In the Kitchen: A little (recipe) help from your friends

When summer starts, we’re like kids with a whole set of new toys. So many peaches, melons, eggplants, tomatoes, even zucchini, that we just can’t wait to dig into and cook. 

But like all infatuations, this one has a limited shelf-life. Once the newness wears off, we’re left with fixing dinner. And, quite frankly, sometimes even the most ardent cooks need a little outside inspiration.

If it’s recipes you want, we’re here for you. With more than 5,000 to choose from in our California Cookbook database, your recipe well is never going to go dry again. (And need I remind you that every single one of them has been thoroughly vetted in our L.A. Times Test Kitchen?)

— Russ Parsons

Dinner in a hurry

For example: Need something for a quick Wednesday night dinner after work and you just don’t have the energy to go to the grocery store? We’ve got a half-dozen recipes that use seven ingredients or less and that are ready in less than 30 minutes. Spaghetti with arugula and toasted bread crumbs, anyone?

Chicken to zucchini

p>It’s more pasta you want? Here’s another collection that’s got enough noodle recipes to last you through the end of summer. There’s 45 of them. And here’s 11 recipes for chicken. And 12 recipes for zucchini. We’ve even got a half-dozen recipes for waffles that will work for dinner as well as breakfast. Heck, waffles … we’ll eat them anytime. Just in case you’re curious, here are the top 10 recipes that were most frequently downloaded in July.

Build-it-yourself beer

Just tell me you haven’t been thinking about beer this week. I dare you. With the temperatures in the 80s and the skies so clear and blue, it’s almost like Mother Nature herself is exhorting us to pop a top. 

Of course, in today’s DIY food ethic, you’re going to take it one step further. And Southern California’s craft beer stalwart Angel City Brewery is here to help. Enter their “What Would You Brew” contest and you might win the right to design your own beer, to be made with the help of their ace brewmasters. 

The contest is now in its third year. Last year’s winner featured orange peel, sage, figs and prickly pear cactus. In the first contest in 2013, the winner used roasted malts, citrus peel and tamarind, says our beer guy John Verive, “to create an uncanny analog to bottles of Mexican Coke.”

What we’re reading:

Times staff writer Diana Marcum and photographer Robert Gauthier (and Diana’s dog, Murphy) have been touring California Central Valley area to take stock of life during the drought in a remarkable series called Drylands. This is the agricultural heartland of California — and, indeed, in many ways of the nation — and their reporting brings home just how dire the situation is.

Conflicted about meat? Grist columnist Nathanael Johnson does one of his deep dives into the subject in a provocative series that examines many tricky aspects of carnivorousness, from a visit to a slaughterhouse to the ecological implications of raising meat and the ethical dilemmas around eating it. And just why is it we don’t eat more bugs?

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Check out the thousands of recipes on our Recipe Database. 

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Are you a food geek? Follow me on Twitter @russ_parsons1