Jamaican Independence Day is August 6th. Why not celebrate early? Jerk Chicken on the grill. Rice and Peas. Festival if you have the time. Homemade coleslaw.

Not sure it would work but I just made this sheet pan chicken dish again. Easy and tasty. Leftovers are also good.👍🏻

Sheet Pan Vinegar Chicken

1 medium red onion, cut into 1/4-inch-thick wedges
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (I’ve also used boneless breasts cut in half)
3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
2 cups mixed color cherry tomatoes
3/4 cup pitted Castelvetrano olives
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
2 cloves garlic, sliced or minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Toss the onions with 1/2 tablespoon of the oil on a large rimmed baking sheet. Arrange the chicken thighs on top and sprinkle them all over with the smoked paprika and salt and pepper. Drizzle the vinegar onto the baking sheet, then roast in the oven about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, toss the cherry tomatoes, olives, rosemary and garlic with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, a big pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Add the mixture to the baking sheet with the roasted chicken and continue to roast until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through, about 20 minutes more.

Sprinkle with the parsley and serve the chicken with the vegetables and juices from the baking sheet.

Note - Cooking times can vary depending on your oven and size of chicken pieces.

Or, maybe something Greek-ish? Tieghan Gerard (Half Baked Harvest) has some good dishes featuring chicken, lemon, rice/orzo and feta.

Depends on where she lives and what she can and cannot get there. Also depends on the weather, is it hot summery or overcast summery.

Summery to me is something like ceviche with corn and cilantro, fish tacos with small corn tortillas, chilled gazpacho, bottomless margaritas.

Just thought of this fave from the Silver Palate, FWIW. I like to serve it with tortellini or penne.

Pasta Sauce Raphael
(Serves 6)

2 jars (6 oz. each) marinated artichoke hearts in oil
¼ cup olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
2 T. minced garlic
½ tsp. dried oregano
½ tsp. dried basil
1 T. coarsely ground black pepper (or to taste; I use a generous 1 tsp.)
½ tsp. salt
Pinch of dried red pepper flakes
1 can (28 oz.) plum tomatoes, with their juice
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
¼ cup chopped Italian parsley

Drain artichoke hearts, reserving the marinade.
Heat olive oil in large saucepan. Add onions, garlic, oregano, basil, black pepper, salt, red pepper flakes and reserve artichoke marinade. Saute over medium-low heat until onions and garlic are soft and translucent, about 10 minutes.
Add tomatoes and simmer for 30 minutes.
Add artichoke hearts, Parmesan, and parsley. Stir gently, and simmer another 5 minutes. Serve with pasta of choice.

Judi, those uncooked sauces are so good with great tomatoes. Summer in a bowl!😃

Gazpacho sounds better than a salad and I have what to make it from. I like the looks of the "fresh sauce" but I'm not sure I want to boil pasta. I think I'll save that one for another time. Same with Chloebud's recipe.

John, I don't know the answers. She used to be a good cook, but I think she lost interest a long time ago. I don't know what she can get, but I doubt she bothers much. You trying to kill me with those tacos? It's as likely ot be dank as hot. Probably more on the dank side. But not cool. The chicken dishes I mentioned are more Fall flavors than too warm.

Maybe empanadas and gazpacho?

Fish tacos just remember “summer” to me, I guess.

Rough sand, breaking waves, rockfish from the sea that morning, a blackened and dented pan. Piled on tortillas with salt and lime halves by brown hands, passed to mine, tanned almost as dark. Sitting on the kayak, glimpses of rolling ocean beyond the breakers. We’re here, we want to be there, we have to get through that. After these tacos, we’ll go.

Maybe there were empanadas too, on that Baja beach. They could be summery too.

I'm allergic to fish, and it gets worse as I get older, so fish tacos say "hospital" to me. I have fished with my father when I was a tween, on the half-day boats, so I get your picture above, though not from kayak level. My hands were too small to catch the anchovies in the bait tank, and a deck hand would come by, grab one of the liveliest and put it on my hook. Some red rockfish, but I usually ended up catching a barracuda, maybe because of the superior anchovies. But it was Father who did all the fish eating, and he'd share his catch among the greater family. Thanks for bringing up the memory.

I love chicken salad with croissants.

Ooo ooo another summerly memory.

Sitting on another rough sandy beach, more breaking waves, passing around a Frisbee piled with glistening raw fish pulled from the spear a minute ago and cut up with a pocketknife. Eaten with our salty fingers, the best sashimi I’ve ever had, seasoned with the promise of sleep.

Sorry plllog!

So I just made the fish tacos. Maybe, tomorrow, find a Frisbee and get a live fish from the Asian market.

Maybe get a live fish from the ocean?

"I'm not sure I want to boil pasta". If you use the 3 min boil and 7/8 minutes sit with lid on technique you'll only have the heat on for a few minutes.

Or, if it's really too hot to cook, even briefly, how about a simple, entirely cold meal of melon and prosciutto followed by top quality cold roast chicken and a couple of salads? Fresh pineapple for pudding.

