Grilling

Here, you get an entire meal with a single, 45-minute recipe. Udon, Japanese wheat noodles with a chewy, stretchy texture, are available dried in the Asian food section of most supermarkets (along with mirin and chile paste with garlic) or fresh in the produce section. Sliced pineapple or mango sorbet would be an ideal dessert.

This recipe is an accompaniment for Annabel's Baby Back Ribs. Prepare this sauce 2 days ahead of your party for the flavors to meld. Any extra freezes well.

If you want to make the scallions but not the rest of the menu (Grilled Pork Kebabs with Ginger Molasses Barbecue Sauce), see recipe for creamed grilled corn for instructions on preparing a charcoal grill. Active time: 10 min Start to finish: 40 min (includes soaking skewers)

Jamie serves the Stir-fried Sesame Asparagus with the steak since they complement each other so well. Look for rice vinegar in the Asian foods section of the supermarket.

In central New York State where I grew up, summertime is speidie-time. Speidies are beef or chicken kabobs marinated in a locally produced spiedie sauce. Nobody makes their own; everybody buys it by the case to make it through the summer's grilling. Now that I live downstate, I've had to devise my own speidie sauce (really nothing more than a quite acidic vinaigrette), which I'm willing to share for the very first time.

Pluots are a great stand-in for true plums in this recipe.

I use spareribs, but you also can use baby back ribs. Just be aware that the racks are smaller (about 1 pound each) and the ribs have less meat.

Start marinating the chicken four to six hours ahead. Pour frosty Pilsners or a chilled Chenin Blanc.

To impart smoky flavor to food when using an outdoor gas grill, add a handful of wood chips (soaked in cold water 30 minutes and drained) to a smoker box and place it under the grates and on top of ceramic briquettes in the far right or left corner of the grill.

Paulette Sexton of Tustin, California, writes: "Although I've loved to cook since I was a kid, I didn't really hone my kitchen skills until my husband and I started entertaining frequently. When we were first married, we had dinner parties several times a week — it got to the point where people would call me around 4:30 in the afternoon and ask, 'What's for dinner?' We're still having people over and we're still informal, especially in the summer. Everyone sits around the large island in our kitchen, drinking wine and eating appetizers. Usually there's grilled chicken or fish or a simple main-course salad for dinner. It's our favorite menu." Paulette likes to use chicken thighs because they stay so moist. Her barbecue sauce is also great on ribs.

The lamb top roast is one of the three "subprimal" cuts that can be cut from the leg of lamb. The equivalent of the beef top round roast, but smaller and more tender, it provides a succulent boneless lamb roast when you don't want to deal with a whole leg. Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

We prefer wild salmon for this recipe because it has a milder flavor and is more environmentally friendly than farmed varieties. Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 30 min

Pork ribs become satays with built-in "skewers." Great as party appetizers, the ribs can be made a day ahead, then grilled or broiled just before you serve them.

Smoky vegetables, corn and brown rice are dressed with citrus vinaigrette.

This light and spicy sauce is especially good on chicken. For convenience, you can mix the spices ahead, then add the vinegar just before using.