Heat Break

The heat won’t break until Friday.

For the past two days I’ve been sweating it out. Yes, we have air conditioning at home. Thank god. Without it, I would probably find myself curled up in a ditch somewhere. Maybe I would bury myself under a pile of damp leaves with all the ticks and hope for the best.

Eat Drink Saratoga was a ton of fun. Thanks to the event I made some new discoveries that I can’t wait to share. But nobody wants to read about booze on a hot and sticky Monday.

Heck, I even considered running away to Montreal. But it’s insanely hot up there too. At least until Friday. Burlington is in the same boat.

Here’s the good news.

It kinda looks like I’m losing weight. Woo hoo. Of course, we all know, it’s mostly from sweat. All this sweating has also apparently been good for my skin. Last night driving home from an outdoor potluck in Massachusetts, the skin on the top of my head felt super soft.

No, that’s not an invitation to touch it.

Speaking of the potluck, the raspberry pie from Lansing Farm was a huge hit. I told everybody that it was made by Farmer Al and his wife, and that I didn’t even pick out the pie myself. Instead, I asked chefs Joan and Kyle who run the Field Goods kitchen out of the farm, which pie they thought was best.

Chefs know food. It’s always good advice to find good chefs and put yourself in their hands.

Speaking of chefs, they also have absolutely no sympathy for complaints about the heat. Their kitchens are hot as hell. All the time. And they work through it. Every day. For an insane amount of hours. On their feet.

Honestly, I have no idea how they do it. This is why they are rock stars. Rock stars do similar things. Seriously, active performers are effectively doing calisthenics on stage for over an hour, under white hot spotlights, in front of thousands of people. It’s nuts. And they do it with feeling, without missing a beat, slipping off key, or forgetting the words.

This is the perfect kind of weather to spend time in the kitchen washing greens. Keeping your hands in cold changes of water. Tenderly treating lettuces to rid them of dirt and grit. It’s cooling and meditative. And then when you’re done, you can eat a salad.

Although I think all of our salad greens have been washed. There’s still arugula, some basil, and a bunch of parsley. Each of those can be ground up in the cuisinart for a tasty cold spread. The trick is just making sure to do it in the right order. Because if you do it that way, you don’t have to clean the mixer between batches.

Basil goes first. Arugula second. Parsley third.

Boiling water is out of the question today, but maybe I’ll try the soft boiled egg in the electric pressure cooker again. That produces precious little steam.

And in the meantime I’ve got some cold brew iced tea working in the refrigerator. Instead of brewing it in quarts, I’m now experimenting with half gallons.

Summer is going to be the big test of the Instant Pot. I know much of the buzz has departed from the brand. But that was to be expected. Fortunately, I didn’t buy it for the buzz.

Now, like a crazy person, I have to go out for a morning mow. Don’t ask. I’ll be fine. I’ve got plenty of Polar seltzer to stay hydrated, some bona fide rock stars to listen to on the headphones, and plenty of chefs to think about for inspiration.

Really, I should be thinking of the farmers. I wish them all well during this heat wave. I have no idea how they do it either.