Click the photo to see a slide show of us cooking the finalist recipes from this week's Bean Contest.

Or click here to see us cooking the finalists for this week's Grilled Lamb Contest.

Recipe 1: Lamb Burgers with Cilantro Yogurt by naomi

These burgers are simple yet spot on. Naomi calls for ground lamb, which makes for a sumptuous burger requiring nothing more than a bit of salt and pepper. The tang of the cilantro yogurt sauce cuts the richness, keeping the lamb from tasting gamey. We shaved the garlic using a Microplane grater, which dispersed its bite evenly throughout the yogurt and provided a more intense garlic flavor - if you decide to do the same, keep in mind you will only need one clove of garlic. We also added a large pinch of salt to the yogurt and served the burgers on toasted hamburger buns.

Recipe 1: Strawberry Salad by Jestei

Jestei took the delicious combination of strawberries, balsamic vinegar and freshly ground black pepper and expanded it into a salad with mixed greens, finely chopped celery and fennel. As we were making the salad, we realized that it's the kind of dish that should only be made with produce and fruit from a farmers market. You need flavorful and sturdy mixed greens and sweet, concentrated strawberries. We chopped the fennel and celery in 1/4-inch dice and mixed them with the greens and dressing before adding the stawberries, so the juices wouldn't weep too much. And in case you're looking for measurements for the dressing, we used 3 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar and plenty of salt and pepper.

Recipe 2: Strawberries with Lavender Biscuits by Sara

This dessert is a clever riff on strawberry shortcake. Even though the biscuits contain whole wheat flour, you won't believe how feathery and tender they are. Sara has you assemble the dough in the food processor, which takes all of five minutes, and she offers you the option of brushing the biscuits with cream and sprinkling with sugar -- we used demerara -- before baking, which we definitely recommend. It gives the tops a little crunch. Also, we couldn't find fresh lavender so we used 1/2 tablespoon dried. (When replacing a fresh herb with dried, using half the fresh amount is standard.)

Recipe 1: Summer Corn Chowder by Nancy Jo

This is an earthy, moody corn chowder that alternates between sweet and hot. We were intrigued by the technique of cooking the vegetables in their own juices before adding milk and cream, which seems to intensify all the flavors.

Recipe 2: Chicken Soupy Stew by Veronica

Tasting this chowder, we were reminded how combining lemon and cream somehow makes the cream seem creamier, and the lemon more fragrant. With the dill, the broth is surprisingly delicate and is a lovely counterpoint to the large, rustic chunks of sweet carrot, chicken and potato.

Recipe 1: Not Red Velvet Cake with Fudge Glaze by Abs

This cake has the wonderful, fluffy texture you get from boxed cake mixes, but with a made-from-scratch flavor they never manage to achieve. Because it doesn't contain any red food coloring, it has a beautiful marbled crumb, and the chocolate glaze is both decadent and great for people who are intimidated by the thought of icing a cake. We also love that the delicate aroma of cocoa in the cake is followed by a wallop of semisweet chocolate in the glaze.

Recipe 2: Lemon Birthday Cake by Eric Liftin

Visually, this cake is a scene-stealer -- a birthday cake that makes a statement. It looks like a giant, sophisticated marshmallow. We were concerned it would be too rich (grand total: 8 whole eggs, 4 egg yolks, 1 1/3 cups of cream and 2 sticks of butter), but miraculously it's not: lemon and rum infuse the batter and give it the character of an English tea cake. The icing is a lightly sweetened meringue scented with vanilla and more lemon. Don't overwhip it as we did, and don't skip the berries, a nod to strawberry shortcake.