Summer survival guide

The summer fantasy is compelling. The sun shines - but not too strongly. Meals are late and lazy. The balmy evening breeze is strong enough to whisk away the mosquitoes, but not so persistent that the napkins go flying. There's more time with family and friends. Kids wander to bed after putting plates in the dishwasher of their own accord. Produce is juicy and bounteous, and the barbecue gas bottle is always full.

The alternative is unappealing: a pre-Christmas frazzle of burnt sausages, too many chips, a sunscreen slick in the handbag and panicky last-minute gifts.

I'm planning to live the fantasy (and banish last year's reality) with a super summer of eating, drinking and socialising. I'd be so glad if you joined me.

Make the best beer batter

I learnt this one from Melbourne seafood supremo and chef Michael Bacash. Tip two cups of self-raising flour into a large bowl, crack an egg into it, pour in a stubby of beer and mix it together. That's it. Add your fish - whiting are great - then shallow fry the battered fillets until they're golden and crunchy. It doesn't have to be fish either: you can coat prawns, corn clusters, batons of zucchini or sliced eggplant just as easily.

Have a cocktail or two up your sleeve

• Video: How to make the perfect margarita

When you ask ''what can I get you?'' the answer is often ''what have you got?'' How about you say ''French 75'' this summer? First make a sugar syrup by combining equal parts sugar and warm water. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then chill. Using a cocktail shaker (even a jar, at a pinch), add about 15ml of sugar syrup, 30ml gin, 15ml of lemon juice and lots of ice. Shake furiously then strain into a champagne flute or long glass and top up with sparkling wine. Voila.

Savoury granita

All you need to make granita is a freezer and a fork. Freeze liquid in a shallow container and scrape the solution with a fork every half hour as it freezes. You can dress up oysters with Bloody Mary granita or serve tomato and chilli granita as a pre-dinner palate tickler.

Get your knives sharpened

Sharp knives make even mundane tasks feel like professional cooking. Spend a while with your own whetstone, or take your blades to a professional for sharpening. Some sharpeners will come to you: round up a bunch of blunt-knifed friends for tea, toast and a sharpening session.

Breakfast outside

In the garden, on the balcony, in a cafe's courtyard, perhaps even on the nature strip, breakfast in the promising air of a high summer morning is a 15-minute sampler of the holiday you're hanging out for. Hipster tip: have coffee on a milk crate on your front doorstep for a dose of cafe crouch without getting out of your PJs.

Fish and chips on the beach

A classic - but do you ever do it? Remind yourself that chips taste heaps better with a dusting of sand and a screeching seagull soundtrack. Life can get a bit crazy at this time of year, but meeting friends for an early dinner on the beach makes socialising very simple. Make sure someone brings the beach cricket set.

Make this cheesecake

Rob Kabboord from lovely little Melbourne restaurant Merricote says his rose, almond and berry cheesecake is perfect for dinner parties, because it can easily be made in advance and it looks so pretty. The recipe serves eight; you'll need eight small, shallow jars with lids.

Win with windfalls

Channel your inner granny and say ''yes'' to the box of tomatoes for $10, the tray of mangos or apricots for $15, and the Saturday afternoon cherries. Make passata, chutney, jam, syrup and cordial and enjoy it long after summer has flown.

Pick fruit

There's nothing to help you appreciate summer fruits like emerging from a blackberry bush with grazes on both arms. Try Blue Hills Berries and Cherries in Victoria and Bilpin Fruit Bowl in New South Wales for a pick-your-own experience.

Picnic

Keep picnics simple and cutlery free and consider sarongs, instead of bulky picnic blankets. Baked goods maketh a picnic. Try dried tomato and thyme fougasse and spinach and cheese triangles. Cut up a few oranges and grab a bottle of mineral water or apple juice. Pack them in a cooler bag with some damp teatowels for wiping sticky fingers. Decamp somewhere pretty - or even to a cricket ground. Domestic cricket matches are especially picnic-friendly.

Grow cos lettuce

Cos lettuce grows quickly and is hardy, so even bad gardeners can get a summer's worth of salads out of a small patch of the stuff. It doesn't seem right to pay for basil, so I'm glad I can keep it alive, too. Throw a few seedlings into pots and plunder it for pesto.

Sort a tasty soundtrack

Good music and nice food make summer delicious. Whether you're spinning vinyl or streaming, create a succulent, seasonal soundtrack for this summer's food adventures. Donna Summer's Hot Stuff and B52's Rock Lobster both make Rolling Stone's Best Summer Songs of All Time feature.

