The French can be reserved, but at the farmers market, all bets are off. Exactly what is happening here? The cheese man on Place Baudoyer is letting his prospective customer poke the camembert...

This time of year, our Kitchn inbox starts filling with desperate pleas for vacation meal ideas. The gatherings are big and small — a beach house family reunion, a group of ten friends renting a cabin, two families with kids sharing a lake-side apartment for the week — but the need for crowd-pleasing dinners made with minimal fuss after a day of vacation fun is the same. Without further ado, here are our top ten meals that fit the bill!

If you asked me ten years ago after feasting at a trattoria in Florence on fiocchetti alle pere con salsa di taleggio e asparagi that one day I would be able to replicate the experience, I would have laughed in your face. Back then the only thing I knew how to make was frozen pizza. But time has a way of changing us, and that trip to Florence changed me too. Here I am ten years later, recreating that meal of a lifetime. 

I've been lucky, these past few years, to travel frequently and visit some wonderful places. This week, I'm in Paris! Would you like a peek into the apartment we rented? Yes — an apartment. Have you also discovered this lovely way to travel? Here's why I usually prefer to stay in an apartment, instead of a hotel. 

This is a salad to put in your back pocket and come back to all summer long. It goes from weekend picnic to make-ahead weekday lunch in the snap of a finger, and it's full of satisfying nibbly, crunchy, chewy bits. The grapes are my favorite part — an unexpected burst of sweet in the middle of a bite. A tangy mustard vinaigrette adds the finishing touch and brings it all together.

Alix and Nick are not afraid of bright colors. Their Jamestown, Rhode Island kitchen is a mix of high-gloss, high-impact red and turquoise cabinets — a style they've coined "Scandan-Asian," and a dramatic one at that!

Q:

Sent by April

While planning for my recent summer cabin experience, there was one tool I made sure to pack: an oven thermometer. In fact, I rarely leave home without it when I know I'll be using the oven in an unfamiliar kitchen. 

Full-bodied, medium-bodied or light-bodied are terms you heard bandied around to describe a wine. What do these descriptors mean? What determines the body of a wine?

These are terms used to describe the general weight, 'fullness' or overall feel of a wine in your mouth. Full-bodied wines are big and powerful. In contrast, light-bodied wines are more delicate and lean. Medium-bodied wines fall somewhere in between. There is no legal definition of where the cut-offs occur and many wines fall into the medium-to-high or light-to-medium body categories.