Cool Food for Hot Days

The past 16 days have brought record heat to Austin with temperatures between 100 and 107 degrees every day. It couldn’t even cool off at night. Several people I know had their a/c go out, including my mom. Our office a/c went out too. Thankfully, today we caught a bit of a cool front and even got some rain. It’s been rather pleasant. I’ve been eating tons of cold food, and even when I would cook dinner, I wouldn’t eat it until it was room temp.




My last CSA box included much of the same, squash, oriental cukes, carrots, onions, and chard. Not pictured are cherry tomatoes, radishes, garlic, beets, and red potatoes. My prize was finding this gorgeous heirloom included!

I haven’t eaten an heirloom tomato in ages. I simply sliced it and ate it with just a bit of salt.

I had forgotten how completely delicious they are. It was like eating the tomatoey-est tomato juice you can imagine. Simply fabulous.

I’ve also made a great big cucumber, onion, and tomato salad, which I seasoned with basil and salt.

There’s been many many batches of Green Smoothie Dressing to go on everything, from green salads I take to work to leftover steamed broccoli.

Of course there was more raw beets to eat. I had been hesitant to put them in my spiralizer, but I finally relented and ended up with a lovely bowl of red and gold beets and a few radishes. Jessy, can we call these *boodles*?

I got a near-empty jar of Dijon mustard, thinned it with water, and poured it over the beets for my dressing.

I mentioned in my last post that it was my brother’s birthday. I was thrilled that he (not vegan) asked me to bake him the Moosewood Deep Chocolate Vegan Cake. I made it for my own birthday last year and it was beautiful.

Sadly, I knew a layer cake would never last being transported in my car to my mom’s house with an air conditioner that had only been working a few hours. So it looked like this. (My brother is much older than the number of candles on the cake!)

Quality trumps beauty! I made it using my best Scharffenberger cocoa and 99% chocolate. Bro loved it, once again proclaiming it the most delicious, moist, richest, and best cake ever. I think it has a lot to do with the fantastically yummy peanut butter frosting. I just had to take this picture.

A funny restaurant story – when we were eating out for our birthday dinner, there were no vegan entrées, so I ordered sides of asparagus, sugar snap peas, and mushrooms, then handed the waiter my menu. He said, Ma’am, you forgot to order your entrée!

Before I end, I want to ask you all to go visit my blogger friend Judy. I’ve been following her for several years and have admired her cooking and baking skills, even when the food wasn’t vegan. Well, now she has publicly declared her decision to go completely vegan! Please let her know how delighted you are and go give her some love.