Bon Appétit

Susan Elizabeth Fallon of Boxford, Massachusetts writes: "I love to create new recipes to share with my husband, nine-year-old son, and friends. For me, that's the fun and adventure of cooking. I believe that eating well means using fresh, high-quality ingredients, so I'm choosy about what I buy and I grow many of my own herbs." Here's just what to do with all those tomatoes you have now. This versatile dish is great as a side, on toasted baguette slices, as a zesty omelet filling, or atop grilled fish.

Pasta, cheese, and a few summer vegetables make a quick and easy main course.

As culinary director for Balducci's, Katy Sparks brought take-out food to a whole new level. Instead of the typical fried chicken and heavy potato salad, the market offers horseradish-crusted salmon and grilled fingerling potatoes with lemon. In this recipe she's taken the often-bland turkey burger to a higher plane, with the addition of tamarind.

There's depth, subtlety, and just the right amount of heat here. Start preparing this dish one day ahead since the chicken needs to marinate overnight.

Start this recipe one day ahead.

He may be executive chef at London's luxe Conservatory at The Lanesborough, but Paul Gayler knows a thing or two about American cuisine, too. In The Gourmet Burger, he rethinks the barbecue classic using premium and international ingredients. Here, he adds mildly spicy North African flavors.

Inspired by Britain's classic drink — lager topped with stout — the sauce is a natural for lamb. Taste it and add more honey to offset any bitterness and get just the balance you want.

For a vegetarian version, substitute Soyrizo for the chorizo. Follow the same cooking directions, but do not drain.

Bourbon adds oaky sweetness to the honey-hoisin-chili glaze.

With two hues of cabbage and two kinds of apples, as well as carrots and yams, this multi-colored slaw will look gorgeous on a picnic or buffet table.

All of the ingredients that make gazpacho so yummy — tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and bell peppers — turn up in this main-course salad.

These refreshing cocktails are perfect for summer entertaining.

Potatoes in three colors give this salad an all-American look.

Forget placing the avocado pit in your guacamole — unless you like how it looks. It doesn't stop the dip from turning brown.

Prolific cookbook author James McNair has been chief judge of Sutter Home Winery's burger cook-off since it began in Napa in 1990. One of his books, Build a Better Burger, includes every winning recipe. Some past winners — and McNair's Louisiana roots — inspired the burger here.