Recipes for Summer Celebrations

Summer is basically one long excuse to celebrate-from Memorial Day to Labor Day and every firefly-filled evening in between. This collection is stacked with easy, colorful recipes that lean into peak-season flavors and keep the kitchen time short and the porch time long.

Bake up red, white, and blue snack cakes for instant nostalgia, or go full star-spangled with blue cornmeal waffles piled high with berries for brunch. Take your cookouts up a notch with sweet-spicy BBQ pasta salad or my mom's classic macaroni salad, then settle in with a strawberry vodka lemonade and absolutely no plans beyond sunset.

Around here, summer food is meant to be fun, unfussy, and eaten slowly. We cook a little. We celebrate a lot.

Shoes optional.

Favorite summer recipes according to readers

Summer entertaining tips (keep it loose)

🧊 Ice is the real hero
You always need more than you think. Fill bags early and stash extras so nobody panics at 6:17 PM.

🍉 Serve food that forgives you
Pasta salads, grilled meats, fruit trays-things that don't sulk if they sit out for a bit.

🔥 Grill once, relax longer
Cook proteins ahead of time and reheat gently or serve room temp. Summer does not want last-minute stress.

🥗 One cold side, one warm side
That's the magic formula. Anything more is just showing off.

🍓 Let fruit do the heavy lifting
Fresh berries, watermelon, or peaches instantly make the table look intentional.

🍹 Batch the drinks
Pitchers mean fewer trips inside and more time watching the sky turn pink.

🕯️ Light something at dusk
Candles, lanterns, citronella-practical and atmospheric. Mosquitoes get boundaries.

🪑 Paper plates are allowed
This is not a test. Nobody remembers the dishes. They remember how it felt.