Summer entertaining should be both casual and simple. This week’s dinner party menu is just that! The meal starts with a cool and delicious Chilled Cumber Soup with Basil. The creamy soup is a summertime favorite that’s easy to prepare, is served cold, and highlights the local basil that's in season.

Our quest for the Lowcountry's best handmade burgers takes us to Plums...

“Anybody who doesn't think that the best hamburger place in the world is in his hometown is a sissy.”

- Calvin Trillin, The New Yorker

When I was a kid the concept of “fast food” was still barely in its infancy – in fact, it wasn’t even out of the cradle. The Golden Arches had yet to lead the fast food conquest of America (much less the rest of the globe). Towering corporate logos were still years away from gathering in ubiquitous clusters at every interstate exit. The American Hamburger was still something we ordered at hometown diners.

My assignment was to be in the Loire Valley in France this week. I changed my plan in order to bring to your attention a shortage in the wine market that will affect us all. It would appear that there is a shortage of grapes coming from California. Mike Esterl reports for the Wall Street Journal. In a recent issue he reported that, for a decade, grape prices in the nation’s dominant wine-producing state were in a decline due to pressure by big vineyard expansion during the 1990’s that flooded the market with grapes. In the face of price erosion, many farmers stopped planting new vines, and some switched to other products such as nuts, vegetables and other products that yielded a higher price.