Dressed to Grill: Savvy Recipes for Girld Who Play with Fire

Some say the barbeque is the sacred altar of a man's world, but Dressed to Grill, by Karen Brooks, Diane Morgan, and Reed Darmon, offers recipes and tips to help women lead a backyard coup. The slightly sophisticated and sometimes unique recipes, not all meant for the barbecue, are written with a fun and light tone for today's contemporary woman--very Sex in the City meets Martha Stewart. But beyond the fun, jokes, and sometimes-canned silliness, the authors have provided good information, starting with which grill to buy and the necessary tools. In more than 50 recipes, the authors have provided some interesting ways to prepare vegetables, meat, seafood, and even some desserts on the grill. Recipes of note include the Waistland Salad, an interesting blend of flavors using jicama, chiles, and oranges, as well as the authors' updated version of a classic Caesar Salad, dubbed here as Forget A Bang-Up Cleopatra Salad. The book does throw a number of low-fat dishes into the mix along with some refreshing alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. --Teresa Simanton