In the name of Jupiter, I swear it is one of the twelve tasks of Hercules for me to get a fresh-cooked meal on the table at dinnertime at home. If you read my last post, you know that David rarely cooks for me, although he did recently pull off a very generous kitchen stint. But that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about coming home, after a long day of cooking, several hours on my impeccably damaged feet, facing the question taunting me out of the pantry: what to do about dinner? I'm obviously not of those unfortunates who hate to cook, but sometimes when there's no energy, there's just no inspiration to pour my heart and soul into yet one more dish to finish my cooking day.
    So, what do David and I do? Recently, we have been on a several-weeks-long streak of knocking out a salad every night. Normally I get bored pretty quickly of the same food for dinner every night, but salad seems to be somehow different. We get our veggies, it doesn't take a lot of brain power to put one together, and summer brings mercifully cheap produce. But, that's just our veggies. What to do about carbs and protein? I strongly believe in batch cooking. It isn't befitting in the summer, but for the rest of the year, I make big batches of soup and store pint-size servings in the freezer. What to do about dinner in the fall and winter - grab a couple of containers of soup out of the freezer. Even in Seattle summers, however, soup is not really a captivating choice. Gazpacho - perhaps, and I do make several different varieties, but it just doesn't freeze well. There's always casseroles, which, unfortunately, require turning on the oven. Seattle summers may not be very hot (despite the insipid conversations I hear to the contrary on occasion), but when you live on the sixth floor with poor ventilation, an evening sun, and no air conditioning, turning on the oven is a fugly option.
    There's always various options from the grocery store - not. I'm continually disappointed by any ready-to-eat meals I bring home from the store. Microwave dinners are improving, especially the ethinc options, but mostly, I eat these meals and feel a pang of guilt, knowing I could have done much better. My food is good and I'm not shy about trumpeting that to the world.
     Of course, I am occasionally surprised by an item from the store. I hate my local grocery store - it is a soulless blood-sucking national chain, but that's a subject for another post. I shop there because there's a lot to be said for proximity. Recently, I bought some Baba Ghanouj from this store, although it was not a store brand. I brought it home, cut up some veggies, and was struck by Revelation. Now, I make some pretty good Baba - smoky, chunky, slightly bitter, perfectly in balance. This was different from mine - even smokier, but smooth as silk. I might make a baby's butt reference here, but I shy away from language that the Washington Morals Police might construe as child molestation. This Baba was fine, fine, fine. But I digress......the point is, sometimes, even a cursed chain grocery store can get something right on occasion. Even a backwards-running clock is right twice a day.
    What to do for dinner in summer? Besides our salads, I'm afraid I'm stumped. Yes, the lack of energy is still a problem the rest of the year, but when you combine that with an unwillingness to turn on the oven, I'm screwed. Add on top of that a somewhat limited budget for dining out, and you get to what the core theme of what this post is really about - I am asking you, my readers, what should I do about dinner in the summertime? What do you do about dinner in the summertime? If you are my client - well, I know what you do for dinner. Everyone else? Restaurant chefs - they have the benefit of Family Meal. What about other personal/private chefs - what do you do for dinner in the summertime/or any other season of the year, after you've spent a long day on your feet cooking? Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, I guess this is a cry for help. Help me put some sweet home cooking on the table tonight.
    Sometimes, I think I need to hire a personal chef.