Welcome to My Kitchen

Uffda! By the time you receive this issue of The Odessa Record, temperatures may have cooled to 102 degrees. What do we cook when it is so hot we are already cooking? Salads are always a good choice, as most ingredients don’t require turning on the stove.

Merleen Smith brought a cabbage-based salad to a recent event, and it garnered many requests for the recipe. Merleen had put it together using the some-of-this and a-little-of-that method, with ingredients she had on hand. Following is her best estimate of amounts.

Merleen’s Tropical Salad

1 head cabbage, shredded or chopped

1-2 cans Mandarin oranges, drained

1 can (20 ounces) pineapple tidbits, drained

2 packages ramen noodles (uncooked)

1 packet ramen chicken flavor seasoning

1 red onion, sliced thin

1/4 cup toasted, sliced almonds (optional)

Dressing:

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 cup vegetable or canola oil

3 Tbsp prepared mustard

1/3 cup white vinegar

1/2 Tbsp poppy seeds (optional)

Place cabbage in a large bowl. Top with mandarin oranges, pineapple tidbits and the red onion. Crush ramen noodles and scatter over the cabbage and fruit. Sprinkle ramen seasoning over the noodles. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Meanwhile combine the dressing ingredients, mixing well until sugar is dissolved. Note: I put all the ingredients in a pint jar and shook vigorously until sugar was dissolved.

Just before serving, add dressing to cabbage and fruit along with the sliced almonds if using. Toss ingredients to evenly distribute dressing. Yield: about 1 gallon.

Adding diced, grilled chicken to the above recipe turns it into a main dish salad. Grill and refrigerate the chicken ahead of time and add with the dressing and sliced almonds.

Last week, the first of the summer cooking classes for kids was held. The younger group made Grands! Biscuit Pizza. The dough is a grand-sized biscuit, pressed and rolled thin. The recipe the kids took home calls for one biscuit and just the amount of sauce, cheese and pepperoni needed for one pizza. The recipe following is for using the entire can of biscuits.

Grands! Biscuit Pizza

1 can, 8 grand-sized refrigerator biscuits

1 cup pizza sauce

2 cups grated pizza cheese

48 slices (3.5 ounce package) pepperoni

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Press or roll each biscuit into a 6-inch round, so it is very thin. Spread each with 2 Tbsp pizza sauce to within 1/2 inch from the edges of the dough. Sprinkle with almost all of 1/4 cup cheese on each one. Add pepperoni slices and the remainder of the 1/4 cup cheese.

In the class, I had each child press out their dough on a square of parchment paper. This made it easy to lift onto a baking sheet and also allowed me to write the name of each on a corner of the paper. This could be useful at home if individuals are topping their own pizza.

Students also learned that putting most of the cheese on top of the sauce before adding other toppings helps keep the toppings in place while eating.

Bake pizzas 10 to 15 minutes, or until the crust is a deep golden brown and the cheese is bubbly. Let cool slightly before eating.

Other instructions were: remember to turn the oven off when you are done baking. And, while pizza is baking, clean up the counter, put extra food in the refrigerator. Wash the utensils you used in warm soapy water, rinse and dry and put away. Make mom smile.

Baking anything in this heat really heats up the house and taxes air-conditioning units. The good news is, pizza can be made on the barbeque. Heat grill to the medium/350 range. Brush one side of rolled out dough lightly with olive or vegetable oil. Use a pizza peel or a rimless baking sheet to slide oiled side of dough onto the grill. Close lid and cook 30 seconds to 1 minute until just lightly browned. Use peel to remove dough from grill. Note: every grill cooks a bit differently, so watch closely and adjust times as needed.

Lightly oil uncooked side of dough and flip over. Add sauce, cheese and topping to the partially cooked side and slide back onto the grill. Cook 2-5 minutes longer, or until crust is desired doneness and toppings bubbly. Cool slightly before eating.

Any cooking you can do outdoors reduces heat generated in the kitchen. Using a crockpot in a safe outdoor location is another way to prepare summer meals. Barbeque Beef Short Ribs is a recipe I developed. Short ribs benefit from the slow cooking on the low setting, infusing the meat with the sauce flavors.

Barbequed Beef Short Ribs

2-3 pounds meaty beef short ribs

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup Catalina salad dressing

1 cup regular barbeque sauce

Place half the chopped onion in the bottom of slow-cooker crock. Place short ribs over onions. Sprinkle with black pepper and salt, and the remaining chopped onion.

Combine dressing and barbeque sauce and pour evenly over ribs. Cover and cook on low 8 hours. Yield 4-6 servings.

What are your go-to recipes for the hot days of summer? Do you have some great tips for keeping the kitchen cool during meal preparation? What do you cook on the barbeque grill besides the usual steaks, hamburgers and fish? Share your favorite tips and recipes with your fellow readers by sending them to: Welcome to My Kitchen, c/o The Odessa Record, P.O. Box 458, Odessa, WA 99159, email therecord@odessaoffice.com or drop them in the Welcome to My Kitchen mail tin in The Odessa Record office.

Water gardens and flower beds in the early morning or evening after the sun goes down. Plants don’t take up water well in the heat of the day and there will be less evaporation.