Not irrelevant, just different ways of dealing with Summer. The Swampy makes eating warm/hot meals bearable or even enjoyable. at Christmas I cook at night and chill the cooked food overnight and eat with a variety of cool salads. I am well past the eating a hot lunch and dinner over the hot time around Christmas, hot works if in aircon, snow or well Nth of the equator.
So my favourites are my Wife’s potato salad (with a tangy dressing and halved chilled boiled eggs); my Wife’s Coleslaw again with a tangy dressing; Caesar Salad with Cardini’s dressing, shredded chicken and crumbly bacon pieces.
I live at 1,400M altitude, never gets to 30C. 28C for us is a blistering hot day. When it does get to 28C it is only for a shortish time. Always cools down at night. We had a frost in December -2.5C.
On a hot day/evening, nothing beats a good salad. And nothing beats a salad made with fresh, crispy home grown garden produce picked immediately before it is consumed.
A typical salad (of home grown produce) includes cos and other leafy lettuces, endive, coriander, rocket, English spinach, grated kohl rabi, asparagus (when in season), parsley, tomatoes (when in season)…we then complement this with some local parmesan (such as Ashgrove)/hard cheese, locally grown onion, boiled spuds, capsicum and a cooked/cured cold meat. Dressing is usually balsamic vinegar.
