One Sunday dinner, four favorite recipes

Four Blue Kitchen recipes create a delicious company dinner.

FOR YEARS NOW, BLUE KITCHEN HAS SERVED AS OUR FAMILY COOKBOOK. We’re not being sentimental when we say this—just practical. We really do cook from it at least once a week. This weekend, when we had our friend Casey over for the first time in too long, we made four dishes from the blog, often with both our laptops open to recipes in the kitchen at the same time.

We kept it simple, choosing things that would be delicious together, but wouldn’t require too much fussing, so we could focus on hanging out and catching up over glasses of wine. Dishes got made ahead or started ahead, making dinner even easier. Here’s what we made.

We call the roast you see above the Foolproof Pork Shoulder Roast. It is crazy easy to make—seven straightforward ingredients, three simple steps. And it comes out tender, juicy and impressively delicious every single time. You’ll find the company-pleasing recipe here.

Nothing says summer like a classic American potato salad with mayonnaise, yellow mustard and the crunchy bite of red bell peppers. Marion’s version is one of our summer (okay, and pretty much year-round) go-to dishes. Find the recipe here.

For the simple mixed greens salad, we used a very simple, very French garlicky vinaigrette that I learned to make at the side of an old French woman who had a three-legged beagle named Jean-Pierre. The recipe and back story are right here.

For dessert, Marion took advantage of seasonal summer fruits, making her Peach Blueberry Crisp. As she says, “this is a terrific, easy dessert, and it also is a very nice breakfast on a morning when you have a bit of time and want to set apart the day and make yourself feel special.” Yes, there were leftovers, and yes, they made us feel special at breakfast the next day. You’ll find the recipe here.

So that was our lovely, simple dinner with Casey, all made from our family cookbook. Don’t have a family cookbook? Feel free to borrow ours.