Summer is the season our thoughts go to cooking outdoors – grilling.

We are all familiar with cooking meat on the grill – juicy steaks, hamburgers and tangy ribs. But how about some lighter fare?

Here are three lighter recipes for summer grilling – a salmon with citrus flavored sauce, grilled vegetables and a light grilled halibut (or any solid white fish) with a herb and lemon flavored crust.

So any time you are in the mood for something a bit different and a little on the lighter side, try these out.

Grilled Citrus Salmon

1/4 cup honey garlic barbecue sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons chopped chives
2 teaspoons melted butter
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste
hot pepper flakes (optional)
2 pounds salmon fillet, one large fillet or individual portions (works best with one large fillet)

Preheat the grill to medium high and grease well. Pierce a piece of nonstick foil several times and place on a baking sheet. Stir the barbecue sauce with the other ingredients (except the salmon). Put the salmon on the foil, skin side down.

Brush half the sauce mixture over the salmon. Slide the foil on to the grate. Cook, covered, without turning for 15 to 17 minutes or until salmon is cooked but still slightly cook in the center. Brush with the remaining sauce mixture during the last 5 minutes of cooking.

To serve, slice salmon into portions and use a thick metal spatula to remove from the portions from the foil. Leave the skin behind. Garnish with added chives if desired.

Makes 6 servings.

Cedar Plank Version:
Soak an untreated cedar plank in clean water for 2 hours. Place the plank on the grill and preheat for 5 or 10 minutes or until wood begins smoking. Place the salmon on the cedar and proceed as directed above. Use skinless salmon for best results.

Grilled Vegetable Platter

1/2 cup garlic and herb flavor barbecue sauce (or your favorite marinade)
3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter or olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped (or 1 teaspoon of dry)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped (or 1 teaspoon of dry)
3/4 pound each of small red and white potatoes
4 cobs corn, cut in half or thirds if larger
1 pound assorted summer squash such as green or yellow zucchini or patty pan squash

Whisk the marinade or barbecue sauce with the butter, parsley and thyme until well combined. Reserve.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Working in batches, blanch the potatoes for about 10 minutes. Blanch the corn for 2 minutes. As the vegetables are finished, use a slotted spoon to transfer them to a large bowl of water to chill. Drain well and pat dry. Toss all the vegetables with the marinade mixture until evenly coated.

Preheat the grill to medium high. Grill the potatoes corn and squash, turning as needed and basting with any remaining marinade. As vegetables become tender, remove from the grill to a warm platter or bowl. Tent the cooked vegetable platter with foil until all vegetables are cooked.

Makes 6 servings.

Grilled Halibut with Lemon-Herb Crust

3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon, chopped
1 pound halibut fillets, about 1/2″ thick, skin left on
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

In a small bowl, combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Add butter and toss with a fork to form a crumbly mixture. In another bowl, combine mayonnaise and tarragon.

Arrange the fish, skin side down, on a platter. Spread each fillet with the mayonnaise mixture. Press crumbs mixture onto each fillet.

Preheat barbecue on high for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-high. Arrange fillets on barbecue skin side down. Lower lid and cook until fish flakes easily with a fork and topping is browned, about 10-12 minutes. Drizzle lemon juice over each fillet and serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.

You will find more wonderful summer recipes on the main site www.CookingNook.com.

How to Cook Everything Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition 2 000 Simple Recipes for Great Food

Today’s favorite kitchen companion—revised and better than ever.

Mark Bittman’s award-winning How to Cook Everything has helped countless home cooks discover the rewards of simple cooking. Now the ultimate cookbook has been revised and expanded (almost half the material is new), making it absolutely indispensable for anyone who cooks—or wants to. With Bittman’s straightforward instructions and advice, you’ll make crowd-pleasing food using fresh, natural ingredients; simple techniques; and basic equipment. Even better, you’ll discover how to relax and enjoy yourself in the kitchen as you prepare delicious meals for every occasion.

“A week doesn’t go by where I don’t pull How to Cook Everything down from the shelf, so I am thrilled there’s a new, revised edition. My original is falling apart!”
—Al Roker

“This new generation of How to Cook Everything makes my ‘desert island’ cookbook choice jacked up and simply universal. I’ll now bequeath my cookbooks to a collector; I need only this one.”
—Mario Batali

“Mark Bittman has done the impossible, improving upon his now-classic How to Cook Everything. If you need know-how, here’s where to find it.”
—Bobby Flay

“Mark Bittman is a great cook and an incredible teacher. In this second edition, Mark has fine-tuned the original, making this book a must for every kitchen.”
—Jean-Georges Vongerichten

“Throw away all your old recipes and buy How to Cook Everything. Mark Bittman’s recipes are foolproof, easy, and more modern than any others.”
—Isaac Mizrahi

“Generous, thorough, reliable, and necessary, How to Cook Everything is an indispensable reference for both experienced and beginner cooks.”
—Mollie Katzen, author of the Moosewood Cookbook

