Best Late Summer Recipes🍑

Hello, all! You wouldn’t necessarily know if from the hot-and-humid weather, but summer is [she struggles to type the words] almost over. I’m already seeing back-to-school photos from friends, and the sun has started setting before 8 p.m. for the first time since May.

Me? I am clinging like grim death (or something less morbid sounding) onto what remains of summer. Luckily, we still have several weeks left for juicy tomatoes, ripe zucchini, tomatoes, corn, and peaches.

🥒This week: recipes perfect for the homestretch of August, like fun homemade pickles, a dead-simple zucchini bread and peach cobbler, my favorite summer salads, eggplant parm, and a zucchini chicken pasta that’s perfect for weeknights.

Here it is. My personal, local insider recommendations for all the best places to eat in Washington right now. This covers everything.

Thanks for being a part of Unpeeled Journal. Have a great week ahead. —Lisa

Here’s the juiciest, easiest peach cobbler recipe, full of ripe and juicy cinnamon-dusted peaches, topped with a tender drop-biscuit crust. Calling beginner bakers: This one’s for you.

Zucchini may be a vegetable, but it makes an amazing cake, too — almost like banana bread. Moist, delicious, and simple to make: just stir and bake. This is homey summer baking at its best.

We all need to be making our own pickles! These take minutes to make, and taste crisp and tangy from fresh dill and spice. A great way to bottle up summer.

What better way to make the best of all this nice summer produce than with a salad? Click the titles below for these favorite summer sides, pictured clockwise from top left:

• Zucchini Ribbon Salad

• Red Cabbage Slaw

• Greek-Style Pasta Salad

• Mexican Street Corn Salad

When late August gives you figs, make this fancy pizza that’s easy as pie. Ready in less than 30 minutes and perfectly savory and sweet.

Old-school eggplant parmesan, baked with tender eggplant that's breaded and fried, then layered with marinara and good, melty mozzarella cheese.

A quick and flavorful 30-minute dinner with tender chicken, golden seared zucchini, Parmesan, and fresh mint. The perfect weeknight pasta.

When it comes to food, it’s easy to get it wrong in Washington. It’s an expensive city with a lot of tourism. Those factors add up to an important truth: You can pay a lot of money for a very mediocre meal.

But D.C. — if you know the right spots — has truly excellent food, and you don’t always need to spend a lot of money to find it.

There are, of course, the trendy, swanky spots where you might be seated next to a senator or news anchor. I’ve spotted Wolf Blitzer at my favorite sushi spot more times than I can count, and once shared a date night with the Obamas. (Ok, by “shared a date night,” I mean that my husband and I were at restaurant while the Obamas were having their own dinner at a totally separate table across the room while I kept craning my neck in a highly-uncool fashion to keep staring at them).

But D.C. is also filled with some of the best casual restaurants you’ll ever find, artisan bakers, barbecue, and cozy wine bars with outstanding burgers. Oh, and it’s also home to chef José Andrés.

Here are my favorite places to eat my way around Washington, D.C., including:

• Special occasion restaurants

• Best for people watching

• Afternoon tea

• Restaurants near all the museums downtown

• Sushi

• Wine bars

• Georgetown

• Bakeries!

• My all-around top 5 (make that 6) places to eat in Washington, D.C.