Casserole combines chicken breasts and thighs with two different kinds of cheese. (AP Photographer/Matthew Mead)

The goal was a simple chicken casserole that had the rich, satisfying flavor of a lasagna.

Actually, that’s a lie. The goal was a chicken roulade – a dish in which chicken breasts are pounded flat, then slathered or layered with some sort of filling, then rolled into a log and roasted or braised.

Except my roulade didn’t cooperate. During roasting, the cheesy innards oozed out all over the baking sheet, then promptly burned. The result was an inedible, ugly mess.

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For the Salads of Summer series, chef Martha Hall Foose offered up this potato salad-like blend of hominy, cheddar and peppers. (Matthew Mead / The Associated Press)

For Southern cooking doyenne Martha Hall Foose, a memorable salad is a contrast of the common and the unexpected.

“Great salads are a balance of familiar and unique,” she said in an e-mail interview. “I like a combination of textures and an interesting blend of flavors. I love the classics for summer get-togethers. But I always enjoy salad innovations.”

Foose’s appreciation for salads with unexpected elements dates back to childhood.

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June ought to be called the freshest month. College graduates move into their lives, newlyweds set up house, and a new crop of cooks hits the kitchen.

New York food writer Brooke Parkhurst has been there. When she graduated from Davidson College in 2002, she moved to New York for a career in TV journalism. Instead, she became a novelist with Belle in the Big Apple, and married a chef, James Briscione.

Today, Parkhurst and Briscione have their own cookbook, Just Married & Cooking (Scribner) and a website, justmarriedandcooking.com.

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Could there be a more perfect Father’s Day meal than a sloppy Joe sandwich?

I mean, even the name is manly. And messy. And there’s an added benefit, too. Sloppy Joes are likely to be enjoyed by everyone in the family, especially the kids. Because Father’s Day isn’t about being a guy; it’s about being a Dad.

I started with an intensely flavored sloppy Joe base rich in tomatoes, beef and pig products. I like prosciutto because it has all the deep, savory flavors of bacon, but with less fat. If you’d rather use bacon, go for it. But I suggest cooking it separately and pouring off the excess fat before adding it to this recipe.

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TODAY

Meet Wine Maker Francesco Mazzei, 6-8 p.m., Crown Wine & Spirits, 3500 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Taste wine selections from Zisola, Badiola, Fonterutoli & Castello di Fonterutoli, along with artisan meats and cheeses. Admission is $15. (561) 392-6366.

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Nieser Zambrana, 21, will be performing Friday and Saturday at the Wellington High School Theater. (The Palm Beach Post/Taylor Jones)

It’s rehearsal, but only until Nieser Zambrana takes his position, stage right.

Then, it becomes a performance. At this point in the ballet Coppelia, the little girls at the School of Ballet Arts in West Palm Beach, from 9-year-olds to the 16-year-old prima ballerina, move to the wings as the 5-foot-11 Zambrana comes leaping across the stage from corner to corner.

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Here are a couple of old wine areas newly in the news. If you’re a traveler and a wine fan, they’re worth visiting on your next vacation. And they make wines that are worth trying next time you’re in a wine shop.

In Italy, visitors flock to Tuscany to enjoy the wonders of Florence and the great wines of Chianti. But Tuscany also has a lesser-known, interesting and fast-growing wine region called Maremma.

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SATURDAY

Island Fever Wine Tasting, 6:30 p.m. The Blind Monk, West Palm Beach. Enjoy the cool and crisp wines of Greece, Sicily and Portugal. The sommelier will pair two reds and two whites with light tapas to bring out the flavors of both. Casual attire. $15. (561) 833-3605.

Your feelings about Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Beyond (Prestel) will probably hinge on your tolerance for the school known as postimpressionism, even though the term seems to me a technicality – the named artists are very much in the Impressionist mainstream.

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In her former life, back in Venezuela, Grethel Boscan lived with her food-loving husband, who was a successful banker. She worked as an architectural and landscape designer, delighting in making beauty out of nothing.

She raised her two daughters, supporting them as they learned how to ride horses and dance and even as her older daughter competed in the Miss Venezuela pageant at 18, finishing in fourth place .

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