At last, summer is here. In NJ that means the 3 Hs – Hazy, Hot, Humid. Hot is fine with me. Hazy is tolerable although not preferred. Humid is only good when the temperature is below 85. Above that – we all melt. I guess I am truly aging. There was a time when the humidity didn’t really bother me all that much. Now even I, child of the hot sunshine, find that hot & humid is uncomfortable.
I was working from home last week for several reasons. I had a lot of meetings and if I work from home, I don’t need to use a headset – I can use the laptop speakers instead. 
After a few hours, any headset is annoying. The company office is air-conditioned of course. And while many are perfectly comfortable with that, I am always freezing if the sun is not beating on the windows there. It was not – it was rainy and hazy on the non-rain days. There were some other good reasons to work from home as well, but those 2 top the list.
Working from home means that I can get up and walk about between calls. I can do chores during my usual commute time, and during lunch. I was possessed by the salad genie and for 2 days I created summer salads. Three of them could be made without any heat, and for the 2 that needed some cooking, I turned on the fans and dealt with it. 🙂 When I rested on the 3rd day I had a fresh green tossed salad, lentil salad, chickpea salad, coleslaw, and a pesto pasta with broccoli.
It’s always fun to watch the food creations come into being, but it was even better because I could walk out to the front garden and clip whatever herbs and lettuce I needed. 
My brother-in-law gave me the simplest most tasty recipe for coleslaw: shredded lettuce & carrots, mayonnaise, white balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, and basil. I like my coleslaw dry, not wet. I find that 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise mixed with the vinegar is enough sauce for me. I walked out to the garden and clipped 3 types of basil to add to the mix, instead of using dried basil. It was delicious. I know it was because my husband devoured nearly all of it within 2 days. 🙂 (He doesn’t seem to care for the lentils. That’s fine – I LOVE the lentils.)
I used the basil, dill, lettuce, lemon balm, and parsley fresh from the garden as well. Fresh herbs definitely make the flavors pop. 
We have a farmers’ market every week in town, so we went up to the market and got fresh onions, fresh garlic, cucumbers, tomatoes, bread and pickles. I had a chance to use the salad bowls I’d made many, many years ago when I was still “doing pottery”. They seemed the perfect touch. Dinner was a delicious stuffed bread with fresh veggies and salads. A perfect summer meal when it’s just too humidly hot.
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This sounds delicious. I think I will ask your brother-in-law to make ME some hot weather salads. (We had tofu in curry sauce on rice for dinner instead.)