Maybe it's the fresh air, maybe it's the surroundings, but in the summer food seems to taste better outdoors, and the Fourth of July is a traditional occasion for a picnic or cookout. The meal may be a leisurely family dinner grilled on the patio, a backyard picnic, or a full-scale Independence Day celebration centered around a Texas-style barbecue or a Yankee clambake.

Barbecues are always associated with tender, flavorsome meats, but the kinds of spicy marinades and sauces that characterize roasting ribs and kabobs adapt as well to seafood dishes like barbecued shrimp or stuffed fresh salmon. Boiling and steaming also coax out the delicate flavor of shellfish in such dishes as clams and lobster served with liberal quantities of melted butter, or the peppery steamed crab; traditionally accompanied by glasses of icy beer. Crisp summer produce makes salads as simple as a side dish of coleslaw or green salad.

Amish Potato Salad

Banana Fudge Marble Cake
Barbecued Chicken Breasts with Spicy Peach Glaze
Barbecued Spareribs with Red Sauce
Barbecued Spareribs with Sweet or Spicy Sauce
Barbecued Stuffed Salmon
Barbecued Shrimp
Buttery Chocolate Snacking Cake

Charcoal Broiled T-Bone or Porterhouse Steak
Chili Con Carne
Cole Slaw

Drunken Chicken Wings

Easy Flag Cake

Glory Pie
Grilled Flank Steak with Lime-Chipotle Sauce
Grilled Halibut in Foil
Grilled Italian Sweet Sausages with Green Peppers
Grilled Lemongrass Chicken Wings
Grilled Red-Potato Salad With Warm Bacon Vinaigrette
Grilled Ribeye with Blue Cheese
Grilled Swordfish
Grilled Vegetables

KFC Coleslaw (A Copycat Recipe)

Lamb Chops with Mustard-and-Garlic Butter
Lemonade Cake

Macaroni-and-Potato Salad
Macaroni Salad
Maple Barbecue Spareribs

New York Steak with Rum Butter

Polynesian Steak Kebabs

Red, White and Blue Pie

Sesame Grilled Trout
Skewered Grilled Potatoes
Spicy Grilled Salmon

Tandoori Chicken Wings
Three Bean Salad

West Texas Baked Beans