By By Michelle Blaylock, Mom’s Corner
I’ve had several people stop and ask me for some simple summer recipes that don’t require very much oven time. Although, I do bake some during the summer I try to keep it to a minimum, because, like my Mother-in-law says, it seems wasteful to add heat to the house when I’m trying to cool it with the air conditioner. So with that thought it mind, here are three of my favorite recipes:
Hawaiian Pie
Ingredients:
1 prepared graham cracker crust
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (finely crushed)
3 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp butter, melted
Combine and press into a 9 inch pie plate
Filling:
1 can crushed pineapple, well drained (squeeze the juice out)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
2-3 bananas
8 oz container cool whip
Maraschino cherries dried with paper towel for garnish
Mix pineapple and milk, then add lemon juice and spread in pie crust. Cover with 1/4 inch sliced bananas and immediately top with cool whip. Garnish with cherries as desired.
**Note: This is a super recipe for potluck, because it is easily doubled if you make your own crust. I usually press the crust into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan. Also if traveling with this pie, I usually don’t add the bananas or cool whip until I arrive. I have found it tends to look nicer if I don’t have to peel the plastic wrap off the cool whip and cherries.
Veggie Dip
1 cup Hellman’s Mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup small curd cottage cheese
1 envelope of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
Mix together and refrigerate overnight. You do not have to refrigerate overnight. This can be and (at our house!) usually is served immediately, but the flavors do blend better if refrigerated overnight. Also, if you do not care for the lumps from the cottage cheese, try putting this in a blender for a creamier texture.
Fruit Salad
1 cup each of mandarin oranges (well drained), mini marshmallows, coconut, sour cream,
1 can crushed pineapple or pineapple tidbits well drained
Mix together. This can also have any type of chopped nuts you desire.
We do have a very hard time not using our oven during the summer, so we purchased a toaster oven. It is super for cooking things like mini pizzas, small amounts of cookies, pot pies, etc. It is also a good idea to take a lesson from ages past when baking was done all on one day.
According to rhymes.org , women kept house on this schedule for several hundred years: Wash on Monday, Iron to Tuesday, Mend on Wednesday, Churn or Market on Thursday, Clean on Friday, Bake on Saturday, and Rest on Sunday. During the summer this kept the house from being heated up on a daily basis and spread the major work out over the entire week. Not a bad idea.
If you have a question or comment for Mom’s Corner, please e-mail it to: moms-corner@juno.com