Question of the Day, Sunday, April 10, 2016

good afternoon! 

this week i've been thinking about, and longing for, the warm weather to get here! there's much for me to do outdoors during the summer months, and i really enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. 

with these thoughts on my mind, for today's Question of the Day......

What is your favorite(s) warm weather/summer time beverage?

and -- What is your favorite(s) food during the warm weather months?  (can be meals, snacks, desserts, particular foods, etc)

i'll start!

i think my favorite summer time beverage is fresh squeezed lemonade, made using a simple syrup -- a real treat, and something i only make once or twice each summer.      since i'm outdoors doing chores so much, i also drink a heck of a lot of sports drinks. i'm very aware of the risk of developing heat exhaustion, so i'm careful to stay properly hydrated while doing chores.

i still prefer a hot meal once a day, even during the summer months. but i do make sandwiches much more often, especially simple cold cut sandwiches. i make potato and macaroni salads throughout the summer, as well as egg and tuna salads. most times i just eat the egg and tuna salads as is, not with bread/in a sandwich.

i eat more raw veggies, usually with some salad dressing to dip in, during the summer too. i also love deviled eggs, especially during the warm weather.

i don't bake as often during the warmer weather months, but instead will have some ice cream or sherbet occasionally. most times, i'll alternate between jello and pudding for desserts.

summer is also when i'm making and freezing/canning most of my jams and jellies, though i do make apple butter and applesauce during the fall. this year i think i'll get enough strawberries from my strawberry patch to make a full batch of freezer jam...   and i'll also make blueberry freezer jam, raspberry jelly (using beet juice and raspberry jello), and grape jelly (also using beet juice, and grape kool-aid).

okay, now it's your turn!

I think my favorite beverage is ice cold fresh brewed tea.  My  favorite food would be melon,  watermelon is my favorite and cantaloupe is my  second favorite.  I  got very few really good ones last year, I hope they  are better this year.

Iced tea is my favorite drink!  Usually black tea with sugar. But my MIL has us hooked on Green-mint ice tea.  She uses both green tea and mint tea to make it.  It cuts the bitter part of the green tea. She also does it with lemon (fresh lemon) instead of mint and that's really good too!  Both are very refreshing!

My favorite summer meal isn't one I make for myself.; it's good ol fashion BLTs!  

Wen I was a teen I'd spend about a month or so with my Grandparents in the summer.  Air conditioning isn't too common in their area; but it can get hot and no one wants to be over the stove then.  My Grandparents had an OLD gas stove in their basement. Only one or two burners worked.  The oven didn't work either.  My Grandpa used it to cook stinky things; like fish or liver.  They also used it making things like applesauce.  But when the weather would get hot; Gram would be down there frying up some bacon. Grandpa would pick tomatoes and lettuce from the garden. They'd toast bread from the Italian bakery.  Spread a little mayo on and ooooh yes. Best BLTs!!  We'd eat in the family room in the basement together watching tv or a movie. Sometimes with the lights off to help with the cool.  I'd love to go back to those days with them!!

Pasta salad is a popular summer dish in our house.  I can fill it with lots of veggies and the kids eat it up!  I mix my own dressing from a betty crocker recipe. I decrease the oil a little and increase the vinegar a little.  I love pasta salad!

And I hear ya on wanting it to warm up so you can go outside.  I need to get my peas in the ground and only 1/3 of my garden is weeded.  I've had to cover my rhubarb a few nights.

Iced tea with lemon...same as the dead of winter!  It's a Southern thing, I think.  Sweet tea, of course.  As for foods...A salad with crisp lettuce just chock full of grapes, fresh pineapple chunks, cherries, walnut halves, banana slices and peach chunks with a raspberry-walnut vinaigrette.  Yummy.

My favorite summer drink is iced teas... all different kinds and flavors.

I love watermelon! Cannot wait for it to be in season...

I do like cantaloupe, but there are always so many recalls and warning issued on them..

Yes, Ice cream at the hand made small shop is my summer treat...

I do eat a lot more salads and use my indoor grill a lot.  I live in an apartment building and outdoor grills are not allowed, however a lot of tenants do have them. I tried to have one, but one of my crazed neighbors (has since moved) complained about it...bottom line was: she had to get rid of hers so she told me she would not allow anyone else to have one...too bad she was on my floor on my side of the building....it is not worth it to have one now...

Water with lemon squeezed into it. Sooo refreshing.

As far as food... pretty much anything cooked on a grill. Burgers, hot dogs, veggies. Love me some corn on the cob cooked on a grill. Oh, and elotes! Sooo yummy, don't get it nearly often enough where I live now.

I enjoy a nice cold Mike's Hard Lemonade.. different flavors!

It's almost always warm here so we don't really have foods for "seasons". Watermelon and most other fruits are available year round. I also love BLT's but bow I make them with facon. They are just as good but not greasy. I love fresh lemonade.

Lemonade, iced tea, water with lemon.

I love freshly picked corn and fruit and berries in the summer.

I really like ice water.

I love Caprese salad.

