By Aníse Meccouri: Home cooking

Love, service, and food are all essential elements to healthy friendships. When we take the time to cook for each other, we get to express all of those qualities at once.

Sometimes, it's just better at home. When I was asked to do a review for this issue, it hit me. Why not review the home kitchen, the food we create, and the scene of fellowship? What followed was more interesting than any restaurant experience.

When friends cook for each other, our histories, humor, and emotional connections marinate everything for an unrivaled tenderness. Martha, Badi, Heather, and I met up one night at Martha’s wonderful, homey, and summer-sweltering studio for dinner. On the menu we had grapefruit and avocado salad, grilled shrimp with dill and lime, grilled corn, black beans and rice, broiled salmon, and coconut tapioca pudding with banana.

Grapefruit and avocado salad

If it's hot out and your taste buds are bored stiff, try this cool, creamy, and tart salad of simplicity.

• Begin with one large, ripe red grapefruit, and one ripe avocado. With a large knife, cut the grapefruit in half down the middle. Use the knife to work around each half, separating the flesh of the fruit from the thick peel. Then use a spoon to work out the loosened chunks of grapefruit out of the peel. Put the chunks into a bowl and save each hollowed peel, as there will be juice left over in them.

• With the same large knife, cut the avocado in half length-wise. One of the halves will retain the pit. Gently work the avocado pit out of the fruit with a spoon. Then gently spoon the avocado flesh out of its peel. Discard the peels and the pit. Cut each avocado half into thick slices.

• Have ready a bowl of mixed, washed greens (any mesclun blend). Toss the chunks of grapefruit and the slices of avocado with the salad. Squeeze the remaining grapefruit juice out of the peels and into the salad. Toss again. You may want to save chunks of grapefruit and slices of avocado to garnish on top of the salad. Otherwise, this refreshing creation seldom needs dressing, as the grapefruit juice and creamy avocado provide intense flavor and texture by themselves. If you wish, add a bit of light dressing, preferably dairy-free.

Grilled shrimp with dill and lime

On the New York City subway last year, there were ads for Fresh Direct, a company that delivers groceries and prepared foods to your apartment. One of the ads that I saw every morning, for at least six months, was for raw shrimp covered in dill and slices of lime. The tagline read, "We Dill 'Em, You Grill 'Em."

• Begin with a pound of raw jumbo shrimp, peeled. Remove the tails. Place shrimp in a glass bowl and add a few dashes of dill, the juice of half a lime, and a splash of olive oil. Stir thoroughly and let marinate for at least an hour.

• Prepare a hot grill outdoors. We used a little Hibachi, which is great for beginners like me. Grill shrimp on each side until they have turned from grey to pink. When you cut a shrimp and the flesh is very white, they are done.

• Arrange the grilled shrimp on a plate and sprinkle with lime juice once more.

Grilled corn

At Café Habana, a downtown New York Cuban diner, grilled corn is a staple. It is such a hit that people walk around SoHo with these cobs of blackened corn, blocks away from the East Village restaurant. Martha grilled up our batch.

• Take as many ears of corn as you will need (we used three). Peel them all. Simply place the peeled ears of corn onto a hot grill and lightly blacken on all sides. Remove from grill and put on a plate.

• Slather each ear with lime juice and sprinkle with sea salt.

Black beans and rice

Effecting her flawless Mexican flair, Martha created this dish. Rice and beans are a canvas for individual expression, so make them however you like them!

• Use two cans of black beans, or slow-cook a pound of black beans until tender. In a sauce pan, heat the beans and add spices according to your own taste. Martha added a dash of cumin, red pepper flakes, and quite a bit of chili powder. They were hot!

• Use any kind of rice you like to go with the beans. Basmati works very well and so does brown rice. Make one cup of rice for every two people.

Broiled salmon

I came across a lovely piece of fresh salmon and thought it would be a crime not to buy it. Unfortunately, the early stages of the evening were so hectic, no one had quite figured out what to do with this salmon, so it lay neglected on the counter, dead and wet. That is, until Heather came along. Improvising with one found leek, some sesame oil, and a little orange-sesame marinade, she turned the fish into the star of the evening.

• Have a small filet of salmon (a little over a pound) ready along with a medium-sized, deep oven pan. Add 2 T sesame oil, 2 T soy sauce, minced garlic and ginger, squeezed lime juice, and/or any kind of citrus or soy-sauce based marinade.

• Place the filet face down in the pan (skin up), so the flesh absorbs the marinade. Place in oven and broil on high for about 15 minutes.

• While the salmon is in the oven, take one leek and cut off the top two inches of the stalk. Then cut diagonally in thin slices and stop about two to three inches from the bottom of the stalk. It should look like a pile of green, slightly ribbony, oval slices. (Onion or scallion also works well.)

• Remove salmon from the oven. Using a knife, gently peel off the scaly skin from the fish and discard. Turn the filet over, using a large spatula in each hand, and sprinkle the sliced leeks on top. Spoon over some of the heated marinade onto the leeks and the fish, and broil for another 15 minutes.

• Place on a platter, allowing some of the heated marinade to pool around the fish. We garnished with mint! Broiled vegetables (peppers, potatoes) also make a great companion for the fish.

Coconut tapioca pudding with banana

This sweet, textured dessert is light, interesting, and vegan, and Martha makes it very well.

• Soak 4 T of small tapioca pearls in cold water overnight (or at least for four hours).

• In a medium saucepan, bring 2/3 cups of water, 1/2 a cup of sugar, and 1.5 cans of coconut milk (can also be light coconut milk) to a boil.

• Drain tapioca pearls of soaking water, and add them to the boil. Stirring constantly, bring the heat down to simmer. Stir frequently in low to medium heat, until the tapioca pearls become translucent. Lower heat.

• Slice a peeled banana in small diagonal chunks, and add to the tapioca pudding. Stir frequently for 10 minutes on low heat.

• Serve this warm pudding in small bowls. You can garnish mint or add toasted sesame seeds for flavor.

While you can make many exquisite things to eat, the point is to become closer to those with whom you eat, and to have a good time. Eating dry cereal with someone you get along with is a lot more fun than trying to pull off an elaborate spread and have that stress out you and your friends. Keep the plan reasonable, don't overshoot a budget, and be your loveable selves!