“I learned how to cook from How to Cook Everything in a way that gives me the freedom to be creative. This new edition will be my gift to new couples or for a housewarming; if you have this book, you don’t really need any others.”
—Lisa Loeb, singer/songwriter

Exclusive Recipe Excerpts from How to Cook Everything

• Grilled or Broiled Chicken Kebabs

• Roasted Shrimp with Herb Sauce

• Warm Spicy Greens with Bacon and Eggs

• Author Tip: 7 Ways to Vary Chicken Kebabs [PDF]

10 Reasons You Need the New How to Cook Everything (even if you already have the original)

1. The 2000+ simple recipes will make cooking at home easier, so you can spend less and eat better.

2. With 1,446 new recipes and variations such as Beer-and-Butter Chicken Wings, Roasted Corn Chowder, BLT Salad, Paella with Chicken and Chorizo, Caramelized French Toast, and Popcorn Brittle, this book provides a whole new array of recipes.

3. The many new techniques covered in this edition will help you to expand your repertoire of kitchen skills to include frosting a cake, grinding your own chili powder, or even de-boning a quail.

4. Your husband, wife, brother, sister, son, daughter, or best friend needs a little help in the kitchen (okay, maybe a lot). The new How to Cook Everything contains more expert advice like “12 Must-Have Kitchen Tools,” “Super-Easy 3-Ingredient Soups,” and “The Basics of Cutting.”

5. You trust Bittman’s no-nonsense opinions and can’t wait to read the thousands of new ones packed into this edition. He’ll even help you to select the best inexpensive fish (ex. mackerel is versatile, tasty, healthy, and plentiful; tilapia can taste kinda muddy).

6. The index of “Essential Recipes” points you to Bittman’s favorite dishes in each chapter, so there’s less reason to be intimidated by all those recipes.

7. There are more helpful lists in the new How to Cook Everything than ever before. Bittman shows how to jack up the basics with easy ideas like “4 Ways to Thicken a Sauce”, and “Infinite Ways to Season or Serve Any Grilled or Broiled Chicken Dish.”

8. With this edition’s brand new charts, it’s absurdly easy to look up the cooking times for grains, heat factor for chiles, and other need-to-know information about everything from herbs and spices to flour and noodles.

9. You know it’s cheap, easy, and fast to serve your family boneless chicken breasts every week, but sometimes you run out of ideas. That’s why you really need all the new recipes, variations, and other suggestions for chicken breasts like “11 More Ways to Vary Grilled or Broiled Boneless Chicken.”

10. There are plenty of new illustrations which incorporate more detail than many photos. They’ll show you how to use a pastry bag, how to eat crabs, and even how to puree soup using an immersion blender (it’s is way less messy than a regular blender).

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Beverages are missing!
I gave away my first edition of this book as soon as I got the new one. Much to my dismay, I discovered that the entire beverages chapter has been omitted from this new book.

5 Stars A Classic Got Even Better
I got my copy of the new edition of How to Cook Everything the other day and am beyond thrilled. I own the old yellow edition and have cooked from it far more than any other book, so I knew the new book had a lot to live up to. Well, it by far exceeded my expectations. While the book still feels familiar, it also feels new and improved. The essential recipe sections beginning each chapter are a great way to find the basics. But even the basics have changed. For example, Mark’s roast chicken recipe, which I’ve used and liked in the past (though I still love Barbara Kafka’s) has changed. He suggests you heat the pan before putting the chicken in and placing the chicken breast side up (instead of side down as he suggested in his old book). The heat of the pan helps cook the thighs faster so the breasts don’t dry out. It worked perfectly the first time I tried it. Beyond the basics, there are just so many new recipes in here. The variations, lists, and charts that Mark is famous for seem even more plentiful than before, and there are tons of beautiful new illustrations. I’m so excited to cook with this new edition and foresee a day when it’s pages will be stained with grease and flour just like the old edition. But I still can’t get rid of the old one. It’s like a good friend. I’ll just put the new one on the shelf right next to it, red by yellow, and know that I can always count on them.

5 Stars I love this cookbook!
In addition to the typical American basics, I love that this cookbook includes recipes for international and less than every day foods. There are plenty of suggestions for varying recipes and I find his “quick” versions of many recipes helpful and well suited to work night dinners. The recipes tend to be fairly easy while using mostly fresh and healthy ingredients. I find so many things that sound delicious that I have a hard time deciding what to try first. Bittman explains techniques and ingredients clearly enough for real beginners, while going into enough depth that even more experienced cooks can learn something. I am already buying a second copy to send to my daughter at college.

5 Stars Innovative, hip, and inspirational – it’s The One
If you have room in your heart for only one cookbook, this is the one. With 2000 recipes it really does have everything. With variations. It’s got vegetables from A to Z, with several recipes for each, primers on meat, fish and fowl, on stocking the kitchen and preserving your tools.

