so into that: 4 quick things
what to cook for the fourth, walmart fashion finds, robinne lee's new book, and more!
Hi and happy July!
Are you traveling for the Fourth? If so, check out our latest vacation house meal plan — all the recipes are easy to double or triple if you’ll be with a big crew. Or if you’re grilling out or headed to a potluck this weekend, we’re here with ideas for what to cook or bring!
Let’s talk about what to cook for the Fourth. Here are great options, whether you’re hosting or tasked with bringing a dish to a cookout:
The new easy-but-fancy summer meal plan, or any of the sub-recipes within it. If you’re in charge of a side, you could make the sour cream and onion potato salad, heirloom tomato and watermelon feta salad, or the kale salad with creamy lemon dressing and garlicky pistachio crunchies. If you’re in charge of an app, bring the honey goat cheese with strawberries and mint! And if you’re the host, the herby citrusy chicken kebabs would be perfect (or skip the skewers and just serve each person a marinated chicken thigh!).
You guys are always telling me that the balsamic basil grilled chicken doesn’t get talked about enough, and you know what? You’re right. It’s an A+ cookout entree. It’s also flexible — you can serve it as a sandwich or a salad, whatever you’re feeling.
My charred corn and green onion miso pasta salad would disappear quickly at any potluck.
In 2022, I wrote a whole post devoted to sides fit for the Fourth of July! Stupid-simple make-ahead mac and cheese, hot corn and scallion pimiento cheese, baba ghanouj-ish, sesame-scallion slaw… they’re ideal sides to accompany a good old fashioned burger and hot dog dinner. Also in that post: How to make a pitcher of strawberry-lemon margs!
I love the idea of this PB&J crisp that you can cook on the grill for dessert. Or, if you’re looking to really impress, there’s nothing more iconic than Ina Garten’s flag cake!
If you’ll be on a boat/at the beach/by the pool all day, you’ve gotta pack my turkey pesto focaccia sandwiches.
And for more on how to nail a potluck either as a host or a guest, read our ultimate potluck guide!
Have any fun food plans for the holiday weekend?!
I had the huge pleasure of chatting with Katie Lee Biegel (Katie Lee Kitchen) recently for her podcast All on the Table, and the episode’s out now! I loved chatting with her mom to mom and food person to food person.
I got these dill pickle almonds at Whole Foods last week and I am completely addicted. From Molly from What To Cook: While we’re talking good snacks from WF, I recently tried the new peanut butter chocolate + sea salt MacroSquare that’s exclusive to Whole Foods and am also addicted.
From Molly from What To Cook: Inspired by Jenna’s cute red top, I had myself a little shopping spree at Walmart last week — their Free Assembly line is SO GOOD. I got a pretty floral sweater, comfy shorts, a couple pointelle tees, and this stretchy, swingy skirt all for less than $100.
I have been impatiently awaiting the release of Robinne Lee’s new novel and, guys, we are less than a week away from its pub date!!!! I read Robinne’s first book, The Idea of You, in 2020 and credit it with reigniting my love of reading after having babies and feeling “too busy to read.” If you’ve been a WTC reader for a few years, you may remember my conversation with Robinne back when this So Into That column was a podcast. In it, I shared how The Idea of You was the first — what I would call! — romance I ever read. It’s my number one most-recommended romance ever, and it opened my eyes to a whole genre that I now hold dear. Robinne doesn’t actually call it a romance, which I understand, because it dives into topics like motherhood, identity, female friendship, and more, in addition to love. But also… the love story within it is so, so good. (If you haven’t read The Idea of You but it sounds familiar, it was made into a Prime original movie with Anne Hathaway a few years ago!)
I’ve been so excited for another story born from Robinne’s brain, and the time has finally come: Crash Into Me comes out on Tuesday!! This book goes even deeper into issues of identity than her last — my friends at Macmillan Audio call it “a completely new, fearlessly intimate novel of messy, complicated relationships — one that delves into desire, race, power, and the shifting terrain of identity and selfhood.” Ahhh, I cannot wait to have this in my ears. Robinne, who’s also an actress, narrates both audiobooks herself, which is such a treat!
WTC Insiders, you get free downloads of BOTH of Robinne’s books all month — even now, six days ahead of Crash Into Me’s pub date!
Head to your perks page to get your promo code. If you’re not an Insider, you can get Crash Into Me wherever you like to listen to audiobooks (or purchase/rent books) starting July 7! Or upgrade to Insiders here to listen now.
Every week, we dig into the What To Cook archives to see what we were cooking this time in years past — the recipes worth bringing back into your rotation. Here’s this week’s lineup.
1. summer chicken chop, 2025
Everything you want in a summer dinner! Sweet corn, snap peas, cucumbers, juicy tomatoes, fresh herbs, and feta, all thrown together and tossed in a bright lemon vinaigrette with the most perfectly pan-seared chicken breast (the low-and-slow trick after the sear is the trick to keeping it juicy!). Serve it as a platter, a big chopped salad, or totally deconstructed for the kids. It’s the summer dinner I made on repeat at 37 weeks pregnant, which tells you everything you need to know.
2. cookout chicken + mexican corn, 2024
This is another great go-to for the Fourth of July, or for any summer cookout. The chicken marinates in soy sauce, orange juice, brown sugar, and smoked paprika (you’ll want to go overnight if you can plan ahead!) and comes off the grill or out of the oven with the most gorgeous caramelized texture. Alongside it, I like to serve this addictive Mexican corn salad with cotija, lime, cilantro, and a smoky chili-mayo dressing that people will want all the details on.
3. chicken chili verde burgers, 2023
Lean ground chicken burgers can get a bad reputation, and sometimes it’s warranted! They can come out dry, bland, and a little sad. But these are an exception! The salsa verde does two things at once: it packs in serious flavor AND keeps the patties from drying out. You’ll mix that punchy, tomatillo-y goodness right into the patties along with cheddar, egg, and breadcrumbs. A swipe of salsa verde mayo on the bun brings it all together! Serve with lime butter corn and dinner is done. WTCer Maggie confirms that they’re a hit with kids: “Made these tonight and my children — 2 and 5 — devoured them. My 5-year-old asked, ‘Mom, we really like the bread AND the chicken, can you make more again really soon?’ Um, sure, if you eat that much!”
4. balsamic basil grilled chicken, 2022
Here’s that under-advertised balsamic basil chicken we mentioned above! You’ll make an herby balsamic honey marinade that will pull double duty to both inject flavor into the chicken AND serve as a salad dressing. If you’re going the sandwich route, you’ll grill the thighs until they’re beautifully charred, melt some havarti on top, and pile everything on toasted potato buns with sun-dried tomato basil mayo. Yum!
5. shrimp and fresh corn grits, 2021
No actual grits here, just fresh summer corn grated directly into a skillet, cooked low and slow until the natural starches thicken it into something so creamy and sweet and good that you’ll want to eat it straight from the pan. On top goes Cajun honey butter shrimp with bell pepper and scallions, cooked up in a flash. It’s a little bit Southern and a little bit celebratory. Find the freshest summer corn you can for this one, it makes all the difference!
PS, huge congratulations to WTCer Kim Taylor, who won the Sophie James tasting trip giveaway — we’re so excited for you, Kim! And to Kelly, LF, and Juliana, who won the Down to Earth book bundles!
The free assembly line is SO good. So many of my new favorites pieces are from Walmart!
OBSESSED with the balsamic basil chicken. I've made it like 6 times this summer, my husband can't get enough!