Karen Taylor, Recipe Tester

Sweet tea. Whiskey. Lemon juice. That’s all it takes to make a sassy summertime cocktail you’ll want to sip all afternoon long.

A simple, old-style French dessert that’s as easy to toss together as it is to tie a scarf.

This five-ingredient fix, a restaurant classic as well as a simple weeknight dinner, will have you practicing your acceptance speech for the best dinner ever.

The official Spanish summer sipper. And, for those who don’t care for sodden, wimpy, mushy fruit in their cocktail, we include a nifty little party trick.

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

Baking a batch of these cinnamon-scented, hazelnut-inflected, raspberry-jamwiched Linzer cookies is nothing if not a testament to your heart most definitely being in the right place.

This spice cake is soaked with rum syrup, making a lovely, albeit slightly boozy, gift when wrapped in parchment and tied with a bow.

Mint. Muddled. Mine. When we’ve got this gin-based mojito on our minds, those are about the only words we can muster. Well, maybe add “More.”

There’s a week or two midsummer when peak blueberry and tomato seasons overlap. You’ve been warned. Go.

This compelling chili and Cheddar burger is what it is. No apologies. Simply wrap your hands around the messy spectacularness and settle in for the real deal.