After all, life doesn’t stop during the summer, though it would be nice if it did so we could all sit under a shady tree with an ice cold glass of lemonade. But I digress…
No matter what kind of chores or cooking you do, there are bound to be a few that are easy to do when it’s cool (and perhaps even desirable if it’s really cold and the chore provides momentary warmth), but whose prospects are less desirable than death in the summer heat. Here are a few ideas–by no means an exhaustive list, but rather, just something to give your brain a jump start on how to outsmart that summer heat.
Baking Bread - Mix bread dough in the late afternoon or evening and refrigerate. In the early morning, remove dough from the refrigerator, punch down and let rise until double. Punch down again and shape your bread loaves and allow to rise another 30 minutes, then bake. Your bread should be done before the extreme heat of the day hits and permeates your house (that’s about 2pm here). If your home gets hot early in the day, consider allowing the first rise to occur the night before (the same day you mix the dough), then refrigerate the dough. In the morning, remove dough from fridge and punch down. Allow the dough to warm up a bit to a workable condition, then shape loaves and allow to rise for 30 minutes or so. Bake as usual. If you don’t have a decent recipe for bread, you can use the one I use. It’s a wonderful recipe that can be used with all wheat or half wheat/half white bread.
Housework - If you don’t already get up early, consider doing just that in order to get your chores out of the way before the summer heat permeates your home. Getting your chores done first thing will cause you to feel accomplished, as well as free you up for that tall glass of lemonade outside under your shade tree. *smile*
A couple of ideas:
- Make your bed before you even leave your bedroom.
- Throw in a load of laundry first thing in the morning.
- Wipe down the bathroom counter and toilet before you leave the bathroom after washing up.
Dinner - There are myriad ways to prep for dinner in the morning when it is cool. And while I’m sort of at a loss to make this paragraph sound interesting *grin*, I’m not at a loss for ideas:
- Defrost items you will need for your dinner in the refrigerator the night before. If you forget, you can defrost either in your microwave (if you use one), or by immersing your beef, chicken or whatever meat you are having that night in cold water in the morning. (Safe cold water thawing methods can be found here.)
- Prepare the salad or chop up other veggies that you will be using for dinner if need be.
- Make the salad dressing or sauces hours beforehand so the flavors have time to mesh.
- If you are having a casserole for dinner that evening, assemble it in the morning. If it’s too hot to bake later in the day, you can bake it in the morning and reheat it in the microwave before serving.
- Store all of your dinner items together on the same shelf in the fridge so everything is easy to grab and finish preparing and serving. (Please be mindful not to allow raw meat items to touch other items you will be serving raw, as you will be risking salmonella or other illness if you aren’t careful.)
- Consider cooking your dinners outdoors on the barbecue, or in a dutch oven over coals.
While all of these ideas will help you all year around, using them in the summer will help you beat the heat *and* continue to bless your family all through summer!
Shared at:
The Old Saturday Homesteading Trading Post, Homestead Barn Hop, Beautiful Thursdays,
Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop
dont forget the ever handy dandy crock-pot for summer cooking… you can even plug it in outside on the deck/porch if its really really hot in the house (although I havent noticed that the crock really raises the inside temp that much)
This is why I grill so much in summer – just to keep the heat out. We do use a microwave some. I’ve been known to grill several things (a chicken, some burgers, lots of vegetables) all at once and then re-heat in the microwave for meals over the next couple days.
I do all my canning at night, with a couple windows open and a box fan in one of them, blowing to the outdoors. It really seems to help. I tend to do baking at night too, but here, it will get cool overnight, and cool the house down really well, so if I do the baking after DD is in bed, the house is totally cool by morning. (I also am more apt to find bargains at the bread outlet in the summer – I confess!!)
I like the idea of a solar oven. It’s perpetually breezy here, and I have not had the best results with my homemade attempts, and the ‘good’ ones cost more than I’m ready to spend.
Yes, I love my “new” dehydrator, and it’s something I can use that won’t heat up the house when I use it
It gets very hot where I live in the summer! I had to laugh at Laura at 10 Things Farm comment because we do the very same thing can in the evening we have a circular tunnel fan my Mom got me from Walmart and we are good to go! The days are usually spent at the beach, the pool, library, paying bills more sedentary activities since I only work 10 months. Mornings I run errands and the evenings were made for canning
*smile* Hi Lori! I’m glad it’s working out for you. Isn’t dehydrating fun? I like that everything shrinks to 1/3 of the size, leaving more storage space.
Thanks for commenting, by the way! It’s nice to see you here!
You are so right, Kris! The crock pot is a great tool for easy dinners and a cool kitchen! Thanks for pointing that out!
Hi Laura! Wow, what a great idea to grill all at the same time, then reheat! I’m going to steal your idea and fill up my grill!
Thanks for sharing about your solar oven. We are not as windy here, but we can get some. That would probably work for us in the summer, mostly likely. Perhaps I should try to build one and see what happens!
Hi Karen Lynn! Wow—two that bake and can at night! I’m going to have to try that sometime. At night, I’m usually sitting and relaxing, but maybe I need to give this a try! Prep veggies in the morning, can at night…..
My Tip, run to Sues and jump in her pool hahaha!
xD Good idea, Pam! I’m thinking that might happen a time or two this summer!
An awesome idea that I found last year was to cook in a large roaster. You can bake bread, casseroles, I even made a lasagna without heating the house up. I just put my 9×13 inside the roaster. Set the temp to 375 and cooked it for 45 min. I even cooked in out in the sunroom that we close off when it gets hot. Dinner was ready and the house didn’t heat up.
Wow, that’s a wonderful idea, Beth! I’ve been wanting one of those roasters, and now I want one even more!
Thanks for visiting and for your comment!
Those were some great ideas! I am totally spoiled with air conditioning. I grew up without it, but now … rotten. I am always up before the sun, so morning chores would be my way to cope. Thanks for sharing!
I am too, Beth….well at least spoiled with what I’ve got, which most people wouldn’t find comfortable.
So you’re already doing your chores early–that’s great! I need to make sure to practice that once we are suffering high temperatures. For some reason, high temps means something different to my 44 year old body than it used to! It’s high temps outside at 80 degrees now! LOL
Thanks for your comment and for visiting!
Just letting you know that your post was the most viewed on my link up!
Thanks Angell!