Cooking in the summer time at my house means it must be dinner, because I don’t go anywhere near the stove or grill when preparing breakfast and lunch! Of course, this means you need to be a little more creative, think on your feet and have plenty of great ingredients in your summer pantry! Lunches after a morning on the beach or around the house on a hot summer’s day should be relaxed. I like to dine family style, with everything on platters in the middle of the table, allowing everyone to create their own lunch, free form food if you will!

This is the second of my blogs on my summer pantry. To add to my first blog about cooking during the summer is that summer is all about time outside walking, laying, relaxing by the pool and cooking outside as much as I can. The pantry items that I make sure I have on hand are different or one kind of oil. Specifically I am talking about some Sensations products.

This time of the year is one of the most exciting times for me. I love hot weather and for me that means simple quick recipes that give me lots of time to enjoy the outdoors to the fullest.

My summer pantry has several staple items that I always have but there are 4 items that gives me variety and just enough flavour differences to make the simplest thing such as chicken taste different every day during the summer.

“Hot times, summer in the city”, so why turn on the stove in the middle of the day and heat things up even more!?