In this tribute to the season, grilled pork chops are enhanced by rosemary and lemon, sweet corn is enveloped in a creamy Parmesan sauce, and sliced tomatoes are strewn with thyme for a simple salad.

This grilling menu has all the essential ingredients: meat, vegetables, and a delicious chocolate dessert. Make the salad and dessert a day or two ahead, and grill the rest on the day of the barbecue!

Savor the last days of summer by spreading a cloth on the grass for a picnic dinner of grilled lobster and vegetables.

Spicy chicken just off the grill is served with roughly mashed red potatoes, made for summer with bitter greens and sweet onions.

The buffet includes a salad of freshly picked greens, beef kebabs, and eggplant straight off the grill; the baked tomatoes and peppers are stuffed with a mix of basmati rice, kale, and currants flavored with Middle Eastern spices.

Using classic seafood chowder as inspiration, fish fillets are grilled and served on top of a creamy sauce; mini biscuits stand in for oyster crackers.

The quintessential summer meal: Prepare side dishes indoors, then head outside to the grill. A rolled fillet of salmon is coated with sesame seeds before being grilled. Sugar snap peas are dressed with shallots and mint; orange bell pepper and yellow cherry tomatoes enliven couscous.

In this menu, the chicken is so sweet and sticky you have to eat it right off the bone. A layered salad has just the right proportion of crunchy celery to creamy Maytag blue cheese. Two picnic staples, macaroni salad and potato salad, are updated, combined, and tossed with peas and mint; they really are natural together.

A barbecue would be incomplete without the to-go-withs. Chopped scallions are sprinkled on a potato salad made with Yukon golds. Stewing the collard greens a few hours ahead of time allows their flavor to deepen. The menu is both casual and fun.

Pork tenderloin is marinated in honey, mustard, and lemon juice, then threaded on bamboo skewers and grilled. It is served with tomato compote on a bed of couscous.