Think Elvis. Think tiki torches. Think sand between your toes. If that doesn’t work, mix up one of these.

Make this with a high quality sloe gin—such as Plymouth—and you’ll have a serious and refreshing drink.

Here’s one of my mother’s very favorite dishes.

Stir an easy biscuit dough into the boiling fruit, and cook until the dough bakes up into a fluffy, cakelike dumpling with sweet, juicy strawberries.

Simple, tender buttermilk cake topped with a nice, sugary crunch.

The ruffly white meringue called a Pavlova is all about sublime textures.

A Dutch Baby—basically a cross between a pancake and a popover—is tremendously popular in Seattle; according to local lore, it originated at a restaurant there called Manca’s....

Here, ripe strawberries drizzled with Port glaze top a luxurious no-bake mascarpone filling. The press-in crust, by the way, is a breeze to make.