Every week we get Down & Dirty, in which we break down our favorite unique seasonal fruits, vegetables, and more.

1. Yellow leaves or flowers? Take a pass in favor of better, greener options. 
2. Does the thought of eating broccoli rabe leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth? We have ways to help.
3. Trim here and get cooking. Get ideas for every day of the week!

Get beautiful, evenly-sized broccoli florets -- every time.

Merrill finds dinner inspiration on a sign at a local coffee shop, and does them one better.

Along with peas, broccoli and cauliflower are vegetables that are easy to malign when cooked poorly -- "stale and murky," our senior editor Kristen calls them. But treated right in a slaw, a batch of roasted vegetables, or pesto, broccoli, cauliflower, and their ilk can be downright classy. Today we tackle a bevy of brassicas, floret by floret.

Okay, so we cooked some stuff in the test kitchen on Tuesday. You know, food? All that will be on the site soon enough, but the most important event of the day was that Merrill's tiny 6-month-old daughter Clara came to visit.

Today we dedicate our test kitchen top 3 to adorable baby pictures. (But you can find lots of our non-baby shenanigans here, if you so desire.)

This edition of Amanda's kids' lunch is brought to you by Amanda's CSA haul: pattypan squash and broccoli (cooked in lots of olive oil and a little bit of water over high heat) with sour cream cilantro sauce and goat cheese, plus Greek yogurt with dark honey and blueberries for dessert.

How are you cooking up summer's abundance of summer squash?