insalata caprese: tomatoes, basil, fresh mozz.
cucumber salad (either yogurt or oil/vinegar based)
potato salad with plenty of hard-boiled eggs for protein
sandwiches
tuna salad
cottage cheese and fruit
green beans with pesto
black bean salad
hummus and pita
quickly sauteed vegetables--swiss chard, summer squash, etc.
Pasta salads

Basically anything hot happens in the a.m. if possible. Cooking on weekends and then eating all week=good. Stove top quickly is better than oven. Grill=meats.

My favorite summer recipe of all time: Summer Farfalle Salad with Smoked Salmon

Gazpacho
Corn and black bean salsa with grilled chicken
Cold cucumber soup
Corn on the cob, cooked quick
Sliced cucumbers with diced green chilies
Tomato napoleon - a couple different colors of sliced tomato, stacked, with a garlicky balsamic vinaigrette and some oregano sprinkled over
Tabbouleh in lettuce cups
Pasta pesto


Basically anything hot happens in the a.m. if possible.

You just gave me an insight - before WWII, and in the South until much more recently, the main meal of the day (dinner) was served at midday. I generally have told people this was due to the type of work performed - manufacturing/farming - and how one needed the fuel for the afternoon so it made sense to eat heartiest during the day. But it certainly also must have had to do with climate. Doing all the heat-based cooking in the morning means by the time dinnertime is over, the house can be relatively cool during the hottest part of the day. Also, in New England homes, the kitchen fire needed to be lit during the day anyway but banked at night, so why not use the fire while it had to be burning for housekeeping tasks anyway - rather than in the evening when you wouldn't be doing laundry, dishwashing, personal washing, or cleaning.

My Texas grandmother served dinner at noon until she died. It was a fun reversal of the normal course of my life to visit her and sit down to a big brisket and mashed potato and succtoash repast at lunchtime, followed by cake or pie and coffee, and then have a really light dinner like cold sandwiches with pickles.

Miko--yeah, in the agrarian south the climate also meant your workday began very very early in the summertime. All the while growing up Sunday dinner would be in the early afternoon rather than at what is now a normal dinnertime. Also, I still eat more heavily at midday than I typically do in the evening, when I pick at stuff.

We basically do a ton of barbeque-ing in the summer. I love marinating stuff with fresh herbs from the garden...beef skewers marinated in rosemary with a ton of garlic, lemon and olive oil...salmon filets marinated in teriyaki and lemon with (again with rosemary)...chicken thighs in white wine, lemon and saffron which I serve with a homemade thick, garicky, cucumbery tzatziki and grilled tomatoes, and basmati rice.
Also we eat tons of corn on the cob because around late-July in Ontario the corn is ready big time and it only lasts til September. And peaches. Millions of peaches, peaches for me.

But it certainly also must have had to do with climate.

Also the invention of the detached "summer kitchen" so that cooking and baking could be done without heating the house even more. But yeah, if you're a field hand you want most of your calories early in the day. I've got a dear friend who's a preacher now but as a younger man ran a dairy farm single-handedly. His breakfast every morning was a dozen eggs and half a pan of biscuits, and he was as toned and cut as a man can be.

Thinly slice a bunch of fresh ginger, throw it in a saucepan with sugar and water to make simple syrup. Let this cool. But fresh berries in a bowl, add shredded mint leaves, toss in the syrup.

I've also got a recipe somewhere for marinating celery sticks in sesame oil and sugar and other stuff that makes a damn good cold appetizer.

We are the most boring hot-weather eaters ever. Everything is a green salad, often with some sort of grilled meat sliced up on top. This goes from June-September.

I love this cookbook, Cool Kitchen. This is from that cookbook with a few minor changes.

Lemony Bulgar Salad with Olives, Raisins and Pine Nuts

1 cup fine bulgar
1 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
12 good quality large green olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup raisins
2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves
1/4 teaspon salt

Optional:
Grated peel from lemon
1/2 pound smoked chicken or turkey from the deli counter, shredded into bite-size pieces

Combine the bulgar and boiling water in a medium bowl.

Cover and let stand for 30 minutes while you prepare other ingredients.

Combine lemon juice, olive oil, salt, parsley and optional lemon peel in small bowl. When bulgar is ready, fluff it and toss with dressing.

Then, add in olives, pine nuts, raisins and optional chicken. Toss again.

Serve.

I've NEVER tried it with the smoked chicken/turkey.

I've ALWAYS added lemon peel for extra tartness.

The actual recipe title in the cookbook is "Smoked Chicken Salad with Bulgar, Olives, Raisins and Pine Nuts" and does not call for lemon peel. That's my addition. It also doesn't say to boil the water before soaking the bulgar, but when I don't boil the water, the bulgar takes to long to soften.

It's spring rolls and peanut sauce in my household.

And last night I made some tabouli because I wanted something healthy that I didn't need to cook.

Salads and sammiches. On weekends the mister grills meat (mostly chicken breasts) in bulk on the barbecue and then freezes it in meal-sized portions. It's usually used in salads and pasta. Eggs are boiled by the dozen when he's making a weekend breakfast.

food cooked elsewhere most summers, but my "order food" budget has declined as of late. ;)

I made a big batch of egg salad a couple nights ago. One pan of boiling water doesn't produce much heat.

But then, it's only 70 here. ;) Not too hot out yet, and it won't be for another few weeks.

Mmm, summer. I too like to make summer food that either never touches heat, only touches heat outdoors, or only touches heat before noon, then chills all afternoon in the fridge. Because I'm a night person, sometimes I cook after sundown and let the kitchen cool off while I sleep.

Practically speaking, this means:

- lemony pasta salads, bean salads, or my summertime favorite, the pasta and bean salad. I usually blanch a big pot of brocolli, too, and let it chill separately so the acidic dressing doesn't discolor it.

- potato salad, egg salad. I make these with plain yogurt, lemon, and olive oil, not mayo. (Dang it! I went to the fridge to make egg salad after seeing kellydamnit mention it, only to discover I mistakenly bought a big tub o' banana yogurt instead of plain. Blurf.)

- peanut noodle salad. If the night cools down, I'll fry up some velvet tofu to go with it.

- hummus plate with carrots, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, cubes of feta, pita or focaccia or crackers. I like to drizzle thick balsamic dressing over the hummus for a little extra tangy flavor.

- frittata a la anything at all, chilled all day or overnight.

- a big bowl of greens with chilled grilled or roasted vegetables, olives or nuts, and sometimes a soft-cooked egg or some cheese.

- When we (apartment dwellers) catsit for my (porch-having) mother, I like to make a triple-sized batch of grilled vegetables and grilled bread. We can eat off that for days, and grilled veg and grilled focaccia glued together with hummus or baba ghanoush make a killer dinner.

- Geez, this got long.

- Geez, I'm getting hungry.

OOOoo. Yeah it's actually better for you diet wise to eat the biggest meal of the day at midday because you are more likely to burn up the calories.

One tradition here in Japan is to eat unagi (eel) to build up stamina. Also this time of year yakiniku is popular.

And sushi. Always sushi.

101 10-minute summer recipes (so your kitchen doesn't heat up) from Mark Bittman, with many additional suggestions from MeFi commenters.

watermelon gaspacho
pesto on toast with an egg and some cheese
lots of salads with stone fruit and almonds thrown in