Outdoor cooking in the southwest summer

When the desert breeze feels like a hair-dryer in your face, it's the perfect time to break out - the slow cooker?

The day has passed for this summer where we can turn the air con off for anything other than maintenance. It just stays on now 24/7 until September - or October, when the night time temperatures drop low enough for us to have windows open again.

Yes, we eat a lot more cold meals in the summer, but there's often - I'll even say usually - at least something that gets cooked. And at this time of year, every time I turn on a stove burner, part of me is offended that I'm paying to heat up the room and then paying to cool it down again. Surely we could optimise this better ... So I'm taking a leaf out of the pioneer book. They moved the cookhouse outside for the summer. While I'm not quite taking it to that extent, here are two ways I will be fighting the forces of entropy this summer.

Cook over flame outside

No brainer, right? Take it all out to the patio table and cook on a camp stove or - more obviously - a barbecue/gas grill. We recently bought a gas grill that, while it takes up a substantial proportion of the patio, includes a separate gas burner not that dissimilar to a stove-top one.

Barbecue/gas grill: This way can use more beer, but it also needs less cleanup. Definitely take the trouble to arrange shade for the cook. And at our place we need to watch the temp, as the gas bottle says not to store it hotter than 125 F. We don't usually get it out until the sun's mostly off the yard.

Camp stove/outdoor gas burner: the key here is to have everything ready. Use a tray, containers or a grocery bag to keep it all together. It might get to a point of being left to cook for a few minutes - but only a few! Be really cautious about leaving this unattended - pets, children, squirrels, flies, etc. If you're like me, even if you plan to bring everything you'll forget something. You don't want to be running back and forth into the house to fetch things. Remember utensils and a pot holder/mitt, too. It's okay to just turn the gas right off if you get called away.

Slow cooker outside

If you have outside electricity, use the slow cooker. Set it up on a table, plug it in, and run it as usual. I make sure it's in the shade, though I can offer no good reason for this. Check the food every so often as you normally would. I'm not sure why this invalidates the warranty, nor do I care. It's dry, it has a correctly installed and maintained electrical connection, I'm a do this. If you need an extension lead, use an outdoor rated one - and it need hardly be said, don't do this on wet days.

I have occasionally run the slow cooker in the garage. Where we live now, the garage faces south and it just gets too hot, but that's another possibility for hot days too, depending on your setup.

You could easily extend this concept - try the breadmaker, the rice cooker, the sandwich grill. I like the slow cooker for chili beans and other things to spoon into tortillas, but really, the sky's the limit. Al fresco waffles, anyone?