Summer Party Cooking Recipes

The only cookbook you'll need during the year's warmest months

A hot day and hanging over your stove were never meant to be. When fresh produce beckons but you haven't much energy to respond, these recipes help you settle into a more relaxed kind of cooking designed to keep you and your kitchen cool. Untether yourself from the oven with make-ahead meals best served cold (or at room temp), like Poached Salmon with Cucumber and Tomato salad and Tzatziki. Fix-and-forget recipes like North Carolina-Style Pulled Pork made in the electric pressure cooker won't steam up the kitchen. Equally easy are dinner salads; we've got enough to keep them interesting and varied, from Shrimp and White Bean Salad with Garlic Toasts to Grilled Caesar Salad. Barely more effort are fresh summer recipes requiring the briefest stint in a pan, such as Beet and Carrot Noodle Salad with Chicken or Braised Striped Bass with Zucchini and Tomatoes.