how to eat well while using as little heat as possible

The heat wave that descended on the city over the weekend pretty much guaranteed that there wasn't going to be a whole lot going on in my kitchen. In fact, there was very little going on throughout my apartment as all I could bring myself to do was sit on my fire escape drinking white wine with tons of ice as I basically just sweated it out. Sounds lovely, don't it. So instead here's a dish I made a few weeks ago. It's about as summer-y as you can get while still served warm. I took this recipe from Food & Wine's Pasta Book but changed it to my liking. Less citrus, more garlic...as if I would do any differently. Look at those nice plump cloves there awaiting their fate:

And looking at this, I bet this mixture would make a pretty good salad dressing too:
And the finished product. Not exactly the most beautiful dish, but trust me, perfect for the summer.
Gremolada

zest of 2 lemons
zest of 1 orange
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 c parsley, chopped
salt
1/2 c olive oil

Combine all ingredients. Cook pasta until al dente and toss with the mixture.

Easy as pie (though who ever said pie was easy?).

Grilled steak and asparagus

So I'm going to give this whole picture thingy a try. I know, I know, no one likes to read, and who doesn't like looking at pictures (and of food at that). But one thing to keep in mind is that I am pretty unbelievably lazy, so we'll see how long I can keep this up.

Now on to the food! Since the spring/summer weather has officially hit (YAY YAY YAY YAY) I've adopted various habits that I pick up around this time every year. These include a constant iced coffee craving, complete inability to concentrate at work, etc etc, but this year I've added a new one....asparagus. Yep, I've been eating asparagus basically every day since the tasty little spring spears have appeared in the grocery store. I wonder if it's possible to eat too much asparagus, someone let me know if I start to turn green. And this past weekend, I got the opportunity to try skewering these little spears and throwing them on the grill. And of course, just to round out the meal, there's a nice juicy steak. mmmmmmm.


The recipe below is adapted from Gourmet.

Glaze

1/4 c oyster sauce
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, chopped

Brush the asparagus with the glaze before placing them on the grill. Grill until tender, about 5-8 min depending on thickness.
Brush the remaining glaze onto the steak and grill away!