Cold food on hot days

I've been swanning around all summer thinking I live in the perfect climate. We usually have heat and humidity from November onwards but for the past couple of years that hasn't happened, we had a lot of rain instead. This summer has been mild with temperatures around 25 - 28* (77 - 82F) but when Monday dawned all the hot weather hit us at once.  This is a quote from our local weather site, http://www.malenyweather.com/

WOW ! What a scorcher it was on Monday. With a humidity of 46% and a steep fall in barometric pressure the afternoon’s temperature soared to a maximum of 35°C by 3.00pm. The Hear Stress factor recording was 46°C.

(35C = 95F, 46C = 114F)

It was not as hot yesterday but it was still hot. At 2pm I wandered outside to water the plants in my bush house. Almost all of them were heat stressed but came back after a good watering. I cooled down the worm farm too. It's very important to keep an eye on worms during hot weather. They will die if it gets too hot or they'll leave the farm looking for a more comfortable home. When the plants and worms were done, I went back inside and thought about dinner. It was too hot to cook.

 The beginnings of my coleslaw.

What on earth do you cook when it's so hot. No one feels like a big meal and cooking only tends to heat the house up anyway. I had already defrosted a small bag of sausages so I decided to go ahead with them and add a salad. But it got me thinking about summer food. We all have our favourite winter meals of stews, soups and roasts, apart from salads and serving hot food cold - like the leftovers of a roast - I don't have a lot of specialist summer meals. I often make quiche and serve that cold but that has to be cooked in the oven. We also have salad with tinned salmon or tuna and salad with boiled eggs, but not much else.

What are your standbys during a hot summer? I'm guessing the answer to this is to cook in the morning before it gets too hot and then serve that cold from the fridge in the evening. Or do you have something up your sleeve that I haven't even thought of? How do you put a good nutritious meal on the table when it's stinking hot, without heating up the house?

And while I writing about food, let me show you these little beauties Hanno cooked a couple of weeks ago. They're German Kartofflepuffer topped with tomato, onion and cheese. They were absolutely delicious. Definitely not a summer food but maybe if they were served cold with a salad they'd go well.

But let's get back to cold food. When you're going through a hot spell, along with a big jug of cold water and ice cubes, what are your standbys?