Bills' Good Eats for Summertime Fruit

with Amaretto Whipped Cream

This dessert definitely wins the prize for most colorful, and it's very simple and delicious too. Use one or all of your favorite fruits and assemble in pretty stemware to show off the layers.

Pasta Salad with Arugula Pesto, Grilled Chicken Breasts, and Feta

plus Gazpacho

This pasta salad is like a taste of the Mediterranean and great for a hot summer meal along with the cooling gazpacho.

Grilled Peaches with Almond Mousse

This is a heavenly, light summer dessert. The Amaretto soaked peaches are warmed on the grill and then topped with the creamy mousse and grated white chocolate. It's the perfect combination of flavors!

Baby Back Ribs with Homemade Barbecue Sauce

These ribs were to DIE FOR! They were better than several restaurants we frequent and even rival the ribs at Dillons. They were so tender and full of robust flavor....delicious!

Strawberry Pudding

An unusual recipe that is layered in soup cans using potato bread and strawberries that have been macerated in red wine. It was topped with sweetened ricotta cheese and was delicious. You have to try this one to believe it.

Marinated Flank Steak with Summer Salsa

with Wild Rice Cakes

The fruity salsa is a perfect accompaniment to the flank steak flavored with Creole seasoning. The rice cakes, which get a splash of color from carrot, celery and yellow pepper, mixed nicely with the main entree.

Chocolate Shortcakes with Fresh Berries and Cream

Another great dessert from Emeril! The raspberries and strawberries are soaked in gin and they combine nicely with the not-too-sweet chocolate shortcakes. Ours was topped with sweetened creme fraiche and was out of this world!

Andouille Burgers with Grilled Sweet Onions and Creole Remoulade Sauce

plus Fried Onion Rings

These aren't your normal everyday burgers! The combination of andouille sausage and ground beef along with Emeril's Essence seasoning makes a tasty burger. The fried onion rings, made with a buttermilk batter, are also kicked up a notch with more of Essence.

Red Velvet Cake

This cake is moist and red with a velvety texture, with the redness of the cake coming from red food coloring. There are really three varieties of red velvet cake, recipes being different in the use of butter, vegetable shortening and oil. Most all call for cake flour and buttermilk, baking soda and vinegar for the leaving process.

Tequila-Lime Ribs

Our neighbors were nothing short of jealous as the wonderful aroma of these ribs wafted from our patio. The process of marinating the ribs overnight in the lime, tequila, garlic, jalapenos and cilantro gives the cooked ribs an intense flavor. Extra marinade used to baste while cooking kicks them up a notch higher.

Sweet Potato Creme Brulee

An unusual twist on the classic dessert of custard sprinkled with sugar and broiled. This version has a layer of sweet potatoes at the bottom for a surprise addition. When perfectly done, creme brulee is truly crunchy on top and custard like underneath. And for added excitement, we used a butane torch to caramelize the sugared tops. The torch also works for browning meringues.

Pineapple Baked Alaska

Baked Alaska is defined as "cake covered with ice cream and meringue browned quickly in an oven." This recipe has no cake, but it does have a great presentation in a half pineapple. The fruit is scooped out and mixed with vanilla ice cream, then the mixture is piled back into the pineapple half, topped with meringue and browned. Chocolate sauce makes a great addition.

German Chocolate Cheesecake

This luscious dessert takes some time to prepare, but it's worth the effort. It has a coconut-pecan graham crust, super rich filling with cream cheese, sour cream and semi-sweet chocolate, along with the coconut-pecan topping. It rivals any cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory!