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" A person can become very hungry listening to Bobby Flay talk about food, as you&amp;#039;ll soon find out. Get him going on summertime entertaining \u2014 one of his favorite pursuits \u2014 and let&amp;#039;s hope you don&amp;#039;t have an empty stomach. Even common corn becomes absolutely mouthwatering when he describes how he prepares it: &amp;quot;I precook the corn in water and milk, baste it with flavored vinaigrette or butter, and grill it to get that terrific smoky flavor. Then you can make it Cuban-style with mayonnaise, garlic, Cotija cheese, and some lime. That&amp;#039;s just awesome!&amp;quot; Flay&amp;#039;s love of food comes through when he&amp;#039;s talking about it or eating it, and most especially when he&amp;#039;s cooking it \u2014 that&amp;#039;s what has made the 47-year-old New Yorker one of the best-known and best-loved chefs on TV. Since four of his 11 top-selling cookbooks are dedicated to the thrill of the grill, it&amp;#039;s easy to guess this season is prime time for prepping simple yet absolutely spectacular meals for friends and family. And, good guy that he is, he&amp;#039;s eager to share his best tips for summer entertaining with Good Housekeeping readers.  Each summer weekend, Flay leaves his bustling food empire in Manhattan behind and heads to the Hamptons, where he and his wife, actress Stephanie March (best known for her role on Law &amp;amp;amp; Order: Special Victims Unit as Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot), have built an environmentally friendly cedar-shingled retreat. An imposing mansion was never in their plans; instead, it&amp;#039;s a place where the living is easy. &amp;quot;Everyone who visits says, &amp;#039;Wow, this is the most comfortable house I&amp;#039;ve ever been in,&amp;#039; &amp;quot; he reports with pride.  On these relaxed weekends, the celebrity chef becomes a typical husband and father. OK, maybe with one exception \u2014 while most people would prefer not to work on their days off, Flay just can&amp;#039;t stay out of the kitchen. &amp;quot;I know it&amp;#039;s very unusual for someone to say that what he does for a profession is also what he does to relax,&amp;quot; says Flay, &amp;quot;but I absolutely lovecooking.&amp;quot;  So, after a morning workout to clear his head and stay fit (he has run three New York City marathons and is training for a triathlon with Today show anchor Natalie Morales), Flay heads straight for the kitchen. &amp;quot;My whole day is glued together by food,&amp;quot; he says. If Texan-born March wakes up craving her favorite Southern breakfast, Flay gets to work making biscuits, gravy, and sausage. If Sophie, his 16-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, has a slumber party, he whips up a brunch buffet (pancakes, eggs and bacon \u2014 the works) the next morning for the kids. All the while, he&amp;#039;s thinking about soaking wood chips, firing up the grill, and deciding what&amp;#039;s for lunch: grilled pizza, or maybe fish tacos?  But the action really starts when Flay makes plans for dinner. The Hamptons may be famous for glitzy celebrity parties, but Flay is happiest when the festivities are at his house and the dress code is swimsuits and sunblock, with him manning the grill.  Next:   Flay&amp;#039;s Foolproof Party Plan First and foremost, choose a theme, Flay advises. Though he could easily wing it when guests are heading his way, he likes to give his get-togethers a reason for being. &amp;quot;Creating a theme is really important,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;It gets people excited, and it gives me an idea of things to go with the main dishes, like sides, cocktails, and wines. So I don&amp;#039;t just think, I&amp;#039;m going to do a chicken dish. I think, I want to make an Argentinean meal. With all of our great information access, I can research it.&amp;quot;  Flay will start with the cornerstone of a particular cuisine \u2014 in this case, chimichurri, Argentina&amp;#039;s signature herb-based sauce. &amp;quot;What do they use the sauce on? Beef, pork, and sausage. And what kinds of side dishes do people in Argentina serve? Roasted potatoes and something called provoleta, which is grilled provolone cheese; that could be an hors d&amp;#039;oeuvre, with some bread or chips to go with it. All of a sudden,&amp;quot; says Flay, beaming at the thought of putting together a meal, &amp;quot;you start seeing the menu come together.&amp;quot;  The recipes he shared with GH don&amp;#039;t hail from South America. They are summer favorites rooted squarely in U.S. soil \u2014 fried chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, and sliced watermelon \u2014 all made with his trademark big, bold flavors and an ease of preparation that makes them party-perfect. When you make these, feel free to tell guests you&amp;#039;re serving Bobby Flay&amp;#039;s cookout classics. With a theme in place, Flay&amp;#039;s next move is to grab pencil and paper: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m a big &amp;#039;list person.&amp;#039; I make one for shopping and one for prioritizing \u2014 from what can be done ahead of time to what can be left for the end, right before the guests arrive.&amp;quot; Specifically, that means running through the recipes and meal prep in advance and working backward from the moment the first guest is bound to ring the doorbell, so the step-by-steps are clear. Another smart idea: Flay tapes the priorities list to the cupboard so he can check it as he works and course-correct as needed. As he does his prep work, Flay&amp;#039;s Hamptons house is filled with the sounds of the hip-hop and R&amp;amp;amp;B music he loves. (His wife insists on swapping in a softer soundtrack, like Coldplay, once guests are due to arrive.) Usually on his pre-party agenda: making sauces and rubs, and precooking corn on the cob until it&amp;#039;s just cooked \u2014 then he&amp;#039;ll set it aside to be grilled later. He&amp;#039;ll also whip up potato salad: &amp;quot;Actually, sometimes I make a couple of different kinds [see his blue cheese-vinaigrette version]. One might be a whole-grain-mustard-and-scallion potato salad. I&amp;#039;ll also do a Southwestern-style kind that has a mayonnaise-based dressing and some chiles, cilantro, and lime juice. But the key to making any potato salad is that whatever you&amp;#039;re going to dress it in, you have to have it ready so when the potatoes are done cooking, you can dress them while they&amp;#039;re hot. That&amp;#039;s the key to life in the potato-salad world. Otherwise, if they&amp;#039;re cold, they repel it \u2014 it&amp;#039;s almost like the potatoes are here, and the dressing is over there!&amp;quot; Mixing drinks is another pre-guest-arrival activity; Flay is adamant that a host shouldn&amp;#039;t also play bartender at a get-together. &amp;quot;Make pitchers of drinks instead of individual cocktails,&amp;quot; he advises, so guests can help themselves. &amp;quot;But don&amp;#039;t add ice; that will water the mix down,&amp;quot; he says. Instead, put out a bucket of ice near the glassware just before your guests are due.  Sangria is a favorite at Flay&amp;#039;s dinner parties. &amp;quot;I like making it with ros\u00E9,&amp;quot; he says, &amp;quot;because it goes with almost any grilled food \u2014 and besides, who doesn&amp;#039;t love a pink drink?&amp;quot; (He uses red wine, though, for the Sangria Ice Pops.) Or, depending on the evening&amp;#039;s theme, Flay will serve up his super-simple signature margaritas. &amp;quot;They&amp;#039;re crisp and clean and taste exactly like the three ingredients I use,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;The recipe is two parts tequila, one part triple sec, and one part freshly squeezed lime juice \u2014 that&amp;#039;s it!&amp;quot; Next:   All About Appetizers Flay says you don&amp;#039;t want to be in the kitchen baking or saut\u00E9ing appetizers when you could be out chatting with your friends, so he&amp;#039;s a big advocate of serving cold hors d&amp;#039;oeuvres. They can be made ahead of time, kept refrigerated, and put out the moment guests come over. Flay personally is mad about chilled seafood, such as oysters, clams, and boiled shrimp, with lots of different sauces \u2014 but for those with simpler tastes (or more modest budgets), there are plenty of other options. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m a lover of Southwestern ingredients, so there&amp;#039;s always some kind of avocado concoction, whether straight-up guacamole or some kind of relish,&amp;quot; says Flay. &amp;quot;I made &amp;#039;avocado-chickpea smash&amp;#039; for an Access Hollywood cooking segment with Katharine McPhee, from the TV show Smash. That guacamole-hummus mix is going to be served in my house all the time now.