What's Cooking: Taking It Easy

Summer is just around the corner signaling the wonderful season of outdoor cooking.  Who wants to cook in the hot weather?   It screams out for simply made dishes that don’t take much preparation where the freshness of the foods alone will delight the palate.  Just thinking about the jewelled green salads, luscious fruits and vegetables in season, and refreshingly cool desserts stirs the senses. A word about salads, try not to limit salads to just greens.  Broaden your selection to include beans, pasta, noodles, bread, meats, seafood and grains like rice and wheatberry, to make a scrumptious main dish.

It is a time to slow down and enjoy the quiet moments especially when there is another willing chef in the household.  Man and grill, they seem to go hand and hand.  I often wonder if grilling ignites man’s natural affinity to tame the flame.  It is a task which my husband takes seriously and with much gusto as he continues to perfect this skill.  He even took a picture of his new charcoal grill!  I smile knowingly as he offers to grill anything that is edible.  I do not refuse.  You can be sure I will be borrowing some of the following books for my better half as I gladly transfer the reign of the kitchen, I mean, grill over to him. 

Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express / Mark Bittman

Killer Ribs / Nancy Davidson

Salads / Peter Gordon

Bobby Flay’s Grill It / Bobby Flay

Good Times, Good Grilling: Surefire Recipes for Great Grill Parties / Cheryl and Bill Jamison

Pizza on the Grill / Elizabeth Karmel

Ribs, Chops, Steak & Wings / Ray Lamp

Serious Barbecue / Adam Perry Lang

Salad Makes the Meal / Wiley Mullins

The Asian Grill / Corinne Trang