You're headed to the beach and want some sensible, yet slightly elegant, food with minimal fuss.
Take life easy. Concentrate on no-cook or cook-ahead dishes to serve chilled or at room temperature. Think cheese, fruits, cured meats. Pasta salad. Cold chicken or turkey, poached salmon or lobster - all are tempting options.
Your menu depends, of course, on whether you're day-tripping with a long drive ahead or just toting a blanket and basket of food a half-block from your Shore cottage.
If you have a portable grill and a beach patrol that allows it, you can heat up an item or two. But it's not necessary. These foods not only are safe but often taste best at room temperature. (Just remember to keep perishables in a cooler or insulated pack until ready to serve.)
Fruits and cheeses are perfect for beach picnics. Sara Deseran, author of Picnics: Delicious Recipes for Outdoor Entertaining (Chronicle Books, $14.95), suggests pairing tangy goat's-milk cheeses with fresh figs, honey and walnut bread. Ripe pears are a good contrast for Roquefort. Figure on three ounces of cheese per person and up to six ounces of fruit.
A soft cheese such as Brie will melt under the summer sun, but that's a good thing if you're using it as a dip or spread with crackers, breadsticks, or wedges of apples or pears.
Grilled vegetables can be prepared in advance, Diane Rossen Worthington notes in The Taste of Summer (Chronicle Books, $22.95). Include long, quarter-inch-thick slices of zucchini, yellow squash and Japanese eggplant along with roasted bell peppers, halved or thick-sliced plum tomatoes, asparagus or other favorite veggies.
Serve them drizzled with a vinaigrette or balsamic dressing. Or pack the slices in panini or pita for grilled-vegetable sandwiches.
Cold poached or grilled seafood - shrimp, scallops or lobster - makes for chic outdoor dining. Lime dressing, perhaps spiked with tequila, is a refreshing marinade or dip.
For tender ribs with minimal fuss, grilling experts Cheryl and Bill Jamison suggest baking them up to three days ahead. Wrap mildly seasoned (rubbed or marinated) racks of ribs in heavy aluminum foil and bake in a preheated 300-degree oven for two hours. (A rack typically serves two.) Keep the baked ribs tightly wrapped and chilled until 20 minutes before serving. Then reheat or not, as you wish.
