It's darned hot outside these days, so I'm a big fan of any recipe that leaves the heat outside. Above you can see a really simple but delicious-looking recipe for a barbecued rosemary and garlic potato pocket, courtesy of summerkitchen.tv. It's a collection of rosemary, garlic, potatoes, olive oil, salt, and pepper mixed together and wrapped up in foil, and then cooked on the barbecue. What's particularly great about this recipe is how easy it is to change it up a little and whip up your favorite flavors -- maybe some chopped green onion, or creole spices, or some cherry tomatoes, or even a little bit of cheese. (This is also something that can be made easily over a campfire -- just get small potatoes that you don't need to dice.)

What's your favorite flavor combination for BBQ potatoes?

• Are you hungry for some Spicy Parantha with Ground Crickets? Mmmmm. Or not.
• If you've got a hankering for hambagoos and ping dogs, with a big side of kitsch, try Ping's Cafe.
• This makes me want to live in Vancouver: A trek to catch Dungeness crab and make Chili Lime Crab, Dungeness Crab, Purple Mint, and Radish Salad, and Seafood Paella.
• More on the crab, and how you can do it yourself!
• Q&A with Chef Vikram Vij.
• What 2-4 should you drink on July 1?
• One bad review for Le Papillon on Front.
• BBQ Recipes: Argentinian Parrillada, Chimichurri Sauce, Korean Mixed Grill, and Spiedino di Mare.
• A big type of lamb: Katahdin Lamb -- free of that lanolin-based smell.

When I was younger and had trouble falling asleep, I used to fantasize about my perfect birthday party. I would plan everything in my head -- my dress, activities, the guests, even the flavors of cake I would serve.

Now when I can't sleep, I imagine my dream kitchen. It's enormous and beautiful and light, and it opens seamlessly into an outdoor deck area where I have another (you guessed it) huge kitchen. The outdoor kitchen is for serving guests and hanging by the pool (with hot tub and waterfall) in the summer. It has a gorgeous grill with a rotisserie, as well as a smoker and a shiny stainless steel refrigerator, sink and dishwasher. This is a bit embarrassing, but sometimes when my boyfriend and I are bored, we like to drool over these appliances in magazines and stores.

Who wants to use their imagination? After the jump, let's play make believe, and look at some amazing outdoor kitchen equipment and pretend that we own it.

I've been meaning for a while to write about healthy alternatives to the usual summer barbecue foods. My family hosted a desserts-only BBQ for this weekend (which turned into burgers and dogs BBQ), and I feel like I've been doing the circuit of barbecues featuring heavy slaws, burgers with lots of toppings, and rich chocolate chip cookies. While I love these foods as much as anyone, I'm trying to put together a list of the best alternative recipes from across the web to replace these often less-healthy favorites. Here's what I have:

My all time favorite lemon coleslaw from Epicurious.

Citrus-spiked jicama and carrot slaw from Cooking Light.

Smitten Kitchen's black bean confetti salad.

Mark Bittman's Leek Salad on Bitten.

Raw beet salad from stonesoup.

Rhubarb soda from Culinate. Okay, not a healthy alternative, but beautiful nonetheless.

Charred corn salad from Williams Sonoma.

Feel free to add your favorite healthy summer salads and slaws, barbecued goodies and summer desserts!

Yes, I hate bbq, summer, and Memorial Day. I'm a terrible person.

Of course, I don't hate Memorial Day itself, what it represents, I hate that it signals the start of summer, my least favorite season. I hate summer the way Lost fans hated Nikki and Paolo (yes, everything I do comes back to television). Maybe even more.

Here are the 8 reasons I hate about Memorial Day and summer in general.

The Cupcake Project is a huge contributor to the Slashfood Flickr pool. But because I don't want to express favoritism among our flickr posters, I try to limit my Cupcake Project posts to about one a month.

And what better way to celebrate the upcoming Memorial Day weekend than with cupcakes? But these aren't any cupcakes, and they probably won't satisfy your sweet tooth.

Enter: All-American Barbecue Cupcakes. Essentially, you add liquid smoke to a chocolate cupcake recipe, and top it with a sweet corn frosting that contains four gloriously simple ingredients: sweet corn, cream cheese, butter, and sugar. (And did anything bad ever come out of a recipe whose two main ingredients were butter and cream cheese?) The red, white, and blue star sprinkles don't hurt, either.

Okay, so they sound a little funny - but props to Cupcake Project to being creative and unique. They sound like the perfect addition to any cookout. Just serve 'em and watch your guests' eyes widen in surprise and their faces sink into relaxed, contented smiles.

It's spring, and as the air continues to warm, eyes glaze over with the thought of great grilled food and backyard feasts. For me, that used to mean tasty, barbeque, sauce-laden steaks, or my old roommate's frequent marinated chicken souvlaki. But then I got a new cookbook, one that has been my backyard, outdoor bible for a few years now -- Betty Rosbottom's The Big Book of Backyard Cooking.

