Grilled Fish with Pineapple Salsa

By Sandy Hu

Congratulations to our two sweepstakes winners: Peggy B from Oroville CA who won our Charcoal Companion grill tools giveaway, and Rita A from Westminster CA who won our secret prize: the Picnic Time English-style willow basket. Stay tuned for our next sweepstakes.

We grill pretty much year-round in San Francisco, except on the coldest, wettest days. Mostly in our house, we go for the standards: burgers, ribs and steaks. But recently, we’ve been trying to eat more fish. I love fish and often order it at restaurants. But home cooking? No so much.

We pay attention to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch for recommendations about which seafood are ocean-friendly and which to avoid because they are overfished or caught or farmed in ways that are harmful to other marine life or to the environment.

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Simple Tips for Summer Food Safety

By Sandy Hu

The other day, I told my optometrist I was working on a blog post about summertime food safety and immediately she chimed in with, “Don’t leave the potato salad in the car!” Like my optometrist, we’ve all learned a few food safety tips along the way.

But for an in-depth look, I turned to an expert, my friend Laura Brainin-Rodriguez, who has a Master’s Degree in public health, a Master’s Degree in nutritional sciences and is a registered dietitian. Here’s an astounding statistic Laura shared with me: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) noted that in 2010, one in six Americans got sick from foodborne illnesses, and most frequently during the summer.

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Breakfast at the Morningstar Inn

By Sandy Hu

Love it or hate it, travel comes with the territory in the PR business, an occupation that has taken up the greater part of my career. Most times the destination is a big city, where we stay at very nice, but impersonal hotels.

Recently, however, a visit to Rodale publishing brought me to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the Morningstar Inn, a delightful B&B run by affable proprietors Virginia Hadam and her husband, Tim Nickel.

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Too Hot to Cook!

By Sandy Hu

We haven’t had a single sweltering summer day, to date, in San Francisco this year. But across the country, people are baking. So all this week, Special Fork bloggers are sharing no-cook, cook-ahead or cold dishes to help lower the temperature in the kitchen and at the dinner table.

My favorite hot weather meal is cold soba noodles with a dipping sauce, called Zaru Soba. This is a Japanese classic summer dish. There’s no fat in this meal – just a clean, simple taste – so it won’t leave you feeling sluggish.

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Coleslaw – Less Fat, More Flavor

By Sandy Hu

Growing up, my mom used to make a tart and sweet coleslaw with lemon juice and sugar, but I prefer the creamy kind made with mayonnaise. Still, I’m concerned about the fat – especially with all the rich fixings that tend to accompany coleslaw as part of the typical barbecue meal.

In the current issue of Bon Appétit, a recipe for coleslaw calls for two parts of nonfat Greek yogurt to one part of mayo. What a great solution! I tried out the idea for our Fourth of July barbecue and loved the results.

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