When the temperatures hit the ceiling, my desire to cook hits the basement (sub-basement lowest level.)  The library has stacks of cookbooks that might help with that problem since how many microwave dinners can you tolerate.  There are cookbooks for the grill enthusiast such as Bobby Flay’s “Grill It” arranged by ingredient so when you have the hankering for tuna or an excess of corn there are whole chapters of possibilities.  America’s Test Kitchen offers inspiration with “Dinner Illustrated: 175 Meals Ready in 1 Hour or Less.” There is a visual walk-through of every recipe engineered for efficiency with full meal suggestions on every page.

 

One device that everyone thinks is just for fall/winter since it is so perfect for stews and soups is the slow cooker.  But it has advantages for the summer months as well since you can dump in the ingredients in the morning and leave it cooking all day.  Unlike the oven it doesn’t heat up the kitchen and the meal is ready when you get home.  “The Meat Lover’s Slow Cooker Cookbook” by Jennifer Olvera is packed with great recipes from Mexican Pot Roast to Chicken Gumbo.  This is a cookbook for all seasons.

 

“One Sheet Eats” has the advantage of providing 100 plus delicious recipes all made on a baking sheet.  It contains a variety of dishes with dozens of cooking and ingredient tips.  You may have to heat up the oven, but the entire meal is usually done on one dish.  Recipes such as “White Pizza with Salami and Peppers” as well as “Rib-Eyes with Veggies and Blue-Cheese Butter” will soon be family favorites.  And with a whole lot less dishes. 

 

And if the temperatures have you looking for something cool to eat or drink.  Taste of Home has just the thing with their book, “Frosty Treats & More.”   It contains 201 cool ideas for icy sweets.  This cookbook is packed with recipes for ice-cold drinks and desserts beyond just ice cream.  There are gorgeous ice cream cakes and freezer pies, old fashioned sodas, shakes and floats, irresistible ice cream sandwiches, pops and novelties and refreshing sherbets, party drinks and more. This is a truly tempting cookbook particularly at this humid time of year, but the recipes look like they would be wonderful at any time.

          

So please remember your library this summer with its shelves of gardening and landscaping books, cookbook inspirations, vacation possibilities, and thousands of great choices for summer reading.