Corn

Smoky vegetables, corn and brown rice are dressed with citrus vinaigrette.

Fresh, colorful and simple, this salad is the essence of summer. In the picnic basket, tuck a cold pack next to this dish to keep it at the right temperature.

For cool contrast to the spicy soup, serve an orange, red onion and avocado salad sprinkled with ground cumin, fresh lime juice and olive oil. Complete the main course with corn bread, and end with vanilla pudding topped with cocoa powder and chopped pecans.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 35 min We recommend you use only fresh local corn when making this soup. The supersweet corn on the cob sold in plastic-wrapped packages in supermarkets yields an unpleasantly sweet soup. To make this soup vegetarian, simply omit the king crab.

Green chilies, cumin, and chorizo flavor this spicy southwestern rendition of the eastern seaboard classic.

It's actually a clam boil, and it’s prepared on the stove top. The secret is to layer the ingredients, like clams, lobsters, potatoes, and sausages, in one pot so that the flavors mingle during cooking.

Try this with ciabatta or whole wheat bread.

This simple seasonal soup depends on a single farm-fresh ingredient: corn. Its essence is captured in this purist's purée.

Margaritas and some guacamole with chips and/or vegetable "dippers" would start this Mexican-style dinner off right. Ladle out black bean soup to precede the tamale pie, and serve a Caesar salad with it. Finish by teaming lime sorbet with orange segments that have been marinated in tequila.

My grandmother Mignon Smith estimates that this tamale pie recipe is at least 40 years old. She's been making it for us for years.

The vegetables can be prepared ahead and finished up to the middle of step 3. Heat for 5 minutes before serving.

Market tip: Go for Dungenesse crab from the Pacific coast or blue crab from the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic coast.

This is my son, Dante's, favorite summer dish at Craft, and it's not hard to figure out why; the white corn, already sweet to begin with, is served in a "cream" derived naturally from puréed corn, further intensifying the corn flavor. Unlike corn on the cob, which is best eaten straight from the field, corn that is a day or two old may work even better here, since some of the natural sugars will have converted to starch, allowing for a thicker cream.

To cut down on prep time, use cooked lobster meat, available in some fish markets and supermarkets, or follow the directions below for cooking frozen lobster tails.

"My husband, Greg, and I cook together a lot," writes Sara Hainsworth of Frederick, Maryland, "which is fun and makes weeknight dinners and cooking for friends easier to manage now that we're starting our own family. I worked before our son, William, was born, but as my husband says, William is my boss now. So I count on quick, dependably good dishes like this more than ever." Sara says that this soup tastes even better the next day (which makes it an ideal party dish). But we thought it was delicious the same day, too.

These Colombian corn pancakes do a good job of soaking up the juices from the pork.