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Nesting is a behavior often associated with the winter months, when it’s so cold that venturing outside seems ill-advised or just plain miserable (or when mountains of snow are literally blocking your front door).

But nesting isn’t just for the winter! It’s great for all seasons, including summer. In fact, for some of us, heading out into the oppressive heat or humidity seems even less appealing than stepping into an Arctic tundra.

If that’s you, we hear you. So whether you’re keen to stay in your pajamas and eat bonbons all day or tackle that big project you’ve been putting off (while keeping cool and sipping on iced tea, naturally), here are 10 summer nesting ideas for when it’s unbearably hot, torrentially pouring, or you just don’t feel like going anywhere.

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Conversations with friends, family, colleagues, and strangers have followed a pretty tight script for the past two years that my fiancé, Joe, and I have been engaged. It usually starts with: “You’re engaged! Congrats! When is the wedding?” Once that’s out of the way, it’s: “Where are you planning to have it?” When we say Portland, Maine, like clockwork, we get: “Oh … why Maine?”

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(Image credit: Faith Durand)

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French onion soup is a bistro classic, the most homey and delicious example of good cafe cooking. But only a handful of frugal ingredients make up this restaurant favorite. Onions, broth, salt, and butter mingle in a slow magic that transforms them into a wildly luxurious bowl of silky onions and dark broth. If you’ve only eaten French onion soup in restaurants, you’ll be shocked at how easy it is to make in your own kitchen.

Here is a step-by-step recipe for making the best French onion soup you’ve ever eaten. It’s one of the simplest yet most satisfying soups, and one to learn by heart.

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(Image credit: Emma Christensen)

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Who says you need a grill to cook good ribs? The lack of outdoor space for a grill at my apartment led me to pass up a good many recipes for barbecued ribs over the years.

Now I’ll be making up for lost time. I do believe I’ve cracked the code to making perfectly tender and mouth-watering barbecued ribs in the oven.

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If you’re like me and spend more time than you should browsing food blogs and recipe sites, you’ve probably noticed the plethora of seasonal posts out there. You know the ones I mean — the ones that breathlessly extoll the freshness, versatility, and intense flavor of the produce available in the markets right now: Sweet blueberries! Juicy tomatoes! Meaty eggplants!

As a food writer, I’ve written a countless number of such posts myself, and it’s a certifiable fact that wonderful fruits and vegetables make my summer meals more delicious.

But it’s not just the produce that makes me a better chef in the summer. Here are two other summer-centric things that bring out the best cook in me.

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Do you love the market but find yourself occasionally confused or flustered by all the unknowns? Is it okay to sample or to ask a lot of questions? Can you bring your dog? Is this the best tomato of the day? Or maybe you avoid the market altogether because it just seems so insider-y?

We love our farmers markets here at Kitchn, but we totally get it: Sometimes the experience can be challenging. So we decided to tap the experts at CUESA, the nonprofit organization that runs San Francisco’s iconic Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, for their insider farmers market tricks and tips.

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Want to learn about one of the most practical-yet-fun gatherings I’ve ever hosted? It was, wait for it, a freezer meal party!

My mom and sisters came to my house to cook and assemble meals for our freezers. We built taco kits (so easy!), learned the best way to freeze eggs for breakfast, and prepped pork chops that can go straight into the slow cooker. It was a warm way to spend an afternoon: in the kitchen with people we love, cooking food to nourish us and our families. Everyone went home with a loaded box of good meals, and it made me a full convert to freezer cooking.

Here’s what we cooked, how we did it, and what it cost.

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The term “summer squash” is thrown around quite a lot this time of year. It encompasses both zucchini and yellow squash, so it’s understandable why so many assume the two are exactly the same except for the shade of their skin. That’s actually not true. Here’s what you need to know about how they differ.

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When it comes to summer cooking, there are two things I always do: Fill my plate with as many fresh, seasonal veggies as possible and keep things as quick and easy as possible. Less time in the kitchen means more time poolside, on the patio, stoop, or fire escape enjoying the warm weather!

From a creamy corn and egg scramble and summer squash succotash to a one-minute tomato sandwich, here are 50 delicious ways to get your fill of veggies in 20 minutes or less.

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(Image credit: Leela Cyd)

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Whether we’re talking about a dinner party or a quick weeknight meal, it doesn’t get much better than a giant bowl of steamed mussels. This dish has the kind of easy elegance and immediate gratification that I look for in both cases.

Today, I’m sharing my favorite, most basic method for quickly steaming a batch of mussels. It’s simple — just mussels steamed with broth and white wine — but oh so very good!

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