Weeknight Grilling with the BBQ Queens : Making Meals Fast and Fabulous [Hardcover]

Karen Adler (Author), Judith Fertig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 25, 2006

With 100 easy, versatile, absolutely delicious recipes for weeknight dinners on the grill, this book is a life-saver for busy cooks looking for delicious, stress-free meals during the week. All the recipes are included on a two-page spread for maximum convenience, the ingredients called for are either readily available in grocery stores or already sitting in the pantry, and most can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. The BBQ Queens explain a variety of grilling techniques, such as skewering and stir-grilling; offer Time-Saving Tiara Touches providing shortcuts and other ways to streamline dinner prep; suggest side dishes to round out a complete meal; and include recipes for turning grilled leftovers into wonderful new dishes.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The authors of the BBQ Queens' Big Book of Barbecue apply their trademark can-do spirit to the ever-popular weeknight dinner format. Every dish—whether a salad, burger, steak or otherwise—can be grilled over a variety of fires, from briquettes to wood pellets, in 45 minutes (including prep time). With tiaras planted firmly atop their heads, Adler and Fertig show how to save time by using prepared supermarket items, including salad greens, hard-boiled eggs, sliced pepperoni, already-cut cheese, shredded carrots and cabbage, and three-bean salad, rationalizing, "You'll pay a little more, but isn't your sanity worth it?" Additions to each recipe—set apart in notes headed "You've Got Dinner!"—list easy and complementary side dishes, like Sautéed Green Beans to accompany Low Country Black-Eyed Peas and Grilled Jumbo Shrimp Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing (although recipes for the sides, which are generally simple, aren't offered). The introductory chapter, "Weeknight Grilling with a Tiara Touch," reveals techniques, utensils and timetables. Recipes involve many trendy ingredients (e.g., hearts of palm, baby bok choi, turkey steaks), and the sheer variety of ingredients will let home cooks call on whatever happens to be in their pantry. 2-color illus. (Apr.)
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About the Author

Judith M. Fertig is a bestselling and award-winning cookbook author. She lives in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, where she develops recipes that celebrate the rich culinary traditions of the Heartland. A recognized authority on regional Midwestern cuisine and an experienced cookbook author and food writer, she has studied at the Cordon Bleu in London and La Varenne in Paris. Prairie Home Breads follows Fertig's definitive Prairie Home Cooking, a collection of recipes inspired by the abundant produce of the Midwestern states, including wild and heirloom fruits and vegetables, game, grains, and beef. The bestselling Prairie Home Cooking was a 1999 nominee for both the IACP Cookbook Award and the James Beard Book Award. Fertig is also the author of the award-winning Pure Prairie: Farm Fresh and Wildly Delicious Foods from the Prairie, as well as several books on barbeque with coauthor Karen Adler. In addition to these cookbooks, Fertig wrote the Great Plains chapter of the American version of Culinaria, a two-volume book on American culinary traditions. She is a contributor to numerous distinguished magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, the London Sunday Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Saveur, Santé, Country Living, and Country Home. Fertig was inspired to write the Prairie Home cookbooks while living in London. Although she had lived and traveled all over the Midwest, living abroad gave her a new perspective, revealing the Midwest as a region of culinary innovation, cultural diversity, and fresh and varied native foods and produce. Looking at this familiar region from a new perspective allowed Fertig to capture the honest wholesomeness of Midwestern cuisine in her cookbooks. To write Prairie Home Breads, Fertig visited Old World artisanal bakeries, farmhouse kitchens, rural church suppers, community bake sales, bustling urban ethnic bakeries, farmer's markets, and home kitchens throughout the Midwest. Fertig shares her considerable culinary expertise and her appreciation of the Midwestern kitchen in cooking classes and seminars and as a restaurant consultant.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Common Press (April 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558323139
• ISBN-13: 978-1558323131
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,259,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These Meals Really Are Fast and Fabulous, May 23, 2006

By 

Jazzy Jane (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Weeknight Grilling with the BBQ Queens : Making Meals Fast and Fabulous (Hardcover)

I saw the BBQ Queens on television, showing how I can grill once and eat twice and let the grocery store help me out with salad bar ingredients (save me the chopping and slicing and dicing). With three kids and a husband, that's just what I wanted to hear, so I bought the book and put it to the test. It has really changed the way I shop and cook! The kids eat their vegetables, now that the veggies are grilled, and we've never eaten better! Now, my husband grills one of their dinners on Sunday, and we have a "deja vu" dinner on Monday from the leftovers. Then I grill on Tuesday or Wednesday, and we have a second meal for another night. My favorite recipe so far is the lime and basil shrimp with grilled asparagus and polenta, and then we use leftover grilled shrimp (and polenta cut into croutons) for the blackeyed pea salad with bacon. I can truly say that we're living the good food life because of this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Cooler and Less Clean Up, August 16, 2006

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Weeknight Grilling with the BBQ Queens: Making Meals Fast and Fabulous (Paperback)

The two giant advantages of BBQ on weeknights are not heating up the kitchen and a very easy cleanup with no (or fewer anyway) pots and pans to clean. What's been missing is how to get away from the plain steak, hamburger, hot dog, chicken meals. And these girls do.

Further they emphasize time saving. They say you need to save time to 'kick back with a cocktail, get yourself a manicure, etc.' Well I've never had a manicure, really like a coctail once in a while, but also realize that the kids need taxi driving, I probably have some more work to do tonight and saving the time is well worthwhile.

Perhaps the greatest testament to their greatness is their use of charcoal. They do admit that gas grills exist (indeed go to the average store and that's all you'll find) but charcoal is better.

Saturday night people are coming over. We have some new ingredients to try in Martinis. There's still a few days, but the Grilled Polenta with Herb Cheese and Stir-Grilled Garlic Greens (page 40) is definitely on the menu. But, no prepared polenta. I'm going to use Bob's Red Mill Grits/Polenta from Portland, OR.

5.0 out of 5 stars QUICK GRILLING WITH FABULOUS RESULTS, August 5, 2006

By 

Grill Girl (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Weeknight Grilling with the BBQ Queens : Making Meals Fast and Fabulous (Hardcover)

The BBQ Queens are lots of fun. They make you feel like anyone can grill and share plenty of tips to help you along. Much nicer approach than from the many grill experts who think their way is the only way. In Weeknight Grilling they say - buy prechopped and presliced foods to save time. And they also say to let the grocery store be your sous chef - like - use the salad bar to buy the fresh chopped onions and veggies, etc. Thank You Queens, you offer quick sandwiches and salads for weeknight meals (like everybody is only going to do a full blown meal when you've been working, car pooling, etc. These sandwiches are awesome: Grilled Panini, Italian Subs, Blue Cheese Griled Chicken, to name some of my favorites.