Simply Grilling

Combining her roles as pastry chef, experienced cookbook author and mother, Jennifer Chandler has brought some of her favorite beautiful, practical and delicious summer dishes in a new cookbook: Simply Grilling. In hopes of helping everyone share the joy of easy family-style and get-together-worthy meals, Chandler includes everything from hors d'oeuvre to dessert in this beautiful book.

The book was clearly designed by someone who likes to cook – it is well laid out, with easy-to-read pages, fonts and colors. New cooks especially will appreciate the handy symbols denoting everything from cooking tips to suggested sides and what page number in the book they can be found on. Acknowledging that not all climates allow for year-round grilling, it also thoughtfully includes an icon identifying recipes conducive to an alternative stove-top preparation in with cast-iron grill pan.

The photos are gorgeous, and the recipes feel neatly in what I find is most people's comfort zone: not so fancy or expensive you'll never make them (or find anyone willing to eat them) but not mundane repeats of standard fare either.

Best of all, Chandler relies almost entirely on whole, real foods as the basis for her recipes. There are extremely few objectionable ingredients (i.e. canola oil, white bread rolls), and they are all easily swapped for better alternatives.