I don't really do cold drinks, even in the summer time. I like to sit on the deck on a warm afternoon with a hot mug of tea.

The only cold drinks I like are alcoholic. Cold beer is good, particularly after a hard day's gardening or a run. I like cold Chardonnay too.

Ice tea.

Ice Tea, or after a particularly hard, hot day there is nothing better then an ice cold Pepsi! My favorite food in the summer is fresh tomatoes and of course watermelon. They are just not the same in the winter months!

High-octane Pepsi over lots of chipped ice, or

A nice glass of tart lemonade over lots of chipped ice

I dearly love a bowl of really good potato salad. Even though sometimes we may have potato salad during the winter months, I always associate potato salad (and macaroni salad, too) as a summer picnic food. When my mom made potato salad (and it was the best ever), she used at least ten pounds of potatoes and over a dozen hard-boiled eggs in her salad. Everybody loved it and it went fast. On the rare occasions there was any salad leftover, my sister and I would each grab a spoon and sit there and eat the leftovers from the bowl.....and fight over the last spoon. 

Another vote for iced tea in the summer. As far as food is concerned, we eat an awful lot of salads in hot weather, with garden-fresh veggies.

iced tea, unsweetened, or lemonade

My favorite hot weather meal is hamburgers cooked on the grill with baked beans.

Lemonade.  Blue Gatorade. Ice Water.

Only Iced Tea I like is the 5 liquor one long island Ice Tea drink but I cant drink the entire thing-tastes exactly like sweet tea.

Food=fresh picked corn steamed with butter and salt.

Steaks on the grill, hot dogs and my potatoe slices in oil/garlic wrapped in tinfoil on the grill.

We eat lots of salads in the summer.
Tuna sandwich with pickles and mayo on pumpernickel bread. YUM.

Potato salad hot-we love it fresh made-eggs pickles. celery. onions. green pepper=and lots of mayo=Jon loves it fresh so I make small batches at a time because he likes it hot-you know when you drain the potatoes. I cut them raw then cook for 10-15 min drain then add the above sliced-mix with a wooden spoon and eat right out of the mixing bowl sitting in front of the air conditioner watching some cool car show thing.

When the sun dips behind the trees then we will use the grill. usually anything on the grill or microwave-we eat a lot of nachos made in the microwave-chips/cheese/meat/chili/veg/sour cream-yum!

Denice said:

 
I think my favorite beverage is ice cold fresh brewed tea.  My  favorite food would be melon,  watermelon is my favorite and cantaloupe is my  second favorite.  I  got very few really good ones last year, I hope they  are better this year.

Click to expand...

mmmm......i love watermelon too!   i also love cantaloupe. the best tasting, and truly huge, cantaloupe i bought was from a vendor at the Rochester Farmer's Market -- that was probably 7 years ago.

MoochNNoodles said:

 
Iced tea is my favorite drink!  Usually black tea with sugar. But my MIL has us hooked on Green-mint ice tea.  She uses both green tea and mint tea to make it.  It cuts the bitter part of the green tea. She also does it with lemon (fresh lemon) instead of mint and that's really good too!  Both are very refreshing!

My favorite summer meal isn't one I make for myself.; it's good ol fashion BLTs!  

Wen I was a teen I'd spend about a month or so with my Grandparents in the summer.  Air conditioning isn't too common in their area; but it can get hot and no one wants to be over the stove then.  My Grandparents had an OLD gas stove in their basement. Only one or two burners worked.  The oven didn't work either.  My Grandpa used it to cook stinky things; like fish or liver.  They also used it making things like applesauce.  But when the weather would get hot; Gram would be down there frying up some bacon. Grandpa would pick tomatoes and lettuce from the garden. They'd toast bread from the Italian bakery.  Spread a little mayo on and ooooh yes. Best BLTs!!  We'd eat in the family room in the basement together watching tv or a movie. Sometimes with the lights off to help with the cool.  I'd love to go back to those days with them!!

Pasta salad is a popular summer dish in our house.  I can fill it with lots of veggies and the kids eat it up!  I mix my own dressing from a betty crocker recipe. I decrease the oil a little and increase the vinegar a little.  I love pasta salad!

And I hear ya on wanting it to warm up so you can go outside.  I need to get my peas in the ground and only 1/3 of my garden is weeded.  I've had to cover my rhubarb a few nights.

Click to expand...

that sounds like great combinations your MIL has with her iced teas! 

ahhh, the BLT! and such a lovely story, happy memories! i grew up eating BLT's with fresh from my dad's garden tomatoes and lettuce, and those really take a BLT into true greatness.

Mamanyt1953 said:

 
Iced tea with lemon...same as the dead of winter!  It's a Southern thing, I think.  Sweet tea, of course.  As for foods...A salad with crisp lettuce just chock full of grapes, fresh pineapple chunks, cherries, walnut halves, banana slices and peach chunks with a raspberry-walnut vinaigrette.  Yummy.

Click to expand...

hmmm......i've never tried a salad with lettuce and fruits like that.      it does sound really very good too! especially with the raspberry-walnut vinaigrette. i'll have to try making this.