The Big Book of Backyard Cooking: 250 Favorite Recipes for Enjoying the Great Outdoors

Food just tastes better under an open sky. In this handbook to the alfresco life, one of our best-known cooking teachers shows how to please friends, neighbors, and family with hundreds of delicious dishes suitable for enjoying the great outdoors -- whether it's a rooftop garden or a sprawling lawn. With classic fare such as fried chicken and potato salad, grilled favorites like juicy burgers, barbecued ribs, and sweet summer corn, plus fabulous new creations like Lamb Chops with Roquefort, Figs, and Rosemary and Chocolate Toffee Brownie Cake, eating and entertaining outdoors has never been easier. Rosbottom includes her favorite marinades and sauces, appetizers to keep the crowds at bay, deliciously fresh salads and starters, summery desserts, and much more, not to mention great tips for making sure grilled meats are done to perfection. Covering everything from fine dining under the stars to Sunday picnics by the lake, this latest addition to the big-selling Big Book series is the perfect guide to taking it outside.

Betty Rosbottom is the author of several books on cooking and entertaining. She writes a weekly column for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate and is a frequent contributor to Bon Appetit. Founder of La Belle Pomme Cooking School in Columbus, Ohio, she now teaches cooking classes in her hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts, and at leading culinary schools throughout the US.