Easy Recipes to Ensure a Long and Leisurely Weekend

The holiday weekend is here, after a somewhat intense summer slips, slides and sunsets into fall. Let’s think breezy thoughts, stay positive, and keep any real work at bay as we think about leisurely weekend eating and drinking. Think: fast, few ingredients, hearty but maybe not heavy. Think pitcher cocktails and cheese boards, cold blender soups and fast-cooking short ribs. (They exist!) Consider beautiful fillets of salmon, hot off the grill and strewn with petals of lemon.

As the cook, cater to what you are craving, not the rest of the family. (Why? Because 2020 has been a year, is why.) Really dial into the flavors you want to taste. Maybe it’s lots of stone fruit for dessert and nothing else. Keep the oven off. Nothing wrong with that. Here’s how we would do it, including some of our greatest-hits recipes.

Drinks

Organic Sangria

Whether you’re a cocktail or a wine person, there’s something about sangria that just bridges summer and fall so beautifully. We love these organic sangria mixes. They’re virgin, so you can add sparkling water if you’re not drinking alcohol right now, and wine if you are. Red sangria mix brims with cherries and cranberries, and white is bright with mango and passion fruit.

DIY Sangria

Rosé, Lillet, peaches, raspberries and grapefruit mingle in this knockout sangria by lifestyle expert Aerin Lauder. Plenty of sparkling water added to taste will help keep this drinkable, never heavy. We love that you can garnish with whatever fruit you have handy.

Appetizers

Gazpacho

It’s almost the end of gazpacho season! Don’t panic, but do make some while the going is good. Remember that the beautiful concoction tends to be almost work-free if you have a solid blender. Just dump a bunch of seasonal tomatoes in there, even blemished ones, and you’re most of the way to the roasted red pepper-flecked stunner spied here.

Salads

Chopped Salad With Grilled Corn and Cotija

There’s something about grilled corn that makes everything it touches feel downright hearty. That includes this breezy salad, bulked up with hearts of palm, creamy fresh cotija, onion rings, radishes and lime zest. (It’s easy on the eyes, too!)

Grilled Halloumi and Little Gem Salad

When grilled, lettuce can take on a nearly sweet quality. And if you’ve not yet experienced the joys of grilled halloumi, well, let today be the day. This salad takes happy advantage of the grill you probably already have fired up. A bright sherry vinegar dressing dotted with fresh oregano meets its ideal foil in preserved lemon.

Entrées

Fast Grilled Flanken-Cut Short Ribs

Imagine short ribs that cook up in three minutes per side! Flanken-cut short ribs make the dream a reality. They require just 15 minutes and four ingredients (garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper) to become glorious on a hot grill.

Grilled Salmon With Za’atar and Lemon

What is it about grilled fish that transforms whatever you’re cooking for dinner into a party? There’s just something about seeing a silky, fat fillet decked out with lemon slices and fresh herbs that calms the mind and whets the appetite at once. This salmon with lemon and za’atar is no exception.

Desserts

Olive Oil Cake with Fresh Berries

It’s only just September, and no one would blame you if you had only the energy for one-bowl cake dotted with fresh-as-all-get-out summer fruit. This olive oil cake is super-moist in texture, spun with olive oil for an earthy, savory note, and just so gorgeous.

Apricot Clafoutis

The apricots this year were out of the world. Even if they’re not still at the apex of their season, a clafoutis will really bring their sweetness to the forefront. Ready in about an hour, this recipe employs brandy, vanilla lemon zest to brilliant effect. This is the sort of “set it and forget it” baking we love to do until the mercury drops.