h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

From now until probably the middle of September I think I'll be buying bread rather than making it. The weather's just too bloody hot (forecasts in the low to mid 90s for the coming week and we haven't hit the two hottest months yet). I've made bread throughout the previous three or four summers since I first got back into baking, but I had a smaller apartment then which was easier (and cheaper) to keep cool, and I was a little more pecunious than I am now so I could afford to keep the a/c running a bit stronger.

One other factor is the food co-op that opened late last year. They're much closer than the other supermarket I've been using these past eight or nine years so its easier to nip over and get a loaf a few times a week, although they have a much smaller range of breads, most of which, for some reason, seems to be sourdough, which I'm not at all fond of. But they have a nice French batard-style loaf, which is mostly what I'll be eating between now and September.

Suddenly hit 32C indoors today (91F), 29C at 2am - it was cold last week. No more oven til October and 4kg pulled pork in the slow cooker for dinner with homemade BBQ sauce. That'll do for an abundance of meals and sandwiches for Hubby and less cooking for me - he's happy to eat the same thing for days. We have air-con in only one bedroom but lots of windows and fans

Same thing for days - that's pretty much the way I usually cook. I can get a full week out of a steak and kidney pie and still be downhearted when I take the last slice out of the pie dish

I might spend an entire afternoon making three or four curry dishes but those will last me three, four, maybe five days. Stews and casseroles - obviously the bigger the pot the longer they last. Roast four chicken thighs and eat one a day with spuds and veg.

But for the next few months it's going to be minimal cooking. Boil half a pound of pasta spirals and chuck in a tin or two of tuna, plus cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn, spring onions, various other salad vegetables, nuts and seeds, maybe some sultanas, and pretty much whatever takes my fancy. That'll last three or four days easily. Switch pasta for rice or bulgar.