Karen Adler - Weeknight Grilling with the BBQ Queens: Making Meals Fast and Fabulous

The Harvard Common Press
535 Albany Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02118
www.harvardcommonpress.com

Copyright 2006 by Karen Adler and Judith M. Fertig

The BBQ Queens is a trademark of Karen C. Adler and Judith M. Fertig.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
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Printed in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Adler, Karen.
Weeknight grilling with the BBQ queens : making meals fast and fabulous
/ Karen Adler and Judith Fertig.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-55832-313-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)ISBN 1-55832-314-7
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Barbecue cookery. 2. Quick and easy cookery. I. Fertig, Judith M.
II. Title.
TX840.B3A338 2006
641.5'784dc22 2005023806

ISBN-13: 978-1-55832-313-1 (hardcover); 978-1-55832-314-8 (paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-55832-313-9 (hardcover); 1-55832-314-7 (paperback)

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Cover design by Night & Day Design
Cover photographs 2006 by Brian Hagiwara
Interior design by Richard Oriolo
Illustrations by Laura Tedeschi

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To our mothers,
Denise Conde and Jean Merkle,
who fed us, body and soul

As BBQ Queens, we are indebted to our royal families, fabulous friends, culinary schools, and students, who always help us taste-test or tweak a recipe. Family members have license to give our recipes the nod or the thumbs-down, which we are grateful for on both counts. Our fabulous friends gladly share a recipe here and there. While teaching at culinary schools, for example, we came up with the double baking sheet or tray method that we use for taking foods out to the grill. The enthusiasm of culinary students is contagious and keeps a twinkle in our eyes and a lilt in our steps while we prance around the kitchen (indoors or outdoors). So, with a snap of our barbecue tongs, we salute the following:

Hugs and kisses to our families, who have been so supportive, including Karen's husband Dick; mom Dee; busy sisters Nancy, Linda, and Betsy; steppies Ellen and Jill and their families; and Judith's daughter Sarah and son Nick; sister Julie and family; and parents Jack and Jean.

Friends! Fabulous "foodie" friends include everyone in our cookbook club: Dee Barwick, Elizabeth Benson, Vicki Johnson, Gayle Parnow, Mary Pfeifer, Kathy Smith, and Roxanne Wyss. Girlfriends that we cook with on weeknights include Janet Coffey, Dianne Hogerty, Susan Jackson, Reene Jones, LuAnn Long, Donna Missimer, Anne Saroni, Debbie Simpson, Angie Stout, Tina Thomas, and Judi Walker.

Our many friends and associates in Les Dames d'Escoffier International, the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the Kansas City Barbeque Society, and Slow Foods-Kansas City have supported us in numerous ways, and we are grateful.

We want to thank the staff of the many cooking schools where we have enjoyed teaching and meeting new food friends, including Larry Oates, owner of KitchenArt in West Lafayette, Indiana; Barbara-Jo MacKintosh and her Books to Cooks store in Vancouver, British Columbia; Deb Lackey at the Dorothy Lane School of Cooking in Dayton, Ohio; Chan Patterson and the Viking Culinary Centers all across the country; Carol Tabone at Jungle Jim's Cooking School in Fairfield, Ohio; Marilyn Markel at A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Kitchen Conservatory and Dierberg's in St. Louis, Missouri; Kathleen Craig and the great staff at Cooks of Crocus Hill in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota; Macy's Dadeland in Miami, Florida; Marshall Field's Culinary Studio in Chicago, Illinois; Central Market's Cooking School at various locations in Texas; Nancy Pigg at Cooks' Wares in Cincinnati, Ohio; Priscilla Barnes and her staff at Cook's Nook in McPherson, Kansas; Cook's Warehouse in Atlanta, Georgia; Sur La Table Cooking Schools throughout the United States; Kroger's at locations throughout the United States and especially in Nashville, Tennessee; Culinary Center of Kansas City in Overland Park, Kansas; Rebecca Miller at Whole Foods Market in Overland Park, Kansas; and the wonderful staff at Roth Concept Center in Lenexa, Kansas.

Of course, we want to thank everyone at The Harvard Common Press, from publisher Bruce Shaw to executive editor Valerie Cimino to PR. experts Skye Stewart and Liza Bethand everyone else there. Special recognition goes to our agent, Lisa Ekus, and her able staff, and to two more eagle eyes that made our book better by copyediting and proofingKaren Levy and Mary Ann Duckers.

Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz continue to be our e-mail names to each other. Even when we are swamped or deadline crazed, the thought of these two ladies keeps us laughing every day.

Thanks, everybody!

So many meals to get on the table, so little time. Sigh. That's what we women didn't quite bargain for when we started bringing home the proverbial bacon. Now we still have to fry it up in the pan. What, more work?

All right, that's enough of the pity party. (Notice that we gave it only a short paragraph. Whining is not regal.)

The tiara-totin' BBQ Queens have come to your rescue! We are here with grill tongs in hand and a sassy attitude to match. We hereby decree that weeknight dinners can be delicious, easy, healthy, colorful, and quick! And to prove it, we have developed and taste-tested a whole new book of fresh recipes for all seasons that you can serve your family on any busy weeknight, in roughly 30 to 45 minutes. Some will take a little less time, some will take a little more time. But all are terrific.

In our previous tome, The BBQ Queens' Big Book of Barbecue (The Harvard Common Press, 2005), we showed readers how to grill and smoke (and plank and rotisserie and stir-grill and skewer, etc.) like girls. Now, here's a crash course on becoming a Queen of the Weeknight Grill who can get that meal on the table right now.

1. Think about the whole meal. In every single recipe, we offer ideas and instructions for other dishes to complete your dinner, if necessary, so it's one-stop menu shopping. Envision the whole meal first, then shop, chop, and plop that food on the grill, then on the table.
2. Let the grocery store salad bar be your sous chef. Let them chop and dice or shred ingredients; you just breeze through the salad bar and put everything into containers. Use good-quality bottled or jarred products, too. (See our Time-Saving Tiara Touches and Life in the Fast Lane ideas throughout the book for even more ways to get help and make the best use of your time.) Enlist the aid of your children, significant other, or girlfriends to set the table, flip the flatbreads, or stir together a sauce in a bowl. Somehow, kitchen duty just seems more fun and less of a chore when you're grilling.
3. Go easy on yourself. Offer simple, uncomplicated side dishes such as fresh fruit and raw vegetables or foods that grill right along with your entre to complement a meal. (See our You've Got Dinner! ideas for recommendations.) Or put everything into individual surprise packages (no-mess foil-packet grilling).
4. Eat healthfully. Aim for three servings of fruits and/or vegetables with your evening meal. Who knows what your family members have eaten at lunch? Anyone with kids knows that even if you packed good things in their lunches, that doesn't mean they actually ate those raw veggies or that red, crisp apple. Including three fruits and/or vegetables in the evening meal is easy to do if you grill meat, poultry, or fish and a vegetable, have a sauce that's also a vegetable, and then add a simple salad or fresh fruit. For a big gold star, include a whole-grain dish, such as brown rice, polenta, or whole-grain bread.