No-Cook

This refreshing salad is delicious and ideal as a snack or light dessert in the heat of summer. This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Serve the dressing on shrimp salad, chicken salad or mixed greens; add diced jicama and fresh cilantro leaves to the salad for even more flavor.

There's plenty of zing in this refreshing summer salad, which also features red onion and peppery watercress.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 15 min

Coeur à la Crème is an old French concoction that is both earthy and elegant, rustic and dressy — appropriate for any occasion. It's a wonderful complement to whatever summer berries are in season. This dessert is served at The Inn to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. It can be made in less than five minutes and never fails to knock em' out — even more so than an elaborate cake that took two days to execute. One large (16-ounce) or four individual (4-ounce) perforated heart-shaped ceramic molds lined with cheesecloth will be needed to create this dessert. The perforated molds allow the excess liquid, or whey, to drip through the cheesecloth, leaving the delicious "heart" of the cream. Coeur à la crème molds are usually available at kitchen supply stores.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. We created this sauce for fish, but it also makes a terrific accompaniment to lamb.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 30 min

"I run my own salon, and I’m an instructor at a cooking school," writes Sandy Ercolano of Ridgewood, New Jersey. "It seems that I’m always in the kitchen. At home I cook meals and come up with recipes for my classes. My son Andrew appears to have inherited my culinary interest. He likes to lend a hand with the cooking, especially with desserts. Unfortunately, he’s not as interested in helping with the cleanup."

This is also terrific with yellow tomatoes. Garnish with thin cucumber slices and some chopped red onion, if desired.

The smoked paprika in this recipe adds depth. Unlike Hungarian paprika powder, which is prepared by drying the chiles in the sun, the Spanish smoked version (like La Chinata brand) is prepared by roasting the peppers over smoldering oak fires before being ground to a velvety powder. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 30 min

I got the idea for this recipe from my Lebanese mother-in-law, Leila Matar, who often makes a tahini dressing for green salads. It also turns up in her kafta (meatloaf), on falafel, and, with some parsley and extra lemon, over fried or grilled fish. Active time: 5 min Start to finish: 5 min

A terrific accompaniment for kebabs.

A simplified version of the classic Italian dessert, this looks lovely served in parfait glasses for a change. The recipe features pound cake and cream cheese instead of the traditional (but harder-to-find) ladyfingers and mascarpone cheese.