Too hot to cook

It never gets too hot in Ventura, rarely over 85, which is good because most of us don't have air conditioning. But this summer has proved to be one for the books. While one heat spell doesn't a global warming trend make, this weather has been hot enough to get all of our attention.

Despite my complaining, it could be a whole lot worse. Sunday, I went to Ojai for the farmers market. I swung by the bank -- the one with the time/temperature on it. At 10:15 a.m. it was 100 degrees. Here in Ventura, we've managed to hit 95 some days and although my house is naturally air conditioned with the ocean breeze providing a constant source of cool air, the air has been so hot and sticky that Rob, the pets and I have been mostly lying around until sunset, when it gets cool enough for comfort.

Imagine, this was the year we were going to dismantle the pool; it's an above-ground pool and is easily taken down. I only used it three times last year and Rob hasn't used it in years. This year, though, I've been swimming daily.

I also have been trying this week to avoid cooking. Monday I made some bacon in the George Foreman grill, which doesn't get very hot. We had BLTs made with heirloom tomatoes and fresh lettuce from the farmers market.

Tuesday I got meat from our local butcher, hamburger and bone-in chicken breasts, which were on sale. Our outdoor grill was just made for this type of weather and the chicken breasts were perfect, grilled with just a sprinkling of onion and garlic powders, salt and fresh tarragon. We had the hamburgers fresh off the grill and saved the chicken for the next night.

I made a tarragon chicken salad and some cold cucumber/watercress soup. This has sustained me for the past two days and has proved to be the perfect hot weather meal.

Tarragon/chicken salad

1 large or 2 medium grilled skin-on chicken breasts
1 celery stalk, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
1/4 cup dried Morello cherries, nonsweetened (available at Trader Joe's)
1/3 cup slivered almonds
1 tablespoon fresh chopped or 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
3/4 cup mayonnaise
salt and white pepper to taste

Take skins off cold chicken breasts and chop into 1/4 inch pieces. Mix all the ingredients together except for the salt and pepper, which you add at the end to adjust the taste. Chill. Serve with crackers and sliced tomatoes.

Cucumber/watercress soup

1 cucumber, peeled and seeded and chopped into large pieces
1 cup watercress, use mostly leaves but some stems are good
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
cayenne pepper to taste
salt and pepper to taste
green onion, scallion, sliced

Using a hand-held blender, (you can use a regular blender, but the hand-held blenders are so much more convenient and so much easier to clean) blend all of the ingredients together until the cucumber and watercress are completely incorporated into the liquid. Wait until the soup is made to season. Chill the soup for 24 hours before serving. Some foam will rise to the top, so make sure to stir the soup. Garnish with sliced scallion.

Plums

We moved to this cul de sac about five years ago. I'd never lived in a cul de sac, but I've found there's a great sense of neighborhood in such an arrangement. We all tend to watch out for each other and some of us actually interact from time to time.

Ours is a microcosm of "diversity" that over-hyped, rarely achieved corporate goal. But it doesn't matter. In fact, if anything, the only people we as a group look down on is renters -- there's one house that's rented out in the enclave. Renters don't tend to care as much about the property as homeowners do, so the house always looks a little rundown.

One of our favorite neighbors is firefighter Dan and his family. One of his boys is interested in cooking and he will have me try some of his efforts. I offer him tips. I try to keep my tips positive and in the area of general knowledge. And Dan comes over from time to time with some of the fruit from his fruit trees. We get oranges, peaches and plums at various times of the year.

We had a late spring this year because it was wet and cold. As a result, the plums were late. But they were worth the wait. They were sweet and juicy. I decided to make a plum pastry after perusing some online recipes. I wasn't so much in the mood for a sauce and a pastry seemed like a nice idea.

This recipe is super easy and preserves the taste of the plums with little added. Just make sure you have a sharp knife to cut the pastry. This is great served with vanilla ice cream.

Plum tart

12 to 16 plums, seeded and sliced
1 sheet puff pastry
Canola spray
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon good-quality Indonesian cinnamon
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch cakepan with canola oil. Roll out thawed puff pastry sheet and lay it in the cake pan, pushing the pastry up the sides of the pan. Place sliced plums in the middle. Using your fingers, mix the sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon together until it is is a coarse mixture of pea-sized pieces. Sprinkle mixture over the plums. Fold four corners of puff pastry over the plums. Brush exposed puff pastry with beaten egg. Cook for 30 minutes or until the pastry has browned.

Summer treats

  
It was Rob's birthday yesterday. I'd really screwed up his birthday last year by being sick, so this year I wanted to make it up to him. But Rob really dislikes big deals made over him. He wanted a cherry pie, so I made him one. (I need to brush up on my pie baking because the fair's coming up.)

Although we went out for dinner on the Big Day, I made a nice meal the day before because Rob had wanted Italian food. Meatballs are one of the first foods I learned to make. I still love them.

Spaghetti and meatballs

1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup Italian-style breadcrumbs
2 eggs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
About a container and a half of your favorite sauce
1 pound spaghetti prepared as indicated on the package

Mix all ingredients together and form the mixture into 1-inch balls. Brown the meatballs in a skillet on all sides. Heat the sauce over low heat and add meatballs. Simmer on low for at least 30 minutes.
Add sauce and meatballs to drained spaghetti and mix over very low heat for about a minute. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

The Fourth of July

 
 
  
When we first moved to Ventura the local street fairs and festivals didn't live up to our Midwestern standards. In the Midwest, festivals are HUGE. These people will celebrate anything. I spent years covering the Waynesville Sauerkraut Festival for the Dayton Daily News. I also covered the Americana Festival, the Sugar Maple Festival and the Holiday at Home parade.

I wasn't all that impressed the first time I went to a Ventura street fair. Sure, the Strawberry Festival in OXnard would have probably wowed me, but it seems as though it's TOO big. These days, however, downtown Ventura, which has undergone a renaissance since I moved here, host a much better festival. We took the dogs with us because Rascal and Fuser, the two abused dogs need to get used to having lots of people around. Fuser did fine, but Rascal freaked out and would pretty much spin in circles of panic. He finally calmed down a bit, but they were all grateful to get to the car.

The fair itself was just like Ventura, funky, diverse and eclectic. It's so funny these days: Corporations have embraced "diversity" (along with getting to the "next level," whatever the Hell that is) as the newest greatest fad. But look around you and embrace what you see. Diversity is everywhere, it shouldn't have to be something you strive so hard to achieve.