In our old apartment, we hated turning on the oven in the summer. In the new apartment, which is smaller and in which the kitchen flows directly into the living room? We have learned that we did not know what hate was. (Jeff had to turn on the oven while I was out of town this weekend to cook a frozen pizza and apparently cursed at it through the whole cooking time. "Why must you be so hot? Why can't you cook it cold? It is a frozen pizza.")

So there is lots of grilling (or will be soon, thanks to the new kettle grill my sweet husband gave me for my birthday after enduring my own cursing at the tiny $12 Walgreens model I used to use) and lots of salads and lots of returning to Nigella's Forever Summer. Last night I made a chicken and rice pilaf, with rice cooked in stock with saffron and cardamom and chicken marinated in yogurt and lemon and cinnamon. So good, and all on the stovetop.