We are having something of an unprecedented heat wave here on the East Coast (and it's not even officially summer). Yesterday it was 96 degrees and they are predicting that it will top out right around 100 degrees today (and with the humidity, that means it feels more like 105). I have a brisket in defrosting in my fridge, but the last thing I want to do is turn my oven on long enough to get it cooked (it will just have to wait until Wednesday, when the heat breaks).

On nights like this, I turn to cool summer greens from the fridge and cans from my pantry. I always keep black beans, pickled beets, garbanzo beans, artichoke hearts and tuna in olive oil in the kitchen cabinet, so that I can augment veggies with much-needed (at least for me) protein. I create a table top salad bar with the beans, tuna, diced tomato, sliced cucumber, grated cheese, carrot rounds and anything else I can find and go to town. If you need a carb with your meal, add some crackers or bread from a local bakery.

That's my basic meal for those nights when I can't bear to heat up my apartment. How do the rest of you beat the heat in the kitchen*?

*I know that those of you out on the West Coast are freezing and still wearing your winter coats. What are you eating these days?

The last month saw a devastating heat wave in California, with sustained temperatures of well over 100F, and up to 120F in the deserts. The heat created lines in front of ice cream shops all over the state, but many other industries were heavily impacted. The dairy industry actually suffered losses of as many as 16,000 cows, just from the heat alone, as even overnight the temperatures did not drop down to give the animals relief. Other cows miscarried or couldn't conceive, and the milk that was gathered during the period had a lower butterfat content, making it unsuitable for some uses, like cheesemaking. The dairy industry alone could take 9 months to recover fully.

Other industries - and by extension, consumers - had losses as well. The California Poultry Federation estimated that 750,000 chickens and 180,000 turkeys also died as a direct result of the heat wave, though it is a very small percentage of the industry, so prices are unlikely to be affected. Strawberries over-ripened or rotted, stone fruits were sunburned and tomatoes "literally cooked in their skins," leading to an estimated loss of 10% of the total crop in some places. The effects on other foods, like nuts, will not be seen until their harvest comes around in fall, but California agriculture will need some time to recover fully.

The expression that "it's hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk" is a common one, but have you ever heard of someone baking cookies in their car? A woman in New Hampshire did just that, taking advantage of the extremely high heat that her area had been experiencing. With outdoor temperatures in the mid to upper 90s, the temperature in her RAV4 reached about 200F. She placed trays of prepared dough on her dashboard and went inside to wait with her coworkers for the cookies to be done.

The chef, Sandi Fontaine, has actually been doing these car cookies for about 3 years now, whenever the temperature climbs about 95F. She notes that an additional benefit of in-car baking is that the fresh cookie smell lingers in the car for many days after a batch has been completed.

Update: View photo here.