From California across to Texas, an abundance of dry sunny days send home cooks out to the backyard grill as nowhere else in the country. Now, with Michael McLaughlin's The Southwestern Grill, outdoor chefs anywhere in the land can stoke up the fire and cook up a splendid feast of sure-to-please grilled fare with a Southwestern flair.

The genius of Southwestern cuisine lies in the use of big, bright flavors — seasonings like garlic and onion, lime and other citrus juices, herb and spice rubs, and, of course, chile peppers — to enliven the tastes of meats, seafoods, and vegetables without a lot of time and effort in the kitchen. It's a simple and straightforward yet flavor-rich way to cook that suits the easygoing experience of grilling just fine.

Grilling over an open flame goes back a long way in the Southwest. McLaughlin draws on the fire-cooking traditions of early Spaniards, as well as cowboys and Native Americans, Anglo settlers, and Mexicans and Mexican-Americans.

His recipes range from the rustic and time-tested, like arracheras, a traditional Mexican-style preparation of beef skirt steak (and the granddaddy to today's fajitas), or adobo, to the fully contemporary. Grilling plays a starring role in the kitchens of today's best Southwestern restaurant chefs, and, in the casual and elegant dishes like Grilled Salmon Burgers with Rosemary-Achiote Mop or Pecan-Grilled Rack of Lamb, McLaughlin interprets for home cooks the best ideas from these sources. He shows how subregional specialties like Baja-style fish tacos or Texas-style spice-rubbed T-bones are at their very best when the main ingredient is grilled.

With a big chapter on robust and versatile rubs, mops, salsas, and sauces, trays full of bocaditos — appetizers — to enjoy while the food grills, loads of ideas for main- and side-dish salads, and vegetable dishes, made with grilled ingredients, and dozens of inventive, assertively seasoned main courses, this is a book that will give Southwest-inspired cooks from anywhere ample reasons to leave the kitchen behind and head out to the backyard.

"Michael McLaughlin has done it again! He has created a grill book full of sizzling Southwestern flavors and recipes that will light up your tastebuds like a Fourth of July sky." Steven Raichlen, author of The Barbecue! Bible

"There may be 200 recipes in this fine collection, but most of them share a single basic, time-proven secret: opposites attract....All in all, this cookbook provides a summer's worth of adventurous grilling." Publishers Weekly

"Prolific cookbook author McLaughlin...offers a mouthwatering array of easy grilled dishes." Library Journal

-- 225 recipes for delicious, bold Southwestern grilled dishes and accompaniments

-- Traditional/classic recipes and creative new interpretations

-- Options for entertaining or everyday dining, vegetarian selections, hot and spicy or mild and flavorful

-- Appetizers, main-dish salads, soups, grilled chicken, fish, meat and meatless entrees, side dishes, sauces, salsas, and desserts

-- Hot food and restaurant trend translated to home kitchens everywhere — bold flavors that are easy to enjoy every day

-- Inherently healthy, astonishingly easy, incomparably flavorful dishes from one of America's top cookbook authors

-- Celebrity cookbook author's creative approach to grilling

-- 225 recipes for delicious, bold Southwestern grilled dishes and accompaniments<BR>-- Traditional/classic recipes and creative new interpretations<BR>-- Options for entertaining or everyday dining, vegetarian selections, hot and spicy or mild and flavorful<BR>-- Appetizers, main-dish salads, soups, grilled chicken, fish, meat and meatless entrees, side dishes, sauces, salsas, and desserts<BR>-- Hot food and restaurant trend translated to home kitchens everywhere — bold flavors that are easy to enjoy every day<BR>-- Inherently healthy, astonishingly easy, incomparably flavorful dishes from one of America's top cookbook authors<BR>-- Celebrity cookbook author's creative approach to grilling