A Few Spring/Early Summer Recipes; A Menu for Summer Entertaining

Warm Kale, Coconut, and Tomato Salad: requires heating up the oven, but I suspect could also be done well in a grill basket. And it's sooo worth it.

Jamie Oliver's "Eggplant Parmesan": better not to think of it as Eggplant Parm, because it's not really very like it, but it's delicious.

Tender and Easy Buttermilk Waffles: true to their name, and they freeze and reheat (in a toaster oven) very very well.

ALSO: we had folks over for a grown-up dinner party and had this as the menu:

• Chicken Shawarma
• oven-roasted cubed eggplant (I didn't pre-treat with salt/drain and it was totally fine)
• pitas
• hummus
• feta
• chopped tomatoes and cucumbers (I used a "burpless" variety)
• olives

Just served all of the above separately and let people assemble their own. We had drinks and for dessert ice cream. I didn't come up with a good appetizer-type thing, but it worked out anyway.