things i love this summer #2

mostly-cold meals!
i'm feeling a general move toward less cooked food, even if this meal is not really evidence of that. and i know i'm not the only person averse to cooking in the hot summer months, so i'm not suggesting that this is some great revelation in eating. but i am SO into having meals that include cold foods. salads are the easiest way to achieve that goal, of course, and they have the added bonus of being super-convenient!

this was my go-to meal for a few days. there was a box of ditalini that was nagging me to cook it and i finally gave in, turning it into some brooklyn deli macaroni salad. i'm not complaining that making the whole recipe meant that i ate the salad for lunch and dinner more than once in a week, but i realize it's probably not the best idea to be eating so much pasta. i feel like i get a pass, though, because i usually had it with one of joanna's beer brats, cooked in my recently-pilfered-from-my-mother convection steamer! oh, cuisinart, it is SO ON.



this is the perfect appliance for summer, for sure, because it saves me having to sweat over the stove. i hope it's a bit of a workhorse because i fully intend to crack the culinary whip year-round, using it to steam sausages, rice and grains, dried beans, and veggies! i found it two days ago and have used it twice already. it just might be single-handedly responsible for getting me back in the kitchen!