By Tanya Manus

My blog pal Jomay has gotten us ready for grilling season with her last post about food safety. But now that you’re ready to grill, what’s on the menu?

One of my all-time summer favorites is pasta salad - not the mayonnaise-drenched macaroni versions, but lighter salads that have lots of color and flavor, and some spice. And these salads pair well with chicken, beef or fish straight off the grill.

I was looking for some new ideas for dressing up summery salads when I came across the following recipe. “I lightened up this recipe I found on the back of a pasta box many years ago,” writes Pat Morris, Marlton, New Jersey, the woman who posted the recipe. “It’s become a staple at our home and for family gatherings.”

Fire up your grill, Jomay, because I’ve got a yummy new side dish!

Pat’s Pasta Salad

1-1/4 cups uncooked tricolor spiral pasta
1/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar or cider vinegar
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 large sweet red pepper, julienned
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions; rinse under cold water. Drain. In a large bowl, whisk together the broth, vinegar, oil, garlic, sugar, basil and salt. Add pasta, broccoli, tomatoes, pepper and Parmesan and toss to coat. Yield: 8 servings.

By Crystal Hohenthaner
Journal staff

On Saturday nights my father and I usually attempt to make dinner for my mother. I secretly think it is our guilty attempt to make up for the decades of food service she has provided for us. Whatever the reason the result is usually a culinary experiment.

This past Saturday we experimented with the grill. Dad put a new twist on his chicken kabobs with baby bell peppers and I tried my hand at grilling stone fruit. In  my opinion, the experiments were not a success.

First of all the baby bell peppers were an interesting twist. They were a bit more flavorful than regular bell peppers. But the thing about grilling something is that often it can make the flavor more intense. So the baby bells were already more intense and then we intesified the intense on the grill. This made the red ones incredibly sweet — which was interesting, but didn’t go with the chicken — and the yellow ones were actually bitter.

In the future maybe we will marinate the peppers or sautee them slightly before grilling them. But, honestly, I won’t mind if we skip the baby bells altogether from now on.

Okay, grilling the stone fruit was really a whim. What is stone fruit you ask? Well, according to what I’ve heard and seen on the Food Network stone fruit is fruit with a pit — like peaches and plums. My stone-fruit-grilling-whim occured because my mom had just bought plums and dad had the grill on. I had also seen Bobby Flay do it so I thought I’d give it a try.

So I cut the fruit in half, removed the pit, brushed it with olive oil and sat it on the grill for a few minutes. Easy, right? And the result — me no likey. Yeah, my brain really couldn’t handle the idea of a hot, smokey plum. Also, grilling the fruit made it mushier than it was to begin with and my plum had started off quite ripe.

I do think I’ll try grilling stone fruit again, but next time I’ll get some nectarines and maybe apricots in on the action. I also think I will start with some fruit that is a bit underripe. My mom suggested we leave it on the grill longer too — so that the sugars in the fruit maight have a chance to caramelize a bit.

So how about you all? Has anyone had any bad cooking or grilling experiments lately? Or maybe you have an experiment that went right. I’d love to hear all about it.