Weather-wise

Today was cold and wet. It started that way, and now it is ending that way. It was cold and wet in the middle too.

A cold wet summer day isn't the same as a cold wet winter day for two big reasons. The first, I would imagine is somewhat universal. Summer plans usually require summer weather, like the girls' swimming lessons. (They're doing great by the way, absolutely love it and their classes are at their level and I'm so glad that they're learning to swim!) Cold wet summer days submarine hot dry summer plans. Fooey. We were really looking forward to their classes and they got canceled today.

Such a downer, but let's not forget the second distinction held by a cold wet summer day. It's such a big deal for me. During the summer last year I all but quit baking. It was just too hot for that. I didn't see it coming at all last year. This year I made a feeble attempt to put up baked goods for the summer. A few weeks ago I made a double batch of my lemon cardamom cookies and put them in the freezer. They're still there (what's left of them, anyway) waiting in the wings for those desperately hot months when I can bear neither the thought nor the reality of an oven set to 350˚ F. The cold wet days of summer are the perfect reprieve from the culinary restrictions we experience when the calender and climate demand a baking moratorium.

Our cold wet day menu? The kiddos helped me to make a chocolate chip bar cookie during the time they would have spent in their swimming lessons. Not adventuresome, I know, but certainly satisfactory. Later, we were back in the kitchen baking cheese pizza for dinner. We relished in the fact of a comfortably cool kitchen even while the pizza baked. Now that the baking itch has been scratched, I think I'll begin planning a menu (an interesting one, this time) for the next cold wet summer day.