Chicken

Buy a heavy coconut that has no cracks and that sounds full of liquid when shaken.

Here, you get an entire meal with a single, 45-minute recipe. Udon, Japanese wheat noodles with a chewy, stretchy texture, are available dried in the Asian food section of most supermarkets (along with mirin and chile paste with garlic) or fresh in the produce section. Sliced pineapple or mango sorbet would be an ideal dessert.

Chinese five-spice powder is available in the spice section of most supermarkets. Serve with: Steamed broccoli and an Asian rice pilaf mix. Dessert: Vanilla ice cream sandwiched between gingersnaps.

Add corn biscuits (you can find them in the supermarket refrigerator case) and a romaine, arugula, and radicchio salad with goat cheese. Coffee ice cream drizzled with Kahlúa is a nice dessert.

For convenience, you can use a purchased roast chicken or substitute smoked turkey.

In central New York State where I grew up, summertime is speidie-time. Speidies are beef or chicken kabobs marinated in a locally produced spiedie sauce. Nobody makes their own; everybody buys it by the case to make it through the summer's grilling. Now that I live downstate, I've had to devise my own speidie sauce (really nothing more than a quite acidic vinaigrette), which I'm willing to share for the very first time.

Serve with: Baby red potatoes (tossed in olive oil and roasted alongside the hen) and buttered green beans. Dessert: A Key lime pie from the bakery.

Start marinating the chicken four to six hours ahead. Pour frosty Pilsners or a chilled Chenin Blanc.

A blend of cumin, chili powder, and cinnamon gives this dish its Moroccan flair.

Paulette Sexton of Tustin, California, writes: "Although I've loved to cook since I was a kid, I didn't really hone my kitchen skills until my husband and I started entertaining frequently. When we were first married, we had dinner parties several times a week — it got to the point where people would call me around 4:30 in the afternoon and ask, 'What's for dinner?' We're still having people over and we're still informal, especially in the summer. Everyone sits around the large island in our kitchen, drinking wine and eating appetizers. Usually there's grilled chicken or fish or a simple main-course salad for dinner. It's our favorite menu." Paulette likes to use chicken thighs because they stay so moist. Her barbecue sauce is also great on ribs.

You can substitute skinless boneless chicken breasts for the veal cutlets. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 35 min

This light and spicy sauce is especially good on chicken. For convenience, you can mix the spices ahead, then add the vinegar just before using.

This recipe makes lots of stock. Freeze any that's left over for another use.

The fragrant roasted birds are served with a pan sauce containing whole garlic cloves. Accompany the hens with a crusty garlic bread to mop up the sauce, and pour a light Chianti throughout the meal.