Summer

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This tart is a snap to put together, thanks to purchased puff pastry. The square shape is something different for the summer table.

Peaches are accented with honey in this fabulous home-style dessert. It's delicate, so slide a ten-inch-diameter tart pan bottom or the bottom of a ten-inch-diameter springform pan under the free-form tart to support it and make it easy to transfer.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Boiling the vinegar concentrates and sweetens it, so the dressing doesn't require as much oil to balance the acid. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

If you don't have tartlet pans, you can make one large shortcake in an eight-inch-diameter pan and then cut the cake into wedges.

Sugar cookies are the perfect accompaniment to this colorful finale.

If making more than 2 pies, do not double this recipe but make multiple batches.

Definitely not Ye Olde English Classic, but very delicious and very contemporary. Using store-bought sponge cake (ask for it at your supermarket bakery) or pound cakes simplifies assembly.

If you can't find haricots verts--thin French string beans--buy the slenderest green beans you can find. Pack the prepared potatoes and beans separately, then arrange them on a platter when you reach your destination.

With the galette, offer radicchio tossed with black olives, toasted walnuts and a Sherry vinaigrette. Spoon some stewed rhubarb over vanilla ice cream to top off the meal.

Brushed with garlic oil, grilled over the fire and stacked onto crusty buns with plenty of burger trimmings, portobellos are this season's snazziest alternative sandwich filling.