By Associated Press’s Katie Workman
The summer has officially arrived. With luck, we might escape the daily grind and visit the beach, the mountains, or even a new city.
Renting a holiday house with an unfamiliar kitchen is what many people have to do.
You most likely have a considerable assortment of herbs and spices, a range of cooking tools, and the ability to choose the ideal pan for your meal at home. However, you’re left wondering where to put your groceries as soon as you enter your VRBO or Airbnb.
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Making a meal in a small, quirky rental-home kitchen is a strange delight, at least to nerds like me. It resembles a task from a reality culinary show. Is it possible to prepare an omelet in a saucepan? If fresh oregano isn’t available, perhaps the stems of parsley will do. Is it possible to use that tiny bottle of olive oil for the final two days of your journey? I’ll give you a half-jar of gherkins and call it a puzzle.
Being free from the typical culinary routine is kind of enjoyable when on vacation at a rental home. Believe me, I’m spending as many nights as my waist and budget permit going out for fried clams at the neighborhood seafood restaurant. But for the food I’m preparing, I’m letting go of ideas of perfection in favor of being feisty.
Have you purchased an abundance of cherry tomatoes from a farmstand? Using tinned artichoke hearts, olives, onions, and a simple vinaigrette, you’re preparing a cherry tomato antipasti salad. Add some diced salami or cubed provolone, perhaps. Are the peaches becoming a little too soft? It’s asmoothie time.
Cooking in a kitchen at a holiday rental has a liberated and rather absurd quality.
Think about assembling a basic kitchen survival kit before you leave. It need not be a great deal: A cutting board, salt & pepper, a sharp knife, and any other basic ingredients you know you’ll need to get started.
I might bring lemons, Dijon mustard, olive oil, vinegar, and a few of my favorite herbs and spices. In addition, I always pack zipper-top bags and a few tiny containers for food on-the-go or leftovers.
Consider recipes that make use of a variety of items and welcome modifications. A big grain salad made with rice, quinoa, or couscous can be served cold or room temperature, making it ideal for a backyard dinner or a lakeside lunch.
Additionally, I would begin with items that don’t require an oven because you can’t be sure whether it will heat up evenly or at all (it may be a glorified bread box). Pasta cooked on the stovetop with olive oil and sautéed garlic is always a winner. If you have grated Parmesan, add it along with the red pepper flakes.
As long as you have a plentiful supply of the proper fuel, grills are frequently available and can be a holiday cook’s best friend.For supper, grill some New York Strip steaks or simply seasoned chicken breasts, and make sure to cook extra because the leftovers will be great sliced and used for salads, sandwiches, quesadillas, or wraps. Extra grilled corn can be added to stir-fries, made into corn salad, corn soup, or corn chowder.
Consider lightly toasting some slices of country bread on the grill after spraying them with olive oil and seasoning them with flaky salt. Add some chopped or sliced tomatoes and basil on top, or make any kind of bruschetta using anything you can find at the farmstand. Consider a pile of grilled pepper slices, caponata, sautéed chardor, and some fresh goat cheese.
The menu always includes salads. Again, using foods from the farmers market makes improvisation simple. You should feel free to play, though, as this is your vacation. Try a chopped vegetable salad enhanced with protein-rich chickpeas or a salad of cucumber and amelon with a little feta and lime juice.
Get inventive as your trip draws to a close and you need to use up items. That half jar of pickles will give the apotato salad a burst of brine. You may add that last bunch of spinach and that stub of leftover cheese to scrambled eggs or afrittata by chopping them up.
Prepare food that is easy to handle, using local ingredients, and allows you to spend more time outside with your folks. Yes, you may be using a serrated steak knife to cut vegetables. Yes, if you serve the pasta salad on the beach, there may be some sand in it. That’s alright.
Embracing the reality that you’re cooking without your typical equipment and supplies can result in some of the greatest vacation dinners. Half the fun is that. I once used a box of spaghetti, fresh scallops, olive oil, and a jug of margarita mix to make a delicious dinner. All of us can still recall that from twenty years ago.
Smoothies are a great vacation staple because of their simplicity and adaptability.
This is the template for your smoothie. Try different fruits, yogurt flavors, and sweeteners, then check the cabinet’s back for a NutriBullet. Additionally, if you prepare ahead of time, you can just add ice or freeze your fruit for a thicker smoothie. Add some fresh mint as well, if you have any.
Components:
Eight ounces (one cup) of vanilla Greek yogurt
Eight ounces (one cup) of peach yogurt
One tablespoon of agave or honey, or to taste
Two cups of peeled and diced peaches
Two cups of peeled and diced plums
Directions:
1. Place the vanilla yogurt, peach yogurt, honey, peaches and plums in a blender. Mix thoroughly.
2. Transfer to glasses and proceed to serve.
