Stove Top Grills

Family, Food and Friends: Beat the Heat with a Tuna Tapenade Dinner

Summer heat was never one of my favorite seasonal experiences. In fact, as a television reporter, I complained about the weather from late June through early September. That was largely because my job meant sweating and enduring outdoor live shots wearing layers of make-up.

Now, I can choose to stay indoors when the temperatures climb close to 100. Consequently, I’m making more of an effort not to complain about the heat waves that seem to arrive earlier each year. Hot, humid summers were the norm in almost every city I have called home. Despite Denver’s Rocky Mountain views, mile-high elevation and dry air, you can still roast in above 90-degree weather.

My childhood home there did not have central air conditioning. When it got too hot to cook, my Mom usually bought BBQ or recruited someone to do the outdoor grilling. My late grandmother once owned a barbeque joint in Robertson, MO. A neighbor, Mr. Mills, was her grill master and handled all the cooking on the barbeque pit. Still, she would probably be appalled by the fact that a stove-top grill pan and a counter top electric grill are the closest I have come to Bobby Flay’s passion.

Dealing with charcoal or propane grills does not appeal to me or my sister. I guess it’s like mother, like daughters. I enjoy smoked or barbecued meats, fish and vegetables when someone else is manning the outdoor grill.  As a result, summer dinners prepared with little or no cooking indoors or out get my attention.

I watched Ina Garten make a tuna tapenade a few months ago and started giving some thought to trying it. My taste for olives is somewhat fickle, so I have not done a lot of cooking with them. I do like tuna and the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe looked appetizing. It is lighter and creamier than the one shown in a New York Times recipe.

Garten made her Crostini with Tuna Tapenade as an appetizer. I decided to experiment with her recipe and make an Eggless Caesar salad to go with it. I realized my idea is not original (which is often the case with cooking) when I did a search on tuna tapenade. I  found a blogger who had done her own adaptation of Garten’s recipe. I also saw a recipe on Coastal Living ’s website that used ahi tuna fillets topped with a tapenade.