&amp;quot;  His wife often requests queso, which Flay describes as a cheese sauce. He says March grew up on a Velveeta-and-Ro-Tel (canned cooked chile peppers and tomatoes) mixture, but he makes it his way: &amp;quot;I just can&amp;#039;t do it her way. So I take chiles and onions, and I roast and cook them, adding some garlic. Then I do my own cheese sauce, and I make queso out of it. That&amp;#039;s really good to have with tortilla chips and pita chips.&amp;quot;  The Main Event, Made Easy For the entr\u00E9e, Flay will aim for dishes he describes as &amp;quot;bold, risky, and impactful.&amp;quot;  Built into these delicious dishes is one of Flay&amp;#039;s ultimate time-savers and stress-reducers: making the meal a buffet. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m big on platters and serving everything family-style,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;Otherwise, it&amp;#039;s like an assembly line, and not everyone&amp;#039;s tastes are the same. With platters, guests can take what they want.&amp;quot; Flay&amp;#039;s recipes for skirt steak and fried chicken are perfect examples of this simple-to-serve party fare. Another option, says Flay, is to think of big cuts of meat that can be carved, such as leg of lamb, the cooking of which is so much easier than tending to individual chops. Or, try a tenderloin \u2014 you can save the smaller cuts of meat for date-night dinners.  There is actually one Flay dish that bridges the gap between dinner for two and dinner for 10. &amp;quot;Stephanie has this crazy recipe for filet mignon that works so well,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;It was the most requested recipe on that season of my show Boy Meets Grill.&amp;quot; March marinates the filet and broils it under a high heat for about 10 minutes. Then she wraps it in foil and allows it to sit for 45 minutes. &amp;quot;It comes out spot-on perfect,&amp;quot; Flay says with admiration. &amp;quot;Stephanie makes that for my birthday every year.&amp;quot; And it will wow a crowd as well. (Interestingly, one of the couple&amp;#039;s first date-night dinners cooked by Flay didn&amp;#039;t turn out quite so auspiciously. The Iron Chef roasted a chicken, but \u2014 distracted by March&amp;#039;s charms \u2014 he somehow allowed the bird to go up in flames.)  Cook Within Your Range It&amp;#039;s standard advice not to prepare new-to-you dishes for a party, but Flay puts his own spin on it: &amp;quot;Do make one dish that&amp;#039;s slightly challenging, so you can improve, but cook within your range, so it&amp;#039;s enjoyable.&amp;quot; So while the main course may involve a new recipe, side dishes can be kept simpler. Even Flay, who trained at New York City&amp;#039;s famed French Culinary Institute, doesn&amp;#039;t see the need to get too fancy for guests \u2014 especially when he&amp;#039;s working with summer produce at the peak of its flavor. His take on tomato salad is a perfect example. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ll go shopping and buy whatever tomatoes are in season at that moment, like heirloom, beefsteak, or cherry tomatoes,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;I just put a whole bunch of them in a bowl; tear up some fresh herbs; and add vinegar, a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, some cracked black pepper, and some cheese, like blue, feta, or goat \u2014 something crumbly and a little dry.&amp;quot; Couldn&amp;#039;t be easier, tastier, or healthier, which is something he takes into consideration when cooking. Not drenching food in butter, oil, and sauces has helped keep Flay one of the fittest chefs around. &amp;quot;You can eat well and eat plenty, but make good choices,&amp;quot; he says.  Next:   Find a No-Fuss Finale Flay has always had a soft spot for sweets. As a little boy, he asked his parents for an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas. (His parents, Bill and Dorothy, got it for him \u2014 along with a G.I. Joe, just to balance things out.) When entertaining, especially in summer with lots of yummy fruit around, the chef prefers his desserts to be uncomplicated. There&amp;#039;s the delightfully easy fruit crisp recipe he shares with us, and don&amp;#039;t miss the winning reader recipe entry Flay selected from our . And, he adds, &amp;quot;I love grilled fruit, like nectarines or peaches, in the summer. Just add a little light oil, like canola, and a bit of salt before you put them on the grill. Then top the grilled fruit with some vanilla ice cream, a drizzle of molasses or honey, and fresh mint. That&amp;#039;s the way you should be eating dessert in the summertime.