Sue Epstein, 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.

We love ice cream, but sometimes it’s too darn hot and humid for anything sweet and sticky. Enter the lemon ice, a bracingly crisp and tart refresher. The best part—no ice cream maker required!

Pucker up, cuz you’re going to want to sip the bejeebers out of this ridiculously easy, sweetly tart lemonade. Wowza.

A swoon-inducing collision of creamy cheesecake, cakey brownie, and sweetly tart raspberries. Sorta makes you want to stop reading and start baking, yeah?

The customary morning-after equivalent of a Bloody Mary in Mexico—except this is lighter, less tomato-y, and all around lovelier.

Simple is often best. And any time you want shatteringly crisp fried artichokes that are soul-sighingly tender is a good time for this simple recipe.

It may seem criminal to bathe the walloping nutrition of lentils and mushrooms in anything but wholesomeness, but there’s something to be said for quality of life. Hello, bacon!

Is there anything that screams spring more than lightly buttered peas with a wee bit of mint on top? We think not.

This evocatively named dip isn’t the same as the one of yore. It’s got the same sumptuous taste, the same creamy texture, the same luminous color, just not the same calorie count.

Slather, schmear, and otherwise anoint all manner of things with this nifty flavored butter. Mmmm. Butter.