Bittman, author of the Minimalist column in the New York Times, has overhauled the original to reflect the changing times. Almost half the material is new, showcasing more international dishes, more vegetarian fare, and a tighter organization. Best known for keeping it simple – fine food, with minimal fuss – Bittman would like to see the home cook spend an hour a day cooking but most of these dishes can be made in half that time.

If the dishes are inspirational, the organization is breathtaking. Organized by course, each chapter begins with “essential” recipes, the “building blocks,” and icons accompany every recipe, indicating fast (under 30 minutes), make ahead, or vegetarian. Charts and sidebars abound, offering ideas for using different techniques with similar ingredients or the same technique with different ingredients.

As always with Bittman, the watchword is variation, the goal is inspiration. Cooks of all levels of experience and interest will spend hours with this book and never run out of new ideas and new tricks.

5 Stars Even Better Than The Original!
I first began my affair with cooking and baking when I was in high school, learning from an original printing of HTCE that lie forgotton in my parents’ pantry.

Now, together with the love of my life in our first apartment, this new version is the nightly answer to the question, “What’s for dinner?” (and, perhaps even better – “How can we use that xxx we picked up at the farmer’s market?”).

Love it.

Buy/More Info

Eat Like a Wild Man 110 Years of Great Sports Afield Recipes

From a collection of some of the wildest, most delicious wild game and fish recipes that Sports Afield magazine has published over the last 110 years, lifelong food connossieur and cookbook author, Gray selected and infused a collection of wonderful-tasting old standards with her own culinary wizardry, and provided meticulous instruction on the best methods for cooking fish and game, redefining how to “eat like a wild man.”

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Excellent compilation of fish and game recipes
If you like fish and wild game dishes, this is the book for you. There are recipes from over 100 years of the publication “Sports Afield”. Every recipe that I have tried has been awesome(about 30). There is even a recipe for fruit bat, I’ll let someone else try that one.

5 Stars Eat Like A Wild Man – The Perfect Cook Book For a Hunter
This is the perfect gift for my younger brother who likes to hunt. He’s started to enjoy cooking for himself as well, what a great gift! And it has chapters for all the seasons!

5 Stars Features unusual and highly recommended dishes
In Eat Like A Wild Man: The Ultimate Game And Fish Cookbook, Rebecca Gray draws upon 110 years of “Sports Afield” magazine to compile an outstanding recipe collection for fish, fowl, and wildlife dining. From Venison Steak Paillard, Yearling Bear Roast, and Curried Grouse Breast, to Louisiana Oyster Soup, Malabar Curried Trout Soup, and Black Bass Mushroom Pie, Eat Like A Wild Man features unusual and highly recommended dishes that would grace any table, highlight any celebration, and please any palate.

5 Stars Love the book and would give it 10 stars!
P. J. O’Rourke one of my favorite, conservative authors has said Rebecca Gray is Martha Stewart with a shotgun. That alone made me want to buy the book. Then there is the books layout which is quality all the way. No cheap, slap together book.

Historically the information on aging, traditions for cooking, meticulous instruction and illustrations provided made the book well worth the price.

There are recipes for venison, bear, boar, duck, goose, pheasant, quail, partridge, grouse, woodcock, dove, rabbit, perch, shellfish, squirrel, iguana, frog, crow, trout, pike, bass, turkey, salmon, swordfish, catfish, wild rice, dandelion, watercress and rosehips and wild and domesticated herbs means that there will be more than a little for the authentic hunter, cooker and feaster of wild game.

Along with Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons also available thru Amazon.com, there is no reason someone like myself, living here in the Sierras of California should ever have an excuse for going hungry.

This is a book that will appeal to those interested in the history of food, self sufficiency, wild game, as well as a great gift for the man or woman in your life who has an adventuresome streak.

You can also subscribe to Sports Afield via Amazon.com as well.

5 Stars Wild Man’s Thoughts
This is one of the finest books of this type that I have ever owned.Not only is it extremely entertaining,but also,quite informative.This book will help to tame the wildest of men through conquering the heart by exciting the taste pallete.

Buy/More Info

Plank Cooking The Essence of Natural Wood

From elegant restaurants to backyard grills, the ancient method of cooking food on a wooden plank is a cooking style that’s rapidly growing in popularity. When it comes to capturing the essence of natural wood and unparalleled texture in meats, vegetables, and other culinary delights nothing compares to plank cooking.

In Plank Cooking: The Essence of Natural Wood, globe-trotting authors, Scott & Tiffany Haugen, share some of the world’s most exquisite flavors. Thai red curry prawns, Achiote pork roast, pesto couscous stuffed chicken, and caramelized bananas are just a few of the unique recipes brought to life in this fully illustrated, one-of-a-kind book. In the oven or on a grill, plank cooking is fun and simple. This book outlines how to master the art of plank cooking–from seasoning planks to detailed cooking tips in over 100 easy-to-follow recipes. Though exotic tastes prevail, the ingredients used in this book are easy to find in most grocery stores. So whether you’re hosting a large backyard BBQ, or just trying to satisfy the finicky eaters in your family, you will find many great meals in Plank Cooking: The Essence of Natural Wood.