Letting the season get a vote…
Last week I wrote about my hot little house.
I’ve been leaning into the rhythm of opening windows at dusk, pulling the blinds before the sun heats my dining room, and embracing the way a lack of central air is making me pay attention to the seasons in ways I haven’t in years.
It’s absolutely changed the way I cook, too.
Because when it’s 95 degrees outside and I’m covered in sweat just sitting at my dining room table, the idea of turning on the oven, even for ten minutes, is nauseating.
At first blush, that might sound like a hardship. But the more I lean into it, the more I’m realizing it’s not all bad… at least not in the Old-Fashioned on Purpose sort of way.
One thing I’ve noticed about modern life is how hard we work to make every season feel exactly the same. I’ve certainly been guilty of it.
We want to cook the same meals in July that we make in January.
We want our houses the exact same temperature year-round.
We buy strawberries in December and tomatoes in February.
And somewhere along the way, we started expecting ourselves to stay the same through every season, too.
Before industrialization, the seasons were non-negotiable because life demanded it.
Today, of course, we have the luxury of ignoring them. And while I’m grateful for many of those conveniences, I also think we lose something when we never let natural rhythms influence us at all.
So this summer, I’ve been letting the weather call the shots a little more than usual.
Here’s what’s been on our menu lately:
- BLTs and whatever sandwich ingredients we have lying around.
- Chicken breasts wrapped in tortillas with cheese, lettuce, dressing, and whatever vegetables are hanging out in the crisper drawer.
- Big salads loaded with bacon, hard-boiled eggs, grilled chicken, avocado, tomatoes, and ranch (homemade or store-bought… I don’t even care right now…)
- Tacos. So many tacos.
- Cooking as much as I can in the Instant Pot since it doesn’t heat up the kitchen.
- One pan skillet meals with random meat and pasta and maybe tomato sauce or cheese or whatever I can find in the fridge.
- Stovetop mac and cheese with leftover meat stirred in for protein.
- Watermelon for supper. Period.
- Snack-board dinners with cheese, fruit, sliced meat, pickles, hard-boiled eggs, home-canned hummus, crackers, and random vegetables when it’s just too hot to care.
As I was writing this list, I realized it’s basically my MealCraft system in action.
I created it because I got tired of staring into the fridge wondering, “What on earth are we eating tonight?” Especially when it’s hot, I’m overwhelmed, or I don’t feel like making another grocery store run.
Many of us learned how to follow recipes, but very few of us were ever taught how to make dinner from what we already have.
How to look at a fridge full of somewhat random ingredients and think, “What could these become?”
One of the biggest shifts I’ve made in my own kitchen is realizing that supper doesn’t have to start with a recipe.
It starts with paying attention. (Which, once again, appears to be the theme of my current life.)
Paying attention to what’s in season. What’s already thawed. What’s in the fridge. How hot it is outside. How much energy I actually have tonight.
Then I let real life have a vote. And somehow… Dinner still gets made.
So if your house is hot like mine, your garden is overflowing (or, in my case… dead—but that’s a story for another day), and the thought of turning on the oven makes you want to die….
Let your life shape your cooking—not the other way around.
The older I get, the more I realize that’s true of almost everything.
Some seasons call for pot roast…. others call for watermelon.
The trick isn’t making every season look the same.
It’s learning to cook—and live—with the one you’re in.
—Jill
P.S. If you’ve been stuck in a “what’s for dinner?” rut, my newly revamped MealCraft Method is 15% off right now with the code PODCAST. My hope is that it helps you think differently about supper—not just this summer, but all year long.
Leave a Comment