Wondering what to make with a summer CSA box? This practical guide shares tested recipes, no-recipe ideas, and preservation tips for tomatoes, zucchini, romaine, baby leeks, eggplant, sweet corn, red potatoes, and cherry tomatoes, helping you use peak-season produce before anything gets forgotten in the crisper drawer all week long.
August farmers markets are bursting with tomatoes, peaches, zucchini, corn, watermelon, and berries at their peak. This guide highlights Ina Garten’s best recipes that showcase summer’s freshest flavors, from simple tomato sandwiches to show-stopping fruit desserts, so you can savor the season while it lasts.
Hawa Hassan’s Salatet Summaq is a fresh Iraqi salad packed with ripe tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, red onion, parsley, and mint. A simple lemon and olive oil dressing gets a tart, citrusy boost from sumac. It’s an easy, refreshing summer side that makes the most of peak-season tomatoes and cucumbers.
I tackled Claire Saffitz’s kouign-amann recipe, a buttery French pastry made with laminated yeasted dough and plenty of caramelized sugar. While challenging, Claire’s detailed instructions and YouTube guidance make homemade kouign-amann surprisingly approachable. The result is crisp, deeply caramelized, perfectly sweet, and packed with heavenly, flaky layers throughout.
This rustic fruit galette pairs a buttery almond pâte sucrée with juicy raspberries, blueberries, and peaches for a free-form dessert that’s more forgiving than traditional pie. Almond flour under the fruit soaks up excess juice for a crisp, never-soggy crust – no crimping skills required, just golden, bubbly, effortlessly beautiful results.
Calvin Eng’s Yauh Ja Gwai Panzanella swaps traditional bread for Chinese crullers that soak up a garlicky mustard vinaigrette. Ripe tomatoes, peaches, apricots, mustard greens, mozzarella, cilantro, and scallions create a sweet, savory, tangy summer salad layered with texture and boosted by a touch of MSG.
This vibrant summer farro salad combines nutty farro, roasted zucchini, sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, and red onion with a punchy pistachio pesto. Perfect as a vegetarian main or a hearty side, it captures the essence of peak-season produce. Add grilled protein for an effortless, flavor-packed summer meal.
A cookbook club review of Louisa Shafia’s The New Persian Kitchen, featuring standout Persian recipes including ash-e reshteh, kufteh, shirin polo, yogurt dips, stuffed tomatoes, persimmon cheesecake, and saffron ice cream. See which dishes were worth making and why this menu worked so well for a group dinner at home.
Welcome! After spending 7 years teaching myself to cook by working through all 1,300+ of Ina Garten's recipes - Julie & Julia style - you've found the place where I share my latest kitchen adventures.