Lobster Rolls on the Grill

By Katie Barreira

Everyone knows that the best thing to do with leftover lobster is make lobster salad. It’s so good, in fact, that when shopping for my annual Cape Cod lobster boil I always buy a couple extra crustaceans just to make sure there’ll be enough pickins for a lobster roll lunch the next day.

Served hot or cold, with creamy mayo or drawn butter, lobster rolls have captured New York foodies in their tasty clutches. Having partaken in a gut-busting lobster crawl across the island of Manhattan, I can tell you that I’m partial to Luke’s Lobster, which serves Maine style rolls – a butter-toasted bun piled with chunks of chilled claw and knuckle meat, topped with a light smear of mayo and a hit of their “secret” spice blend.

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No Regrets!

By Sandy Hu

Some years, summer seems to just pass me by. It’s Memorial Day, we invite a few friends and we grill something. And next it’s Labor Day and summer’s over. I’m left wondering, where did the season go?

Like New Year’s resolutions, this summer, I’m making a list of all I hope to accomplish in food. Since Wednesday was the first day of summer, I don’t think I’m too late with my checklist.

My goals are to take advantage of seasonal fruits and vegetables to make classic summer dishes, and to capture and preserve the taste of summer to savor the rest of the year. I want to do all of this effortlessly, of course, without spending hours in the kitchen.

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Panzanella, a Salad to Celebrate Summer

By Zoe McLaughlin

This rustic, Tuscan bread salad is everything I love about summer. It takes advantage of all the garden-fresh vegetables the season has to offer to make a summer salad that is just as visually pleasing as it is delicious.

Panzanella is very easy to make and great to take on picnics or to the beach. It also makes a lovely main dish for casual dining among friends.

Big chunks of toasty croutons are a signature ingredient of panzanella. It’s a great way to use leftover bread. Don’t use bread that’s more than two days old because as the bread dries up, it will become very difficult to cut.

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Arroz con Pollo on the Grill

By Andrew Hunter

This past Sunday, we enjoyed a simple Father’s Day at home…Marilyn, Ben, Nick and I. My only responsibility for the day was manning the grill. But instead of my usual steaks, burgers or fish fillets, I grill-smoked chicken thighs, then put my paella pan directly on the hot charcoal and made rice for an outdoor Arroz con Pollo.

Almost every culture has a version of chicken and rice, which is simple comfort food. I usually think of it as a Caribbean and Latin American dish, but Spain’s signature paella can be chicken and rice and I recently had congee at a Chinese dim sum joint. Besides some ingredients I couldn’t identify, the chicken feet and glutinous rice made this savory porridge another version of chicken and rice. The common thread is that the chicken is at least partially cooked in the rice, and the rice is usually wet, like porridge.

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Plummy Days

By Lori Powell

Plums are popping up all over the green market in Upstate New York and at green markets everywhere in the Northeast. It’s a little early this year, as is everything else, due to the mild winter. If they haven’t hit your market just yet…summer is just around the corner.

When ripe, antioxidant-rich plums have flesh that is super-sweet while the skins add a touch of tartness. High levels of phenols found both in the fresh and dried versions help prevent damage to the fats found in our cells. Another benefit is that plums are a good source of vitamin C.

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