Summertime cooking: Recipes and tips for grilling, entertaining and conjuring the cool, perfect salad. From USA WEEKEND's recipe box.
A perfect meal for guests
Recipes:
Chilled Cucumber & Tomato Soup With Fresh Dill
Grilled Salade Niçoise
Lemon Cooler Cookies
Wine-Marinated Strawberries
Pam Anderson's CookSmart brings a three-course summer meal that will wow guests without a lot of fuss.
Small cuts on the grill
Recipes:
Spicy Grilled Small Cuts of Meat and Poultry
Paprika-Garlic Spice Rub
Fennel-Garlic Spice Rub
Cumin, Coriander & Turmeric Spice Rub
Ginger, Cinnamon & Cloves Spice Rub
Pam Anderson's ideas for tender, tasty and healthful meat and poultry hot off the fire.
Create-your-own fruit salsa
Make this salsa with whatever seasonal fruit you've got -- mangoes, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, oranges, grapefruit ...
PACK A PICNIC SANDWICH
Photo by Brian Leatart for USA WEEKEND
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Ultimate Dagwoods picnic sandwiches can feed a bunch
Recipes:
Pesto-Almond Chicken Salad Sandwich With Arugula and Plum Tomatoes
Meatless Muffuletta
Roast Pork Sandwiches With Apple Butter and Caramelized Onions
Mediterranean-Style Tuna Sandwich
One oversized "Dagwood" is easier to transport, the filling stays put better, and you can freshly slice each portion once you're ready to eat.
An Indian-inspired picnic
Recipes:
Curried Deviled Eggs
Grilled Chicken Wings with Tandoori Flavorings
Mango Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Sauce
Cucumber Vegetable Salad with Cilantro & Red Onion
Tip: How to master a mango
This warm-weather meal takes picnic favorites and adds the spicy flavors of New Delhi and Mumbai.
Perfect potato salad
Recipes:
Roasted New Potato Salad With Olives
Classic American-Style Potato Salad
Have you ever decided to make potato salad, only to wonder if you have the right kind of potatoes? Should they be peeled? How should they be cooked? Two simple techniques guarantee a great side dish.
Hot-weather remedy: Cool seafood salads
Recipes:
Crab & Avocado Salad With Fruit Salsa
Niçoise-Style Tuna Salad With White Beans & Olives
Grilled Salmon With Cucumber Salad
Greek-Style Shrimp Salad on a Bed of Baby Spinach
When the weather's torrid, there's no pressure to serve seafood hot. There are big flavor rewards for so little effort. When you reach for the canned tuna to make a casserole, think salad instead. When it's shorts-and-sandals weather, it's time to cook and eat the same way: light and cool.
Great steak -- How to cook for a crowd
Recipes
Choosing and cooking the steak
6 simple steak sauces:
Horseradish Pan Sauce
Red Wine-Mustard Pan Sauce
Mustard-Cream Pan Sauce
Tomato-Rosemary Pan Sauce
Balsamic Pan Sauce
Red Wine-Molasses Pan Glaze
Surprise: A spoonful of sugar produces a perfectly crusted piece of meat. The sugar reduces the browning time by nearly half, which lets you sear the steaks ahead of time without cooking them through.
A trio of frozen desserts
Recipes:
Tortilla Sundae with Minted Mango Salsa
Frozen Tiramisu
Frozen S'mores
A few extra ingredients and a little effort turn plain-Jane ice cream into simply dreamy treats.
Perfect Berry Shortcakes
Some people find biscuits a little tricky, which is why they opt for cake instead. The answer: This simple shortcake recipe yields a foolproof biscuit that's crisp yet delicate.
Yogurt Vegetable Salad
This cool Mediterranean salad features yogurt, which helps suppress blood sugar spikes and provides immune boosters. The vegetables supply a variety of disease-fighting antioxidants.
Veggie Potato Salad for a crowd with Mustard Dressing
Feed a crowd with this healthy potato salad high in antioxidants from colorful vegetables. The vinegar also lessens the blood-sugar boost of the potatoes.
Corn-Onion Pudding
It's great when the corn is abundant, but this vegetable-dense, antioxidant-packed side dish is savory and delicious year-round.
Fiery baked beans
Beans pack more protein than any other plant food, plus fiber, zinc, potassium, magnesium, calcium and iron -- with plenty of antioxidants and little fat.
5 steps to perfect pasta salad
Recipes:
Pasta and a mixing chart of veggie variations
Dressing:
Creamy Vinaigrette
Creamy Buttermilk Dressing
Soy-Sesame Dressing
For a stunning, irresistible pasta salad, follow the five steps I've outlined here. If you're nervous about making your own salad, simply pretend you're at a salad bar. Be creative with ingredients you like to eat, but use a little common sense.
Low-carb, big flavor
Recipes:
Swordfish Skewers With Fresh Oregano and Black Pepper Yogurt
Yucatan Marinated Chicken Name
Spanish-Spiced Steaks With Mustard-Green Onion Sauce
Cucumber and Red Onion Salad With Dill Vinaigrette
Grilled Peaches With Blue Cheese, Honey and Black Pepper
Chef Bobby Flay whips up some summertime treats for USA WEEKEND readers.
"My food is really based on flavor, so I reach for things like citrus fruits to marinate things," he says. "And I turn to lots of fresh herbs, mustards, chili peppers -- creating marinades and rubs that can really impart lots of flavor, without using too much fat."
One recipe, many kebabs
KEBABS FOR A CROWD
Photo by Brian Leatart for USA WEEKEND
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Recipe:
All-Purpose Shish Kebab Formula
Paste Variations:
Pineapple Cumin
Curried Apple
Jamaican Jerk-Style
Orange Rosemary
Moroccan-Style
Asian-Style
Use these kebab problem solvers to make the perfect summertime party food. Then you can set out seafood, chicken and meat, along with a complementary array of fruits and vegetables, and let your guests build their own combos.
Simple mixed-grill dinner
Recipes:
Mixed Grill of Sausage, Chicken and Lamb With Tandoori Flavorings
Couscous With Chickpeas and Carrots
Instant Strawberry Ice Cream
This meal transports your guests to India and Morocco -- then back to the USA. Unless your guests are vegetarians, a dish like this offers something for everyone.
Summer surprise: Peppery Greens with Watermelon
This unusual salad delivers a cool, crisp summer punch, packed with high-antioxidant watermelon and mixed greens.
Fruity Couscous Salad
Whole-grain couscous with orange juice instead of water, dried cranberries, cumin and other health boosters.
10 ways to reduce carcinogens when grilling
Recipes:
Teriyaki Sauce
Turmeric Garlic Marinade
Rosemary Tea Marinade
Blueberry Burger
High heat creates carcinogens in meat. But scientists have come up with ingenious ways to dramatically reduce the hazard. Precisely why these methods work is still a mystery, but research has shown they do.
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