Go to Provence. These are so simple to make - all prepared in advance so you won't be in the kitchen while your friend is there. You can stuff round courgettes, onions, aubergines, tomatoes..... it looks so pretty and tastes wonderful.

https://lechefswife.com/les-petits-farcis-nicois/

ROTFLOL! IC, back when we were young and poor and lived In walking distance I'd make something very similar for dinner on her long day. I can just imagine her saying, ”Haven't you learned anything new?” But, yes, that's just the kind of thing I was thinking of.

Floral, I wasn't clear. It's not the heat. It's not too hot to cook here. It was the carb-loading boiled pasta that wasn't tempting me, to the point of not wanting to do it. But I like the suggestions/recipes and will use them another time..

So, I'm thinking the gazpacho and empanadas is a go. My empanada dough makes a dozen. I saw one that had a chimichuri to go with, which sounds good. With a variety of vegetables and pickles.

Thank-you all for the great suggestions!

What about two or three different cold dishes that you make before. I do this often for myself in summer. Perhaps a bulgur wheat salad, a cucumber salad, a caprese salad. Or replace the bulgur with a lentil salad.

PKramer's SW chicken and biscuits Who is P Kramer and could you post recipe?

BLTs and local fresh corn on the cob is the ultimate summer meal. We have it 2 or 3 times a week in July and August.

Sherry, she's a long time CF member, and that's her screen name (searchable but minus the numbers). Scroll down here:

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/3631537/chicken-and-dumplings-what-s-your-way#n=21

I call it ”biscuits” to differentiate from boiled dumplings. Excellent recipe. Just not Summery.

Thanks. Sounds good, but not what I would call SW.

PKramer's SW chicken and biscuits Who is P Kramer and could you post recipe?

That would be Peppi.

We are having house guests this weekend. They are returning from a week vacation...coastal Maine. I'm making a gazpacho as well. Sounds good to us. I've made it twice recently. One warm and one chilled. (DH was recovering from a sensitive stomach a couple weeks ago and warm with a grilled cheese sounded good to him after a few days of bone broth/miso.)

I made a big batch thinking he might want a cup or two for lunches. Four pints went into the freezer so it is already made.

Not decided on sides yet but all will be made ahead/day before. Sunday brunch will be DimSum...another 'easy'.

Just went through 8 years of July/August summer salads. Greens/corn/beans/grains/nuts-seeds...not lettuce. So many choices! All easy without needing to shop having a full crisper.

A summery suggestion from Kenji.

kenjilopezalt

Stone fruit are peaking around here now and the cherry tomatoes I found at Town and Country on Bainbridge are phenomenal so tomato and peachtarine caprese with some Colombian buffalo mozzarella (@bufcreamery), homegrown basil, and that really good @primisimports EVOO. Some local @jacobsensaltco sea salt too. It’s perfect.

Photos in link.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C-B28_LPo3j/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Gazpacho and empanadas sound like a go. I like the sound of the chimichurri, too.

You could also kick in a socca or two. Chickpeas can play nice with gazpacho and chimichurri, and can be easier than empanadas or go well with them. I'm fond of a feta and garlic dip, roasted pepper dip, or eggplant dip too :)

Something quick-pickled for an added semi-side minor flavor kick? Thinking pickled jalapenos with onion

Mexican Street corn salad. Nice and cool.

https://www.servedfromscratch.com/mexican-street-corn-salad/

I had everything....but the chicken? I had a package of arrives frozen organic chicken pieces in the freezer. Perfect for making the empanadas. Good thing my first step was to take it out to defrost. No chicken! I looked several times, looked in the meat drawer in the fridge, looked in the freezer door which is just things like spices and gel packs. After an exhausting few days I wasn't ready to start over. We ordered in. Really good, simple food from a neighborhood place.

Today, I need chicken stock. I was just pulling out the little containers in the freezer to see how much I needed to bring upstairs. Exactly where I expected them, and none hiding behind the tamales, but front and center? The package of frozen chicken!

Do the multi-dimensional aliens who study our socks now borrow the frozen chicken???

We know safety pins are the larval stage of clothes hangers - story of that fatal discovery here https://archive.org/details/galaxymagazine-1958-05/page/n49/mode/2up?view=theater

And there is something similar going on with socks and bras - although those investigating seem to stop, due to dying - and I’ve heard murmurs about Lightning cables turning into USB-C cables whenever an iPhone user reaches for them.

But frozen chicken disappearing and reappearing - that would be a new discovery. One that probably doesn’t “want“ to be discovered. Be very careful around that freezer.

Will do. It's German...

lettuce wraps with your fave filling ... load your own

John - I read that story when I was a kid - in one of my dad's many SF books - and it's among several that stuck with me always 😀

And I like shrimp tacos even better than fish...

Hmmmm. I would go to our favorite bakery that uses ancient grains for their breads, so they are fairly low carb. Buy some provolone cheese (or your favorite), make a batch of fresh pesto from the garden and make pesto grilled cheese along with fruit and or veges from the garden.