Photo: Achatz Pies

A bounty of sweet summer fruits tastes even better layered between flaky crust, and we showed you how making pie is, well, easy as pie, in the August issue of O. But if, like me, the heat of summer keeps you far from the oven, consider one of these scrumptious mail-order alternatives instead.

For Pie Addicts: Grand Traverse Pie Company
If the thought of choosing between cherry or berry makes your palms sweat, consider the Pie of the Month Club. For one season, six months, or a year, members tuck into a signature pie from this 15-year-old Michigan bakery each month. Some of the most popular pies include Cherry Crumb (Mario Batali called it "a religious experience"), Michigan ABC (grown-in-state apples, blueberries and cherries), and Opera House blackberry.
Reason for Seconds: Grand Traverse can customize a message on your pie--like with icing letters on a birthday cake--using pastry-dough cut-out letters.

For Cream-Pie Cravings: Achatz Pies
Famed Chicago chef Grant Achatz serves his restaurant staff slices of pie from this bakery, owned by his second cousin Dave and Dave's wife, Wendy. No wonder: In addition to the usual suspects of fruit and fall pies, Achatz bakers carefully craft 18 cream pies that are true stunners. I'm partial to Raspberries and Cream, made with vanilla pastry cream topped with slightly sweetened raspberries and dotted with fresh whipped cream.
Reason for Seconds: If I could, I'd chase Cannoli Pie (whipped pastry cream and cream cheese studded with almonds and chocolate chips) with Sweet Cream Cinnamon (cinnamon pastry cream topped with candied pecans).

Hamilton (left) and Hirsheimer (right). Photo: Andre Baranowski

You know this feeling: you charge into the grocery store, crinkled list in hand, full steam ahead with the cart. Paper towels, laundry detergent--you're on a tear. "Chicken" is on the list, and you know that means chicken thighs, because thighs are what you always buy. "Pasta"--that means your usuals, linguine or penne. And so on: potatoes (always Idahos), rice (always Carolina), cheese (always Jarlsberg), down the list. There's nothing wrong with food shopping this way; we all do it. But Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton, friends for 20-something years and co-writers of the seasonal cooking journal Canal House Cooking, have found a way to break out of this habit and make shopping for dinner much more fun.

About three years ago, they began food shopping for each other. It started as a favor, but now it's a game. They don't do it all the time, just every so often, and when they do, those normal conventions of what they always buy go flying out the window. No boneless, skinless anythings. Why buy chicken thighs when you can get the whole bird? Pasta: how about something different, like pappardelle? Into the cart go breasts of veal, ruffly savoy cabbage, ground lamb. "Doing the grocery shopping can be kind of dreary," Hamilton says, "especially if you're in a store that's not particularly inspiring." But shopping for a friend gets you excited about grabbing things.

Photo: Thinkstock

The simplicity of sangria--a little fruit, a little wine, and there's your fiesta--is part of the drink's allure. And I'll take a cold glass of the traditional version any summer day (here's Art Smith's sangria, which was served at the Oprah Show farewell dinner). Still, playing with the recipe, whether by swapping in a different fruit or alcohol, or introducing a completely new flavor, can be fun. Here are six food bloggers' creative takes on the classic.

Lambrusco Sangria from Chow.com
Be delicate when you stir otherwise you'll kill the bubbles.

Raspberry Thyme Sangria from Food Republic
Muddled raspberries and thyme go nicely with Prosecco (if you like your sangria spritzy) or Rose (if you prefer it more full-bodied).

Sake Sangria from Daily Loaf
Peaches and plums play up the flavors in sake and plum wine.

Sangria and Iced Coffee from the Women's Health blog
A non-alcoholic version that blends coffee, juices, fruit and soda water.

Summer White Sangria with Pink Peppercorns from Food52.com
Let muscovado sugar, cinnamon, pink peppercorns and mint leaves work their magic on fresh, ripe fruit and wine for a good half-hour before drinking.

Starfruit Sangria from Serious Eats
A cross between spiked lemonade and sangria, this drink can be made with club soda or ginger beer.

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Photo: Thinkstock

 
Picnics are underappreciated: less hassle and heat than grilling, but endlessly more fun than eating indoors. Yet if you're gluten-free, the classic menu--a potential danger zone of sandwiches, crackers, pasta salad, and cookies--can scream off limits. A picnic can be gluten-free, of course, if you find tasty alternatives to the old standbys. Here's what you'll find in my wicker basket this weekend:

Udi's Sandwich Bread: Whether I'm craving cucumber-cream cheese or mounds of roast beef, I reach for Udi's, a durable rice-and-tapioca bread available in white or whole wheat. Unlike other options, it doesn't require toasting to hold up to messy fillings; you can eat it soft, straight from the loaf.

Tinkyada Pasta: Tinkyada's pasta-salad-perfect noodles (penne, shells, spirals) are made with brown rice and rice bran (fiber boost!), and stay incredibly chewy. One tip: The  directions significantly overestimate cooking time. If you like your pasta al dente, start taste-testing at the halfway point.

