Summer Cooking

Is there anything better than summer cooking? My husband and I have been grilling every weekend, and most of our meals are made without recipes—think grilled steaks, steamed corn, green salads and roasted potatoes. In a way, it's a little lazy, I'm not really pushing myself as a cook. This weekend, I decided to dust off a few recipes that I'd pulled out of magazines. Here's a rundown of what we cooked: 

We make "green sauce" to go on steaks a lot; my version is usually chopped herbs, olive oil, salt and garlic. I'd saved this recipe for chimichurri from Bon Appetit that included vinegar; we gave it a try on some grilled skirt steak, and it was the best "green sauce" of the summer. Back in May, we made this Grilled Chicken With Board Sauce, and I loved the technique of basting the chicken with dressing about five minutes before it's done. So, we used the leftover chimichurri in the same way with grilled chicken. 

This Provencal Vegetable Tian recipe from Martha Stewart Living was a lovely, simple side.

Bon Appetit also provided this recipe for White Bean and Radish Salad. I made it with butter beans because that's what we had on hand. It was a nice, fresh take on a bean salad—definitely worth a try.