Photography by Lucas Allen

Double quadruple love this Fire Island beach house. Isn’t it the perfect mix of funky and fresh? The house is an Alexandria Angle project, and full of quirky bright accents that pop out against white backdrops.

Photo by The Selby

Doesn’t this LA market, Cookbook, look like the best place to shop? Fresh, local, organic ingredients in a locally owned shop. Guilt-free, if you ask me.

Clayoquot Wilderness Resort

As a New York Times article on the subject says, “Camping? Yes. Roughing it? Not quite.” It’s the perfect description of upscale camping, or glamping. If you’re the type of person that could never imagine packing your own tent and doing without a shower for a few days, this is the perfect summer activity for you. Instead of lukewarm coffee over a fire and mosquito infested campsites, imagine gourmet breakfasts and mosquito net draped beds.

The budget version? Glam up a tent in your backyard and invite friends over for DIY mani-pedis and facials.

Art of Travel

Fireside Resort and Ivan Lian

TerraSavvy

Rumbels

The Resort at Paws Up

Photography by Bas Boerman

Namibia Tours & Safaris

Here are a few resources to help you plan your glamping vacation:

• Glamping Hub
• “Camping? Yes. Roughing it? Not quite.”  New York Times
• Glamping Girl
• Glamping UK
• “Ditch the smelly sleeping bag and go glamping.” USA Today
• Glamping Review, Green Wedding Shoes

Photography by Jean Allsop

The interior of this Lake Martin house is full of creamy whites and tans. Designed and styled by Tracery Interiors, it strays from the bad carpeting and moldy beds of typical lakehouses and straight into elegant.

Here’s how we work it: The theme changes each time, varying with the season and whim of whoever is hosting that month, but the format is almost always the same. The menu is planned over email; each member’s dishes are partially prepped at home; the final touches are done together; and we exchange recipes and tips while sharing our elaborate meal, dinner-party–style. And whether it’s Cinco de Mayo, a field trip to see Julie & Julia followed by an offscreen simulation or our annual New Year’s Resolution Diet meeting, our cooking club is as much about entertaining one another as it is learning about the menu at hand.

Our most recent meeting, which convened at my house, was a Go-To Dinner Party theme—or an exchange of each member’s signature recipes of favorite dishes and tips “to impress without stress.” Unlike cooking from the Mario Batali cookbook, say, or creating an Indian-food feast (both of which we’ve done), this menu was bound to be less cohesive, despite our emailed group effort to round it out with the right proportions of vegetables, starches and mains.”

excerpted from “Collective Good Taste“ by Sally Horchow for the LA Times Magazine. Dinner clubs are rapidly gaining popularity. Kinfolk Magazine recently profiled the Brooklyn Supper Club, and Sunday Suppers by Karen Mordechai sells out as fast as she lists events.

Nothing says summer cooking to me more than basil. Part of the mint family, it comes in several varieties. The most common variety is Sweet Basil, used mostly in Mediterranean dishes. It’s a tender plant. Cold quickly turns its leaves black, and over cooking or adding to a dish too soon can quickly destroy the flavor. It works best gently ripped and added at the last minute to hot dishes, or as a sauces or dip.

I was first introduced to the plant in my early 20′s by a friend with a deep love for pesto and caprese salads. He passed that love on to me, and I’ve become a basil evangelist. There’s really no reason not to put a pot of this plant in your kitchen window or container garden. A $5 investment in a plant and cheap pot will save you untold dollars over the course of the summer.

Here’s a few interesting basil recipes to try:

• Three Basil Pesto
• Basil, Mint and Orange Vinaigrette 
• Grilled Salmon with Basil Aioli
• Tomatoes Stuffed with Fresh Mozzarella and Basil
• Shrimp Gazpacho with Basil Croutons
• Basil Hummus
• Tuscan Pasta with Tomato Basil Cream Sauce
• Basil Gimlet
• Basil Lemon Syrup

And a few Honeysuckle Life recipes:

• Ridiculously Easy Tomato Soup
• Stacked Tomato with Mozzarella
• Simple Basil Pesto
• Chicken with Basil Cream Sauce

Photography by Eric Marcus, via Houzz, Dungan Nequette, and Tracery Interiors.

Panama Beach has some of the most beautiful beach houses, and this Antiquan villa is no exception. Designed by Dungan Nequette, a Birmingham firm, and styled by Tracery Interiors, the home is approchable and comfortable despite it’s size and unusual shape.