Food just tastes better outside, doesn't it? The first hint of warmer weather and you'll find us outside come mealtimes: on a porch, on a front stoop, on a park bench, wherever we can find a sunny spot to sit back and enjoy a meal al fresco. With Memorial Day next week, we feel the outdoor eating season is officially open. Here are ten of our favorite seasonal salads to pack up and take on a picnic.

Last year my friend Grace Young gave me what turned out to be the most useful gift of 2012: a wok, and a lesson in using it. We shared some in-depth cooking lessons from Grace last year, like how to buy and season a wok, and how to stir fry chicken. I've fallen in love with my wok, and I use it weekly to cook vegetables and supper dishes. So it was the first thing that came to mind when I saw reader requests this week for fresh recipes for lunches. 

Here's a non-Chinese twist on the stir fry that you can make in your wok or in a big sauté pan, with brown rice, snappy asparagus, and flavors of lemon and cashew. It's been my go-to dinner (and lunch) this week! 

It's been unbelievably sunny and warm in Seattle, and last week we were invited over to a friend's for a backyard barbecue. These friends were house-sitting for a couple that owned a fancy grill and we made great burgers, grilled asparagus and a simple salad. It was almost enough to make us want to buy our own barbecue this summer — but not quite.

When Cambria asked Faith and myself for some help coming up with a main course for her Spring Vegetarian Dinner Party for Six, at first we couldn't decide. Faith thought it should be creamy and green. Cambria wanted a vegetarian dish that wasn't just another platter of pasta. I advocated for something satisfying and hearty, but still light enough for a spring meal. The final vote was unanimous: a pureed soup of peppery spring watercress served with warm goat cheese dumplings. Done and done. This recipe is a winner.

Hello! Erin from The Forest Feast here, bringing you the second recipe in my series of Farmers Market Feasts for the month of May. There is a fantastic little seasonal farmers market that recently began down the road from me in the mountains. I try to go every week, and I've been getting to know the farmers, which is fun! This week I picked up some green garlic and fresh basil to make a creamy avocado pesto.

A few months ago we launched a new monthly series, Gatherings from The Kitchn, showing you the real-life parties we host in our homes, large and small. We started off with Faith's cozy Italian polenta party, followed by Anjali's charming book club brunch. This week I'll be sharing a spring dinner party I hosted in my small Brooklyn apartment. You'll read about my light, fresh vegetarian menu — centered around soup, not pasta! — the simple ways I arranged a few bouquets of store-bought flowers, and how I transformed my living room for the occasion with some clever rearranging and a few twinkling lights.

Are you in the mood for a sparkling spring dinner for six? Then come along to mine!

If you're feeling a little uninspired lately, you aren't alone — we call it the springtime slump. It seems to peak around dinnertime, when the contents of our fridges and pantries just look so...boring. Injecting a new recipe or two into the repertoire just doesn't seem to cut it. Instead, we're here with a whole week of weeknight-friendly dinner menus, with options for vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free eaters, too. Ready to shake up your weekly dinner rotation?

I grew up in a household of musical-lovers. My sisters and mother and I spent hours snuggled up under blankets on the couch, watching Singing in the Rain and Brigadoon and other classics. One of our favorites was a 1935 piece of sparkling fluff called Naughty Marietta, with Jeanette MacDonald as a French princess who flees an loathsome marriage — all the way to the New World, where she meets the handsome Nelson Eddy, a militia captain who of course falls for her bubble-headed charm. 

Where is this going, and what does it have to do with roasted vegetables? There is a punchline in Naughty Marietta we loved to quote, giggling, where the practical captain indignantly instructs the princess in disguise, who has no idea how to cook a meal: "You don't cook a radish, you eat it alive!" Sorry, dear Nelson — you could sing the moon out of the sky, but you didn't know too much about radishes. 

As I was spooning my way through a bowl of strawberry-rhubarb ice cream this past weekend, I got to thinking. Strawberry and rhubarb are old pals, of course, and rhubarb is definitely great all on its own — but there are so many late-summer fruits that totally miss out on the rhubarb party! Rhubarb-peach? Blackberry-rhubarb? I want these combos in my pie! The best solution is to start freezing.