If you can’t stand the heat – cook outside!

Grand Island Dispatch, July 13, 2007

Oh, it is definitely summer! Do we have to cook? A little, maybe. Outside, not inside.

Someone, fire up the grill. I’ll do a fresh garden salad and we’ll roast the potatoes, somehow – not inside, please. We will start the potatoes inside and then finish them on the grill.

What’s for dessert?

Anyone in our family knows that we end a get-together with a wide, colorful spectrum of sweet stuff. Some don’t take much oven time.

Daughter Karen has a Christmas birthday, so I didn’t mind the time spent in a warm kitchen to bake a towering cake or an apple pie. Yes, candles look great on anything home-baked.

For summer fare, try one of those boxed, no-bake cheesecakes. Top it off with fresh blueberries. I simmer the berries so that they don’t roll off the cheesecake when served.

Follow the directions on the box for the cheesecake. Here is the topping:

Blueberry Topping

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4-cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch, if using frozen berries or 2 teaspoons cornstarch if using fresh blueberries
1 teaspoon lemon juice concentrate

Mix the sugar and the cornstarch in a two-quart saucepan. Stir in blueberries, then lemon juice. Cook, stirring constantly until mixture boils and thickens. Turn heat to medium low and continue cooking for another minute.

When cheesecake has cooled in the refrigerator for about an hour, spoon the cooled blueberries onto the top.

Great treat!

For the last of the local strawberries, I have another, beautiful dessert for you to bring to the picnic table.

Glazed Strawberry Pie

Ingredients for piecrust:

9-inch pie shell, baked

Baking a pie shell may be easy for you – it never has been easy for me. There may be an accepted way that pastry chefs use that I don’t know. My method is this: Roll out prepared crust and fit it into pie pan. With your fingers, make a fancy, stand-up edge. With a fork, prick bottom and sides of the unbaked pie shell. Heat the oven to 475 degrees.

Take an 8-inch foil pie pan and place it into the unbaked pie shell. Put the pie shell in the oven and time it for four minutes. Take the half-baked shell out of the oven. Remove the foil pie pan. Put the shell back in for another four to six minutes. Take out when lightly browned. Cool.

Now, to the filling.

Ingredients for filling:

6 cups of hulled, washed strawberries, drained to let air dry
1 cup of sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2-cup water
1 tablespoon butter or margarine

Mash about one cup of the berries. Mix sugar and cornstarch in a two-quart saucepan. Add berries, then water, gradually over a medium heat, stirring constantly. When mixture thickens, boil and stir for one more minute.

Arrange dry berries in a pie shell. Pour cooked glaze over fresh berries to cover thoroughly.

Cool for several hours. Serves eight.

Rhubarb Dessert

Here is an old-fashioned, simple dessert to end a hungry-man grilled dinner.

Ingredients:

4 cups rhubarb, cut in 1-inch pieces
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice

In a medium saucepan, cook all of the above to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, or until rhubarb is tender and transparent. Cool for several hours. Serves six.

Top with whipped cream or whipped topping, if you like.

Potato Go-Alongs

We grill a lot of chicken and an occasional dog or burger. For a good accompaniment to the grilled meat, try these:

Ingredients:

12 small red potatoes, halved
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 or 2 tablespoons olive oil

In a large saucepan, add potatoes and enough water to reach one-inch depth in the pan.

Bring to a boil. Cover. Simmer eight minutes. Drain.

To a doubled 12- to 16-inch foil sheet, add onion, garlic and oil.

Put foil in an ovenproof, three-quart casserole or fry pan. Add potatoes. Set casserole or fry pan over a medium grill. Cook an additional 10 minutes, uncovered, until tender. Stir frequently to incorporate the flavors.

Let’s eat out on the patio tonight!