Thyme

Only in summer, when baby vegetables are so wonderful and elegant looking, could a one-skillet side dish seem so fancy. A gentle simmer and just a little olive oil and butter enhance the vegetables' natural sweetness — no more effort is necessary.

There's not much cheese in this gratin — the better to let the perfectly ripe summer peppers and tomatoes, cooked just enough to intensify their flavors, sing.

Traditional Scandinavian fare, this rich stew is comfort food at its best — think chicken potpie without the crust. Boiled potatoes are the perfect starch to balance the sweet carrots and parsnips.

Goat cheese makes a lovely base for fresh herbs, carrying their flavor and punctuating their brightness with its gentle tang; in this spread, it tastes particularly mild because of the little bit of whipped cream folded in. Take the cheese out to soften before heading for the farmers market, and by the time you get back, it will be ready to mix with whatever herbs you've found there.

Fruit tart desserts often steal the spotlight in summer, but this easy savory treat showcases plum tomatoes in their prime with such simple grace that you'll forget about sweets for the moment.

Lamb shoulder is meltingly tender here, and a natural partner for earthy-sweet artichokes.

Lemon thyme, available at farmers markets and specialty produce markets, lends this corn a delicate lemony-herbal flavor, but feel free to use regular fresh thyme instead. Steaming the corn is a gentle method that allows you to cook it in butter; you can pull back the husks and use them as a handle while eating.

This light chowder with a subtle note of smokiness really lets the scallops shine.

This riff on traditional pasta salad gets an added layer of flavor from golden pearls of toasted couscous.

I once considered making more authentic smoked ribs for a tailgate party and, in the planning, realized that not only would I need to be at the parking lot hours before everyone else, but my grill was not large enough to smoke enough ribs for everyone in my party. And to try to pass off just "a taste" of barbecued ribs is like trying to arm-tackle Priest Holmes. So it was a choice between shelling out for another grill or devising another method of cooking the ribs. Baking them first in a slow oven produced moist, flavorful meat I then had only to finish on the grill.

Editor's note: The recipe below is excerpted from Katie Brown Entertains. To read more about Katie Brown and to get her tips on throwing a headache-free cocktail party, click here. Focaccia is a porous, nonflaky but crusty bread from Italy. It is very "in" now due to the relative ease of preparation—and you can really put anything you want on it...it can be a whole meal!

Editor's note: The recipe below is excerpted from Katie Brown's Weekends. To read more about Katie Brown and to get her tips on throwing a headache-free cocktail party, click here. I love an all-in-one dish!

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Charlie Trotter and Roxanne Klein's book, Raw.

Everything about this dish is light, clean, vibrant, and harmonious, with the wonderful taste of corn perhaps taking center stage. The corn's refined sweetness is marvelously juxtaposed with the elegant sour flavor in the cheese. Mushrooms provide an earthiness, and spinach leaves cut through all the elements to insure a clean, bright taste. A playful salad featuring buttery lettuces, tomato pieces, and Rawmesan adds even greater depth on the palate. Here, both the flavor and textural variety are extraordinary.

You'll need to start marinating the meat at least a day ahead. It can be cooked up to 2 days in advance of serving.

The chicken needs to marinate for at least four hours (or overnight), so be sure to start in advance. What to drink: Crisp, full-bodied white wine like Chablis or unoaked Chardonnay from California.

If you can't find panko, cut the crust off slices of country-style bread, tear the bread into pieces, and grind it coarsely in a processor. Dry the crumbs in a 250°F oven. Do not use store-bought breadcrumbs, which have too fine a texture and give a less crispy result. What to drink: Either a dry rosé from the south of France or a full-bodied, oak-aged Chardonnay would work here.