Summer Cooking Issues.

Blessings Darlings!

Summer weather is fully here.  The air conditioning has been turned on.  Do you fully understand the impact of this?  THIS MEANS IT'S CHEAPER FOR ME TO BUY BREAD THAN TO BAKE IT.   Yes, that loaf that would only cost me 25 cents to bake in the winter now costs over $1 to bake ... since the air conditioning would have to handle the extra load of heat from the oven baking it.

This does not affect our baking of cookies or biscuits, done in our usual small batches.  For them, we use the toaster oven, and we can move THAT outside for baking, eliminating adding heat to the house.

I'm also baking pieces of chicken for dinner outside in that handy dandy toaster oven.  And any other meals I can bake that fit into it. 

What about grilling, you ask?  We don't have a propane grill, so we'd be using charcoal.  And while that has the advantage of not heating the house when we use it, charcoal grilling gives off a shitload of greenhouse gases.  FAR FAR FAR more than using propane does.  There are times we grill still, but it's really rare.  Typically only for smoking pork shoulders, so only 3 times a year.  And when we do that, I measure out the number of charcoal chunks out VERY judiciously.

I WOULD like a propane grill some day.  One with a side burner for one pot of something.  But they start at $250.  I don't anticipate buying one any time soon, since any extra $ we have is going to civil rights, election, and caring for folks in need. 

Meanwhile - South America seems to be the current world hot spot for Coronavirus, but, like in the US, the numbers are being hidden/testing isn't being done/etc, so various 'strong men' can look stronger than they are.

Bah.

Frondly, Fern