It's not a fancy book. There are no delicious pictures of grill marks and icy drinks, but that's okay. There's more room for recipes and flavor combinations, and really, it's not like we don't know what some potato salad or a grilled hamburger looks like. But it's more than just the mainstays. This recipe has just about every sort of meal you could dream of eating outside, from the bites you grill to the sides you make ahead of time -- from hot dogs to boiled lobster, sandwiches to tasty salads, cool drinks to desserts.

Some recipes are as simple as a steak with a simple, tasty sauce. Others infuse the flavor throughout, like my favorite Lemon Dill Chicken Burgers and the insanely tasty Spicy Fried Corn, Vidalias, and Red Peppers. There's lots of classic recipes, as well as little twists to make your old favorites new. I've found this to be not only the perfect book for creating a large barbeque menu, but also for quick sauce ideas and year-round treats. Plus -- it has a recipe for the best iced tea I have ever had -- but that will come soon, in a separate post.

If you're looking to switch up your old outdoor mainstays, or add a little variation to your menu, Rosbottom's book is for you. It's clear, diverse, and ridiculously handy.

It's a good weekend for attending a food festival if you:

a) are a hipster of the American Northwest
b) love wine
c) have never attended a crawfish boil
d) are hungry

If you, like me, find yourself nodding emphatically at these criteria, read on! This weekend offers food festivals sprinkled across the country, promising some of the most interesting and delicious foods I've seen in a while.

Details has named a dozen 'cue shacks and rib joints to its "Best Barbecue in America" list, out in the May issue. The list tries to cover its ground well, listing establishments specializing in ribs and sandwiches, cowboy-style brisket and whole-hog pulled pork.

But given the vast regional variation in the definition of 'barbecue' and the near-religious emotionality surrounding issues like "tomato-based or non-tomato-based sauce," a "Best Barbecue" list seems a risky endeavor. I mean, blood has been shed over this stuff. If I were the author of this list, I might not sleep at night, fearing a meat fork in the eye from a furious pitmaster.

I mean, what kind of "Best Barbecue" list doesn't include Allen & Son in Chapel Hill, or Jim Neely's Interstate in Memphis!? What's your favorite barbecue joint that didn't make the list?

It doesn't get any better than this. If I had magical powers and could transport myself to any food festival in the country this weekend, I don't think I'd be able to decide where to go! We've got BBQ in Missouri and Pies in Florida, and starting next Wednesday (4/23), Texas is the place to be with festivals in both Houston and Dallas.

Read on for details about all of these yummy events, and check out the gallery from last weekend's Scottsdale Culinary Festival!

Spoilers! Spoilers!

On last night's episode of Top Chef, judge Tom Colicchio arrived at a Chicago Bears game wearing a Bears jersey, a scarf, and a beret. Honestly, it doesn't get more Top Chef than that. The show loves to engage with people and local foods of the cities where it tapes, but in the end its really just about whose pineapple is grilled to perfection and whose liver coconut slaw (don't worry -- not a real dish) doesn't have enough seasoning. You can't help but love it.

Oh pulled pork sandwiches. How lovely you are. When I crave that particular taste, there's really nothing else that will hit the spot in the same way. Having seen this picture, I am now totally craving this tangy meaty combination. It might be time to head for a BBQ joint...

We're being a little lazy this Sunday afternoon because we're anxiously watching the two conference championship games on TV, but that hasn't stopped us from doing the research we need to do to get ready for THE Sunday afternoon of pro football, the Super Bowl.

Yes, the Super Bowl is two weeks away, and we're trying to put together our menu. We came across Alabama Pulled Pork Sandwiches, as made by Recipe Girl from an original recipe in Cooking Light magazine. The recipe is slightly different from a traditional pulled pork because it uses pork tenderloin. Additionally, the sandwiches are made with sweet potato biscuits rather than rolls or buns, but perhaps the most surprising thing is that the barbecue sauce is white.

We all know that Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer. Vacations are ending, kids are going back to school, and even though it might still be warm there's something that has changed in the air compared to August. There's still time for one more cookout though!

AllRecipes has a great selection of foods you can make today, whether you're having a cookout or just making something to eat inside. How about a Bucket Salad, or maybe some Factory Workers Chicken? Or how about the Cholesterol King Heart Stopper 3000, a giant party sandwich? If you're feeling guilty about that you can always eat a Watermelon Fruit Bowl for dessert.

Check out that first link above for all the recipes, categorized by different themes: America's Melting Pot, This Land is Your Land, and Big Appetites, Unite.

Well, here's one day where it's obvious why it was placed in the summer. Though I think the more adventurous foodies would welcome the chance to celebrate National Eat Outside Day on January 6.

So your assignment today is to eat outside at some point. Maybe you can have breakfast out on your deck or balcony, or maybe eat lunch at an outdoor cafe, or invite the neighbors over for one of the last cookouts of the year. Or if you're going to a baseball game, the "eat outside" part will take care of itself.

To push you in the right direction, here is our Spirit of Summer category, and here are some ideas from our Grilling category. And here are some links from Yahoo for eating alfresco around the world.