Summer time feasting

The weather has been hot, humid, sticky and downright icky the last few days. Who wants to cook in that?

But the children must be fed, and cereal is okay in an emergency, though Sunday afternoon on a hot summer day is not an emergency, even if the cooking doesn't start until after 6pm.

What's a mom to do?

No reason to heat up the kitchen - that's what I have that big, lovely bbq for!

Grilled vegetables, lightly basted with a balsamic vinagrette. Fresh, vine ripened tomatoes, zucchini and rounds of sweet red onions. Medium style Italian sausages, nothing fancy, formality not needed with this meal.

I choose to embelish my meal, topping those sweet roasted vegetables with goat cheese, enjoying the smooth, creaminess with every bite. My husband is not so adventerous, goat cheese being a flavor he doesn't like.

The children were not impressed with anything but the sausages, and would only eat them if I provide ketchup. Which is funny because they both ignored the ketchup on their plates. Neither wants to try the zucchini, the only roasted vegetable I attempted on them. Instead they choose a pile of leafy green lettuce with ranch dressing, their favorite way to eat salad.

Earlier that day, before it got too hot, I did the advanced prep work on dessert: strawberry shortcake.

The shortcake recipe came from Canadian Living, and was easy to make. The dough was easy to handle, which is a good thing. Despite enjoying cooking, I don't often make pastries, partially because I don't like the sticky mess that goes along with them. I like to eat pastries, not make them.

Lacking a proper cookie cutter for rounds , I chose to make wedges instead. I own a few cookie cutters but for some reason snowmen, snowflakes, maple leafs and bones do not seem like appropriate choices.

With strawberries fresh from the local patch, and piled high with freshly whipped cream, dessert was lovely. The shortcakes were dense and strong enough to hold up under the masses of whipped cream and strawberries piled on top of them.

My husband went for seconds, topping it instead with fresh raspberries. He almost went for thirds.

I guess this summer feast was fairly successful. Now if I could only get the children to try zucchini in something other than bread!