the table. I’m sorry but I seem to be making what most would call winter dishes. In the last couple of days I have made chili soup with ground beef, onions, celery, tomatoes from the garden, red beans, and chili powder. I usually make a big pot and can several quarts of chili that will keep in the refrigerator for several weeks. Today I cooked chicken breasts and made chicken salad and chicken noodle soup. I don’t know why, but I love home-made chicken noodle soup, and my wife loves my chicken salad with a heavy onion flavor. The chicken soup I can eat any time of the year. It can have a heat index of over 100 degrees outside, and I will be happy with chicken noodle soup. I don’t have a Jewish grandmother, at least in this lifetime, but CNS cannot be surpassed, IMO.
I second gazpacho, Gazpacho Andaluz specifically, and add tabouli and cacik or tzatziki. Tabouli can be made with either cracked wheat, barley, or quinoa.
Gazpacho! Yay!
Mais chac’un à son gôut. I thought bulgar wheat was bad, but quinoa tastes like cardboard to me. When I was a kid I ate some cardboard just to see what it was like, and yes, quinoa, same-same!
Here’s a taste-treat for a hot day: Popsicle!
(we don’t have 'em here in the UK. A strawberry Mivvi would be my preference. I’m pandering to youse americans. )
Come to think of it, those milk lollipops the kids had were pretty good, and you could get vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavours.
I like Gazpacho, but the other half doesn’t, I’d have better luck with cold Borscht. I’ll have to try quinoa tabouli with either Afghan doogh or cacik on naan next week.
I have had quinoa that tasted like cardboard, flavored with sand, saltless sand to boot. I only make enough quinoa to use in a single meal, it doesn’t keep well. If the wheat has Claviceps purpurea it doesn’t taste good. What’s a Mivvi?
I had to look it up.
Aye, that’s the one. Ye learn something new every day, eh?
in countries where they are used to high temperatures its common to eat spicy foods.
it helps to cool the body.
so aside from doing salads I also do hot curries or hot chilies!
if I really cannot be bothered, a table with fingerfoods tapas style, or meditterranean style.
I am fully aware that the closer you get to the equator the food does not look like lingon berries, grava lox and toast.
I have two jalapeño peppers I grow in pots year round. I have fresh ones for lunch and supper most days yet I spend my summers here wet from sweat. Even took the heat with us to Wisconsin a few weeks ago, an icecube bath cools me down nicely.
Spaghetti in a sauce of olive oil, anchovies, chilli, capers and olives usually goes down well in summer. Especially with a chilled bottle of wine 
chris!! am I invited? drool
Tonight Pinchos a la Moruños and Raita with rice.
The thing I tried to grow was habaneros. Some animal (probably squirrel) wold pick one that was ripe and spit it out 3 yards away when they found out what it was. Lately I have been buying serrano peppers, seeding them, and filling them with peanut butter. The worst is my $4 a week habanero jack cheese habit.