Whatever the activity, or lack thereof, a fabulous dinner is a great way to cap off a summer day outdoors. All that’s needed is a campfire, a little planning, a skillet and a Dutch oven. Here, at Dockweiler State Beach, a camp menu includes pan-fried trout, white bean salad and buttermilk stick biscuits. (Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times)
A Rosé is perfect in summertime. It tends to be lower in alcohol, and goes perfectly with warm-weather menus. They’ve got it all: crisp, mouth-cleansing acidity; spice and ripe fruit; and just a hint of juicy sweetness. Here’s your how-to-buy guide. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Leaves are nature’s brilliant cookware, and a no-fuss way to prepare something outdoors. Banana leaves can be cut down to make plates or unfurled into wrappers perfect for enclosing, then grilling, a smooth, melting cube of feta, a recumbent sardine or a mint-studded lamb meatball. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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If you find yourself with more tomatoes than you know what to do with, here are a few recipes to try: Fresh tomato soup, pasta with fresh tomato sauce and -- saving the best for last here -- Bloody Marys. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
Southern fried chicken, coleslaw, biscuits and ham, brownies -- it’s the iconic July 4th picnic, so popular (once upon a time) that it became a cliché of the culture. A few smart cooking techniques and updated ingredients can bring the joys of a homemade picnic back to the holiday -- and out to the beach, park or mountainside. All the recipes here. (Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times)
A let’s-get-a-few-friends-together soiree begs for party snacks with a few surprise ingredients -- bite-size turnovers that have personality and that go down perfectly with either a glass of crisp, cool white wine or a light summer ale. Trust us: Turnovers of chicken and watercress pesto, left, and mushroom and truffle cheese will be gone in a flash. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
And now, for something completely different: How about a cool plate of pickled radishes, peppers, zucchini and grapes. Impressive on any table, and oh-so-easy to make. (Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times)
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Cherries are best known in desserts, either farmhouse rustic or in dainty pastry shop configurations, but they have a terrific affinity for main courses too, as these recipes can attest. For dessert, try a slightly unusual take on the fruit salad: add wedges of ripe apricots and honeydew melon to halved cherries. (Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times)
On this, we probably can all agree: Pie is the quintessential summer dessert. Here, juicy nectarines and plump blackberries cavort merrily in a lattice-top pie. The recipe calls for black pepper -- a pinch adds an intriguing dark note to the crust. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)
Summer desserts aren’t all about ice cream. Dial down the flames to a slow burn and watch pineapple luxuriously transform beneath a lush glaze of dark rum and Balinese long pepper, which grows in the Indonesian islands jungles and has a rich, spicy essence. But this is just one recipe for taking desserts to the grill. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
