Oh so easy! Oh so tasty! Oh so perfect for an all-grill meal! (And so nice to add to a small but growing collection of grilled vegetable recipes !) First soak the corn, still in its husk, in water for a half hour. Leave the silk intact. You don't want to break the husk's "seal", plus the silk will peel away easily once the corn is grilled. (We tried both ways, just to see.) Then grill the corn right in the husks. Peel, drizzle with the spiced lime butter and ... dig in! Delicious! NUTRITION NOTES This is a definite indulgence, for a vegetable. But if you've got lovely picked-this-morning sweet corn, it's worth it. FROM THE ARCHIVES See the Recipe Box for all the recipes for sweet corn . If you like to cook vegetables in foil on the grill, this is a favorite from my cousin Diane, barbecue vegetables oriental . A YEAR AGO THIS WEEK Perfect Rhubarb Pie ... "three perfect rhubarb pies in all of two weeks. The first pie, we groaned. The second pie, we ate i

What a huge time-saver. If you love beets, you'll want to learn how easy it is to cook beets in the microwave! Two lessons for the 'price' of one today. Yes, the wily world of vegetables includes creamy white beets in addition to beet-red , pale pink and golden beets. Yes, beets can be cooked in the microwave! #1 is a mere novelty but #2 is decidedly useful since cooking beets in the oven takes 60 - 90 minutes. But in the microwave, cooking beets takes just 20 - 30 minutes, completely unattended except for turning. What a time-saver, what an energy-saver. (Does that, um, make these white beets, ummmm, 'green'?) These beets were delicious, sliced hot from the microwave and topped with a pinprick of butter and a few fresh chives. I may never roast beets in the oven again. And the technique is especially convenient when cooking for one or two. Need to cook just one beet or two beets? No problem.

From this week's Kitchen Parade column: "Last week I chose my words carefully with a 13-year old. “Do you like rat-a-too-ee?” Not unexpectedly, he was certain I meant this summer’s Disney hit movie and flashed a grin." How do you nearly put tears in the eyes of a 13-year old? Read the rest of this week's column. So what about the first foodie movie of the summer? (Still to come are No Reservations and another whose preview I saw before Ratoutille but looks as immemorable as its name, which, right, I can't remember.) Great great fun, for sure! And for a couple of weeks my 2002 recipe for ratatouille (only column #2, that's how much I love this stuff) has been considerable attention. And it should! Ratatouille (and isn't it great that the world will now know how to pronounce rat-a-too-tee?) may 'sound' fancy but it's just a few vegetables. SO WHAT IS KITCHEN PARADE, EXACTLY? Kitchen Parade is the food column that my Mom started writ

So how pretty is this ?!! It's just grated carrot, red cabbage and green onion in an otherwise simple slaw ... The recipe comes from my cousin Laura who's mother of four, so while I haven't asked, you just know it's kid-friendly! I do know my fifteen-year old nephew had seconds! (All this to explain the recipe name 'Cowboy Coleslaw', which will appeal to kids, versus what I first intended to call it, Colorful Carrot & Cabbage Slaw, which I figure appeals more to the Moms of the world ... I tell you what, call it what you like, you know your audience.) NEXT TIME I'll use white balsamic vinegar so the carrot doesn't stain. NUTRITION NOTES I found the sunflower seeds optional -- and without them, the slaw drops from from one to zero Weight Watchers points! For the record, in part this is because the portion size is measured on the basis of a half cup of slaw, where recipes on A Veggie Venture nearly always assume a pound of vegetables divided four ways.

A lesson in simplicity, no recipe required. Zucchini Carpaccio is no more than thin-thin slices of small, very fresh zucchini drizzled with very good olive oil and vinegar and sprinkled with good salt. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. How amazing? It impressed a fifteen-year old boy. "This is lunch ?" asked an unimpressed fifteen-year old when encountering nothing but small plates of thin-sliced zucchini on the kitchen table. But with a go-along-to-get-along attitude, my nephew Alex attacked the zucchini and quickly allowed, "This is good, really really good ." For me, it was a lesson in the power of simplicity, how superior ingredients create the possibility of "so much more from a whole lot less". The lesson comes courtesy of the craftsmanship and generosity of the folks at O Olive Oil . These thin slices of baby zucchini are dressed with nothing more than (really really ) good olive oil, (really really ) good vinegar and a sprinkling of Maldon salt. Even the 15-yea

An old-fashioned cucumber salad, just cucumbers and a few pretty-pretty radishes in vinegar seasoned with no more than a little salt. So fresh and summery! You know how one good deed often begets another? Danielle of Habeas Brulee made my Nana's cucumbers with sour cream , then called up her own grandmother for her cucumber salad recipe -- so for me, there was no not making Danielle's own Ima's cucumbers with vinegar! (Hi, Ima!) Both are simple delights, perfect for a summer table. I was short on onion so substituted radishes - nice color, yes?! The Benriner (also called a Japanese mandoline) made quick work of slicing though next time I'll set the blade for slightly thicker slices for a texture more like salad and less like pickle. But it's easy-easy to slice cucumbers thin with a sharp knife so a Benriner is definitely optional here.

How do you bake without wheat flour? How do you forgo milk and cheese and chicken and turkey and almonds and pineapple and papaya and avocado and heavens! green beans? Food blogging has opened my eyes to the challenges and successes of cooking gluten-free. But when our very own Gluten-Free Goddess Karina learned that she faces a whole host of food allergies -- oh my, what a list -- it took me aback. It's one thing to choose to give up meat and dairy. It's another thing entirely to be forced to give up foods from which you've drawn both sustenance and comfort, in order to regain your well-being, your very life. Yes, it must be done. But. Really. Now. How do you live without the brightness of lemon? For whatever reason, it's Karina's allergy to lemons that has got me thinking the hardest. I keep a half dozen lemons on the counter at the ready at all times. Now, thanks to Karina, each time I pick one up, I caress the waxy skin, I breathe in the lemon scent,