Jyoti D., Recipe Tester

Plonk unpeeled onions on a baking sheet. Shove in oven. Come back later for achingly sweet, tender, mellow oniony goodness. Accept accolades. See how easy that was?

Sweet. Spicy. Earthy. And a touch puckery. When did anything–or anyone–at your table boast such character? Certain to compensate for your duller dinner invitees.

These uncannily crisp, seemingly shortbreadish cookies from San Francisco’s Miette are–and we mean this–unlike any you’ve ever encountered.

The quintessential summer sandwich, this stack is stuffed with grilled eggplant, bell peppers, red onions, and zucchini. Open wide.

Time to change into your baggiest sweatpants—the ones with the no-longer-elastic waistband. (We can’t be the only ones who keep those around, can we?!)

A quietly, healthily, nuttily pleasing alternative to your same old oats. Go on. You know you want to try it. So get your quinoa on.

A fast-rising home-baked white sandwich loaf that tastes–dare we say it?–better than mom’s. Way better. And just wait ’til you toast it.

We used to get our gratins and scalloped potatoes confused. But then we tried this gratin. Guess which one is now our favorite?!

Why pay an absurd amount of money for a teensy bag containing a couple shriveled slices when you can instead DIY a slew of slightly sweet and eminently easy snacks?

Traditional ratatouille gets sliced, diced, deconstructed, and reimagined–pickled, too–in this fashionably brilliant approach to Indian summer surplus.