EVENT: Mom’s MIA, Time to Eat Carbs
VENUE: Phoebe’s Parents’ House, Martha’s Vineyard
PARTY SIZE: 2
TYPE: Father-Daughter Bonding
MENU: Linguine with Littlenecks, Tomatoes, and Corn; Mixed Greens with Lemon Vinaigrette

It occurred to me, strange as it may seem, that I rarely mention my dad on this blog. Granted, we haven’t spent much time in the kitchen together, and save for a few perfect roast chickens—a phase brought on by acquiring the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks (if Ina Garten’s husband Jeffrey could make it, so could he)—most…

EVENT: Cooking From Christina’s Bag MAIN INGREDIENTS: Chives, Eggplant, Anchovy Paste, Artichoke Hearts CARA’S ADDITIONS: Fettucine, Pine Nuts, Raisins, Saffron, Fennel PHOEBE’S ADDITIONS: Striped Bass, Parsley, Capers, Lemon, Red Onion (leftover) MENU: Sicilian Pasta (C); Eggplant Bruschetta (C); Striped Bass with Salsa Verde and Mediterranean Roasted Vegetables (P)

Voila! Our final set of recipes from your shopping bags. What Christina brought to the table seemed so different from what we usually have in our bags, cabinets, and fridges—and yet so enticing—we both decided to

…

EVENT: Cooking From Kate’s Bag
IN KATE’S BAG: Ground Turkey, Beets, Fresh Corn, Red Onion
MY ADDITIONS: Fresh Dill, Lemon Juice, Chives
MENU: Dill Turkey Burgers with Pickled Red Onion and Beet Relish; Sweet Corn with Chive Butter

In our second day of cooking from your bags, I opened Kate’s. Hers also contained a lot of summer stuff, but at the center was a new vehicle for serving it: ground turkey. I was glad, since I’ve always…

EVENT: Cooking from Sara’s Shopping Bag
VENUE: Cara’s Apartment, Park Slope
PARTY SIZE: 3
TYPE: Weekday Fare
MENU: Edamame Succotash, Sweet Tomato Grilled Cheese

Last week, in honor of our new banner, we asked you to list four items from your current shopping bag, real or hypothetical. Not surprisingly, in this late-summer abundance, many readers listed some combination of seasonal fruits and vegetables: zucchini, corn, tomatoes, eggplant, figs, peaches, and beets. Though we’re honoring…

WHAT YOU’LL NEED: Lodge Cast Iron Skillet

As the season would have it, many commenters listed beets as their ingredient of choice in last week’s shopping bag challenge. While I was cruising the internet for some inspiration, I came across a recipe for red flannel hash. Now, mind you, the dish is usually a staple of cold winter months. But I was attracted nonetheless, and felt if I could, say, put a seasonal spin on it—adding blue potatoes and the white of a beautifully fried egg—it might just be suitable for summer.…

EVENT: Saturday Night Barbecuing
VENUE: Cara’s Mother’s House, Long Island
PARTY SIZE: 6
MENU: Eggplant with Sweet Sesame Soy; Lettuce Wraps with Cod and Condiments
PHOTOS BY: Alex

Jill, my older sister, is not as culinarily disposed as the rest of my family. She likes cooking now more than she used to, but where the rote parts of making a meal—cutting, mixing, and stirring—provide me an entrance into a nearly meditative state, for her, they are a little dull. For whatever reason, she does seem to…

DISH: Steamed Vegetables in Curry Sauce
TYPE: Working with What You Have
MAIN INGREDIENTS: Kohlrabi

Sometimes, when I’m in the mood to feel pampered, I’ll take my mother up on her offer to get me some farmers’ market vegetables when she’s out shopping for her own. Though this is a luxury, it also come with some risks. Recently, when I requested “cucumbers, tomatoes, and some greens,” I received cucumbers, tomatoes, and a bunch of kohlrabi, three purplish bulbs with long leafy stems. I had been…

DISH: Guacamole
MAIN INGREDIENTS: Avocado, Cilantro, Lime

I think with perhaps the exception of a fried egg, guacamole is the dish I’ve made the most in my lifetime. It started as a summer tradition with my mother, but slowly, as I began honing my tricks of the trade in kitchens beyond my mom’s—entertaining friends in high school, college, and beyond—I discovered that mashed-up avocado is a foolproof and simple crowd pleaser. Even at parties where I’ve stuck my nose up at the host’s bland, under-spiced, under-seasoned attempts, the bowl of guac would…

We hope very much that you get sick of summer squash‘s ridiculously plentiful bounty before you get sick of us blogging about it. Still, before you write us off as overdoing it (there’s chips, saut ées, and cake, already we know), we offer up this simple pasta, in which the grated summer squash (from Cara’s shopping bag) has a rich, melt-in-your-mouth quality, only bettered by the addition of butter—rather than olive oil—garlic, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. It is truly very good.

where meals really come together: the shopping bag

Cara’s Shopping Bag: Summer Squash, Parmesan, Onion, Kohlrabi
Phoebe’s Shopping Bag: Tomato, Avocado, Cilantro, Cucumber

It’s been a long time coming, but finally, we have a banner. Quite frankly, we’ve been a little Goldilocks about the whole thing. Over the last six months we’ve tossed around many ideas and design iterations, some good, some bad, but in the end, not one until now, felt just right. For this beautiful, final version, we have to thank…