Summer: A Cookbook: Inspired Recipes for Lazy Days and Magical Nights

by Marnie Hanel, Jen Stevenson

Here Comes the Fun

Whether for cocktails and bites at the lake house or a come one, come all dinner with friends, here are more than 100 seasonally inspired recipes guided by the principle that summer cooking means keeping things loose (and the oven off when it's just too hot out). Fuel up for a surf day with a basket of Fantastic Focaccia Sandwiches, host lunch on the deck with a Grilled Shrimp Louie salad, pass around the beach picnic fare (hello, Spicy Pineapple Spears and Landlubber's Lobster Rolls). It's a cookbook and so much more, with perfect party menus—how to choose between a Paella Party and Grilled Rib Revelry?—tiki cocktails, Five-Minute Frosé, tips on building a beach firepit. And to wrap it all up on the sweetest note, what could be better than Six Sensational Ice Cream Sandwiches?

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Food, Cooking

224 pages, Hardcover

Published April 13, 2021

About the author

Marnie Hanel is the coauthor of The Snowy Cabin Cookbook; Summer: A Cookbook; The Campout Cookbook; and The Picnic, winner of the 2016 IACP Award for Best General Cookbook. Hanel is a journalist who writes about the wild, wonderful way we live. Her essays and articles have been published by The New York Times Magazine, Food & Wine, and Vanity Fair. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel bad saying it, but I really hated this book. I'm giving it 2 stars for okay, since others are likely to enjoy it and there are fun elements to it. The book is very peppy and written like a team of influencers who were once sorority sisters wrote it. The chapters are dedicated to different summer activities like crab boils. There's a very bougie feel to it. There are no photos of any of the dishes. Instead, there are cheerful little drawings peppering the book. There are long entries about various aspects of summer and written tutorials for various things like keeping sand out of baby things and how to go crabbing. It is endlessly chatty but in a sort of forced, artificially friendly way. There are many recipes for cocktails. Some of the recipes sounded tasty but they are very much the standard American diet kind of foods and the sort of recipes you'd find in Good Housekeeping (no shade, just giving comparison). No nutritional information is provided and no recipes are given for folks on special diets or with allergies.

My summers are all about lazy days and magical nights, but I don't think I'm the target audience for this one.

I read a temporary ARC of this book via Net Galley.

[Karen Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely besotted by this one! Thanks Netgalley!
Adorable illustrations on every page, cute and amusing text, simple yet mouth-watering seasonal recipes and so many fun non-foodie tips to help you have the perfect summer. There’s everything from menu planning for themed parties, to what to do when it rains, how to not lose your keys or how to build the perfect sandcastle! I’m going to purchase a hard copy of this one (and as its basically summer all year round in Florida so I’ll get tons of use from it!)

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again another book to put on my wishlist. :)

[Kaitlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really love how this book is laid out and clean with not too much stuff thrown in all at once. There's way more in this book than just beach recipes, so don't be fooled! It's full of fun and helpful tips for all beach and summer adventures.

[Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the coldness of winter I requested a copy of Summer: A Cookbook from NetGalley. I decided that I would share my thoughts on this book with everyone, if not just to clarify what this book is about. It was my impression from the description that I was going to be learning a lot of great recipes that I could make in the summer without heating up the entire house with my oven. While this book does recipes of this nature they are not the every-day recipes that I was hoping for. Recipes for whole gilled branzino and spare ribs aren't going to be on the menu at my house this summer. The desserts were, by far, the recipes of most interest to me, especially the key lime pie with saltine crust.

However, I do think that if you have a beach house and do a lot of entertaining during the warmer months then definitely peruse this title. If you can pull off the recipes in this books your friends will be very impressed.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the art/illustrations of this book and the design; and reading it made me actually crave getting to the beach.
However, most of these recipes are not make-the-morning-of boat meals or anything simple and easy one would want to do on vacation. The ingredients are costly and the recipes are more complicated than I had hoped. I live in the deep north, so I would like to know where I’m supposed to find things like yuzu juice, branzino, red snapper, swordfish, etc. And I’m sorry, but Spicy Salmon Poke with Yuzu Ponzu and Littleneck Clams with Pancetta and Castelvetrano Olives don’t seem like things I would be interested in making on a beach vacation.
I would have been fine if this book had no or almost no recipes (maybe a couple for aesthetic reasons) and was mainly just a beach guide, instead of the other way around.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Marnie and Jen's campout book, and this is a similar format. The illustrations are still fun, but I would prefer some live pictures of the dishes as it is a cookbook. The authors use a lot of hip talk and throw in some comedic stylings, but they kind of miss the mark. The checklists and games were also a little better in the camp book in my opinion. A lot of seafood, which you can expect from a book inspired by the seashore. I'll give it another look, but the tone is definitely a little off for me. Not sure if I would prepare anything in these pages.

[Jennifer Spiliakos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is SO much fun! Great ideas for planning and prepping a trip to the beach, and for good eating while you're there. The recipes feel different, bright, and I can't wait to put them into my rotation this summer.

Thanks for the preview #netgalley

[Darlene Messenger · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun book. Recipes, lists and summer activities are featured in this seasonal book. It includes how to have an enjoyable beach day, how to deal with unseasonably wet weather, and how to vacation in style. Family-friendly this book was a pleasure to read and I wish I were closer to the sea.

[Pinky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summer inpsired recipes to get into the season. Want to try the Raspberry Icebox Jam, Cantaloupe Carpaccio, and the Ombre Rose Sangria recipes.

[Marianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of seafood, but very accessible recipes.

[E · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not one photo of the dishes/food. No inspiration.

[Brianna Sowinski · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a beach living cookbook than seasonal summer recipes; has illustrations instead of photos.

[Aasinathena · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a whimsically beautiful book <3 !

[Juli Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit cutesy, but some of these recipes look great.

[mol · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars, finished
though cute, i fear i'm not rich enough for what this book wants from me