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I hear a lot about “lazy summer days,” but the hottest months are always my busiest. Maybe it’s because Portland (where I live) is so gloomy most of the year, but summer is when people come to visit and try to lure me out of my house, usually with the promise of BBQs, outdoor concerts and picnics by the river. I also know an inordinate amount of people with July and August birthdays — including myself. I do a lot of cooking, feeding and eating during the summer.

My secret weapon during this busy season? The recipes in our soon-to-be-released cookbook, “Shorts: Recipes That Pack a Punch.” These recipes deliver maximum impact with minimal effort, using complexly flavored ingredients and thoughtful techniques. With “Shorts,” you can get dinner on the table in an hour (or less), but this isn’t a collection of “good enough” 30-minute meals. They’re recipes that get you excited about cooking by introducing you to new flavors and honing your skills without wasting your time.

Just last night, I needed a side dish for burgers with a friend. I knew I had corn in the refrigerator so I thumbed through “Shorts” until I landed on Charred Corn with Coconut, Chilies and Lime, a 15-minute affair that delivers spicy-sweet-tangy-salty flavor with just six ingredients. Half of the coconut milk is tossed with the corn kernels before a stint under the broiler (the natural sugars and fat speed the charring); the remainder is whisked with lime juice to create a bright and creamy dressing. It tastes far more layered and complex than it has any right to.

And if you love salt and vinegar potato chips as much as I do, you owe it to yourself to make Salt and Vinegar Smashed Potatoes. They’re crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside and deliver maximum punchiness by using humble white vinegar four different ways: The potatoes are boiled in acidulated water, tossed with vinegar before roasting, hit with a splash when they’re hot from the oven, and served with a drizzle of vinegar-spiked mayonnaise. I usually have some Yukons in the pantry—and always have a big jug of white vinegar—so this one has found a place in my permanent rotation.

And yes, there is a whole chapter devoted to traybakes, and it will completely change how you look at a rimmed baking sheet. On this baking sheet, for instance, you can make Tacos al Pastor, usually made by roasting pork and pineapple on a vertical spit. For “Shorts,” we move the meat off the spit, cooking thin slices of saucy, fatty pork shoulder in a single layer, shingled under slices of fresh pineapple. The result is crispy bits of succulent meat and spottily charred fruit, ready to be scooped into corn tortillas and garnished with white onion and cilantro.

Don’t feel like turning on the oven? Turn to the “Skillet Suppers” chapter, where you’ll learn how to utilize the starches in pasta-cooking water to create a Spaghetti alla Carbonara with the ideal richness, silkiness and clingability — without any scrambled eggs.

But back to all those summer birthdays for a minute. For those, I’ll be heavily leaning on the “Blender Cakes and Clever Confections” chapter. The combination of our Yellow Blender Cakeand Food-Processor Vanilla Ice Creamis birthday party perfection, but there are more refined options, too, like the Burnt Basque Cheesecake (which I recently made for a friend’s birthday to rave reviews) and the Amalfi Lemon Cake (the cake to make for the lemon lover in your life).

The book comes out October 14, but is available for pre-order now. Speaking from personal experience, cooking from it is the easiest way to add some excitement to your recipe rotation, without long ingredient lists and fancy equipment.

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Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.