Jalapeño

"For my birthday," writes Cynthia Black of Kansas City, Missouri, "my husband took me to Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale. One night we ate dinner at Top of the Rock, a restaurant at the resort. As a side dish, they served incredible cheese and jalapeño grits." This colorful side dish would be delicious with roast chicken, steak, or pork.

Janet and Travis Kuhl of Cranford, New Jersey, writes: "We recently went to chef Ming Tsai's Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Our entire meal was top-notch, but the shrimp cocktail was our favorite." Poured carefully side by side into a cocktail glass, tomato puree and avocado puree make a colorful dip for the lightly battered and quickly deep-fried shrimp.

This delicious salad is from Johannes.

Grilled steak with late summer corn and a squeeze of lime juice. Sound wonderful? It is. Grilled potato wedges make a terrific side.

At Las Ventanas this soup and a corn soup are ladled side by side into the serving bowl.

Serve with jicama sticks, radish slices, peeled cooked shrimp, and corn tortilla chips.

This recipe is an accompaniment for Yellow Tomato Gazpacho with Cilantro Oil and Avocado.

If you'd like to make the jalapeño-lime butter one day ahead, use a broiler or gas burner to char the chiles and save the grill prep for the corn.

This recipe is an accompaniment for Panfried Pressed Poussins .

The salsa should be very fresh. You can prepare the ingredients ahead of time, just do not combine them more than 2 hours prior to serving. Also, never spoon the salsa atop the tuna until just before serving.

These can be made one day before serving.

In India, chicken is one of the most popular foods cooked in the tandoor, the ubiquitous clay oven. The secret to the bird's distinctive taste and tender texture is a yogurt marinade enhanced with spices. Here we pour one over chicken breasts, which are cooked on a grill. The chicken is served on toasted bread spread with a mayonnaise spiked with mint, cilantro and chili, flavors common in Indian relishes. Try to find Indian beer such as Taj Mahal or Kingfisher to go along with the meal. Offer fresh mangoes for dessert.