I love to cook, and as a matter of fact, I get cranky if I don’t get a little daily kitchen time. The problem is that I currently live in a small house that only has a window air conditioner. This would not be such a big issue if not for the fact that it has been over 100 degrees for a week straight in my neck of the woods. If I fire up the oven, the kitchen reaches 90 degrees before I know what hit me.

The need to have my chefs’ knife in my hand has forced me to adopt some new summer cooking habits. My number one goal was to eliminate any cooking methods that generate a lot of heat. So what’s out?: baking, boiling and counter top grills. I decided my best options are the sauté pan and the broiler I considered using my slow-cooker, but off the top of my head, I couldn’t think of any light fare coming from that direction.

Ok, so now that I know how I want to cook, I need to change some other habits. I need to change the way I slice and dice so that my raw materials can be cooked in a flash.

Small food
If you want your food to cook fast, you need to get small. Thin slices and small dices for the veggies will cut cooking times dramatically. If you are not comfortable doing it by hand, use your food processor with the slicing blade.

Fast food
My next task was to identify what kind of foods to cook. Starchy foods like potatoes take quite a while to cook. I would opt for rice as a replacement. If you have one, use your rice cooker since it produces much less heat than making rice on the stove top. Have you thought of using your rice cooker to steam vegetables? Many carry out that task very well.

I love a thick steak, but a thinner cut like a pork chop or even a fish fillet would cook faster and be a lighter option. Heat up your broiler just before you need it and turn it off as soon as you take the food out the oven. The broiler cooks using direct heat from the heating element instead of by heating up the whole oven so you don’t need to preheat before you start cooking.

No Cook Food
There are lots of no cook options that still go down like a solid meal. How about sandwiches for dinner? Just because it is common fare doesn’t mean you cannot build it on a fresh baguette, with quality ingredients and a nice bottle of wine.

Salad anyone? Start with your greens; add some grapes, feta cheese & mandarin oranges for a refreshing meal. If you like, add some pre-packaged cooked chicken breast. I know this is not the normal “smart shopping” suggestion, but one of the reasons to save money is to be comfortable and get the things that make you happy. A cool kitchen is worth an extra dollar to me!

A cool salad doesn’t have to be ordinary. Take some fat slices of ripe tomatoes, a dash of salt, and top with a splash of a balsamic vinegar dressing, a few sprigs of basil and some capers if you have them.

Fruit and melon salads are also great during the summer since your ingredients are fresh, vibrant and at their best. Simply slice, combine and add a dash of salt and maybe a little cinnamon. Serve chilled with a nice white wine, yum!

Soups are not just for the winter months. There are many cold soup options: savory and sweet. Gazpacho is best in the summer when the tomatoes are ripe and fresh. Even better, you can make it in your blender. Other no-cook soups feature melons, berries and even cucumbers. There are a plethora of other easy soups that can be prepared hot and served cold just for variety.

Remember, just because a dish is prepared and served cold doesn’t mean it has to be boring.

A little extra help
Here are a few online resources where you can find a variety of cold soup recipes.

Cold Soup Recipies at AllRecipies.Com

Cold Soup Reipies at RecipeSource.Com