The Good Bean Roasted Chickpeas: You can opt for gluten-free croutons, but this new snack has become my new favorite salad topper. All-natural roasted chickpeas, dusted with sea salt, cracked pepper, or smoky chili and lime, are crunchy and flavorful, without overpowering a salad. And the chickpeas are naturally high in fiber and protein.

[After the jump, something crunchy and something sweet]

Photo: Thinkstock

Godiva executive chef chocolatier Thierry Muret spends his days tinkering with double chocolate raspberry truffles and cherry cordials (it's a tough job, but somebody has to do it). And with Godiva's collection of baked goods, which will have a new line on sale in the fall, Muret learned to master the art of mixing, baking and frosting. Among the most valuable lessons he picked up: freeze a cake after baking it. It keeps the cake incredibly moist and, as a bonus for frazzled cake decorators, makes it a lot easier to cut--and, in turn, frost.

After mixing the cake batter (and at Godiva, all cake batters are chocolate--go figure), pouring it into the pan and baking it completely through, Muret pulls the cake out of the oven and lets it cool on a wire rack until it is lukewarm enough that he can handle it. He removes it from the pan and then wraps the entire cake with cellophane wrap--and this is crucial--twice. You must wrap the cake tightly, he says. Then he puts it in the freezer overnight or for eight hours.

[Next: the icing on the cake]

Wednesday is already hump day. But Tuesday is "you" day: a day when you have the energy to do--or plan--something fresh and unexpected that might just turn your whole week around.

Photo: Alainna Lynch

Lauren Shockey has spent time working in restaurants around the world, getting first-hand experience butterflying chickens to mincing cases of shallots, as she recounts in her new book, Four Kitchens: My Life Behind the Burner in New York, Tel Aviv, Hanoi, and Paris. Despite her hands-on learning, though, Shockey still relies on a handful of cookbooks to get her through dishes from a basic tomato sauce to gift-worthy pink peppercorn cashew brittle. Here are the five she thinks belong on every chef's shelf.

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan
Hazan's one of the cookbooks I grew up with--my parents cooked from it--and it's a really good overview of Italian cooking, by region. The recipes are fairly simple, and Hazan uses ingredients you can find at your local grocery store. My favorite pasta sauce of all time is her tomato sauce with butter and onion. It's just canned tomatoes, butter and onion.

Photo: Jason Lowe

Me, I like to reach for a cold bottle of iced tea mixed with lemonade when I'm feeling wilted by the summer heat. If I were Spanish, though, after waking from my afternoon siesta, I'd probably reach for a bottle of... gazpacho? Yes. Though technically a soup, gazpacho is thirst-quenching enough--and, if you puree it finely, liquid enough--to be drunk straight from the bottle, which is how many Spaniards enjoy it, says Claudia Roden, who spent years researching her new 624-page doorstopper, The Food of Spain. Roden told me gazpacho is so popular in Spain, even supermarkets sell it by the bottle. For the rest of us, though, it's easy enough to make at home. And if you're so inclined, I've found the perfect gazpacho containers (funnel required).

Photo: Thinkstock

Maybe you follow baseball (and are watching this weekend to see if Derek Jeter will finally get his 3000th hit). Or maybe you find yourself following someone you love--who happens to love baseball--to the nearest stadium. If so, you might have noticed that Major League ballpark food has left the traditional peanuts and Cracker Jacks in the dust.

I kept hearing that the gourmet offerings at many of the country's newer stadiums threaten to steal the show, so I asked around and found six foods baseball fans can't get enough of. Even if your interest in America's pastime is limited to the endearing if ragtag group of dogs named for the Yankee shortstop, you'll want to try these recipes and make a playoff-worthy version of them at home.

Ballpark: AT&T Park
Team: San Francisco Giants
Must-try concession: Crazy Crab'z, center field
What to order: Dungeness crab sandwich with mayonnaise and tomato, served in a grilled garlic butter sourdough baguette.
Make it at home: Curtis Stone's Surf Sandwich

Ballpark: Citi Field
Team: New York Mets
Must-try concession: Danny Meyer's El Verano Taqueria, outfield concourse
What to order: Chile-Marinated Skirt Steak, served inside two soft corn tortillas.
Make it at home: Grilled Skirt Steak with Two Chimichurris

[After the jump, a delectable fried fish sandwich and onion rings as far as the eye can see]

Photo: Thinkstock

I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to food myths—or at least when it comes to debunking them—which is why I figured out awhile ago that putting an avocado pit in guacamole does not keep it from turning brown. But a new book, Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them: And 100 Other Myths About Food and Cooking by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, helped me to understand why. It seems that the pit trick does work, albeit in a tiny way: It limits the oxygen exposure for the guacamole that's directly underneath the pit. Alas, the rest of the dip will turn brown as the avocado's compounds absorb light. So, how do you keep guacamole from browning? Read on...