A new marinade

My standby marinade is olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and zest, flaked salt and rosemary. It works with pretty much everything you might throw on a barbecue: meat, fish, eggplant and mushrooms among them. Even so, I'm glad to mix it up a bit. Pork, lamb and chicken are great with a mix of garlic, ginger, five-spice powder, light soy and shaoxing wine. Add crushed Szechuan pepper if you like it tingly. Also, check Neil Perry's recipe for a herb and citrus marinade.

Try cold drip coffee

I tend to think of coffee as a morning medicine that helps my brain transition from murky to marvellous. I like it to taste nice, but I don't usually appreciate it like wine. On the other hand, cold drip coffee is good. It is basically filter coffee, but cold, and made at a glacial pace, so it takes all day to brew a cup. The pay-off is a fragrant, refreshing drink with subtle, floral flavours. Try it at specialty coffee houses.

Communal cooking

Book in a cooking day with friends or even your own children to tackle a culinary project: maybe it's making pasta from scratch, creating a spectacular layered cake, or trying a few recipes from a cuisine that has piqued your fancy.

Make icypoles

All that space in your newly organised freezer (see final tip) can be given over to summer treats. Grapes freeze well and are great snacks for overheated kids. Icypoles can be as simple as frozen orange juice or raspberry cordial, or as grown-up as vodka, lime and soda. Buy moulds at kitchenware stores, where you might also want to look out for mad new ice cube trays: there are Lego blocks, bullets, even zombies.

An edible Christmas

Your family and friends might not be feeling a desperate need for Christmas presents, but they'll surely be happy to get homemade treats from you. Shortbread and almond biscotti are classics, but another option is fruit salami, which is great to serve with cheese. Merricote's Rob Kabboord got this recipe from his mother. ''There is a bit of elbow grease required for cutting all the fruits and nuts,'' he says, ''but it's well worth it in the end.''

Have haloumi on hand

Haloumi is one of those magic ingredients that turns salads into special meals. Keep a tub in the fridge to fry and add to, say, lentils or roast vegetable salads. The golden crunch and salty tang (once cooked on a pan, or it is great barbecued) are transformative. Persian feta is another go-to cheese when you want to make everyday salads deluxe.

Try different seafood

Seafood and summer often go together, but it's easy to get stuck in a fishy rut. Try less-loved and more sustainable species such as sardines, bream, mackerel, mussels, trevally and whiting.

Clear out the freezer

It's easy to leave things in the freezer for ages because they don't smell or go mouldy or look at you accusingly when you open the door. Ruthlessly assess everything. Are you going to eat it? Soon? If not, chuck it. Of course, it's bad to throw away food, but it's worse to use power keeping it frozen if you're never going to eat it. There's nothing as refreshing as a good tidy and purge and, anyway, you need more room for ice-cream in summer.

The cheesecake

5 eggs

2 yolks

450g fresh ricotta

125g creme fraiche

200g castor sugar

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp rosewater

Preheat oven to 140C.

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, then pass through a fine sieve. Divide the mixture evenly between eight jars. Place jars into a large, deep tray, fill the tray with warm water so the jars are half submerged, then cover the tray with foil. Cook the cheesecakes for an hour. Remove from the water bath and allow to cool. Put on the lids and store in the refrigerator for up to three days.

The base

It's called ''base'', but it's actually a topping in this recipe.

100g amaretti biscuits

150g digestive biscuits

125g unsalted butter, melted

1 tsp flaked salt

Reserve about quarter of all the biscuits and place the rest in a blender. Pulse to a crumb, then transfer to a bowl and stir in the melted butter and salt. Roughly crumble the remainder of the biscuits and stir through the mixture. Place in the refrigerator for a few hours to firm up.

To serve

Crystallised rose petals

2 punnets berries

Remove cheesecakes from the refrigerator an hour before serving. Garnish with crystallised rose petals and berries, sprinkle liberally with the ''base'', then replace lids to serve.

Fruit salami

100g walnuts

100g hazelnuts

100g pistachio kernels

100g dried figs

100g dried apricots

100g dried prunes

100g dried apples

100g dried cranberries

100g currants

125g golden syrup

Toast the walnuts and hazelnuts in a slow oven or dry pan until they are golden brown. Allow to cool, then chop them. Toast the pistachios as well, but do not chop them. Dice all the dried fruits, except the currants and cranberries. Place all nuts and fruit into a bowl. Warm the golden syrup, then pour over the nuts and fruit and mix well. Using baking paper, roll portions of the mixture into logs. (Rob makes each one about 250 grams.) Wrap logs tightly in baking paper, then clingfilm. Set in the fridge.