One of the best things about entertaining in the summer is the informality of it all. Maybe you’re having friends over. Maybe it’s family. Maybe you’re getting together in a park. Maybe you’ve gone all out and hired a Mariachi band. Maybe it’s a kids’ birthday party and you want something for the grown-ups.

Regardless, you’ll want a couple of treats that go with smoke from the grill, party music, and the pervasive sound of arguments about baseball.

If you have picky in-laws who try to undermine your confidence with these two recipes, plant your hands on the picnic table or the arms of their chair, stare into their eyes with unnerving intensity, and growl, “Drink it.” When they have to admit that you’re a brilliant cook and cocktail maker, the vindication will be enormous.

Rhubarb Margarita

Rhubarb is a fantastic summer fruit – well, vegetable actually, but we treat it like a fruit – that too often gets relegated to pies. Make this. Drink it. You really, really won’t be sorry.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 oz. apple brandy – I like Laird’s Applejack

• 1 oz. Goldschläger – A cinnamon schnapps with flecks of actual gold in it

• 1 oz. Fresh-squeezed lemon juice

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine the tequila, lime juice and rhubarb syrup over ice in a cocktail shaker.

2. Ask your digital assistant to play “Tequila” by The Champs.

3. Shake until your hands get uncomfortably cold and you hear the ice start to break up inside the shaker.

4. Strain into a cocktail glass, take a deep sip, then start making a second margarita, because you will end up drinking another one, and why fight destiny on such a nice evening?

5. The ruby-red color of this drink suits the way that the tartness of the syrup plays with the acidity of the lime juice. The tequila gives it a backbone.

TO MAKE THE RHUBARB SYRUP

1. Dice any amount of fresh rhubarb, and freeze it. This will allow ice crystals to poke holes in the cells of the rhubarb, making it more amenable to giving up its juice.

2. Add the frozen rhubarb cubes and an equal amount of sugar by weight to a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally. At first, this is going to seem like a truly ludicrous amount of sugar. Be patient. As the rhubarb thaws, it will give up a shocking amount of juice.

3. Bring the syrup to a boil briefly, to make sure that all the sugar has been dissolved into suspension, then remove from heat. Use a potato masher to crush any remaining juice from the rhubarb pulp.

4. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer, refrigerate the syrup, and use it within a month, which won’t be hard, because you will start adding it to your iced tea and yogurt.

5. Also, save the pulp that has been left behind. Add a little lemon juice to it, and it makes a fantastic jam that absolutely MAKES an English muffin.

Watermelon Gazpacho

In a world of chaos and confusion, one of the most persistent questions is why Americans don’t eat gazpacho every single day during the summer. If the idea of a cold soup makes you uncomfortable, don’t call it soup. Call it something happy, like Rainbows and Koala Bears.

INGREDIENTS

• Juice from ½ a small watermelon (see below)

• 1 English cucumber peeled and seeded – one half should be finely diced

• Three fresh tomatoes – Go to a farmers market, find the grumpiest-looking farmer, and tell them you’re making gazpacho. They’ll know what to give you. Dice 1 ½ of them.

• 1 red bell pepper, seeded – one half should be finely diced.

• 1 clove of garlic

• A handful of fresh basil leaves

• 4 Tbsp olive oil – the best you have. The flavor of the good stuff will shine through.

• 1 – 2 tsp coarse salt

• ½ tsp ground black pepper

• ½ serrano or fresno chili – stemmed and seeded

• Corn chips for garnish

Juicing a watermelon sounds like a particularly difficult skateboard move, but it is actually super simple. The melon is 92% water, so it’s just a matter of removing the other eight percent.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cut the melon into large chunks, and remove the rind with a large spoon. Alternatively, just cut the melon in half, and use an ice cream scoop to remove the pulp from the rind. Don’t worry about any seeds.

2. Blend the pulp in your blender, then strain it through a fine-mesh strainer. You will be left with a few spoonfuls of pink pulp in the strainer, and a generous amount of truly beautiful juice below.

3. Rinse out the jar of your blender to remove any seeds that might have sought sanctuary there, then set aside the diced vegetables. Add everything else to the blender and puree it thoroughly.

4. Pour the puree into a serving bowl. Stir in the diced vegetables, and serve, garnished with corn chips.

This tastes like summer in a bowl. Or a cup. Or a mason jar. It is fresh and sweet and savory, and a tiny bit spicy from the chili pepper. This would be an excellent first course at a barbecue, but it might outshine the steak and veggieburgers.