Chill out! 6 tricks to make summer cooking a breeze

These summer shortcuts will keep you chilling when it's too hot to cook. Use these hacks by Katie Lee, author of the "Endless Summer Cookbook."

Fill a beverage dispenser with a cocktail, like grapefruit juice, white wine and seltzer. Freeze a carton of grapefruit juice, then peel away the carton and place in beverage dispenser instead of ice so your drink doesn't get watered down.

You can also freeze coffee ice cubes by freezing leftover coffee in an ice cube tray so your coffee isn't watered down. Additionally, you can freeze fruit juices and use those cubes in an iced tea for flavored teas.

Keep bugs out of drinking glasses by putting a paper cupcake liner around the glass and securing with a rubber band. Poke a hole in the top and insert a straw.

Everyone loves iced coffee in the summer, but if you just brew it in the pot and refrigerate it, it loses flavor. Learn to cold brew it, which is super simple and very popular — and usually costs more at the coffee shop. All you have to do is put coffee grounds with water overnight and let it steep for 12 hours. Then you dump it through a filter. You can use the leftover used coffee grinds in a rub for steaks.

Freeze grapes and other fruit on a skewer to use as a stirrer for cocktails.

Insert a wooden ice pop stick into the top of an individual container of fruit-flavored yogurt. Freeze. Remove the top and the container for a frozen yogurt pop. Perfect for a healthy snack or breakfast on the go.