Any ideas for meals that requires little to no prep?

Besides ordering take-out from the local Chinese joint? Kidding. (Kind of.) I’ve moved more times than I care to remember, and when there are boxes piled up (or there’s a heat wave on) I’m a big believer in cheese and crackers for dinner.

The best part is you don’t have to touch your stove. Just grab your biggest wooden cutting board and a bottle of wine, and you’re halfway there. Dig up whatever bits of cheese you have left in the refrigerator, including cream cheese. Round up a nice loaf of bread or crackers, then scrounge around for condiments. Mustard, chutney, pickles, olives, cocktail onions, pepper jelly -- you probably have about 800 little jars, containers, and bottles of condiments lining the door and shelves of your refrigerator, and you never realized how good they are smeared on bread with cheese. Now’s you’re chance to get rid of them.

Blue cheese is great with honey and most jams, including fig. Cheddar is awesome with chutney. Cream cheese is especially flexible and works with just about any sweet, spicy, or savory condiment. Add a hard, cured meats or a pate -- including braunschweiger or liverwurst, aka the poor man’s pate -- to the board. And, finally, get some raw fruits and vegetables -- carrots, apples, celery, grapes, radishes (my current favorite), pears, cucumber.

It might not sound like a hearty meal for you and your husband, but this type of dinner has kept the peace in our house whenever it’s too hot to think, pack, or cook.

My second runner up is this Veggie Clubhouse. I blend pesto into the cream cheese and add cold cuts or bacon if we’re feeling carnivorous.

-- Colleen Rush

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