&amp;quot; If grilling fruit isn&amp;#039;t part of your plan, try Flay&amp;#039;s easy sliced watermelon with lime syrup. That said, Flay admits that there&amp;#039;s an even simpler dessert he sometimes can&amp;#039;t resist. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m an ice cream aficionado. My freezer is filled with it, though I try not to go crazy. But last night I hit the H\u00E4agen-Dazs chocolate \u2014 peanut butter and some of my wife&amp;#039;s rocky road. It&amp;#039;s so good.&amp;quot; And it&amp;#039;s a fast, scoop-and-serve way around the &amp;quot;What to make for dessert?&amp;quot; dilemma when friends visit. Beyond sweets, Flay offers his favorite way to end an evening: with some fun and games. &amp;quot;Scattergories is our summertime game,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;We also play foosball and darts, and we&amp;#039;re getting a Ping-Pong table because Stephanie and I are obsessed.&amp;quot;  So, from prep work to Ping-Pong, that&amp;#039;s Flay&amp;#039;s party plan. When asked for one last tip for ensuring that an evening runs smoothly, he smiles and says, &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t ever run out of sangria.&amp;quot; A smart summer strategy indeed. Flay&amp;#039;s Crowd-Friendly Menu Get Bobby&amp;#039;s delicious recipes for salad, main dishes, sides, and desserts, plus our reader recipe contest winner&amp;#039;s . Transform Your Grill into a Smoker There&amp;#039;s nothing like the taste of smoked meat or fish. Don&amp;#039;t have a smoker? Flay says your grill can do the job. His advice: STEP 1: In the bottom of your grill, set up two zones: Place charcoal on one side only. Add presoaked wood chips on top of briquettes; these will create the smoke. &amp;quot;For meats and chicken, I use hickory,&amp;quot; Flay says. &amp;quot;For fish and vegetables, I use cherry wood.&amp;quot; Light the charcoal; Flay uses a chimney starter, never fluid. &amp;quot;Lighter fluid should not be anywhere near your house,&amp;quot; says Flay \u2014 if it is, &amp;quot;the food will taste like it.&amp;quot;  STEP 2: Place a grill-safe pan of water on top of the charcoal and wood chips to create steam.  STEP 3: Put the meat, fish, or other ingredients on the side of the grill without charcoal, where there&amp;#039;s no direct heat. &amp;quot;What you&amp;#039;re getting is steam heat and smoke that&amp;#039;s low and slow,&amp;quot; says Flay. Let food smoke (about 10 hours for a pork shoulder), monitoring it regularly. Next:   Layered into mini canning jars and easy to make ahead, they&amp;#039;re party-ready treats. In addition to her prize money and Bobby Flay cookbook, Allison wins four place settings of hand-painted dinnerware and two platters from the Bobby Flay Collection, available only at Kohl&amp;#039;s and kohls.com. Ingredients  \u00BC c. sugar  \u00BC c. water  1 c. blueberries   1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice  1 c. heavy cream  10 oz. angel food cake, cut into 1-in. cubes  2 c. strawberries, hulled and chopped  \u00BD c. sweetened shredded coconut, toasted  8 (8-oz.) canning jars Directions 1. In 1-quart saucepan, stir together sugar and water. Heat to boiling on high, stirring occasionally; stir in blueberries and lemon juice. Remove from heat. Let cool completely. 2. In large bowl, with mixer on medium speed, whip cream until soft peaks form. Gently fold in cooled blueberry mixture.  3. Place a single layer of angel food cake on bottom of 1 canning jar. Top with 2 tablespoons strawberries, then 2 tablespoons blueberry whipped cream. Repeat layering of cake, strawberries, and whipped cream. Repeat with remaining 7 jars. Serve immediately, or replace screw caps and refrigerate up to 1 day. Before serving, top each parfait with 1 tablespoon coconut.  EACH PARFAIT: About 270 calories, 3 g protein, 36 g carbohydrate, 14 g total fat (9 g saturated), 2 g fiber, 41 mg cholesterol, 295 mg sodium. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/party-ideas/a19547/bobby-flay-summer-entertaining/?click=pp>